In a world ruled by Underworld Variations, being human, an Overworld Variation, is not a good thing. Fifteen year old Susannah Skelsby knows this intimately. In a city of magic, torn and devastated by gang warfare and the seething undertones of civil upheaval and oppression, the best survival tactic is to keep her head down. Resistance is not tolerated, the Declarations are absolute, and the punishment for disobedience is death. She should have known better than to start breaking all the rules.