Sixteen-year-old Sylvia Baker has a gift for dark magic and one ambition: earn her place at Winston Academy. Reuniting with her wealthy birth family should finally give her that chance.
Instead, she discovers that the Black family already has a favorite daughter.
Aria is sweet, adored, and terrified of being replaced. Sylvia is blunt, brilliant, and apparently far too dangerous to belong. Whenever the girls clash, her parents and brothers take Aria’s side. Every accusation sticks. Every spell Sylvia casts becomes another reason to distrust her.
But Sylvia didn’t teach herself ancient curses just to bow her head.
With the academy’s entrance examination approaching, she throws herself into perfecting her magic, making unlikely friends, and finding increasingly inventive ways to deal with anyone determined to humiliate her. Lucien Hawthorne, a young academy student with a talent for potions, sees promise where her family sees a threat. His quiet support might be harder to resist than any spell.
Then the sabotage begins.
To reach the future she wants, Sylvia must face the people who should have protected her. But how much of herself is she willing to sacrifice for a family that keeps asking her to be someone else?
