Anna Volkov has a lot on her mind. Her father has just been appointed Russia's ambassador to the UN, uprooting the family from Moscow to Manhattan--and with her relationship with her twin sister already on the rocks, it's shaping up to be a lonely, boring school year.

However, when a strange old woman appears on the street one night to deliver a cryptic warning, Anna finds herself thrown headfirst into a war that has been raging in secret for hundreds of years--a power struggle between the evil Mystics, and the Aura Readers who oppose them. Unsure of whom to trust or what to believe, Anna must rely on her wits as she masters an ancient power, and put a stop to a conspiracy that could change her fate--and the fate of the world--forever.