He stopped saying his dead friend's name. Then something began calling his.
Seventeen-year-old Nate Thomas used to paint everything. But since his best friend died, he can barely pick up a brush.
At Brighton Academy, Nate survives by being funny, skeptical, and almost convincing. He still has Ava, Micah, Kayla, Jasper, and the friends who refuse to let grief swallow him whole. But when a nightmare leaves a burning mark on his skin, the impossible begins following him into daylight. Hallways stretch into nowhere. Paint moves with a will of its own. Biblical visions tear through the ordinary world. And a stranger in the forest calls Nate by name.
Nate wants an explanation that does not require faith. He also wants his friend back. As the visions grow stronger, he can no longer tell whether he is losing his mind, being hunted, or being summoned toward the God he has spent years resisting.
To answer the call, Nate must face the truth beneath his grief: pain is not the same as love, and releasing one does not mean betraying the other.
Grace Ballad begins The Heart Parchment Chronicles, a lyrical young adult series about friendship, art, doubt, and a supernatural adventure that begins before belief.