DianaMcGuire
In a world ruled by ancient witch families, bloodlines are law - and power is inherited, controlled, and closely watched.
When seventeen-year-old Ilyra Valecrest is summoned to Blackthorne Academy, she knows only one thing for certain: her bloodline was erased for a reason. Raised beyond the reach of the Crown, she arrives uncrested, unclaimed, and already under suspicion.
Blackthorne is no ordinary academy. It is a place where royal heirs are shaped into rulers, where magic is disciplined into obedience, and where every mistake is recorded. As Ilyra undergoes bloodline evaluations and brutal scrutiny from both faculty and students, it becomes clear that her magic does not behave like theirs. It listens. It answers. And it refuses to be contained.
Among the heirs watching her closely is a Nightvale boy bound by restraint and shadow - a presence as dangerous as it is controlled. Their connection is unspoken but undeniable, stirring something old beneath the Veil that protects the academy and the realm itself.
As rivalries ignite, alliances fracture, and the Crown tightens its grip, Ilyra must decide whether survival means submission - or if claiming her inheritance will unravel the very system built to erase her.
Because some bloodlines were not lost.
They were buried.
And awakening them comes at a cost.