Neely Ambrose thought she was done with secrets. When she escaped the Compound, she also believed she'd escaped a future built on lies and deceit. She was wrong; the world outside isn't much better. In fact, it may be worse. All Neely wants is to safely deliver the people of the Compound into Remnant camps so she can go start a life of her own with Thorne. But that's before the Remnants start dying around her, before camps are destroyed just after she's left them, before she notices a strange bird carving at the site of each attack, and before Thorne is taken. The Mavericks believe Thorne is dead, taken by the Elders who will stop at nothing to find Neely, but she's determined to prove them wrong. But the only clue she has to find him is a bird carved into the last place where anyone saw Thorne. As she starts a journey to find him, she learns the birds are a symbol for a secret group that's made a home in the shadows. A group that even Xenith doesn't know about, that the Remnants won't talk about, and that Neely feels may have a plan of their own - and that plan may involve her.