Evie was nine years old when she inherited an antique heirloom from her beloved grandmother, and there was a very good reason it had been entrusted to her. It was no ordinary object, but a window into history, a strange device that could transport her back in time. Evie both loved it and feared it. Now, two years on, as she starts at a new school, the metronome sits untouched on a high shelf, purposefully bound in multicoloured hair bobbles and quietly gathering dust.

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Until Raven arrives.

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Raven looks like any other girl in her class… except for the dark eye make-up Evie is sure she’s not allowed to wear at school, and the peculiar, long-forgotten words she speaks. But she is no ordinary girl. Kept alive and unaged for centuries by the metronome’s corrupting power, Raven has waited countless lifetimes for this chance to reclaim it. She clawed her way through history, unburdened by a single shred of kindness, untroubled by one ounce of guilt. Only an ancient rite stops her simply prising it from Evie’s hands: legend dictates that it cannot be taken, only surrendered.

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But surrender can be forced.

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As Raven’s malevolence escalates, Evie knows she can’t win this fight alone. But Evie isn’t alone – she has Elmley. A former keeper of the time machine, Elmley is elegant, self-possessed, and totally out of step with the modern world. Elmley knows first-hand the dark power of the metronome, and how far Raven will go to wield that power once more. Bound by more than friendship, Evie and Elmley must unite to prevent Raven from fulfilling her dreadful destiny…because if she succeeds, history will not simply be rewritten.

It will burn.