New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh dives deep into the icy heart of a man on the brink of psychic disintegration and the only woman brilliant enough to save him. Amara Aleine was born emotionless. A scientist with a piercing, cold intellect, the only person who matters to her is her identical twin. Some term her a psychopath. They might be right. Pax Marshall is the epitome of Psy perfection. Raised by his ruthless grandfather, he was never permitted to be anything less. But Scarab Syndrome has ravaged his mind, until he's now mere weeks away from total psychic collapse, insanity.

and death. Any cure will come too late for him, but he is determined to spend his last weeks fighting for the rest of the afflicted. Amara has never seen a mind as clean, as orderly, as beautiful, as Pax Marshall's. Patient Zero. A twin just like her. And a man so cold-blooded that everyone warns her about him--when she is used to being the predator in the room. As they work together in a hunt for the cure, Pax's enemies deliver a violent strike. The choice Amara makes as Pax struggles to survive will have consequences far beyond anything Amara or Pax could have ever imagined.

This time, Amara might just have played herself.