Darkness Comes Before the Dawn

Fifteen-year-old Karina’s life has changed dramatically in the last year. After losing both her parents in an airplane accident, she is now living in a facility known for using adventure education to turn troubled adolescents into responsible adults. As Karina and other students enter Devil’s Icebox, a mazelike cave with a bad reputation for taking the lives of early explorers, they hope to experience a day of challenging spelunking. Instead, they soon are summoned by local authorities to rescue other spelunkers trapped inside—before it is too late.

As the thrill and excitement of cave exploration transforms into a living nightmare, Karina makes a fateful decision that results in the death of a child. In the aftermath, she seeks escape from the emotional trauma and nightmares that plague her by traveling to Hawaii, where she hopes to heal while studying volcanoes. But when Karina connects with a terminally ill child whose last wish is to see a volcanic eruption, she has no idea her world is about to tumble toward disaster.

In this captivating tale, a teenager puts her own life on the line in a perilous race against time—and flowing lava—in a desperate attempt to change a course of tragic events.