20 parts Ongoing #2 in Portal (1/14/2025)
Fifteen-year-old Riley James has always been out of step with her peers. After a vampire hunts her down, she learns why. She's the daughter of two murdered witches from Aurelia, a place where every day might kill you: monsters roam the streets, high school starts at midnight, and everyday travel involves braving a spirit realm. She manages to escape the attack with a stolen object that brings her to this unknown land.
But Aurelia rejects those without powers, threatening Riley's chance to investigate her parents' murder. In a bid to stay, Riley devises a way to fake them-only to wind up as the only person at a magic school who can't do magic. Avoiding exposure is difficult, but her ruse becomes dangerous when she discovers she's been marked as a Guardian. This prominent position will not only see her trained to fight Aurelia's monsters, but will force her to work alongside werewolf Fiery Davis, the son of the man accused of killing her parents. Fiery might hate her, but for Riley, familiarity breeds something much sweeter than contempt.
As Riley continues digging into her parents' murder, things become even messier, and she soon uncovers a web of corruption surrounding their deaths. A web that someone will-and has-killed to keep hidden, and which Riley's return to Aurelia now threatens to expose. When "accidents" start to happen, it's clear that Riley's next. Monsters are the least of her concerns when the greatest danger comes from powerful people with dark secrets who will do anything to keep them.
~*~
What to expect
- An exciting world to get lost in (especially if you love Halloween!)
- A proactive protagonist with agency
- Diverse characters
- Action/adventure
- Plot twists galore
- An enemies-to-lovers slow-burn romance
- Themes: found-family, identity, self-discovery, coming-of-age
- YA content
Perfect for fans of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, & Netflix's Wednesday
