Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room – right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world – a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep and a life that will never be the same. Now Joy must pretend to be Ink's chosen one – his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future... and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honour and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.