When seventeen-year-old Anna is thrown into the Unity Experiment—an ongoing team building exercise to promote unity between warring species—she begins to unwittingly retrace the fatal steps her father took a decade ago. But she quickly discovers she is the only one within the experiment able to communicate with the spirit world.

This revelation ignites her curiosity and her focus shifts from surviving the experiment to finding out the truth behind her father’s death. But this power comes at a cost, and she becomes the prime target of the other teams who covet this link wanting answers from their dead.

If Anna can master this unusual skill, she’ll be able to bring together species who currently have nothing but contempt for each other. Of course, she’ll have to avoid being killed by everything and everyone around her. If she can’t, she’ll never have the chance to unveil the secrets the human government never wanted unearthed in the first place. Too bad they didn’t count on a 17-year-old who can hear the dead to shake things up.

14+ due to adult situations

Excerpt:

The forest penned us in on the right and on the left thick iron railings grew up into the sky. Six feet, eight feet, ten feet, the sharp arrow heads on top spearing the low clouds. Two burly men dressed entirely in black leather blocked the path. Both had long, wild brown hair and the unmistakable almond shape to their light brown eyes. Chunky annihilators were suspended from their belts, which were utterly pointless. Demi-beings didn’t need fancy human weapons, even if the supernatural blood was weak. The taller man lifted his head, nostrils flaring as the edges of dark lips quirked. The other man’s mouth hung open, tongue brushing against his teeth with a repetitive sucking noise.

I stepped forward allowing Drew to follow in my shadow. Holding out my hand palm up, the inky numbers of my human branding stood out clearly against the pale skin. The smaller guard pretended to squint with head cocked to the side, tongue still smacking in his open mouth.

Behind me, Drew whimpered.

With lightning speed, the guard snatched my hand and pressed it to his flared nostrils. He inhaled deeply, the delicate skin of my wrist exposed to his sharp white teeth. His eyes burned as they stared into mine and his long, wet tongue protruded slowly. The rough nodules dragged across my clammy palm as I fought to keep the look of disgust off my face. His tongue was ripped off me as the other guard’s large fist savagely connected with the side of his head and they both stepped back, panting hard.

I remained frozen in place, heart pounding and stomach churning. Drew must see only my compliance. If I behaved, they would leave him alone. I lowered my arm and held it rigidly by my side. The skin burned where he had touched it, the overwhelming urge to rip my flesh off throbbed within me.

“Human girl G10 A650,” the taller guard said. “You have missed the curfew.”

“What? No, I haven’t, there is still—”

My knees buckled as his hand slammed into my shoulder, crushing me onto the gravel. The marmoset was back in the tree again. A smile had crept onto its face, a curved slash on marble features.

There would be no help.