Seventeen-year-old Emery, the best mud-pit fighter in town, has no problem painting her knuckles with blood to keep her family fed and safe. But when her little sister gets sick and no medicine on earth can save her, Emery lowers her fists for the first time in her life and turns to her magic.Ever since the Casters who wield the powerful energy coursing through the Universe at their fingertips, healed the dying planet and took over half the world, humans have been clinging to any land they can still call their own. That's why they made magic illegal, and that's how Emery knew she'd go to prison for curing her sister. But what she didn't know was that Jackson, the young and cunning Commander, was searching for someone just like her to join an army of half-blood Casters.He wants to protect their home from the Casters, and he's willing to give her anything to join him.But she wants her sister safe, something she risks every time a spell touches her lips. Emery agrees to fight only so that she can run the first chance she gets. But as she plans her escape and she and the Commander grow closer, the harder it becomes for her to deny the truth: she can't turn secrets to ash, she can't hide from the Casters forever, and she definitely can't allow herself to fall in love.