Book 1 of the Runner series Riley Newman is a college freshman about to come back home after the end of her long, gruel, overworked semester. Despite all of that, Riley is hoping a nice Christmas with her mother and sister will be a welcome relief before the next semester; all she has to do is pass one last final. Fate doesn't go that way, however, when a group of strangers knock out the entire school building and abduct the young woman. When Riley wakes up, she finds herself in a whole new world with creatures and abilities she thought only existed in fiction. Forced to participate in a game of death, Riley finds herself targeted by four powerful creatures: a mystical magical elf, a man with the strength - and bite - of a wolf, a vampire that wants to drain her dry, and a strange man with white eyes and an odd fascination with her. As if that weren't bad enough, after putting on a jewel she finds outside her door, she starts having intrusive thoughts that clearly aren't hers. What's going on? How is Riley going to escape this game of death she isn't meant to survive? And why does she have all these thoughts that feel like they're coming from someone else?