For Jamie, life after the war is mundane: fight nights in the evenings bloodying her knuckles against the jaws of fellow Unborn, and construction work during the day clearing out ruined sections of a once-great city.

There's not much to complain about. She has a roof over her head, a sister by her side, and sometimes enough food to fill her belly.

So when Oliver, an old flame and a fellow Unborn, arrives with devastating news about their people, Jamie is reluctant to get involved. This darkness, this plague of horror affecting the engineered soldiers, has nothing to do with her.

Until it does.

Jamie has always known loss, but not like this.

With a shadow looming over her people, and her sister's life on the line, she joins Oliver on a trek across a crumbling country that neither trusts them as people nor accepts them as citizens.

The clock is ticking, the secret behind the darkness is unfolding, and Jamie's staunch refusal to care about Oliver again is put to the test.