The darkness is rising and one man stands against it: the exorcist mage Simon Alliant. But in Baltimore, he finally meets his match...a part-mortal divinity with the power to whisper away demons. Simon Alliant is an exorcist who battles demons, whether he wants to or not. Sometimes it's not so bad...he gets to play with magic, after all. But for Simon, magic represents a demon of another kind. He's addicted to magic and it takes more than a handful of charms to keep that particular demon at bay. Chiara is part Light, part Dark, and stubbornly mortal. The woman has a way with words: she literally talks demons into abandoning their human hosts. Simon thinks that's not the only trick she has up her sleeve-and that's pretty high praise coming from a mage like him. As intriguing as that may be, Simon has too many reasons to distrust her...one of them being his more-or-less partner, an angelic Watcher. Amidst all the celestial warnings of the rising dark comes a new prophesy that makes him wonder: is Chiara a threat to him and all of mankind? Or will she be his salvation?

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned—especially the woman scorned by the King of Hell himself. Chiara has been abducted by her own mother: an Enochian defector who has taken up arms against the Light. Luminea will use Chiara to ensure the future of her empire—and to burn away her painful past with the man who had stolen everything from her, so long ago. Unknowingly, that’s exactly the guy to whom Simon Alliant turns for help. The exorcist mage makes the ultimate deal with Chiara’s father to get her back...but he’ll have the Devil to pay.