Sixteen-year-old high school track star, Ember, just wants to run. As far and as fast as she can away from the pain of her father’s recent death. But instead, she’s stuck hiding out in the basement of her dad’s coffee shop—at least now no one can ask her “how she’s doing” for the millionth time. There, she finds a doorway to Espereva, a magical world that feels strangely familiar from her childhood, and she unlocks a power that has lain dormant in her blood for years. But the more she learns about the world, the darker it becomes, and she discovers that her family is at the root of it all. Espereva is being torn apart by Ember’s grandfather, the king, who conducts gruesome experiments on the inhabitants in order to steal their magic. Horrified at the atrocities but driven for the need to understand who and what she is, Ember joins and trains with a group of rebels plotting her grandfather’s downfall. Still struggling with her grief and the secret her family has kept from her for years, Ember barely can control her new found powers of energy absorption and fears it is too dangerous to keep returning home to Virginia. But when one of her rebel friends is kidnapped and destined to be the king’s next victim, Ember must embrace all that she is and set aside her grief to rescue her friend—because losing someone else is not an option.