Seventeen-year-old Emma has been on the run her whole life. Born Gifted, with a powerful connection to Winter, she has dedicated her life to avoiding the Institute, the worldwide organization that oversees all who are born Blessed with powers.

When Emma is forced to join the Institute, she's eager to test her warrior prowess but reluctant to use her power to defend an organization she's been taught to hate.

Separating the Gifted from their families, the Institute protects the world against Cursed creatures, those born with an insatiable hunger to devour the energy of all Gifted.

While patrolling the Institute borders, Emma encounters Dimitri, a young Cursed man unlike anyone she's ever met. Dimitri's full control of his hunger is not nearly as shocking as his unfathomable connection to her.

But when the Institute is attacked by mysterious forces, every long-held conviction and belief will need to be called into question, and its members must turn to those they have labeled as traitors to save them all. Can Emma prevent a war, or will the world fall to chaos?