As Callum begins his final year at the Magisterium, he is estranged from most of his friends and a furtive darkness haunts him.

Seventeen-year-old Val runs away to New York City, where she falls in with a gang of squatters who live in the city's subway system and consort with faeries, trolls, and other strange creatures.

Callum Hunt's life has been difficult ever since he was admitted to the Magisterium, since his father suspects him of being evil, and his closest companion is a Chaos-ridden wolf -- but when he discovers that his father may be trying to destroy both him and Havoc, he escapes back to the magical world and he and his friends Aaron and Tamara, become involved in the search for the stolen Alkahest, a copper gauntlet with dangerous powers.

While sixteen-year-old Rue Silver travels into the faerie realm to find her mother, faerie creatures are entering the human world and wreaking havoc, forcing Rue to ponder where her loyalty should lie.

Things have been better for Callum Hunt since the evil Constantine Madden was "officially" destroyed, even his relations with his father have improved, so he is happy to get back to the Magisterium for his Bronze Year to continue his magical studies -- but when one of the students is murdered, Call and his friends, Tamara and Aaron, must track down the killer, without revealing the fact that Call is Madden reborn.