The first time Cordelia Jones shows her magical side to someone, it nearly costs her life. She hadn't realized being half human was so dangerous. Before her wounds even begin healing, her mother spirits her away to the safety and anonymity of a small desert town on the other side of the country.
There, Cordelia no longer has any social life, teenage fun, or contact with the seawater that could reveal what she is to the world. However, after only a year, her caution tempered by the isolation, Cordelia begins making friends while training to be a lifeguard behind her mother's back. But just as Cordelia starts to feel "normal," she learns a terrible truth: the safety she thought she'd found in the desert was just a mirage.
Forces, including a clandestine group called HAMMA, close in and snatch Cordelia, taking her on a harrowing adventure to the other side of the world. In danger of being sold into a magical black market, Cordelia struggles to escape her fate. But freedom is even more important than she knows: there are those who believe her very existence could be the key to bringing the world to its knees.