Sixteen-year-old Alexia has a secret; she’s a Varien—burdened with the gift of shooting stars through her skin. And after watching her best friend Sarai get falsely accused of murder upon changing into a Varien, Alexia wants no one to know. She keeps her secret tight and close until an accident with her strange abilities critically injures her father—threatening her identity to be revealed. Alexia flees and goes on the run to avoid death row. While in transit, she meets Greta, a quirky antique shop owner who promises her safety with other Variens in a realm called The Grove. Alexia is skeptical, but once she learns Sarai has been kidnapped from prison and taken to The Grove to be sacrificed by Revenirs, a secret society of hitmen, she becomes intent on finding and saving her from another dire fate. Greta introduces Alexia to The Grove and her new home at Malveaux Prep Academy and Sanctuary—a premier school for Varien teens to study and hone their knowledge and skill. There, Alexia rooms with a pyrokinetic hot head who can’t stop kissing her boyfriend and takes tours with her assigned campus mentor—a wise-cracking morphing teleporter named Kyle. With the help of her newfound friendships, Alexia delves deeper into The Grove’s hidden history for clues on the present. All she wants is to find Sarai and save her. But the closer she gets to the Revenirs, the more danger she and her friends are in. Alexia must decide if friendship is worth the wrath of war and suffering, and even worse ... betrayal.