Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.<br/><br/>In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.<br/><br/>And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.<br/><br/>Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.<br/><br/>When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?