Ravencrest High looks like a prestigious boarding school, but the truth is far from that. 

Hidden from humans, it is a training ground for young vampires to master self-control. Humans are enrolled alongside them, because they think it’s just an elite academic program. 

In reality, their presence keeps the vampires in check, providing occasional feeding opportunities under strict supervision. With the humans completely unaware.

Lyra Hale is a new transfer student, hoping for nothing more than a fresh start. She expected a normal school environment. Instead, she finds herself surrounded by students who are weird and secretive.

Kieran Black is everything Ravencrest warns against. A high-ranking vampire from one of the oldest bloodlines, he doesn’t believe in the rules meant to keep vampires in line. 

 He sees the humans not as protected guests, but as tempting puzzles, and he can’t resist the effect Lyra has on him from the first moment he notices her.

Lyra doesn’t know the truth about the school, the vampires, or Kieran.  While she tries to survive in the school, Kieran is drawn to her in ways he can’t fully control. 

With the school having so much unbendable rules, even the authority can’t be trusted. And the most dangerous person on campus might also be the only one willing to protect her.


At Ravencrest, temptation is constant, and love may be the most dangerous mistake of all.


`•`•`•|`•`•`•|`•`•`•|`•`•`•

[Excerpt]

Lyra was halfway down the east corridor, Ravencrest always felt different at night.

She hugged her books closer to her chest and stopped when she turned a corner, someone stood at the end of the hall.

One foot was propped up behind him, hands in his pockets, head slightly tilted. 

His eyes locked onto hers, dark and intense, like he had been waiting for her. The hallway suddenly felt smaller and tighter.

“Kieran.” 

“You’re really good at pretending I don’t exist.”

“Maybe because you keep showing up where you’re not supposed to be.”

His eyes dropped to her lips for half a second before going back to her face. 

She took a step back as he stepped closer and she froze the second his hand closed over her wrist. 

Then just as her heart threatened to leap out of her chest, his thumb brushed against the delicate skin of her wrist. 

His touch sent a shock of warmth through her, a feeling she couldn’t quite figure out no matter how hard she tried.

She tried to pull back, but before she could, he tugged her closer and suddenly, the space between them disappeared.

Every instinct screamed to push him away, to step back, but she couldn’t. He was just too close.

“Kieran…” she whispered, voice trembling.

The faintest smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, and those enticing grey eyes that she felt drawn in every second she look at him, like gravity itself had shifted.

The way he held her wrist and the way his thumb brushed against them, it was everything but safe.

"What are you doing?"

"I could kiss you."

*****
Cover art is not mine. Full credit goes to the original creator.

Avoiding Kieran was harder than Lyra expected.


Mostly because he was somehow everywhere. Not literally everywhere, obviously. But enough that she was starting to feel hunted by coincidence itself.


The first time she saw him after the library incident, she'd immediately turned around and walked the other direction so fast one girl had stared at her like she'd lost her mind.


Now? Now she was leaving afternoon classes with her bag hanging off one shoulder and exhaustion sitting heavily in her bones.


Lyra stepped down the stairs absentmindedly while adjusting the books in her arms, then froze.


Kieran was walking toward the courtyard from the left path. And heading directly her way.


Absolutely not. Not today. Not after spending two straight nights replaying every second in that library.


Not after waking up at three in the morning yesterday because her stupid brain suddenly remembered the feeling of his hand on her waist.


Chapter 69 - IRRATIONALLY GUILTY