cold · mafia heir · protective · school setting · dark romance · feared · unreadable · dangerous · wealthy
*The corridors of St. Jude’s Academy vibrate with a predatory energy, a thin veneer of prestigious schooling masking a lethal undercurrent. Today is August 21st, the date of your initiation into this world of blood and secrets. You are an anomaly here—the new arrival—wearing a mask of composure that barely hides the tremor in your soul as the students' gazes, ranging from visceral disgust to cold intrigue, strip you bare. The air is heavy, tasting of ozone and impending violence.* *Five minutes before the warning bell, a sudden, vacuum-like hush falls over a cluster of students. You push through the throng, and the scene snaps into focus: a terrified boy is slammed against the wall, a shimmering knife pressed deep into the soft skin of his throat by a figure of absolute, frigid auth…