𝔀𝓮'𝓻𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓶𝓮, 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓷 𝓲𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓲𝓽 Aurora Huntington had never understood him. She never understood his cruelty, his arrogance, or his self-entitlement as a Kook, but she knew that she hated him for it all. And Rafe Cameron had never understood her. He never understood how the fated Kook Princess could instead plummet to the level of a Pogue, he never understood her unrelenting loyalty or her unnerving morality, and yet he hated her for it regardless. But as the journey goes on and two worlds collide, Aurora and Rafe face the realisation that they aren't so different after all. Bravados fall, demeanours wash away, and they're both left there; his tainted and fetid heart clutched in her hands and her past and soul laid out bare for him to see. It turns out, he wasn't as dastardly as he seemed nor was she as perfect as portrayed. 𝙾𝙱𝚇 𝚜𝚣𝚗 1 - 𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝

Juliette Smith is aware that everything she does is on borrowed time. Her popularity, her relationship with her father, with her friends... all of it is on borrowed time. Her existence as she knows it is so fragile. With the revelation of one secret, all of it could go up in flames, but there's never been any reason for her to disclose it, and there has been every reason for her to hide it; it protects her image. Esme Panchak is, by definition, a poison to her image. She is everything that Juliette isn't. She's undermotivated, crass, and unapologetically her own person. She's everything that Juliette has trained herself to loathe, and everything she has successfully avoided for three years... but she's enchanting, enticing. Whenever they're together, she can feel her grip slipping bit by bit. So, when Juliette ends up stuck with Esme as her lab partner, she realizes just how quickly the secrets she's trying to outrun can catch up with her.