Thorns and shadows

At Velaris Academy, students are ranked by strength and forged into living weapons.
The weak wear grey. The elite bleed gold.
Failure isn't punished with bad grades - it's punished with death.

Nox Graye, a silent boy made of shadows, and Beau Lysander, a golden-haired prince of thorns, have always been enemies. They don't speak unless it's to fight. They don't look unless it's to glare.

But when the Academy chains them together - literally - and abandons them deep in the Terato-infested mountains, survival becomes a brutal, shared battle.

Outnumbered. Outranked. Handcuffed together.

As monsters close in and secrets unravel, Nox and Beau will discover that hatred burns dangerously close to something else.
Something sharper. Wilder. Impossible to control.

In a world where love is weakness, falling for your enemy could be the deadliest mistake of all.