From the writer of Books of the Order and the co-author of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences comes a new historical fantasy about two lovers separated by magic and circumstance.

Never alone. Never apart. They are the Awakened, a unique breed of people in a remote corner of the world. Faith is one of these gifted carriers of the Seraphim; and in return of her unconditional love, her Seraphim grants her powers of incredible potential. But not all carriers embrace their blessing. Jack loathes being an Awakened. He never asked for it, his Seraphim keeping him alive even in spite of his desire to die. Not even a great war could rid him of this curse.

Now a magician of incredible ability and a walking dead man must find a way to work together to save the Seraphim. Someone covets the power of the Awakened, and will not stop until that power belongs to him. Jack Cunningham comes home to New Zealand from the First World War deeply changed. He is now unwilling one of the Awakened, a magician who gains his power from the creature whispering inside his head. He calls it a parasite.

Faith Bennetts is a young woman with a far different relationship with her seraph. He gives her the power of the Wellington weather, and an ever present friend. However when her cousin is caught up in a terrible manipulation, she becomes aware that someone is twisting the Awakened for their own dark reasons.

Together Faith and Jack become embroiled in conspiracy, murder, fire and death that ranges across many years. They are drawn together, then flung apart, in a tangle of family relationships, and looming danger.