Prologue
Ruby is talking about a recurring dream that she has, in which she starts to go back in time and age in reverse until she stars to completely disappear.
Chapter 1-4
Ruby is on a mission with her team from the Children's League to retrieve an important prisoner from the PSF's. Their leader is Rob, Cate's friend that we already met in the previous book. He orders Ruby and one of her teammates Vida to stay put and one of the grenades he throws "accidentally" ends up close to them, almost becoming fatal. Ruby and Vida get out safely and Ruby chooses to disregard orders and gets out with Vida to retrieve the prisoner. They manage to find him just in time and Ruby is in a shock because the prisoner looks like none other than Liam.
In Chapter two and three Ruby recalls her time when she became a member of the League and becoming acquainted with the man in charge Alban, who was previously friends with Grey. Alban uses Ruby's powers to gather important information. She also becomes acquainted with her teammates Vida, Nico and Jude.
Back to the present the prisoner they retrieved is Cole, Liam's brother and Ruby is baffled at how similar the brothers look. Alban orders Ruby to look into Coles mind to find the whereabouts of the important flash drive. Ruby sees that Liam is the key to this and decides to keep that information from Alban.
In the meantime, Nico, Jude and one of the other kids, a green called Blake overheard Rob and one of other Alban's men Jarvis talk about getting rid of the greens as they are a nuisance to them. The next day Blake becomes assigned to a dangerous mission he wasn't trained for. As the men return from that mission it's made known that Blake is dead. Nico gets a hold of some security footage from the mission that shows Jarvis shooting Blake in the back.
Analysis
Over the months she spent with the Children's League Ruby's been trained to be a professional asset to them, she also learned to control her powers efficiently. Even though she doesn't want to get close to them, Ruby feels responsible for the children in her team; she is their leader and feels obliged to protect them from the Children's League.
Chapter 5-8
Cole and Ruby talk about the flash drive Alban wants to get a hold of. It seems to have some answers to the IAAN and how it started. It appears that the flash drive ended up with Liam on accident and the two make a plan to retrieve it. Soon enough there is an operation that involves Ruby and Jude and they flee from the operation post to find Liam.
They start traveling to North Carolina but soon Vida catches up to them. They arrive at Liam's home and Vida's been following them the entire time. It looks like Ruby and Jude haven't got rid of all of the trackers. Ruby suddenly starts running after the person that's been observing them the entire time. That person is Chubs.
Analysis
Ruby is annoyed by Jude's naivety and trusting everyone, but Ruby soon discovers that not everyone is against them. There are still some common people willing to help them. She also realizes the importance of her mission to retrieve that flash drives as it could alter the lives of many desperate families.
Chapter 9-12
Ruby, Chubs, Vida and Jude go back to Liam's parent's house and soon see a number of PSF's approaching. They are able to get rid of them with Chubs's plan. He got a new identity after being recovered from the shot. He is a skip tracer down that hunts down kids with IAAN.
The group of four go on a mission to find Liam. Ruby soon discovers that Vida is in contact with Cate and that Cate is in on Coles plan to retrieve the flash drive.
Ruby and Chubs have a fight after Chubs's outburst that almost got them in danger. Ruby goes off with Vida and Jude and leaves Chubs alone, but changes her mind and goes back to bring Chubs along with them while the two wait for her. After Ruby and Chubs return to the spot Vida and Jude were waiting for them, the two are nowhere to be found and there are traces of fight and blood. They were taken in.
Analysis
Ruby is having a difficult time understanding this new Chubs even though she still sees traces of the old one. This accumulates and ends up with the having an argument about Liam. Chubs is not what he used to be, just like Ruby he had to do some horrible things to survive and both of them are dreading the time when they will have to face Liam.
Ruby also gets to have a better understanding of Cate through Vida. Cate appears to be on their side and Ruby wonders if the Children's League was true to its name when Cate first willingly joined it.
Chapter 13-17
Ruby and Chubs get taken in by a vicious group of Blues and it appears they have taken in Vida and Jude as well. The leader of the group is a boy called Knox, who pretends to be the Slip Kid.
Ruby soon discovers Liam in his camp and his state is very bad. Furious she goes to Knox to take him down but only gets herself and Vida up for a fight for some sort of initiation.
Ruby and Vida get into a ring to fight a Red, a boy who was trained by Grey to be a killing animal. Ruby manages to get a hold of the Red's thoughts and make him sane again but Knox shoots him and the Red boy ends up dead. Furious, Ruby manages to control Knox's mind without touching him. Knox is humiliated and kicked out. Ruby is followed by the horde of relieved kids outside.
Analysis
After discovering Liam in the camp and seeing him in such a bad state Ruby blames herself for what she did to him. She is furious and her bringing Knox down to his knees is inevitable, it only is a matter of time and it all culminates in chapter seventeen when she orders him to go out into the cold defenseless to pay for what he did to others.
Chapters 18-22
Some of Knox's followers leave the camp and Ruby and a number of others go on a hunt for supplies at the close by airport. When they arrive there they are the group of Knox's followers attacks them and Ruby gets stabbed. Soon the soldiers arrive and the hunting group escapes with Jude's help. On their run Ruby gets left behind and faints in the snow.
In the morning she is dragged by one of the local men because of the reward he will get when he turns her over to the skip tracer. That skip tracer is none other than Rob. Rob ties Ruby down and starts driving to turn her back into Thurmond. Ruby takes control over his mind haunting him with images of the two kids he shot. Rob loses control over the car and it crashes leaving him dead.
Ruby blames herself for using his victims against Rob and thinks she's a monster. She is found by Chubs and others and soon loses consciousness. When she wakes up she is in a tent with Chubs, Vida, Jude and Liam. Liam gets angry when he discovers Ruby and others are a part of the League but eventually agrees to travel with them in order to find Zu.
Analysis
In these chapters Ruby returns to her previous state of mind. She is haunted by Clancy's words and believes she turned into monster like him. Clancy is President's Gray's son who is also an Orange and Slip Kid from the previous book. Even though Rob deserved what he got Ruby still thinks that using those victims as weapon was monster-like.
Liam appears to be in some sort of state of confusion because of Ruby making him forget about her in the previous book.
Chapters 23-26
Liam wanders off alone and Ruby follows him. She manages to bring back his memory by slipping into his mind again.
Vida gets a message from Cate about where they would meet in order to go back to the League with the flash drive. Ruby and Vida are suspicious about the messages because it doesn't look like Cate. They are right, someone else intercepted their messages. They were told to go to Colorado.
When they arrive there it is Clancy Grey who waits for them and not Cate. Ruby manages to take control over Clancy and because he threatened her friends she is ready to kill him but he stops her by telling her that her friends in California are in danger and she will never know how to save them without him.
Analysis
The tension between Ruby and Liam finally culminates resulting in her giving him his memories back. His reaction is milder than she expected, he is disappointed that she didn't trust him to be strong enough to go through the League with her.
Clancy Grey, the monster from Ruby's nightmares comes back into the picture but this time she is able to overpower him.
Chapters 27-30
Clancy tells the plan the agents back at the League in California have. Alban was killed by Jarvis and agents who follow him and the plan to use the kids as live bombs at the President Grey's public appearance. Ruby forces Clancy to take her and her friends to California using his jet so that they make it on time.
They enter the League's headquarters and Ruby finds out that the kids are safe and waiting for Cate and Cole to be back. Clancy tricked Ruby and the reason he wanted to come to the League's headquarters is to find files in Alban's office about his mother's whereabouts.
Jarvis and other agents enter the building but are soon stopped by Cole who apparently is a Red. He takes care of the agents and Ruby and others are finally safe.
They watch TV broadcast about President Grey arriving to the meeting. A kid suddenly steps out in front of President and shoots him in the chest. There is a loud noise and sudden electricity blackout. As they are getting ready to escape building suddenly collapses with a crash.
Analysis
In a climactic chain of events it seems that Ruby and the rest are finally safe and ready for their next step. But that soon comes crashing down and things turn around in seconds with a cliff-hanger at the end of chapter thirty.
Chapters 31-32
The realization came quickly. The city is being bombed. Ruby and the rest of her friends are alive and with Cole's guidance and rest of the survivors are starting toward the exit. There is another collapse at the tunnel. Finally they are able to get out of the building into the open.
Ruby suddenly notices Jude missing. Liam and Chubs go back for him but come back after two hours with bad news. Jude is dead and Liam hand his compass he was always carrying to Ruby. Ruby is devastated.
A plane passes above them and drops papers with something written on them. It is a statement from President Grey; he was lightly scratched from the assassination attempt because he was wearing a vest. Following the attempt he ordered the attacks on the places where it was believed the Children's League operated.
Cole and agents are suddenly pointing their weapons at someone. It is Clancy Grey, he is alive. He tells them about his mother's research, she was researching a cure for IAAN, but he destroyed her research as he doesn't want the cure to exist. Ruby approaches him and shows him the papers he was trying to destroy at Alban's office. Those papers contain information about the research.
Analysis
Jude's death is unexpected and emotionally devastating to Ruby. She was his protector, she is torn to pieces that she wasn't able to do so and can't accept his death. His shattered compass is all she has of him now.
The possibility of a cure is unbelievable and it leaves everyone stunned. Clancy's plan backfired on him because he is the reason the information about the cure was not destroyed.
