They have cheated death. Defied their people. Changed beyond recognition. Their love has survived the impossible. But now they must learn to trust again: the future of their worlds depends on it.

It is whispered that Earth is lost. Once conquered and invaded by the alien Illyri, Earth has been surrendered twice over and is now prey to the parasites known as the Others.

Syl Hellais and Paul Kerr knew from the moment their paths crossed that their love would challenge everything their people were fighting to protect, she as the first Illyri to be born on Earth and he as a young leader of the Resistance battling to force her species from his world.

They were never meant to meet. They were meant to die. Now the fates of entire civilizations lie in their hands. But more terrifying than the shadow of civil war and the loss of friends and family are the changes in Paul and Syl themselves. For Syl's time with the secretive Nairene Sisterhood has unleashed in her new powers, powers to which she herself cannot imagine the limits, powers that make Paul wonder if he has ever really known her at all. They have sacrificed so much and face insurmountable odds to be together. But what if the seed of their destruction - and the end of all things - comes not from outside but within?