Oliver Morris is a painter, able to use patterns and colors to create powerful magic. After ten years away from his home, time spent facing dangerous magic that now wants him dead, he returns to Conlin searching for a quieter life and a place to hide. With his best friend by his side, a woman with a different kind of magic, he might finally learn what happened to his father the night he disappeared. When a beautiful painter shows up with true artist magic and needing his help, Oliver is forced to confront a shifter, a creature with magical power unlike anything he's ever encountered. Doing so will lead to a discovery about his father's work that Oliver never expected, and force him to use his magic in ways he never knew possible, or a far more dangerous threat will be unleashed. Except this not only risks the very peace he sought by coming home, but will bring him closer to facing a far deadlier foe: the reason he returned in the first place.