My name is Emma McCay, and this is the story about the summer my life changed forever. And I'm not talking about meeting a good-looking boy, or finding my best friend, or discovering I had a hidden talent. I'm talking about discovering I had a hidden identity. I'm talking about discovering there truly is "magic in the earth", as my gran likes to say. And that magic isn't all rainbows and unicorns. And that it might be up to me to save the human race, of which I've recently learned I'm not a part. There's also a boy (though he's kind of a dork), and a new friend or two. Also, I can make people bleed with my thoughts. So there's that.

Tari is a nonmagical girl living in the nonmagical village of Surin. She thinks her only hope of happiness is to learn a decent trade, and maybe marry a decent man. She will live an unremarkable life. And yet, she cannot seem to shake her longing for the sea. She is drawn to its mystery, its danger. Maybe there is something more out there for her than the simple life she thinks is her destiny. Maybe it's more than she ever could have dreamed...