Avreal of Landers just knows there is something wrong with her, despite her family's protests to the contrary. She has no navel, and she loses her voice on occasion, sometimes unable to talk for months at a time. Her older brother Dominic, a young warlock struggling with his own demons, remembers what his sister doesn't: that she hatched out of an egg and spent the first year of her life as a bird. To keep her from sprouting feathers again and flying away, her family has hidden the details of her strange infancy from her.
However, they are not the only ones who know Avreal's secret. A sorceress and her son have been watching Avreal from another realm, patiently waiting--and plotting . . .