The final installment of the Scarecrow Trials is here!

Jaron had not come home.

Embattled with the deteriorating state of affairs in Hebenon, the brako, and his inner demons, Rhyd knew his caustic words were the reason why. As it became obvious that Jaron was nowhere to be found, as one ally after another reported his absence, Rhyd knew something else.

Vanderwall was to blame.

Vanderwall wanted Scarecrow dead. Jaron was the bait.

Duncan Kemway's dream for the people of Hebanthe Falls should have been reborn with the opening of Outside. But the perceived power vacuum needed to be filled, even as the city's residents began to take their first tentative steps into the vast, unexplored world. The warring brako factions, the Voices of Faith, and the recently elected Nau were determined to fill the power void as other forces worked to unravel centuries of uneasy security and force the people of Hebenon to choose between the past and the future.

Once abundant resources stretched ever thinner. Fear and unrest were growing.

Rhyd felt compelled to fight it. Without Jaron, however, there was only the insatiable hunger to end the brako's reign of terror and bring Vanderwall to justice. Maybe when the fight was over, the unrest would end. Maybe fear would subside. Maybe there would be peace.

In the shadows of his heart, Rhyd suspected that even those goals would fail to satisfy him.

There would always be wrongs to right and justice to seek. Even if Jaron were safe, contentment would be forever out of reach.

He was no longer Rhyd Ballard. That life was behind him now.

He was Scarecrow.