Nineteen-year-old Charlie's been dealt a bad hand from the day she was born. Found in a trash can as a baby, she's been shipped from one foster home to another, each one worse than the last. When she's offered an escape, she takes it. But fate isn't ready to be kind just yet.

After a brutal car crash, Charlie is dragged into an unfamiliar world of magic with promises of a fresh start at the Magisterium of Magic, a prestigious school for the rich and entitled. Here, she's told that she's a Royal, a member of the highest tier of Magic Users, with the kind of power most people would do anything to steal or control.

When a student abruptly leaves and she catches the School Master lying about it, she starts to question if the motives of her rescuers are pure. Or do these devious liars have a darker reason for finding her?

With the help of a crew of troublemakers, Charlie dives into one of the magic world's oldest mysteries, the death in the North Tower and the cunning ghost who haunts it. The identity of the ghostly woman and truth about the student's departure could help Charlie decide who she can trust. Or it could prove that she should have trusted her instincts all along.