An outcast girl. A guarded man. A castle that never forgets.
After the death of her mother, Corvina Clemm has nowhere left to belong—until an unexpected acceptance letter arrives from the mysterious University of Verenmore. She takes it as fate’s answer to her grief. What she finds instead is an ancient, isolated castle perched atop a mountain, steeped in secrets, deceit, and death.
Vad Deverell has spent his life mastering the art of being unreadable. A part-time professor immersed in his thesis, he knows every shadowed corridor and unspoken rule of Verenmore. He also knows the danger the castle holds. When Corvina arrives, unsettling and curious, Vad recognizes her as a threat—not just to the university’s carefully buried truths, but to the walls he’s built around himself.
They were never meant to notice each other. They were never meant to collide.
But a century-old mystery refuses to stay buried. Every five years, someone vanishes. Corvina begins uncovering clues meant to remain hidden, and Vad finds himself drawn into her orbit, torn between protecting her and protecting the secrets that keep the castle—and himself—intact.
What follows is a dark, haunting tale of obsession, forgotten sins, and a love that blooms where it should not—among the mysterious, the morbid, and the macabre.