As a child, Alka witnessed her parents' brutal murder at the hands of Wizards before she was taken in by an underground rebel group.

Now, Alka is deep under cover at the most prestigious school of magic in the Republic: Blackwater Academy, a place where status is everything, where decadent galas end in blood-splattered duels, where every student has their own agenda.

To survive, Alka will have to lie, cheat and kill, to use every trick in her spy's toolkit. And for the first time in her life, the fiercely independent Alka will have to make friends, to recruit the misfits and the outcasts into her motley rebellion.

But even as she draws closer to victory - to vengeance - she sinks deeper into danger as suspicious professors and murderous rivals seek the traitor in their midst, as dark revelations unravel her resolve. Can Alka destroy the twisted game... without becoming a part of it?