If only everyone would leave me alone so I could bake cookies, squares, and cakes in peace, maybe then I could get a decent night’s sleep and bury my personal ghost in the past where she belongs. No such luck. Now that I’ve sought refuge with the World Allies movement, they want to send Chris and me along with a small team of other skilled Magi to capture General Phillipen, a higher-up in the Magi Alliance Government. Worse, they want me to brew my signature potions for the journey. Except I won’t. I can’t go back down that dark road of harming others with my brews. Never mind that the entire assignment smelled like a trap. Since Chris is determined to go no matter what, and I seem to care about what happens to him—and to nonmagicals—now, I have to go to protect everyone’s ass. To keep an eye on Chris and keep him from burning up, to defend the innocent of our home territory, and to earn back a little peace for my own soul. Or maybe I’ll wind up forced into Alliance servitude once more. It could go either way.

Five years ago Darling was a top brewer with the Alliance. Her potions were feared, her skills praised. Until a target died unexpectedly—then came back to haunt her. One morning after a vivid nightmare, Darling takes solace in the kitchen, baking to ease her troubled mind. Over scones and coffee, she unintentionally spills her guts to the Alliance psychiatrist. The doctor offers to help Darling escape the Alliance, but will she accept the offer and break free of her dark history?

Fresh from her break from the Alliance Government and her position as a top potion brewer, Darling Cole continues her rehabilitation by opening her bakery and cafe, After Hours. It quickly becomes popular with the citizens of Wattener and garners a number of regulars, including head of the district police, Captain Auster. One night, an unexpected visitor arrives—Darling's partner from her days with the Alliance, Dex. He's informs her of a rumour that the Government is planning to recall former employees—whether they want to rejoin the Alliance or not. Darling would firmly rather not—but can she avoid it? And at what cost?

Fumi Tanaka is in her final year of high school and looking forward to moving onto university so she can get away from her small hometown and her controlling parents. One day, when fighting with her younger sister, she discovers she has a special skill that enables her to control other people. Soon Fumi finds herself attending testing sessions with the Government to determine how her new skill works and what her limits are. Everyone tells her ‘special’ opens new opportunities for her that other kids will never experience. When she returns to school, Fumi faces hostile students from the in-crowd who demand she does what they want, or they’ll make the rest of her school year unbearable. In the face peer pressure she has to choose to unleash her mind control powers, or submit to demands.