The Secret Society Initiation

At Blackwood Academy, a centuries-old college on the stormy edge of the Scottish Highlands, scholarship students know their place. Clara Hayes, a dockmaster's daughter from Leith, has kept hers for three years. Then her best friend, Marcus, vanishes, and the Academy calls it “medical leave.”

Marcus left her a note: Don't trust Julian.

Following it, Clara finds a hidden vault and a ledger that records the Ouroboros Circle's secrets: offshore money, ruined careers, and a line about Marcus that turns her blood cold. Then she's caught by Julian Sterling himself, the heir to Blackwood's most powerful family.

Clara has one weapon: a dead-man's switch. Every six hours she must enter a passkey, or everything she's photographed goes to the press.

Julian offers a deal. Clara can enter the Circle as his candidate and face three trials, the last at midnight on Hogmanay. If she survives, she gets the access she needs to find Marcus. If she fails, she disappears like he did.

To find Marcus, Clara will have to trust the one man she was warned about, and the closer she gets to the truth, the harder he is to resist.

A slow-burn romance and dark-academia mystery set over one snowbound Scottish winter. Book One of The Secret Society Initiation.