The magical kingdom of Havenwood is everything a girl could want...except a girl like Bella. For while everyone else there loves painting dragons, fairies, pixies, and other such creatures of light, and bringing those paintings to life, Bella finds herself drawn to the darkness. To death and rot and the undead. Her best friend is an undead dragon called Nemesis, after all. She just doesn't fit in...and she knows it. So when Gideon offers to take Bella to a faraway city to meet Petrusa, the Queen of the Dead, Bella jumps at the opportunity. Petrusa wants her to become a Necromancer like Bella's mother...a master of the dark arts. But the Pentad gets to Bella first, arresting her for painting without a license. And the sentence for her crime is death! Now Bella must use her dark magic to escape the Pentad's clutches, and return to Havenwood. For an army of unspeakable horror threatens to descend on the magical kingdom, and if she doesn't stop them, the kingdom of light will be plunged into eternal darkness!