BOOK ONE OF THE SHADOW ACADEMY SERIES"

Bound by dangerous magic. Forced into a deadly alliance. Divided by an ancient rivalry.

In the soot-choked lower district of Oakhaven, Aria Vance knew her place: hammer the iron, tend the forge, and keep her head down. But when a terrifying disaster unleashes a surge of rare, blinding elemental fire from her hands, her humble life shatters in an instant.

Arrested by the Enforcers and dragged away in chains, Aria is forcibly enrolled in the Shadow Academy-a gothic fortress where elite mages are forged and the weak are quietly eliminated.

At the Academy, status is everything, and a blacksmith's apprentice with unregistered magic is an easy target. None are more dangerous than Julian Thorne: a cold, devastatingly sharp noble heir wielding lethally refined shadow magic.

When the Ley-Stone tethers Aria and Julian together for the Academy's brutal survival trials, their opposing powers clash in a dangerous storm of light and shadow. To survive the deadly gauntlet ahead, they must learn to work together. But in a school where secrets kill and trust is a luxury neither can afford, their volatile spark might either be their salvation-or burn them both to ash.