PROLOGUE

THE FLARE OF blue fire is blinding. Then again, it’s gone so quickly that even if you were staring right at me, you’ d blink and it’ d vanish. The emissions from the process of eversion—shifting between universes—are unavoidable. However, I try to be careful, everting in concealed areas away from people, and away from the eyes of the Faction and the Guardians. They’re always watching for those who break the law—those who don’t remain where they belong.

Me, more so than ever.

I belong in Neospes, a domed city in a parallel dimension to the Otherworld. But I’m here in pursuit of a man who everted over a year ago. A man who nearly destroyed my world in his quest for power. A man so consumed with retaliation that to let him loose in either world would be a colossal mistake.

And so I hunt him. I’ve been hunting him—across thirty states and always a step or two behind. He’s clever, brilliant, and a master strategist.

After all, he’s my father. And he’s my creator.

I may look like an ordinary girl, but I’m far from one. It’s something I’m still coming to terms with, ever since I learned the truth. I am a product of genetic experimentation and advanced robotics. I am the girl with nanoplasm for blood—the perfect combination of human and machine, an aberration of nature—and yet, its greatest creation. I am the only one of my kind.

My name is Riven.

And I am a killer.