“You’re ours now, Loren.” Nico’s voice was low, dark. A promise and a threat. “Even if we have to ruin you to prove it.” Life as a human in Eldermire is a death sentence. The Veilborn—the elite descended from gods and monsters—rule with cruelty, and humans like me are the dirt beneath their boots. So when I get a scholarship to Noctem Academy, their most prestigious school, it’s supposed to be my way out. Instead, I’m thrown into a world of cruelty, secrets, and four princes who hate me on sight. Inside those gilded halls, I become their prey. They don’t rule the school—they own it A demon who thrives on pain, a fae with ice in his veins, a dragon who burns everything he touches, and a werewolf with a vendetta. When I step into their school, I don’t just cross a line, I shatter it. They said I was just a human. Weak. Disposable. Filth. And yet, they look at me like I’m art. Holy. Sanctified. Now they can’t stop touching me. Tormenting me. Obsessing over me. I’m theirs—whether I want to be or not. They want to break me. Ruin me before I can remember who I am. But I’m not some fragile little thing. And if they want war, I’ll give them something worth bleeding for. There’s a sleeping storm inside me, older than memory. And gods help them when it wakes. Because if I go down, I’m taking them with me.