Mia lost everything—her mother, her home, and what little love her father had left for her.But she gained Alden.The strange boy with magic in his blood who always seemed to linger in the shadows, watching her.He stayed beside her, protected her, and slowly pulled her out of the loneliness and darkness she had been trapped in for years.Mia believed he would always stay.
But on her fifteenth birthday, Alden disappeared.No goodbye. No explanation.He broke his promise and left her behind.Mia hated him.Like fireworks burning brilliantly across the night sky, he had appeared in her life only briefly—before vanishing without a trace.Life eventually returned to normal, so normal that Mia began to wonder if Alden had ever existed at all… if magic itself had only been a dream.
Until, shortly before her eighteenth birthday, a black cat delivered an acceptance letter from Aethervale.An ancient academy open only to shapeshifters, where powerful bloodlines, noble families, and dangerous creatures ruled from the shadows.And there, Mia met Vesperis.The sole heir of the Vesperis family.The future King Basilisk.Dangerous. Powerful. Untouchable.And worst of all—
He looked far too much like Alden.Mia finds herself drawn to him, desperate to uncover the truth hidden beneath his cold and dangerous mask.But as she gets closer to the answers she seeks, the boy known as the King Basilisk begins cornering her instead.
“Tell me, girl.”
“Who are you looking at through me?”
“Was he really just your stepbrother?”
“Bad girl… you’re lying.”
And in that moment, Mia finally realizes—The thing she fears most was never Alden’s disappearance.
