After the murder of her parents, Virginia moves to East Tennessee to live under the custody of her distant uncle in his palatial estate. One day, while exploring her new quarters, she discovers a diary in an old room that has been locked off for over a hundred years. Ignoring the warning that came with the book, she flips through its pages and reads about a teenage girl from the 1800s named Rose Cohen, who once lived in the same mansion.Virginia's attention is gripped as Rose describes a nearby place called Alaythia-where men can turn into beasts, warriors can sprout wings from their backs and channel fire through their very being-and tells of how she was kidnapped and rescued by these same individuals.Not long after, the very things Virginia reads about begin to manifest and hunt her down. Through the bravery and skill of Charles, her high school crush-who knows more about what's happening than he originally let on-Virginia is protected and taken into another world: a world waiting for her, a world where she learns the truth about herself, a world that foretells prophecies of her unlocking an ancient weapon the dark ones fear-if she can be safeguarded long enough for it to come to pass.