Sixteen-year-old Norman Price wants nothing more than to prove his uncle’s innocence. After a visit with him in jail, he’s pulled into an odd world with strangely colored clouds, floating lakes, and a birdlike creature that knocks him straight into a volcano. 

He wakes up on the cold concrete outside the police station, wondering if it was a dream, until monsters attack him. Rescued by two strangers, Norman is whisked away to the magical city of Chryselia—a massive city of two layers. One, built off the floor like normal, and the other hanging like a city-shaped chandelier off the ceiling.

Here, he learns he not only has magic but a dangerous curse that acts on its own. As one of only two humans in history to gain magic late in life, Norman must navigate challenges of magic education, bullies, and political forces that view him as a threat. If he can’t control the power within him, he may never make it back to clear his uncle’s name.