In this romantic and thought-provoking dark academia novel, an ambitious graduate student at an elite magic institute develops a complicated relationship with her advisor as they dive into a forbidden branch of arcane power.
At Newlyn University, a prestigious institute set in an idyllic corner of modern day New England, students can pursue degrees in medicine, history, technology . . . or the Arcane Arts.
Twenty-four-year-old Ellsbeth Storer has been determined to pursue a graduate degree in arcane mechanicals at Newlyn since she was a child. Headstrong and driven, she convinces Thaddeus Rawlins, one of the field's most celebrated professors, to take her on as a student after she fails the required entrance exams. Against his better judgment, but finding himself invigorated by Ellsbeth's unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Rawlins allows her to pursue a thesis on a long-forbidden power that can control and compel others.
While student and teacher both profess interest in the topic for purely academic purposes, they harbor equally dark secrets-one intending to use the magic for redemption, the other for revenge.
As Rawlins and Ellsbeth undertake their clandestine research, harmless flirtation crosses the line into uncontrollable desire, which threatens to bloom into something even more troubling: love. But with their project spinning wildly out of control and entangling them in a destructive web of lust and power, will two people mastering the ability to control others ever be able to trust each other?
