**Cleverly written, intriguing, and heart-wrenching. - New York
Times bestselling author Jodi Meadows
**
**"An unusual focus on food only improves this intriguing coming-of-age
story." - Kirkus Reviews
**
Princess Vela's people are starving.
Stranded on a planet that lacks food, Vela makes the ultimate sacrifice
and becomes an Aegis for her people. Accepting a genetic modification
that takes sixty years off her life, she can feed her colony via
nutrition pills. But her best friend is still getting worse. And she's
not the only one.
Now the king is dying, too.
When the boy she's had a crush on since childhood volunteers to give his
life for her father's, Vela realizes her people need more than pills to
survive. As tensions rise between Aegis and colonists, secrets and
sabotage begin to threaten the future of the colony itself.
Unless Vela is brave enough to save them all...