An elf with the wrong ears, wrong magic, and a flying squirrel he wasn't supposed to bring along.

There's one problem with Alfie Green: he shouldn't exist.

For eight hundred years, the Anchor Tree has chosen only a few elves to carry its power, and that power burns blue in their veins. Only ever blue. Then it chooses twelve-year-old Alfie, a laundry boy with round ears. Every elf knows the Tree doesn't choose round-ears.

And his veins burn white.

His dad might have known why, but he left on a work trip ten years ago and never came back. His mom says he was an accountant. The note hidden in his dad's old jacket talks about a mission. Alfie isn't an expert on accountants, but he's pretty sure they don't go on missions.

Five minutes to pack. One flying squirrel smuggled into his bag. Then Molesap Hall takes him. There, the chosen don't go to school. They go to work. With no promise they'll ever go home.

Molesap is a place where the mail arrives by rabbit, a bubble-blowing sword picks your future, and a box full of moss hands you a weapon. It's also a place where someone is quietly bleeding the Anchor Tree's power dry.

The leak is drawing draugots up from the dark. They're starving, and they want your magic, and your memories too. To stop them, Alfie and his friends have to find the thief, and the trail runs straight to whatever took his dad.

But here's the second problem: nothing in the dark is easier for a draugot to find than a boy who glows white.

Behind the moss box and the bubble-blowing sword is a story about being chosen when you don't feel like you deserve it, a mom who has kept one secret for ten years, and a Hall that has a signed waiver for every danger except the ones it won't admit to. The Anchor Tree keeps a ring for every year it has lived, and it remembers all of them, including the day Alfie's dad disappeared.

Perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers and Percy Jackson.

Book 1 of the Rootfire series. Written for readers 9 to 13, and for any adult who never stopped reading books like this.