No one knows exactly when or where it began. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco incendia trychophyton. To everyone else it's Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that tattoos its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.