Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, rape, bullying, and antigay bias.

Oleander “Oli” Fallows dreams of being in the car with her mother, her father, and her mother’s other two Bonded partners. Oli dislikes moving so frequently and is sorry to leave their previous home in Connecticut, where she didn’t feel “like some freak of nature” (4). A car hits them, and her “Gift flows out of [her]”—something for which she will “never stop hating [herself]” (5).

Oli struggles to hide her discomfort after being detained for fleeing from meeting her “Bonded, the people fated to be with [her]” (6). Though her actions are not technically illegal, the Council had voted that she be remanded into the custody of her Bonds, one of whom, North Draven, is a Council member himself. She points out that being forced to connect with her Bonds is sexual assault, but her captors are unmoved. A guard inserts a GPS tracker into Oli’s neck, one that can also subdue or kill her with an electrical shock; she is given a file with rules about her situation.

Oli ignores the file and schemes how to use her magical Gift to enact revenge against her captors.