Depressed and confused after her rescue from Summer Hill, Lark Greene trusts no one-not even herself. Cut off from Beck, all she wants to do is fade away and forget everything, but her mother has other plans: she wants to teach Lark how to master her Dark magic and pair her off with a new mate. Lark is desperate to keep herself from going completely Dark, while also keeping Beck safe, so she allows herself to be drawn deeper into the dangerous, yet glamorous, world of the State. But as the Splinter Group launches attacks to wrest governmental control from the Dark witches, Lark finds herself drawing on her Dark magic more and more. As her magic spirals out of control, no one around Lark is safe. Certainly not Beck. And not even Lark herself.

In the years following the destructive Long Winter, when half the world's population perished, the State remains locked in battle against the Sensitives: humans born with extra abilities. As one of the last descendants of the State's Founders, seventeen-year-old Lark Greene knows her place: study hard and be a model citizen so she can follow in her family's footsteps. Her life's been set since birth, and she's looking forward to graduating and settling down with Beck, the boy she's loved longer than she can remember. However, after Beck is accused of being Sensitive and organizing an attack against Lark, he disappears. Heartbroken and convinced the State made a mistake, Lark sets out to find him and clear his name. But what she discovers is more dangerous and frightening than Sensitives: She must kill the boy she loves, unless he kills her first.