Escape was the easy part. Jey and Elle are no longer students at Tessili Academy, but the outside world is not the safe haven they imagined. Hunted by hounds and tracked by their former classmates, Jey and Elle are in constant danger. Worse, they have discovered the brillbane their tessili need to survive only grows within the academy walls. As winter sets in, their tessili have grown thin, temperamental, and erratic. When a mysterious stranger finds them and seems to offer both help and friendship, the girls fear he's too good to be true.