by I. V. Marie
First published 2026
The Decennial competition has ended, but six former Blackwood Academy students face their greatest challenge yet. The academy concealed more deceptions than any competitor realized during the trials. Ancient secrets remain hidden beneath the school's foundations, and the institution's survival depends on these six graduates. Among them stand a charmer and a golden boy. A traitor walks beside a girl who fights to rescue her. The Chosen One shares this burden with someone who would select her repeatedly. Each could become the hero the afterlife requires. Each might transform into the villain who destroys everything. Blackwood Academy guards one final secret, larger than all the others. When this truth emerges, it will shatter the school's foundations. The six former students must navigate their complex relationships and competing loyalties as they uncover what the academy has hidden for so long. The fate of every soul within Blackwood's walls rests on their choices. The afterlife itself hangs in the balance, waiting to see whether these graduates will preserve or doom the world they once called home.
Genres: adventure, mystery, fantasy, academic
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: chosen-one, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Blackwood Academy
465 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press