A diary. A silver dagger. An ancient Greek text encased in gold.

These were the only belongings left behind by Alex’s mother, shoved in a box with her name on it—Elena de la Fuente—and forgotten for ten years.

On the surface, Alex Montgomery has it all. She grew up in the manicured suburbia of New York. She has Warren, a Prince-Charming boyfriend who wants to marry her. And she goes to Harvard, her father’s alma mater. But there is one blemish on her otherwise perfect life: the night before her tenth birthday her mother disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace or means of contacting her.

Silenced by shame and anger at a mother who abandoned her husband and daughter, Alex shut out every memory she had of her. But opening the box with her mother’s name on it awakens all the old doubts she had buried inside, along with the most burning question: Why did her mother leave?

Following the clues in her mother’s diary, Alex abandons her studies and drives across the country to Tierra del Sol, a small town surrounded by California’s mystical southern deserts, where her mother had attended the New Academy. There, Alex meets the young, charming Classics professor, Ari, the booksmart romantic, Penélope, and the moody, black-clad Zeb. But as the mystery of her mother’s disappearance unfolds, Alex stumbles upon a hidden door to a magical city where a tyrant King stifles the once-vibrant streets and harbors.….