Ryan Walker - sixteen years old and one hundred percent ordinary human. Or is he?

When he's kidnapped by his creepy school counsellor and whisked away to "Pax" - a city in "another dimension", which has to be code for crazyville, because these people are obviously doomsday cultists - Ryan is told the "truth" of who he really is. But Caleb Reys, the four-thousand-year old teenager, is so convincing that Ryan soon has to believe that it really is the truth. He really is missing a part of himself; his Immortal spirit, the part of him that makes him magical, powerful, respected. A god among men.

But before he can find this Immortal spirit, he has to find his place in this new, multi-dimensional world. Diplomacy, perhaps. Or hunting a fugitive. Or being hunted by a fugitive. Hospital inspector, even - he sees the inside of them more than enough these days. He's left behind his family, his friends, even his cat - his entire life - and he has to find a way to start again.

Easy as pie. Right?

The stakes are higher for Ryan, Anna and Noah this time around. Their friendship is strong - but are their enemies stronger?

It all starts in Antarctica in the middle of a snowstorm, and things manage to get worse from there. Imposters run rampant in every place they visit. Ryan manages to collect a couple of new allies - vampires, fairies, therianthropes, Immortals, the works - but his enemies are also crawling out of the woodwork. The eighty-thousand year old voice in his head isn't helping matters, either. Toal is pushy and snarky, and there are huge blanks in the spirit's memory - definitely not good.

What becomes horribly obvious now is that Ryan and his friends really are at war. There are casualties - a lot of them. Sacrifices. Hard decisions to be made. Caleb is sparing no expense to hinder everything Ryan does - the half-human's plans are as mysterious as ever. He's the enemy - or is he? Just how many sides are there in this war? Existence seems to be hanging by a thread, and that thread is Ryan.

But of course - no pressure.

Things cannot possibly get any worse. Having spent the past week running away from everyone and everything, Ryan has decided that it's time to make a stand.

Noah is gone. Anna has to deal with the problem Asher warned them about - almost a month of their predicted deadline has elapsed, and that's cutting things far too close for comfort. Ryan is forced to carry on alone. That's right about when Caleb shows up, and he has an offer to make. They both want the same thing - the reunion of the Immortals. So why not, Caleb proposes, make a race of it?

If Ryan wins, he gets everything he wants - including, maybe, a way to bring Noah back. If Caleb wins, Akakios gets Toal. It's a hard bargain, but what choice does he have? Ryan's quest for success takes him deep into the human dimension. Allies, far and few in between before, are now thick in the air. Enemies abound, too. Ryan has to figure out who is which, and who is not who they say they are.

But what price victory?