In a world ravaged by war and devoid of wonder, Darci faces a mysterious shadow and the possibility more exists than meets the eye near her home. When she begins to communicate with a stranger through writings on a wall, her curiosity leads her into the woods–forbidden and avoided by anyone who wants to live a long life. Evil and darkness lurk in the trees and Darci might just be trapped by whatever this monster is. Until a man she's never seen before, shrouded in shadows, appears to rescue her and just as quickly disappears.

As nightmares haunt her sleep and a foreboding sense of someone coming for her occupies her days, she does the only thing she can think to do. Seek out this stranger and find the answers she needs. In doing so, she finds another world full of magic and beauty that is both foreign and oddly familiar. Magic itself seems to know her, and her time in this world awakens something buried deep inside and connects her to this unknown rescuer.

The power within her is far greater than she could have ever imagined. Will it awaken a monster or a hero? Who will survive the aftermath–herself or everyone else? What if the villain isn't who she thought it was?