'If that stubborn vine which has held you prisoner to this place with its unyielding hold were to somehow lose its grip, what would you do with your newfound freedom?'' Jacob has returned home to Cain's Corner, desperate to escape the recent tragic events that visited Havenhid and darkened its halls. There he tries to forget Nephilim ties and return to being a normal teenager when he reunites with his best friends Ty and Wray. Eden's reach, however, proves to be one Jacob finds difficult to outrun when he is visited by a xxxfalcon and served with a notice summoning him to appear before the powerful Iudicium Tribunal to answer skeptics claims he is not the Light Bearer foretold in the Apocrypha prophesies. Far more troublesome are the nightly dreams that visit Jacob and replay the traitorous Thaniel's last moments in the Silent Forest, and more specifically the last word he uttered: "Zophiel!" It's not until Max, pursued by an annoyed Damiel with the rest of the two boys' tight-knit group of friends in tow, shows up unexpectedly in Cain's Corner that Jacob learns what-or rather who -Zophiel is. The discovery convinces Jacob that Thaniel has left behind a cryptic key to a riddle in need of solving, and he manages to persuade Damiel and his friends to help him unravel the bizarre mystery. The impromptu quest leads the group to the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas where the Fallen outnumber the hypnotic lights illuminating The Strip, and then to the romantic-and dangerous-canals of Venice where the search for answers reveals a host of unexpected and shocking revelations. But when Ty and Wray show up unexpectedly in search for their friend who has once again suddenly disappeared from their lives, Jacob finds himself in he precarious position of keeping hidden the one great secret he has struggled mightily to conceal from the two persons closest to him. It will be, however, an unforeseen act of deception that will forever alter the course of the future for Jacob and his companions