At the elite college of St Penderghast's, gravers and spirers train to perfect their skills in the hunt for glory. Graving is the art of raising the dead and turning their corpses into unnatural abominations built for war. Spiring is divine-fuelled combat against undead horrors, fought in grand arenas to thrill the insatiable crowds. Halen Kilchoir would kill (and resurrect) anything to study graving at St Penderghast's. But Hal cannot enlist alone: the only way she can secure admission is to enter a dangerous accord with her mortal rival, Alastair Faulton – a handsome, accomplished spirer and the infuriating exiled scion of the great Faulton dynasty. If they team up as spirers, fighting gruesome creatures in a cut-throat competition, they could both earn their places at the prestigious college. As Hal and Alastair fight grisly creatures and ghastly peers side by side, Hal faces the horrors of necromancy and the revolting prospect of a romance with her own nemesis.