An arcane artist finds himself in the middle of a carnival with no memory of how he got there. Fortunately for him, the performers are more than willing to help a strange boy wearing pajamas and paint stains. Unfortunately, he soon realizes that his graduation project has been stolen with the due date looming. When his new friends assume that his project was taken by thieves who regularly steal magical art and technology from around the capital city, Adair learns that there's much more to the performers than carnival acts. The Restorers-- the secret name of this particular carnival troupe-- work together to investigate and track down stolen art in order to return it to the original creators. Around the same time Adair's not-exactly-thief goes missing, the Restorers begin to suspect that they're being followed rather than the other way around. Adair isn't sure what's worse: being used as bait to catch the thieves or having his uncharacteristically helpful ex-boyfriend pulled back into his life. It's probably the ex. (This was previously two books [Colorweaver and Sentinel], both several drafts in before I decided to combine them.)

The dorks are successful! Mostly. Sort of. They're doing their best. They've uncovered who is indirectly responsible for the thefts in their home city, but the problem goes much deeper. A plan is made to infiltrate suspect locations using fake identities and the less-than-lawful background of the least reliable dork. Dray, who agrees with this assessment of their character, starts to dig for information with Adair's help while the others investigate a surge in illnesses all too near the pair for this to be coincidence. The careful plan veers off course when mistaken memories of the past collide with visions of an alternate present. Now the clock is ticking on finding what and when things went wrong. Dray needs to find a way to stop the flashovers and regain their correct memories or else the identities of the dorks will be exposed. Dray has avoided jail this long, they'd rather keep that trend going. And keeping the people affected by illness and the reality split safe, that's probably important, too.

Trouble next door leads to trouble far away and the dorks are seriously questioning how they got wrapped up in all this. One day they're chasing down a thief, the next they're dragged into a government conspiracy and a timeline gone wrong, and today they're stepping through a doorway into snow - - and into a mistake made a decade and a lifetime ago. Maybe this time things will go differently. Maybe this time they're who they always needed to be. Maybe this time things won't explode, split in two, disappear, or try to blackmail them. All they have to do is help bring down a cruel mythos and unite what is with the mistake that created what isn't. That's a walk in the park compared to dealing with ex boyfriends and familial expectations.