Eighteen-year-old Styx knows exactly where she wants to live out her days, understands exactly what she desires-to become a part of The Family- to exist as an eliminator. To live as an assassin. Like her adoptive parents. Her father. Her grandfather. Except. . .she has never known her father and for all she knows he is long dead. And her grandfather is more murderer than honest assassin. Styx has never known her biological mother-presumes that she is dead and rightly assumes that her grandfather had a part to play in her mother's death. The Grandfather is the patriarch of The Family, the group of assassins in which Styx was raised, and when The Grandfather summons you answer his call. A "summoning" is how Styx finds herself in The Grandfather's office going through his things. It is the reason she opens the envelope with her name on it-and it is the reason she jumps to an escape from his fourth floor window. Styx is a girl on the run-according to the information left for her by an unknown figure, in two weeks every member of The Family will be dead. Styx will have killed them all. Styx must work against the clock to discover whether her chosen profession comes from the desire for order or the braying of the beast at bay that flows thick through her veins. Armed with an affinity for weaponry and fierce determination Styx and Townie, the youngest member of The Family, begin a trek to hunt down Styx's long lost father, dodging and eluding other members of The Family along the journey. With their supposed dates of death clearly written Styx and Townie must beat both The Grandfather and time to find her father. Styx alone must determine before the end the distinction between that which makes family and that which makes blood."