Jeremy's friend, Mackie Spence, seems different. She doesn't act like the same person he's grown up with all his life. And Jeremy would know. In the last year, he's paid close attention, as that funny little girl suddenly turned into a knockout. But now something is beyond weird. He didn't see much of Mackie during the summer that followed her near-drowning incident. But it's September, she's back at school, and Jeremy can't explain the changes in her. After all, he's a jock who understands science and math, not girls like Mackie. Still, when both of them volunteer at the wild animal shelter, he sees how huge, wounded birds calm to her touch. And that's just the beginning. When Jeremy, who's falling hard for Mackie, starts to feel protective of her, keeping an eye on her as she makes her way through the woods and coves of the small Puget Sound island where both of them grew up, he sees things he finds hard to believe. Mackie is still Mackie, but she's also someone beyond normal human experience. So who is she? Or...what is she? How can Jeremy protect Mackie from her fate? Should he even try, or is he interfering in something so big and so ancient that it doesn't even have a name? And while he may love Mackie, is he going where mere mortals are forbidden? To save the girl he loves, Jeremy must solve puzzles that will not only change his future, but the way he understands life, forever.