Flying the head-of-planet around isn’t a job for the faint of heart. Especially not on Faldine, the planet in the Verdant String whose magnetic fields actively fight against technology, bringing down the ships of the unwary or the incompetent.

Hana thrives on the challenge, though. Thrives on everything about her job. It keeps her from thinking too much about what happened to her during the war, and what she is becoming. A relationship with the head-of-planet himself, though, is more than she wants to deal with.

Iver Sugotti feels like he fell into the role of head-of-planet by default. He knows he’s good at the job, and he’s enjoying the challenge of making tech work on a planet that eats tech for breakfast, but the one thing he really wants–Hana–seems out of his reach.

His pilot has made it clear she’s not interested, and he can only respect the boundaries she’s set. But when someone wants him dead, he and Hana are plunged into an all-out race for their lives. Iver discovers those closest to him have betrayed him, but also, that his pilot is not as disinterested as she seems.

As they try to outwit their enemies, they discover they are far better together than they are apart, and that Hana really is at her best when she’s flying high.