Ceony Twill arrives at the cottage of Magician Emery Thane with a broken heart. Having
graduated at the top of her class from the Tagis Praff School for the
Magically Inclined, Ceony is assigned an apprenticeship in paper magic
despite her dreams of bespelling metal. And once she’s bonded to paper,
that will be her only magic… forever.Yet the spells Ceony learns
under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined — animating paper creatures, bringing stories
to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers
these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.An Excisioner — a practitioner of dark, flesh
magic — invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To
save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.
