Saidie Walker grew up a nice, normal girl-but not everything is as it seems. Even the Walker family has secrets locked away. Saidie's grandmother told them stories from their family history about being able to raise the dead. But Saidie believed they were only scary stories meant to frighten naughty children, and necromancers were nothing more than the stuff of nightmares and make-believe. Until she met Alexandria Blackburne Reed and her powers woke up with a vengeance. Now she's shipped off to New Orleans to be tutored, but finds herself surrounded by horrors instead. One bright spot fills her dismal days-Aleric, the guy who's been assigned as her test subject. He drives her nuts, makes her so mad she's ready to hit something, but the thought of causing him more pain than he's already suffered at Madame's hands is more than she can bear. Her emerging feelings for him both confuse and excite her. She may have found the one thing she's always wanted, but will it survive amidst all the danger beginning to unfold? Aleric's past is interwoven with the friends she left back home, and she'll do what she must to protect them all, even if that means dying. Her only hope is to make it home to West Virginia-to her best friend. It's up to Alexandria to find a way to help Saidie before she loses her to the madness of her necromancy, while dealing with her own pain and heartache. Can they survive the horrors about to rain down upon them all?