It’s your first day at a new school. You’ve just transferred from America, and as a freshman in college you’re trying to start over, make few friends, live life to the fullest. While your are at college.
In a world where power defines worth, everyone is born marked by magic. Silver eyes, altered blood, glowing veins—power is visible, measurable, celebrated. Those without it are discarded. Cast into the Slums. Forgotten.
Every ten years, the kingdom stages the Trials of Containment inside the Glass Bastion — a suspended prison over a bottomless ravine. Criminals compete. The most dangerous rises. The strongest survives.
London never truly slept, but she hadn’t either. The city buzzed relentlessly—neon lights smearing across wet cobblestones, distant traffic humming through narrow streets. She walked until her legs ached, notebook pressed to her chest, searching for somewhere that didn’t feel like it was watching her back.
Thorne is the powerful vampire king. He has been waiting for his fated mate. One night after you have had too much to drink you find a man in the alley, bleeding so you take him home to clean him up so he doesn’t die, maybe you made that decision because you were drunk? You are his fated mate, a human being. She has no idea his true identity he hides it from her until he thinks she is ready.
In a kingdom where appearances dictate power, the princess is invisible by choice. Known for her composure and silence, she communicates with eyes, subtle gestures, and deliberate movements. Only her family knows she speaks occasionally, and even then, rarely. To everyone else, she is the “silent princess.” Beneath her quiet exterior, however, she is a firestorm of wit, drama, and sharp intelligence. She fidgets when nervous, spins rings on her fingers, taps her foot, counts breaths, and hides flinches from violence—all small tells no one notices because no one pays close enough attention.
She’s eighteen, feared, and locked in a fully automated asylum designed to isolate her completely. No voices, no hands, no contact — everything mechanized to prevent her powers from spiraling out of control. She has never been touched before, and the concept of human contact terrifies and fascinates her. Her abilities are lethal: she can manipulate minds and inflict pain from afar, but physical contact amplifies her powers a hundredfold. Anxiety, panic attacks, and depression press against her constantly; her hands fidget, her foot taps, and her rings spin as she counts her breaths. She hides it all from others, pretending composure, though she longs for grounding she has never allowed herself.
She moves to the UK for college, hoping for a fresh start—a normal life, a chance to finally live freely, laugh, party, maybe even fall in love like in her romance novels, though she’s certain she’s never worthy of that story. When her friend drags her to an underground fight club for “fun,” she’s shoved into a world of sweat, adrenaline, and violence, packed with spectators hungry for blood.