Things are finally going well for Luka Valdari. He's found a home and family at the Institute for Psionic Research, and he has a job he loves. When a training mission takes him back to the streets of downside Riga, he's got plenty of reason to be uneasy; and when a psionic cry for help leads him to a nightmare from his past, Luka's ready to bolt. Things are not going so well for Damon Korsov. He's got voices in his head, a hole in his memory, and strange dreams that may or may not be glimpses of his past. The one man who might hold the key to Damon's past is the one man he can never ask. Because somehow, Luka knows Damon, and it's clear to Damon that Luka hates him. Unwilling to expose anyone else to the danger Damon represents, Luka volunteers to train him. He wants to hate Damon, but instead finds himself fascinated. Before they get a chance to sort things out between them, the two men are thrown into the middle of a terrifying plot that puts every human life in the galaxy at risk. Can Luka and Damon confront both of their pasts and work together to prevent disaster? Or will all the human worlds burn in the flames of wildfire psi?