The Helios Vaccine promised salvation from the sun's scorching heat. It delivered death. Forty years later, Earth lies devastated by environmental and moral decay. Aiden struggles with a disorder that isolates him from others, often leaving him locked away. Michael, a powerful presence within Aiden, wields a mysterious ability to turn pain into power and uses it to devastating effect. When The Collective abducts Aiden and his friend Zoe, Aiden's father and grandfather launch a desperate rescue operation that goes terribly wrong. Separated and fighting for survival, one will fail while the other becomes tangled in the Collective's deadly plot. Horrified by the brutal violence within The Collective and their mission to turn children into soldiers in God's army-or worse-Aiden faces the terrible realization that his only chance of survival may lie in surrendering to Michael, the very force he's always feared.