The honeymoon is over. Finally married to Kitsune (again!), Astra settles into Heroes Without Borders work with Joyeuse Guard, this time in Malawi. The small and poor African country is experiencing an influx of refugees from the Mozambique civil war across the border and HWB has set up a base in dusty Marka to provide relief. It should be a relatively quiet posting; the actual fighting is far away and not something Joyeuse Guard has any authorization to get mixed up in but they’d be doing good and not every HWB assignment needs to be high-stakes. Except somebody decides to take out a contract on her and suddenly she finds herself the target of an increasingly deadly series of attacks. When the attacks injure comrades, endanger the mission, and come close to succeeding, with no knowledge of the source of the contract she is faced with hard choices. Should she hang up the cape for a while and retreat to the safety of a new secret identity, where attacks won’t endanger everyone around her? At least long enough for Shell and others to discover the source and give her a target? When an attempt by her would-be assassins violates the unspoken rules of engagement—you don’t go after capes in their civilian identities—nearly kills her and people she loves, she makes her decision. The world is going to learn why even the bad guys need to play by the rules, because the next engagement is going to be a terminal one.