The Nightmare Charade

Gr 7–10—In the final installment, 16-year-old half-Nightmare Dusty Everhart and her dream partner Eli Booker have realized that they have romantic feelings for each other, but the Academy's administrators have decided that they are a dangerous combination and must be kept apart. At the same time, the Magi Senate and the Department of Intelligence for Magickind Secrecy (DIMS) conscript them to help obtain a magical object called the Death's Heart. Both are magically bound to secrecy: if they attempt to speak of their mission to outsiders, they will be speechless for several minutes. The mission is dangerous and life-threatening, but DIMS's decision to choose to two teens to carry it out doesn't seem to bother the authorities at all. Once readers have accepted this, the remainder of the tale is quite believable. References to past events and characters are explained and integrated seamlessly, and even newbies will be drawn into the exciting, twist-laden plot.