Mia Rusticov is focused on testing into the College, the sole training program for young wand wielders: for one shining moment, as she raises all seventeen of the testing stones, it appears that her path is set. Fate has other plans for the gifted young wand wielder and Mia quickly discovers that all is not as it seems within the walls of the City. The well-known costs of wielding a wand (inevitable infertility, body changes, madness, and occasional calcification leading to death) are just the tip of the iceberg. Mia must decide who to trust before someone uses her talents for their own dark purposes...