Plot summaryIn a turn of events, Jules is revealed to be Chauncey, who wants revenge on Patch for tricking him into swearing an oath that will allow Patch to take over his body during the Hebrew month of Cheshvan. Nora kills him by sacrificing herself amidst their fight in the school. Patch, having fallen in love with Nora, chooses to save her rather than accepting the sacrifice to become human. By saving her, he becomes her guardian angel, but also effectively killing Chauncey, who had no soul to reanimate his dead body. At the end of the book it is clear that Nora and Patch have their happily ever after... for now.
Present times in Coldwater, Maine, Nora Grey lives with her mother in a old farm house right out of the city. Nora goes to Coldwater High. She should have known her life was far from perfect. Despite starting a relationship with Patch. Patch came to her as a fallen angel, an angel that lost his wings and was brought to earth, and he was looking for Nora. Nora fell in love with Patch and was curious about his life. But his world is dangerous. Nora almost died, but Patch saved her and also got his wings back. Now Patch is her guardian angel, and he is supposed to protect her no matter what.
Crescendo begins with Nora and Patch being happy in their new relationship, even though Patch isn't as content as he should be being a guardian angel again. After spending an evening together, Nora and Patch say goodbye at in his Jeep, but as they do Nora tells him that she loves him. Nora is heart broken when he not only doesn't say it back, but leaves abruptly; she thinks he doesn't feel the same. After finding out that after leaving her home Patch went and stood outside Marcie Miller's window, Nora takes this as confirmation that Patch is freaked out by the fact that she said she loves him. After seeing him soon after he seems cold and detached and tells her that the archangels will probably send him to Hell because they are together. Nora is upset and scared, and when he won't tell her why he went to Marcie's house, she breaks up with him. She does this partly because she doesn't think he loves her but also because she wants to protect him.
Nora starts having black and white dreams. She is haunted by the images and she becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to him the night he left for Portland and never came home. She found out that Marcie Millar’s dad, Hank Millar was in her dream. She woke up and remembered she needed to give Scott, her childhood friend that just moved back to Coldwater, a tour around town. Scott and his mother had dinner at Nora’s house the night before. The mothers talked but Nora wasn’t in the mood, because she and Patch just broke up. Nora didn’t want to talk during dinner, but her mother tried to lighten everything up by bringing Nora into the conversation. Scott’s mother asked Nora if she could give Scott a tour around town tomorrow, but inside Nora didn’t want to at all. Scott got mad and Nora decided to ditch him. She told him that she couldn’t give him a tour, then she followed him, driving Vee’s car. Nora was suspicious. She wanted to find clues and find the answer to the death of her father.
Nora was curious about Scott. She followed him down to the middle of the town. Suddenly Nora saw her dad, sitting in a cafe reading a newspaper. She chased into the cafe to find her dad. The place was crowed and disappeared. Scott found Nora crying in the bathroom. He decided to take her to the “Z”, a pool club, on that rainy afternoon.
Nora is invited to a pool hall, The “Z”, with Scott. All she was thinking about was making Patch suffer for breaking up. She lets Scott convince her to come with him to the pool hall. When she is there, a fight breaks out but something else happens. She spots Patch at the pool hall with Marcie Milliar draped around his neck. But before Nora could do something about it someone shoots a gun and she tries to run and ends up with Patch. Patch gives her the keys to the Jeep so she can leave,but she doesn’t want to accept it, she doesn’t want to prove to him that she needs his help.
The next day Nora decides she needs to work on some summer school work. She heads off to the media center and looks up some information on the “Black Hand”. When looking for the info she tells herself it’s not real. While she is there she starts to get really tired and passes out. She wakes up much later, she looks outside and it is pitch black, she hears someone is there with her. She has the voice in her head telling her to run. There is a problem with running, all the doors are locked and the person is coming closer to her. She makes a decision to throw a computer through a window. She jumps out and runs home. Later, she hears someone outside thinking it’s just her imagination. Then she hears someone at the door, she runs upstairs to hide. The door is broken down by Scott. He is looking for the box Nora had stolen from his house a few days ago. In the box was the Black Hand’s ring. She knew that is what he had come for. She is hiding and waiting for Vee to come, they had plans to go to the amusement park at the pier. Vee comes in with Rixon. Rixon finds Scott and they go into a full blown fight. Vee is hiding with Nora freaking out trying to get Rixon to stop. When he does, Vee calls the police to come and pick up Scott. They look at the door and notice that it was locked with a dead bolt and in order to break through it, it would take a lot of power. Nora and Rixon know that Scott is a Nephilim. They all head out to the pier after a few minutes.
Nora and Vee, including Rixon, went to the amusement park at Delphic Beach. Scott escaped from jail and was looking for Nora at Delphic, because she has what was in the box, the black hand’s ring, that belongs to Scott. The police calls Nora and warns her that Scott had broken out of jail. Nora ran everywhere trying to hide from Scott because she knew he will easily find her, and she was right she sees him at the beach. He heads straight toward her, she runs for her life. Rixon then comes to protect Nora. Scott shoots a gun in the air and it sends people scattering. Nora then is grabbed by Rixon. He says he is taking her to a “safe” place. He leads her to this under ground tunnel and doesn’t say a word. Nora starts hearing her dad’s voice in her head. Her dad’s voice tells her to touch Rixon’s scars. She tries to get under his and succeeds. She sees Rixon holding a gun to her dad. Then she comes back up to present time. She notices Rixon smile. He tells her everything he said to her was pretty much a lie. He was the one who put the bomb in Patch’s place. He only dated Vee to get closer to her.
She is panicking and once again runs through the tunnel. She finds a door and she goes on one of the rides called “ride to hell”. The ride turns on and she rides on it, hoping to get away from Rixon. Rixon hops on the back of the ride. He hops from car to car to get closer to Nora. She has nowhere to go except for the water. He keeps coming closer to her saying he is going to use her as a human sacrifice. She sees an emergency exit door and jumps of the ride into the polluted water. She hears Rixon do the same, he is getting closer. She opens the door and jumps in. She hits something that feels humanly. It’s Scott, he has a gun wound in his shoulder. He sees her and says he is sorry. Nora tells him he is a Nephilim and that he is immortal so he won’t die. He smiles through blood stained teeth. Then Rixon starts to break down the door. Another door opens above Nora. It’s Patch. Then her vision fades, as Rixon has shot her.
Later, after getting checked out by the ER people she goes back to find Patch. He has a few scars on him and some blood but not much. She runs to him. She sees him smile. She asks him what did he do to Rixon. He says with a frown, “I sent him to Hell”. It starts to rain and Patch takes Nora to a small little hut. He tells her that he loves her. Then Hank Millar, her real father, comes in and takes Patch away from her. She hears Patch go into to her mind and he tells her to run and take the Jeep when he starts fighting. He also tells her to stay in the Jeep and not to leave it until he finds her. It is then that Hank Millar says "Tell me Nora. Was it you who killed my dear friend, Chauncey Langeais?" The book ends on that sentence.
