What if your destiny lay on the other side of death? The annual Culling ceremony is a day every coming-of-age novice looks forward to within the Primeval Coven. It's the start to being initiated into the Night Watchmen, humankind's protectors, and it's the long-awaited day when novices discover if they're a Hunter or a Witch. But this day is not a happy one for Faye Middleton. Not when she's known her whole life that she's a Defect and is about to face banishment in front of her fellow novices. She's forced to attend the Culling with little hope for her future, but what she discovers about herself is far worse than she could've imagined. And far more dangerous. Thrown into training and separated from her friends, Faye must learn to adjust. She struggles to find her place within the Coven, and with Jaxen Gramm, the darkly handsome and extremely unnerving man assigned to watch and protect her. Emotions run high, and when she discovers a deadly secret about him, her struggles deepen. As corruption within the Coven begins to unravel, Faye pieces together her role in saving the future of her people, and within Jaxen's life...but will the truth save her, or be her undoing?