An upcoming book to be published by Penguin Random House.

Autorentext

Dani Francis is the New York Times bestselling author of Silver Elite. She is an avid reader, a lover of all things breakfast, and a hopeless romantic. When she is not creating high-stakes fantasy worlds and complex characters, you can find Dani spending time with family or trying to figure out why the printer never works.

Klappentext

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the heart-pounding sequel to Silver Elite, lines will be crossed, loyalties will be tested, and the fight for the Continent is only just beginning as Wren Darlington finds herself caught in the middle of two wars: one for the fate of her home and another for the fate of her heart.
**
The stunning first edition hardcover will feature gold foil edges, a foil case stamp, a premium dust jacket with foil, red endpapers, and an interior map illustration—while supplies last!

LINES WILL BE CROSSED.

After blowing her cover as a double agent within Silver Elite and fleeing the Prime-controlled capital, Wren Darlington is finally safe behind allied lines. As her lover and former commander Cross Redden works to disrupt the Primes from inside their ranks, Wren turns her focus toward assisting the Uprising in overthrowing their rule once and for all.
**
LOYALTIES WILL BE TESTED.**

Though she’s back among her own people, trust is hard-won and hidden agendas abound on the Mod base. And beyond those walls, Wren can’t help but worry that Cross is keeping secrets of his own . . . secrets that could jeopardize everything. Complicating matters even further is her shocking reunion with hotshot fighter pilot and undercover operative Grayson Blake. Once her closest friend in Silver Elite, Gray seems to understand Wren on a level she never thought possible.
**
AND THE FIGHT FOR THE CONTINENT IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING.**

With the war between Mods and Primes growing more brutal by the day, and with her own role in the conflict becoming more essential than ever, Wren must confront some gut-wrenching questions. Who is she fighting for . . . and who is she willing to lose?

Leseprobe
Chapter 1

Your name is Stella Hess.

Stella Hess.

My mind keeps tripping over that, spinning faster than the helicopter rotors above our heads.

Stella Hess.

The name is completely unfamiliar to me. It feels wrong. Like a piece of clothing you don’t recognize but are told belongs to you. The size is right, it fits fine, but you still feel like you’re wearing someone else’s clothes. I don’t remember being Stella, but it’s not inconceivable that I was. I must’ve had a name before Jim Darlington whisked me out of Sanctum Point at the insistence of my mother, who entrusted her closest friend with protecting me after I began manifesting the psychic powers unique to the Modified people.

My mother, whose name I’m also now privy to: Marina Serrano.

A woman I believed to be brave, who went undercover in the Command with the sole intention of burning down the entire institution from within. With the help of my father, she dedicated her life to saving the Mods of the Continent. Together, they were willing to go to any lengths to achieve that goal.

And me, I’m the product of their inspirational love. The heir to their unceasing loyalty to the cause.

Oh, wait.

That’s all bullshit.

Because everything I’ve ever believed about my parents? Lies. Fabrications. To make matters worse, I had to learn the truth from a dead man, in a letter I might never have even found if I weren’t forced to flee the city for the second time in my life.

Every word Uncle Jim scrawled on that page is seared into my brain like the brands we used on our cattle back in Ward Z.

Your parents are known as the Tin Block Traitors.

They are responsible for the loss of countless Modified lives.

Your mother betrayed her people, and your father helped her do it.

A letter? I want to scream at Uncle Jim. You had to leave me this information in a f***ing letter?

I assume he had a good reason for writing it, believing it would serve me well someday, but he only succeeded in leaving me with more questions than answers.

If my mother was helping the Company, then why did they execute her?

The attack that my parents helped coordinate, the tragic bombing that wiped out an entire Modified community . . . why? Why would they do that?

And how on earth am I going to keep this from the people whose trust I’m supposed to be earning? I escaped from the city thinking I was going somewhere safe, a haven where I could finally stop hiding who I am, and instead, I’m right back where I started. F***ing hiding again.

With this massive secret hanging over my head, I feel like I’m walking into a lion’s den. Or rather, flying into one—­on a helicopter piloted by another dead man, no less. Someone I thought I’d lost months ago in a devastating explosion.

In the seat next to mine, Xavier Ford rests his handcuffed wrists on his lap and grinds his molars like he’s trying to turn them to dust. He’s angry. I don’t blame him. We just trekked three days through the Blacklands, the place of nightmares, only for him to be detained by members of the Uprising, who are apparently led by my old, not-­dead friend Kaine Sutler.

Also known as Grayson Blake.

Sneaky little asshole.

It’s bad enough that he didn’t die in a fiery blaze—­we held a funeral for him—­but to then discover he’s the Uprising’s hotshot pilot and an absolute Mod legend? Unbelievable. He played me. Hard.

“I’m breaking that prick’s neck when we land,” Xavier growls at my ear. “Tyler’s dead because of him.”

I’m sobered by the reminder. Tyler Struck was one of my instructors in the Program, the training course that all Command soldiers must pass in order to join the Continental military. I didn’t know her well, but she and Xavier were together. I’m not sure how serious it was, but enough that her death affected him greatly.

Kaine—­Grayson—­led her right into a trap, knowing that the building would explode. Knowing that Tyler and our fellow soldier Noah Jones weren’t going to walk out of there alive. All so the Uprising could steal a plane.

Grayson asked me before I boarded this helicopter if I was ready for war. Until a few days ago, I thought I was. I’m here because I want to support the cause. Our cause. When I started working for the network to sabotage the Command, I spent months on that base hearing how Mods are spoken about, seeing the way we’re feared and despised.

We deserve a place in society, an equal one, and I’m willing to fight for it. I’m more than ready to work with the Uprising to make life better for Mods like me.

But . . . I don’t know if I could lead two people to their deaths the way Grayson did.

It’s becoming clear he’s not the same guy I knew from the Program, always quick with a mischievous grin or flirty remark. He’s a deadly network operative who’s perfectly at ease with taking two lives. Maybe not by his own hand, but certainly with his actions.

Except then he twists around in the pilot’s seat, lips quirked, and when our gazes lock, I glimpse that familiar sparkle in his green eyes. It’ll take some time adjusting to him being Grayson Blake, but I have to believe my friend Kaine is still in there somewhere.

“Do me a favor, keen?” Grayson drawls toward us. “Please don’t throw up in my bird.”

I furrow my brow, asking, “Why would we throw…