Caellum Malick, a teenager with a dark past, has been sent to the king's city of Leredann to find a group of children who were taken from the walled city of Forge where he has lived since he was seven. Kobayashi Kenji, a young man from Earth and one of the king's spies, has been given a similar task: to find a group of people who had been taken from Leredann. All evidence points to the University, the only school in all of Pareduur, ruled over by Professor Clure with it's own rules and security outside the reach of the king. Kenji, already enrolled at the school, and Cael, a new arrival, meet for the first time and find they need to work together to find the missing people. Things get complicated when they discover that their pasts are intertwined and even more so when they begin to fall in love.
Alan thinks he's going to be spending all summer on his own, until his older brother's friend, Austin, finds a way into his life. Together, they begin a series of secret trips at night, when neither can sleep.