Lena Solis has perfected the art of disappearing—changing her name, her story, and her entire life every few months to escape a past she doesn’t fully understand. Some people go to therapy. Lena just updates her aliases. She lives by a strict set of rules. Rule number one: keep moving—never stay anywhere longer than eight months, though six is safer. Rule number two: leave no trace—use fake names, change appearances often, and work under the table. Rule number three—and the most important of all: never form attachments. Her favorite coup glass doesn't count. Probably. 

​

But after moving in with her situationship and bartending in Portland, Lena’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel. Romance is hard when you're dodging emotional intimacy and splitting the Wi-Fi bill. When a mysterious and alluring stranger walks into her bar, it sets off a chain of events that threatens to destroy the fragile balance she’s tried so hard to maintain.

​

Kian knows things he shouldn’t. Things about her. About her family. About the parts of herself she’s tried to hide. He makes her an offer she literally can’t refuse—a place at the powerful and secretive Sidera Institutione Altiorem Magicae. Which is obviously Latin for: You pay tuition in trauma. 

 

Tempted by the promise of unlocking the secrets her family left buried, Lena enters a world ruled by money, legacy, and dangerous magic. There she meets Teariki, a larger-than-life Wolf Shifter with a heart of gold; Callum, a quiet and intense Fae who hides a sharp intellect; Boden, the golden boy and powerful Seraphim whose charm masks deeper layers; and Nikolai, her stern and enigmatic professor with hidden motives and a lust for blood. Ya know, normal school stuff.

 

Each carries fragments of a truth Lena was never told, awakening something raw and volatile inside her that she’s not sure she can control—wild, hungry, and impossible to ignore. Which is totally how Lena feels while watching an episode of her favorite British baking reality TV show.

 

As she delves deeper into the Institute’s glittering, cutthroat world, Lena is caught between her desire for answers and the dangers of power. Entangled in ruthless rivalries and drawn deeper into the mysteries of her past, she must decide what she's willing to sacrifice to survive.  To uncover the truth, Lena will have to break every rule she’s sworn to follow—and risk losing herself in the process. Not to be dramatic, but she might also accidentally start a magical turf war. Allegedly.

​

In a realm where magic is seductive, and secrets are currency, Lena must decide: will she return to the shadows she knows... or rise into the power that could consume her.

 

But if she's going down... she expects reciprocation.