The Earth is freezing. Its salvation was left to a group of criminals.

Like me.Skylar Sorabella has spent eighteen months in prison doing whatever it takes to stay alive — assaulting guards for solitary, dodging a cellmate who wants her dead, and counting down the days until a dying sun makes none of it matter.She's not proud of who she's become.But she's still breathing.Until an alien captain changes everything.For nearly a year, a mysterious man has visited Skylar in her dreams — silent, steady, and impossibly real. The way he holds her makes her forget the world is ending.

When his face appears on a prison TV as Captain Xaan of an alien spacecraft offering Earth its last chance at survival, Skylar realizes the connection wasn't in her head.It never was.The Vainovians need a crew. They're willing to take prisoners.And Skylar has nothing left to lose.There's just one problem: the alien sent to screen her says she can't be trusted.He's not wrong.But if Skylar wants a shot at freedom — and the man she's already fallen for — she'll have to prove she's more than the worst thing she's done.Even if it kills her.Departing is a slow-burn science fiction romance with no explicit content, set at the end of the world — featuring a morally gray heroine, a mysterious alien captain, and a connection that defies space, time, and trust.