In the Network, everyone has The Dream, of wind and sunshine and grass and the stars. Well...almost everyone. Alaric Constantine is fifteen, and no visions of the Aboveground have come to him. He is the outcast, shunned by his people for being different. But then a vision comes to him. Not a vision of light and warmth and beauty, but of darkness and fire and...bees. What could these visions mean? Could they have anything to do with the Prophecy of Darkness, written by Alaric's grandfather who lived hundreds to thousands of years ago? Now Alaric must band together with his friends, old and new, to stop a stirring darkness before it rises and destroys the Network forever.