The aliens came to uplift humanity-and brought with them quantum computation that allows chosen humans, called cognates, to travel between parallel universes. Jirayu's wife Yvette disappeared when the aliens arrived. When Yvette returns, she's an artifact of the future, a soldier from another timeline . . . and she carries with her the answer to why Jirayu is targeted by killers who have snuffed out every other version of Jirayu. Yvette lost her wife Jirayu once before, and she's determined to keep this version alive at any cost. But as she learns more and more of the aliens' plans, she realizes she has a choice to make. She can continue being their weapon, or escape with her wife to a world where there is no war, no aliens, and where both of them can set the terms of their fate-forever.