ASH by Grace Walker

SPSFC 2024

The mission was supposed to be simple: go to Xeiryn, complete the objective, and leave—before it’s too late. Of course, that’s where everything fell apart. Kade, an underworld operative, fights for survival on Xeiryn—a planet on the edge of the galaxy where crime syndicates control the only antidote to the deadly atmosphere. With no other choice as a human, he is caught serving the syndicates under his protector, a woman called Ash. However, when her secret against the syndicates is revealed, their world is torn apart. After a devastating separation, Kade is forced into a struggle for survival in a new galaxy. Working with a crew of mercenaries, he has only one goal: Find his way back to Ash. When a powerful client offers the crew a secretive mission to Xeiryn, Kade can’t resist the opportunity that could lead him back to Ash. But the mission quickly becomes the least of his worries when Kade and his sharpshooter comrade Xiara suspect their assignment isn’t at all what it seems. Now, torn between his past and his future, Kade has to face the bitter reality of what it will take to find Ash and if she is truly everything he once believed.