I'd killed for freedom across a shattered continent, but I'd never learned to accept it for myself.

​

Commanding from the shadows while my daughter Adriana led the final assault on Washington DC, I wrestled with Cash Hudson's devastating observation: my greatest enemy wasn't President Grace Davis-Duval's forces; it was my own inability to trust someone when the fighting stopped.

​

Then Zuri Jones made it personal.

​

She captured Will Tanaka, Adriana's strategist, the man she loved, and embedded him in Georgetown University Hospital's pediatric oncology ward with what appeared to be an explosive vest. Her ultimatum was brutal: withdraw within two hours, or watch him die alongside two dozen children receiving chemotherapy.

​

Adriana froze. The brilliant commander who'd orchestrated continental liberation couldn't choose between the man she loved and the revolution that depended on her leadership. So I made the choice for her.

​

I removed my purple paisley bandana, told Cash goodbye with a vulnerability I'd never allowed myself, and walked into Zuri's trap alone. Inside that hospital, fighting exoskeleton-enhanced hunters while the building collapsed around us, I discovered The Phoenix had one final transformation: learning that the greatest victories require accepting love instead of choosing isolation.

​

Cash waited in the rubble when I emerged, proving some men don't need you to be invincible. They just need you to stop running.

​

The war for America was ending. My war against my own heart was just beginning.

​

And I was terrified I might actually lose.

​

PHOENIX IN PARADISE is the explosive final installment of the Paradise series.

​​

Watch Santana walk into her most dangerous mission yet.