Corporal Dejan Kostic hasn't been the same elf since saving his crewmate's life and getting hit with a fae spell. He's losing emotion, feeling, time...But he's going to keep going as long as he can because he's not abandoning anyone ever again. When his condition worsens at the wrong time in the middle of a mission to take down a trafficking ring shuffling kids with magic across the Allied States Wastelands, his team and their dragonwalker allies barely make it out alive. The only thing worse than that is making it to the safe camp and seeing the elf he used to have a heartbond with before he cut it out fifteen years ago... Doctor Tara Novak didn't think it would be an issue to coordinate with the Drax Guard team delivering rescued kids to her medical camp on the Allied States-Mexico border. That's her job. What she didn't expect was to see Dejan Kostic again. Not after he had their heartbond removed in a back-alley deal and vanished from Detroit fifteen years ago. She might never forgive him, even if he's changed for the better. But the traffickers aren't giving up on their cargo so easily. When they kidnap Tara along with some of the kids, Dejan follows, trusting his team to find them. He can't abandon Tara again, even with the spell slowly killing him-or when his criminal past comes stalking through the door promising vengeance.