The Hollowbound Heir

At Ardent University, legacy isn't a privilege. It's a weapon.

Caelan Ardentis has spent his life surviving it-controlled, untouchable, and exactly what his name demands him to be. But the moment the ground beneath the campus fractures and something ancient answers him back, control stops meaning anything.

Because he wasn't the only one there.

And one of the five who witnessed it was never meant to be.

Marcel Laurent De León didn't come to Ardent for an education. He came because something is waking beneath it-and his purpose is to stop it before it spreads.

Before it claims anyone else.

Before it claims Caelan.

But the deeper the fracture runs, the harder it becomes to tell where the danger ends and where the pull begins.

Because whatever is rising beneath Ardent isn't just choosing who to take-

It's binding them together.

And the one person Marcel should never get close to
might be the only one he can't walk away from.