A teenager from an alien world makes a connection with Earth as dark forces gather in Kyan’s YA debut.

Seventeen-year-old Ezekiola Astrid is from the planet Circa. With his telepathic abilities, he expects to receive a Blue Belt at the Cypress School’s Ceremony of the Belts. Instead, he receives an Emerald Belt, indicating that his destiny is that of a warrior. He doesn’t know that Circa’s Count of the High Council has detected activity from the villainous Sons of the Night Sky, a group of fallen Emerald warriors. They plan to tap into a powerful jewel called the Fountain of Fire via a magnetic “bonding of twelve planets.” The final world needed for this scheme is Planet Blue, aka Earth. The Count wants a new operative to stand against the Sons. So when Ezekiola uses a revolving door in the school, it transports him directly to Earth. He dramatically lands in Chester High, where 16-year-old Leanne is struck by his intense blue eyes. Before long, though, he suddenly vanishes. Later, she runs into him in a restaurant, but now he seems older and more sinister. Kyan’s fantasy tale is characterized by elaborate, detailed worldbuilding; the adults at the Cypress School, for instance, have their own color-coded system of robes. Ezekiola’s friends Nohlan Eridanus and Atlas Pleione also join him in adventures both sanctioned by the school and not. Romance and mysticism effectively connect Ezekiola to Leanne; at one point, after he writes his name down for her, she places the paper in a locket because, as shopkeeper Madame Camille says, “When you infuse a word with power, it comes alive the way you wish it to be.” YA audiences, however, may wish that there were more of an active love triangle between the main characters and the villainous third figure. As it is, the low-burning love story gives Ezekiola’s adventures more of a middle-grade flavor. A vague but intriguing cliffhanger sets up the next installment.

An imaginative fantasy that tiptoes around the romance at its center.