The Vesper King

He was the Prince of St. Jude's. I was the witness who burned his kingdom down.

Three years ago, I made an impossible choice: Send the boy I loved to prison for a murder he didn't commit, or destroy his reputation to save his life.

I chose the lie. I reported the Vesper hazing ritual, accepted the label of "traitor," and fled into the night.

Now, desperation has brought me back. To claim my inheritance and save my family home, I have to return to the scene of the crime. The plan was simple: Keep my head down, finish my degree, and vanish before anyone notices I'm back.

But Silas Vane doesn't believe in ghosts.

The boy I saved is gone. In his place is a ruthless "King"-a man hardened by betrayal, obsessed with revenge, and colder than the stone gargoyles guarding the campus gates. He doesn't know I saved him. He only knows I broke him.

And now that I'm back in his territory, he intends to collect the debt I owe.
A debt paid in silence. A debt paid in submission.

But St. Jude's is rotting from the inside out. As Silas drags me back into his dark world of secret societies and corrupt elites, we realize the real monster isn't the one haunting the hallways-it's the one sitting at the head of the table.

If we want to survive the semester, we have to stop fighting each other long enough to fight the system.
Because the Vesper King won't just lose his crown if we fail.
He'll lose his life.

The Vesper King is Book 1 in the Rites of Silence series. This is a dark academia romance containing mature themes, high heat, violence, and a "touch her and you die" hero who will burn the world down for the woman he loves.