CHAPTER ONE: The Devil's Daughter
The night was dark and cold. It just had to be when she was enrolling at the academy, didn't it? Seraphine sighed. The week couldn't get any worse.
She stopped in front of the tall, dark gate of her new school. Astraeum Academy, the school for supernatural shit-faces. At least she could lay low here until graduation.
She was soaked in midnight rain, her suitcase at her feet and her hood pulled low over her glowing eyes. Her fingers itched with shadow—tendrils curling in her palms—but she forced them still before anyone noticed. No powers on campus. No leaking your inner demon on orientation day. Got it.
The gates groaned open on their own, iron creaking like they hadn't been touched in centuries, and she stepped through into the courtyard.
Behind her, the black town car that had driven her through two cursed forests and one very judgmental fae checkpoint sped off, leaving behind tire marks and the faint scent of brimstone. Not hers, obviously.
She followed the path until two little dwarfs stopped her.
"Welcome to Astraeum Academy: the finest elite boarding school for supernatural hybrids, celestial bloodlines—" the first one started.
"—and the occasional chaos-born nightmare pretending to be normal. Like you," the second one finished, staring directly into her eyes.
One of her shadows leaned forward and sent him flying meters away. The first dwarf quickly escaped.
She sighed and told her shadows to back down as they prepared to chase the poor creature.
If her father had seen a scene like this, he would have probably punished her—forcing her to eat dead souls, or making her watch people's punishments and screams. She shook her head to clear the memories and focused on the school in front of her.
Stone towers reached almost to the sky; she had to squint just to see the tops. Lanterns flickered without fire. Statues watched her. Literally—their eyes followed her every move. She tried not to look back. If she hadn't been born and bred in hell, she'd probably be freaked out of her skin by now.
A pair of first-years rushed past her, whispering about "House Lux boys" and "soul tattoos" like it was some divine TikTok feed. One of them glanced at Seraphine's throat, where her sigil pulsed faintly under a glamour charm. She tugged her hoodie higher.
She really hated the sigil. It was like a tattoo branding her as the heir to Hell's throne. Anyone with half a brain would recognize it. And attention was the last thing she wanted on her first day.
A silver-haired staff member in a black cloak appeared from the mist and gestured her toward the Main Hall.
"Name?"
"Azariel," she said coolly.
He froze mid-scroll check. "As in…?"
"Yeah," she said. "That Azariel. Keep it moving, Dracula."
He blinked once. Twice. Then handed her a welcome packet without further questions.
Inside the Main Hall, students crowded beneath stained-glass ceilings and floating candles that dimmed the more chaos-users entered. A magical self-defense instinct, apparently. Seraphine stepped in. Three candles above her flickered out.
Typical.
A voice boomed through the hall, catching all the students' attention as the noise gradually died down. "House placements will begin in five minutes! Report to your designated lines!"
Seraphine walked straight toward the Umbra House column. Shadow. Darkness. Secrets. Literally screamed her. And if she was lucky, no one would talk to her the entire semester.
She already knew all about the academy, courtesy of the damned souls in Hell who'd once attended. There were four houses:
Ignis: Fire and destruction.
Lux: Light and purity.
Umbra: Shadow and darkness.
Vitae: Healers, Seers, Mind Walkers.
Umbra was also home to creatures of the night—vampires, werewolves, witches, whatever. Lux was mostly for angels, though fae and others slipped in too. Ignis was exactly what it sounded like, and Vitae explained itself.
She continued on her way when—
"Yo! Watch it—!" someone barked as she brushed past a golden-blond boy in Lux robes.
She glanced up. Stormy grey-blue eyes. Wings inked across his arms like tattoos. He looked like a statue sculpted by a perfectionist with a superiority complex. In layman's terms: annoyingly handsome.
She smiled coldly. "You bumped into me, sunshine."
He blinked, then noticed her Umbra robes. His gaze dipped, just for a second, to the faint outline of her sigil. His jaw clenched.
She caught him staring and yanked her turtleneck higher.
"Whatever." She kept walking.
She checked the paper map with directions to the Umbra dorms—located on the north edge of the academy. When she finally got there, she wasn't surprised. A spiral building draped in ivy and shadow wards. She climbed three flights of stairs even though she badly wanted to float. Students stared, either because she was devastatingly beautiful or because they sensed her magic.
When she reached the door labeled 317, it didn't budge when she slid her keycard. She frowned and tried again. And again—until the wall beside her shimmered and a voice crackled through the enchanted speakers:
"Room 317… dual occupancy confirmed. Roommate arrival pending. Please wait."
"Roommate? Oh, you have got to be shitting me."
She'd specifically requested isolation. She wasn't here to make friends. But there was nothing she could do now. She leaned on the stairwell wall, waiting. At least it was an Umbra.
The door finally opened. She blinked and stepped in. The room was… nice, actually. One massive window with moonlight spilling in. A small shelf of spellbooks levitated midair. Her half of the room, which she immediately claimed, was shadow-warded. The other half shimmered with faint celestial auras.
Wait, why?
Before she could unpack, the door opened again. Her shadows hissed.
Then he stepped in. Platinum blond. Storm grey-blue eyes. Wing tattoos. Same stupid glare. Mr. Sunshine. Her new roommate.
"For f***'s sake!"
"Holy crap!"
They both spoke at the same time.
"What are you doing at Umbra House?"
"Well, my map showed me the way. Lux is full."
"I don't do roommates."
"And I don't do demonic bloodlines."
"Oh, you wanna fight?" She cracked her knuckles, eyes flashing molten gold-red.
He arched an eyebrow. "Not in front of the furniture."
They glared at each other, shadows and light flickering between them. Sparks flew. A shadow ball formed in her hand. A light ball formed in his.
The wall voice returned: "System glitch detected. Room change unavailable. Dorm assignment locked for seven days. Have a wonderful orientation!"
They groaned in unison.
Alaric—because of course that was his name, she could smell the arrogance—dragged his bag across the floor like he was too weak to lift it. His muscles said otherwise. Wait, why was she staring at his muscles? Cut it out, Vex.
That wasn't me. You know it.
Whatever. All I know I…
He cut off her thought. She looked at him.
"This is ridiculous," he muttered. "Lux students don't room with Umbra. It's never happened."
"Guess Heaven forgot to update their dorm spreadsheets," she shot back, rolling her eyes.
He paused mid-unpacking and turned to her. "You're hiding something."
"You're projecting," she replied smoothly, flopping onto her bed.
He didn't respond. Just kept unpacking. His side of the room began to glow faintly, clean and orderly. She, meanwhile, let her shadows slither under the bed and across the desk.
Vex, her demon familiar, stirred inside the ink of her left shoulder. He liked the tension.
He smells like guilt, Vex whispered in her mind.
That makes two of us, she replied.
As the heir of Hell, she had a demon familiar like a right-hand man. Like a wolf to a werewolf. The core of her power. Except hers could come out and do things—and they were forbidden from being seen.
Later that evening, the academy hosted a mandatory welcome feast. She sat at the Umbra table, ignoring everyone. The food was good—enchanted soul bread, unlike the kind she'd been forced to eat in Hell, and wine that sparkled like galaxies—but she barely tasted it.
Her eyes kept drifting to the Lux table. To him.
Alaric sat like a prince, cold and perfect, laughing at something Isla said. The golden-haired girl at his side kept tossing daggered looks her way.
Jealous already? Cute.
When the Headmistress stood to speak, her voice echoed like thunder across the hall. All the students went silent.
"Welcome, students. This year will test you in ways even prophecy cannot predict. You were not chosen by accident. You didn't get here because your parents thought it necessary to send you here. The balance between realms is cracking. Shadows bleed into light. And light has secrets darker than you know."
A chill ran down Seraphine's spine. Alaric's head turned slowly. Their eyes locked across the feast hall. Then they both looked away.