Alissa never believed in magic. But then she went to the Keep, a legendary fortress where individual Keepers once discovered magic from enigmatic Masters. Beneath the tutelage of the last making it through Master, Alissa found that she experienced inherited her father’s marvelous ability.

However the Hold is ruled by Bailic, the renegade Keeper who seized the First Truth, a reserve of magic he’ll use to harness the might of the city of the dead and wreak a war of total devastation. The reserve has thwarted Bailic’s every attempt to gain access to it, although it constantly calls to Alissa-who must summon all her will to resist it. For if she gives in to the First Truth’s greatest power and knowledge, she will become utterly changed-and the man she loves could possibly be dropped to her forever.