With the Elyrien fleet closing around the Volari and European warships advancing under the protection of a court order, Daniel appears badly outnumbered. But the battlefield unfolding around Sol is not the one his enemies think they entered. As Vanessa, Elice, and the fleet execute a pattern that looks increasingly desperate, Hart begins to realize that Daniel has been shaping this confrontation long before anyone knew there would be one.

When the immediate threat begins to recede, Daniel does not simply declare the crisis finished. Europe’s attempt to seize him and reclaim Elice has crossed a line he refuses to let disappear beneath another round of diplomatic language. With the entire world watching, Daniel decides that consequences must become visible—and that the people whose governments created this confrontation deserve to know exactl ...