Master your emotions. Perform your duty. Follow the Tenets. Tala has lived these rules for twenty years: the rules of an Enhancer. Then a mission goes wrong, and she finds herself framed, branded Renegade, and called to face judgment. Fleeing means violating the Tenets, the moral precepts of her order. Yet in that moment, she finds she cannot stay. Hunted by the endless forces of the Galactic Coalition and her own mentor, famed Renegade killer Exemplar Scratch, Tala will pursue the proof of her innocence to the very heart of the galaxy. But cling as she might to the tatters of her honor, she cannot deny the true purpose of her mission: revenge. And the further Tala strays from the Tenets' path, the greater the risk she runs of losing herself. In a galaxy of strange aliens and hostile humans, danger casts its shadow on every wall. Friendships are forged, lost, and tested. And the lies that keep the galaxy running just might be about to come crashing down.