The war between good and evil has raged for millennia, so that as a powerful fresh enemy ascends, the Marked Souls are pushed towards the ragged edge.

Sidney Westerbrook has often studied darkness and damnation from a sensible range. Today, to earn his place like a league Bookkeeper, he must discover why Chicago can be such a battleground of soul-linked warriors. But the study turns into personal when he discovers himself over his mind and under attack-and susceptible to a waif with demon-lit eye and a deep yearning in her center.

Alyce Carver continues to be alone much longer than she can remember, battered from the living nightmares that haunt her city. Cornered by another gang of demons, she unwittingly joins causes with a good looking scholar who are able to salvage her past, and she in turn may be the main element to his investigations. But she won’t let him move until he displays her everything she’s been missing.

What begins simply because an test in possession becomes a trial simply by desire so powerful it threatens both their lives, even as it binds their souls.