Everyday, each of us must decide whether or not to be a witch. For Evelynn Marston, that decision is becoming increasingly difficult. Evie didn’t mean to burn down the science room. A little anger, some flames, and an expulsion later, Evie finds herself destined to spend the rest of her high school years at Despaign Academy—named for Connecticut’s last convicted witch. Despite its shadowy past, Despaign has the same cliques as other schools, and Evie struggles to fit in and to be noticed by the handsome and mysterious Dylan Fox—that is, until she casts her first spell. But even in a magical place, evil lurks. When Evie’s neighbor, Laurie Silver, turns up dead, Evie must rely on all her newfound powers and friends to find the truth. But bringing a killer to justice may require stronger magic and true love, the kind that can’t be found in a potion.

Despite her shaky beginning at Despaign Academy, a school built on the property of Connecticut’s last convicted witch, Evelynn Marston finds friends and hopes to score a reporter position on the school’s newspaper. But in a place founded on a bedrock of magic and mystery, Evie discovers there are some willing to summon great evil to gain power. When a friend’s life hangs in the balance, Evie gathers her wits and a heaping dose of her own brand of magic to right a terrible wrong, never suspecting the life she saves might be her own.