After solving one impossible mystery, Deirdre Green remains stumped by the remaining clues left by her late father. Every time she makes progress with The Monarch Papers, she realizes his cryptic riddles have only created more questions. As Deirdre begins to walk stranger, more dangerous paths, she finds that dark forces hellbent on her destruction wait in the shadows… Witnessing a dark magician's self-sacrifice has left Martin Rank traumatized. But when the journalist hears a cry for help, he buries his fear to investigate a shadowy tech company with connections to the dead mage. After he stumbles upon a hidden lab and horrific experiments, he resolves to put his tragic past behind him to mount a dangerous rescue. As Deirdre discovers a plan to unleash malevolent magic, Martin begins to tie together his terrifying discovery to a deadly countdown and an ancient conspiracy. Can they defeat the darkest force earth has ever faced, or will the ancient enemy wipe out humanity with one powerful blow?