Linnea is an archivist, a woman who takes comfort and control in the repetitive crevices of history. A peaceful existence in a modern library in Stockholm is a restful refuge or escape against the tumult of life in the contemporary world. However, after a catastrophic magical event—the Meld—destroys her harmo- nious world, she is no longer alone. She is violently animated in her soul by a divine, warring storm of light and shadow, the echo of the Norse sun goddess S l and the Aztec night god Tezcatlipoca. Linnea is converted into an archivist's anomaly, a wintry human energy circuit she can never comprehend or govern.
Kael, a jittery hunter of the supernatural underworld, re- sponds to her horrifying new reality. He has embarked on a quest to bring her under control because he holds a personal grudge against the magic that ruined his family. He anticipates meeting a monster, but he encounters a frightened woman instead, and in a desperate and three-way battle against a hideous creature of failed magic, they are ritually soul-shaken into one. It opens them to a reluctant, uneasy cooperation forged in a single link
against a world now hostile to them.
Their quest turns into a desperate chase to stay alive, which leads them through the clandestine magical worlds of London and Paris, the land of the ancient gods, hideous creatures, and human predators. In the process, they discover the honest answer to their dilemma: the Meld is not a blight but a carefully designed disaster. The villain is a fallen man, a genius but a heretic architect who wants to use godlike power for himself. Linnea is his living map, his Keystone that he requires to fulfill his work, and now Linnea is why an event has started to end the world.
They have nowhere to go, so they make a desperate decision. Now they are the hunters and reverse on those who pursue them, setting a last trap in the magical stronghold of the ancient Ring of Brodgar. During the calm before the storm, they are driven to the reckoning of their fears and budding love towards each other, leading to the ultimate, heartbreaking sacrifice. They gladly merge their souls, abilities, and earthly beings into one entity, unable to be stopped by anyone, to confront the Architect in a final confrontation.
They win the battle, but the war is far from over. The plague, the Meld, spread by the Architect is still on its rampage, and their apocalyptic fight has torn the old boundaries between the deities, opening the way to a worldwide disaster. In these last, spectral scenes, they realise that they never stopped the war. All they did was kill the man who started it. But now there is no one to save them, and neither light nor dark can be trusted in their new impossible power in a world of gods and monsters. The battles are only starting.
