From Lambda Literary Award finalist Linsey Miller comes this thrilling stand-alone fantasy about the lengths we'll go to get ahead—an incredibly fresh, twisty love letter to dark academia...with a body count.
Perfect for fans of A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid, Gallant by V. E. Schwab, and All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and C. L. Herman.
There is only one school worth graduating from, and it creates as many magicians as it does graves…
First in his class and last in his noble line, Fabian Galloway’s only hope of a good future is passing his elite school's honors class. It’s only offered to the best thirteen students, and those students have a single assignment: kill their professor.
If they succeed, their student debt is forgiven. However, if an assassination attempt fails or the professor is alive at the end of the year, the students’ lives are forfeit.
And dealing with the professor, a devil summoned solely to kill or be killed, is no easy task.
Fabian isn't worried, though. He trusts his best friends—softhearted math genius Credence and absent-minded but insightful Euphemia—to help. After all, that’s why he befriended them.
As the months pass and their professor remains impossibly alive, the trio must use every asset they have to survive. Or else failure will be on their academic records—and their tombstones—forever.
- Academic Rivals: Fabian Galloway is first in his class, but brilliant and smug Irene Barrington is right behind him. In a school where only the best survive, their rivalry might get them both killed.
- Morally Grey Characters: Fabian trusts his friends to help him win—after all, that’s why he chose them. But in a kill-or-be-killed class, ambition can turn allies into assets… or liabilities.
- High Stakes Fantasy: The assignment is simple: kill the summoned devil teaching the class. Succeed, and your student debt is erased. Fail, and your life is forfeit.
- YA Fantasy Thriller: Perfect for fans of A Study in Drowning and All of Us Villains, this stand-alone novel is a twisty, atmospheric descent into the darkest corners of ambition.