Seventeen-year-old April Parker wakes up in an underground facility, a shock bracelet on her wrist and a five-day countdown on the clock. Dozens of other teens share her inexplicable fate, but their unseen captors never intervene no matter how brutal conditions become. When the ruthless - and unnervingly magnetic - Marcus seizes control, April's trauma-forged instinct is to lay low. But protecting her friends drives her to bargain with the boy she should fear most - a boy whose reality fractures with every tick. Then the countdown ends, and the real terror begins. Powers ignite. Alliances shatter. And predators are born. And with a saboteur among them determined to keep the doors closed forever, escaping what comes next may be the only way to survive it.

In an elite boarding school, just outside of London, 22 unique students are forced into detention. With nothing better to do, they talk; about themselves, about others, about what means most to them, and they learn. New friendships are formed through trials, tears, and tribulations. Detention becomes their haven, their society, their comfort. So how far will they go to stay there? These are the students of Arcana Academy. This is their story.

"The tattoos appear at the age of fourteen. And they're there until we figure out what they mean. It's like they predict our future. Not that I believe in that sort of nonsense. Do You?" Elly asked, tilting her head. Even in an abnormal world like hers, Elly Davis is different. The fire magic she is supposed to use burns her, when it shouldn't. Her tattoo arrives late and won't stop spreading, and it shouldn't. However, Elly Davis' problems only really start when her family are visited by some hostile guests in the middle of the night. Elly is unwittingly thrown into a world of plots and rebellion: A world which she has no hope of controlling. This is her story.