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by Emily M. Harrison (Author)
In the nation of Unitary, freedom ends at twenty-two.
Every citizen must take a government-issued serum that reveals their predetermined destiny, assigning their place within society. Careers are not chosen-they are dictated. Futures are not built-they are prescribed. For most, the serum offers certainty.
For Maylie Banner, it offers a death sentence.
Selected for Unitary's elite military force, the Safeguard, Maylie is stripped from her home state and sent across the nation to train in the regime's most unforgiving program. Within the walls of the Safeguard state, recruits are forged into soldiers through relentless trials designed to eliminate weakness and enforce absolute loyalty. Only the strongest survive.
But Maylie carries a secret that the serum was never meant to reveal.
If the truth of her identity is discovered, the consequences will be swift and final. Execution is the only punishment for those who exist outside the destiny Unitary has assigned them.
Forced to live among strangers in a foreign state, Maylie must master the brutal demands of Safeguard training while hiding who she truly is. Every day pushes her closer to becoming the weapon Unitary wants her to be, yet every step forward tightens the danger around her.
Because her training isn't about earning rank or fulfilling destiny.
It's about survival.
As the trials grow more dangerous and the line between loyalty and self-preservation begins to blur, Maylie is faced with a truth she can no longer ignore: the future Unitary has written for her leads only closer to death.
And surviving it may require becoming someone the system was never meant to create.
