She has never been touched. He is running out of memories. Together, they are the only hope for a dying world.

Elara Venn has spent her life in isolation, her bare skin a danger to everyone she meets. As a Memory-Keeper, she absorbs the life stories of anyone she touches, drowning in their joys and their sorrows. She has never known the warmth of a hand in hers, the press of lips against her own, or the safety of an embrace. She has accepted her fate: at the Solstice of Embers, she will walk into the darkness and let the Riven consume her memories so the world survives. It is the only gift she has left to give.

Kade Ashford is a dead man walking. Once a decorated captain, he is now Riven-Touched, carrying the essence of the very monsters he once fought. With each passing day, the Riven inside him devours another fragment of who he was. His mother's face. His first love's name. The sound of laughter. He is forgetting everything, and soon, he will forget himself entirely. His final mission is simple: deliver the Memory-Keeper to the Riven's nest and trade her memories for the return of the sun.

But when Kade finds Elara in the Obsidian Archives, she does not weep or plead. She looks at him with eyes the color of ash and says, "I've been waiting for you." And something in him cracks open.

Their journey across a dying kingdom forces them into impossible proximity. Every accidental brush of skin floods Elara with Kade's darkest memories, his deepest shame, his aching loneliness. She sees the man beneath the monster. And he sees the woman who has been waiting her entire life to be touched without fear.

The Riven are hunting them. The suns are fading faster than predicted. And the only way to save the world is for Elara to sacrifice everything she has never had the chance to experience.

But Kade has one memory he refuses to surrender. One memory that burns brighter than the dying suns.

Her.

Now they must face the Solstice together, knowing that love is either the most powerful weapon against the dark... or the cruelest loss of all.