Unbound

Nessa Thorne walks into the Empire’s selection expecting death. What she finds instead is Confluence Academy—a fortress of magic, monsters, and ambition sharpened into blades. Here, students bond beasts carved from myth, command elemental power, and spill blood in the halls like it’s part of the curriculum. Water. Air. Earth. Fire. Every student wears their affinity like armor. Except Nessa. Her mark is silver—a spiral reserved for a power the Empire swears it wiped out centuries ago. An unbound. Something feared. Something forbidden. Something that should not exist. If she wants to survive, she must bury her truth in a castle where lies have teeth and alliances are written in blood. But her greatest danger may be Raith Hollow—the only other volunteer, a fire affinity with a gaze that burns hotter than his magic and secrets capable of igniting entire kingdoms. Desire coils beneath their rivalry, impossible to ignore as darkness slips through the academy’s walls—quiet, patient, hungry. Something ancient stalks the midnight corridors, wearing innocence like a mask.

Nessa has a choice: Unleash the dangerous power she was never meant to have… or watch the academy, the Empire, and everyone she cares for fall to ash. Because at Confluence Academy, you don’t graduate.
You survive—or you don’t leave at all.