She came to steal his secrets. He let her think she was succeeding.
Elara Voss has one semester to infiltrate Thornwood Academy, find the shadow artifact hidden somewhere in its cursed halls, and disappear before anyone learns why she was really there. She is good at blending in. She is good at lying. She is not good at ignoring the Lord of Shadows who seems to know exactly who she is and what she wants?and is watching her with something far more dangerous than suspicion.
Caelan rules the shadow court with practiced indifference and a reputation that keeps most students three corridors away. He does not get involved. He does not get curious. He does not think about Elara Voss at three in the morning when the shadows at his window move in ways they shouldn't.
He tells himself this regularly.
As the academy's secrets begin to surface and the artifact proves more dangerous than either of them knew, Elara and Caelan are pulled into a hunt that forces them to trust each other?or lose everything to the dark growing at Thornwood's heart.
A dark romantasy of shadow magic, slow burn tension, and the lie that slowly becomes the truth.
