Hale lives with his aunt and uncle. His best friend is Frayda, his ten-year-old cousin and business partner, who, when it suits her, acts and thinks like someone twice her age.

At the urging of Frayda's father, Hale and Frayda have formed a hobby-business, primarily so Hale can help Frayda learn to hone her magical abilities while avoiding the temptations of Dark Magic—magic done for selfish intent that invariably sours and destroys whatever it touches.

Hale and Frayda have built their business by carefully screening new customers and avoiding people who practice Dark Magic or wish to have a Dark Magic spell undone. In spite of their precautions, they are ambushed one night by an indescribable evil that seems to be devoid of life and yet maliciously intelligent. It is as surprised by them as they are by it, and through perseverance, rather than skill, Hale and Frayda manage to force it back into the magical dimensions it seems to inhabit.

But it comes back. Their new adversary, which they call the Empty Darkness, learns from each encounter, as do Hale and Frayda. Hale slowly comes to realize that while he and Frayda are resolved to fight this evil, it is not actually interested in defeating them—it just wants to use them, to use what it learns from their conflicts in pursuit of a bigger objective.

When Hale and Frayda encounter the Empty Darkness during a routine house call for the King's youngest daughter, all seems to go well. Why, then, shortly thereafter, does the entire Royal Family, who are already wealthy and powerful, go to such great lengths to try to turn Hale and Frayda into practitioners of Dark Magic?