He was born bent. He refuses to die broken.

Raised a merchant prince and heir to the family business, Seamus mac Donnacha expects to follow in his crime lord father's footsteps, profiting from the indiscretions of saints and sinners alike. But when Seamus returns from his apprentice cruise maimed, disgraced, and branded a slaver he discovers he's no longer needed. Disowned and tossed down the Trinity system gravity well, Seamus wants to do as his father demands.

Crawl away and die.

Maybe he will, once he's kept his word, and helped his friends defeat the evil spreading from star to star. He knows more about that evil than any man alive. It's been inside him.

Seamus doesn't want to defy his father. And he doesn't want to war with his family. Only a dead man would dare to cross them. Only a man who deserved to pay for his sins. Crawl away and die. Seamus doesn't know what to think about that. But he knows exactly what to say.

"Make me."