The Quarrel of Sword and Bone was a death sentence for anyone who stepped into the arena with the deranged Queen, whose soul had crisped to frost in an age long since past. What if St. Nicholas was really a young, mad trickster and you had the one thing he wanted? What if the only person who agreed to protect you from him had a dark past of letting those he's meant to protect die? What if one day you're walking in the city and suddenly you can see a whole other world tucked into the cracks of your own? Sixteen-year-old Helen Bell understood tragedy better than most kids growing up. She knew what it was like to wear clothes from donation bins and be mocked in school. She thought those brutal experiences made her ready for anything, but when an encounter leaves her able to see a species of invisible people walking among us, and a young, handsome Winter guardian appears to aid her in a crisis, all the holiday legends she heard as a child begin to haunt her. After magical happenings infiltrate her daily life, and a train horn begins calling to her from across the city, she finds herself in the middle of a war of good versus evil.