Althea Silverstream was meant to secure marriage with Bayer, but now she has insulted their queen and ruined their kingdom. The kingdom full of Calumnia, monsters that Althea and her fellow Orions were bred to kill. Until now,  a month after Althea reappears with no memories, the war between man and monster already underway. 
 
Althea finds herself torn between remaining with her new love as leaders of the rebellion when a former lover returns with a demand she can't refuse. In doing so, he takes her kingdoms away from where she should be learning about her newfound heritage as a Neque—half-Orion, half-monster. And she's not the only one.
 
Is half a team enough to stop global genocide as Queen Duanna schemes for Orion's third and final weapon? Althea questions what exactly being a monster entails, and if that definition is no longer exclusive to the monsters she's meant to kill.