In every generation, a special few of Nor Numinem are born shapeshifters. Unfortunately, being one of the “special few” does not get you out of gym class.
Nor Numinem. A town of hope and beauty. A place where freedom for all blooms as abundantly as the flowering vines that cover the buildings on every street. Yet even in this beautiful town, a kid like Maia’s got problems.
Maia is a shapeshifter.
And worse, she’s starting middle school.
In every generation, a special few of Nor Numinem are born shapeshifters: children who develop the mysterious ability to transform into a part-animal shape. Unfortunately for Maia, her ability is merely this: to grow giant moth wings that grow uncontrollably out of her back whenever she’s excited, or upset, or for some reason, whenever her new classmate Luke looks at her in a particular way. Worse than worse? Maia’s wings are useless. Weak and fragile. She can’t fly, not like her best friend Athena, who can soar through the sky in a half-eagle shape. Maia can’t see in the dark like cat-eyed Gaius, nor breathe underwater like Yue.
But Maia’s problems are about get much harder than even she knows. A strange illness is spreading through the gardens of Nor Numinem, the very gardens that feed and sustain this once-perfect town—and some of the adults think the shapeshifter children are to blame. They’ve even brought a new principal to Maia’s school, one who believes that shapeshifter children should be made into “normal” kids like everyone else. Maia and her friends will soon discover that there is a dark rift in Nor Numinem, one that will take all of their talents, known and unknown, to heal.