Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, part of a secretive group of humans sworn to protect vampire secrets and preserve human lives. Instead of heading off to college, she is ordered into hiding at a glamorous boarding school in sunny Palm Springs. Her crucial mission is to protect Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from ruthless assassins who are desperate to throw the vampire courts into a brutal civil war. Sydney is determined to be the perfect, obedient Alchemist. But as she spends more time with Jill, Eddie, and the fiercely loyal Adrian, she starts to question the strict beliefs she was raised with. Her carefully ordered world turns upside down when magical experiments suggest she might hold the key to stopping the creation of deadly Strigoi. The thought of being magical terrifies her more than any monster. While balancing a new romance with a perfectly brainy guy, Sydney feels an undeniable, forbidden pull toward someone else entirely. When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney must choose between the strict dogmas of the Alchemists and the undeniable truth in her own heart.