Nowhere Stars

For most Keepers, slaying harbingers is a choice. For Liadain, it's a dark necessity. Liadain’s power over sickness and corruption has alienated her even from her fellow Keepers. Alone in her new life, she races on legs that have barely ever walked to master her abilities, understand the twisted minds and bizarre magic of Harbingers, and rip the keys to her immortality from their remains while she still can. Her explorations take her down dark and strange paths through the wilderness beyond New Claris, where the world melts away and Harbingers vie to reshape reality in their image. Delving deeper into magic drives Liadain ever further from humanity. She spares a newborn Harbinger’s life, planning to watch it grow, learn all she can of her enemies, and harvest its heart when the time is right. But it has its own plans and its own dreams, as deep and desperate as hers. Liadain must decide how far she's really willing to go to pursue immortality.

Aulunla's end marks a new chapter in Liadain's life as a Keeper. Far from offering her the power and safety she hoped for, Liadain's bizarre insights into the minds and methods of Harbingers leave her less certain of her path to immortality than ever. Spurred by the revelation of just how inextricably bound her deadly illness is to her magic, she takes her most terrifying step into her new life yet, asking another Keeper for help. But what she's learned and what she's done follow her like ghosts. Meanwhile, Aulunla's witch spirals further into her own world-twisting obsession. In seeking answers that can only be found in the dark, they both find themselves blind beneath the callous gaze of the Sun.

Liadain, a girl born terminally ill, has only ever wanted to live — forever, if at all possible. Instead, shortly after her thirteenth birthday, she’s consigned to spend her last months in hospice care. Until the night she encounters a monster more terrifying than death, and her savior offers her a chance to achieve her impossible dream. A chance to become a Keeper, one of the chosen children whose magic serves as humanity’s sole defense against Harbingers, living nightmares that devour dreams and passions and souls. Few Keepers accept the mantle simply to be heroes, though. Those who consume enough Harbingers grow into something more than human, obtaining the power to change themselves in nearly any way they wish. So Liadain throws herself into a new life, hoping against hope to save herself. But magic is foremost an expression of the soul. Shaped by her cold bitterness, her new power grants her dominion over sickness, death, and ill-fate, forcing her to wield the things she hates most as weapons. And as she delves ever deeper into the minds of Harbingers, tearing fragments of her salvation from their hearts, Liadain can’t help but wonder if their hunger is really so different from her own.