Book excerpt: Destruction. In a family of healers who save, all I do is destroy. My enforced solitude is for my own safety as well as that of the world, or so my mother tells me. When the boy next door beckons, I can't help but sneak out to forge a friendship with him. Loneliness leads me to defy my family, but desperation prevails when I discover that the grounds of his private academy hold a secret that could help me learn why my ability is so disastrous...or push me to create a catastrophe that will bring about my family's deaths. Merith Leigh has decided to give herself the best 16th birthday present ever: Freedom. She's spent the last two years in silent communication with Taran, the boy next door, and his encouragement to meet him beyond their bedroom window views has tempted her to finally break free of her family's bonds. With a leap of faith, she trusts Taran with her dark secret, and he takes her to meet his friends at his private academy, where a secret society that studies magic lurks with secrets of their own. Can Taran and his classmates help her discover why she carries the gift of destruction rather than her family's skill at healing, or will their association prove deadly? *this edition includes all three books in the Arda Academy trilogy