Joe just wants to be left alone. He is happy with his ordinary life in the small village of Cardenfield, having his dinner with his Aunt and Uncle in front of the X Factor, and playing on his X-Box. But Joe doesn't know the truth about his life. He doesn't know that his father is a King in the magical world of Antigol. He doesn't know that a war rages there, and the dark Prince Avarat has sworn to find the boy who robbed him of his destiny. As Christmas approaches, the snow blanketed streets of Cardenfield shake with the arrival of towering, monstrous bone wytches, striding over houses and peeling back roofs. The skies split as fire belching emerald dragons soar from the clouds, searching... for Joe. With his best friend, and serial-suspendee from the local school, Reece, and the sour-faced polish girl, Kinga, Joe escapes into Antigol, where he realises things will never be the same again. ------------------------------------------- Why does the Dark Prince seek Joe ? Who is the mysterious wizard Maven ? But most importantly, whose voice whispers inside Joe's head, and what is the strange searing pain which burns through his chest whenever he is in danger ? Perhaps it has something to do with the peculiar little birthmark on the back of his hand, known to everyone he meets in Antigol as "The Mark of Four"