Forget cute fairies in pretty dresses. In the world of Aluvia, most fairies are more like irritable, moody insects, and almost everyone views the fairy keeper mark as a gift. But not fourteen-year-old Sierra. She hates being a fairy keeper, but the birthmark is right there on the back of her neck. It shows everyone she was born with the natural ability to attract and even control the tiny fairies whose nectar is amazingly powerful.

Fairy nectar can heal people, but it is also a key ingredient in synthesizing Flight, an illegal elixir that produces hallucinations. She's forced to care for a whole hive of the bee-like beasties by her Flight-dealing, dark alchemist father.

Then one day, Sierra discovers the fairies of her hatch are mysteriously dead. The fairy queen is missing. Her father's Flight operation is halted, and he plans to make up for the lost income by trading her little sister to be an elixir runner for another dark alchemist, a dangerous thug. Desperate to protect her sister, Sierra convinces her father she can retrieve the lost queen.

The problem? Sierra's queen wasn't the only queen to disappear. They're all gone, and getting them back will be deadly dangerous.