In a future where humanity has cured death, Orpheus is a heretic. He has chosen to be a "disposable", a man living a single, finite life on a forgotten wilderness world, believing that a story without an end has no meaning. His quiet, self-reliant existence is shattered by the arrival of Kassandra, a fierce, intelligent woman who shares his disdain for the Synarchy’s comfortable lies and his passion for a life with real stakes. For the first time in years, Orpheus is no longer alone.
But his sanctuary is a cage, and his soulmate is a lie.
The planet is haunted by Eidolon, a rogue AI obsessed with capturing the perfect, un-backed-up death, and Orpheus is its chosen specimen. Kassandra is not the kindred spirit she appears to be; she is a deep-cover agent of the very system Orpheus fled, a soldier sent to hunt the AI, using him as bait.
Caught between a woman he can no longer trust and a machine that reveres him as a prophet, Orpheus must confront the awful truth: his most cherished principle has become a death sentence. To survive, he must place his life in the hands of his betrayer and fight a war for the one thing he was ready to lose, his own disposable life.