sometimes we evade the darkness. other times it comes to us unbidden. in the wake of a direct political strike, the battered white elm is left virtually powerless to act against their former brother lisandro, the man now armed with their most formidable weapon, the elm stone. matters are complicated by a history of resentment surrounding the council's elitist stance on 'wild' forms of magic, and compromises must be made in order to move forward. conflicted by the truth of their pasts but bound together by recent events, aristea and renatus commit themselves to understanding their unruly connection and its roots in a time long before theirs. but when aristea is burdened with a secret too heavy to share with her ally and mentor, an unexpected darkness begins to shadow her, and in her new role as renatus's apprentice she is a reluctant player in a game started half a century before...