What if it were possible to create a better future by sealing off the past—permanently? Seven years ago, this question set in motion a daring operation that resulted in a devastating loss for the agents of the Collective. The magical rebel order had finally managed to free the future from the dark grip of Zahlamaer—a centuries-old magician with a dangerous mastery of time travel, earth energy, and mind control—but their youngest and bravest agent, Ian Holtfield, was trapped in the past, seemingly forever. Then one night, the time travel corridor is mysteriously reopened, and the swampy southern town where twelve-year-old Mitch Scarlett lives becomes the center of a supernatural struggle to control a magical art on the verge of extinction. The granddaughter of a small-town illusionist, Mitch spends her days dodging bullies at school and nosing around the old books her grandfather keeps locked away in the attic. But after a strange encounter with a man whose amber eyes look a lot like he
