If there's one thing Mara knows, it's to avoid the woman in the woods. But when her mother takes ill, she trades her freedom for a cure and finds herself whisked away to Hollow Hill, a school for girls where she learns etiquette, manners . . . and magic.
Born with a dark gift herself, Mara has always shrugged away from the word witch. But even among them, Mara is strange, bending towards cursed magic -- the kind of magic that witches burn for.
When a freak accident lands her in the care of a young doctor, Isaac Lawrence, Mara finds herself falling for him, only to discover that his past comes with a dangerous purpose. Isaac is descended from a long line of firebrands -- witch hunters -- and his own gifts might threaten Mara and the other Sisters at Hollow Hill. As Mara enters this dangerous world of magic, she must decide which side she belongs to and if love truly conquers all.
Layla Ivy Monroe is special, innocent, shy, kind-hearted young eighteen-year-old girl with a dark past that haunts her everyday since she was born, alongside her older twin brother's who are their parent's pride and joy, while she was known as the black sheep neglected of any kind of loving affection, attention from her parents, and the only thing she knows is the abuse from her family that she endured since her birth.
While working her waitress job, she meets with a very important man on her break that has been kind to her and one of her regulars and she knows he was a vampire.
She tells him about her dreams and aspirations on her break not realizing her life is about to change for the better, when he suggests she leaves with him after work and attend the Argonese Academy and earn her keep apprenticing under one of the teachers or work in the Academy Library under Sire Gemstone the school Librarian.
Layla knows if she agrees, her life will change and her brother's chances to reach the one place she was offered to from the kind vampire sire who is also the Headmaster of the Academy gives her this once in a lifetime opportunity to reach her dream and find what has been missing from her life.
Will Layla find what she has been missing all her life or will her past come knocking to ruin her chances of true happiness?