Cursed City

Viv Abbot is back at Harker Academy for Deviant Defense for her second semester, and someone close to her needs rescuing. The only way to reach them is an alliance with Deacon, the violent and unpredictable older brother of Reid.

The truce is uneasy. Deacon offers Viv something Reid never could: a chance to give in to her own darkness.

Her mission leads into the seedy underbelly of Astera, the Half City, with the White Stag as her guide. Then a bounty is placed on her head, and the people she cares about become targets. Protecting them pushes her to lengths she never imagined.

Enemies press in from every side, and the time left to her is short. Viv has to keep the Half City from destruction while living through a betrayal aimed at everything she is fighting for. This is a continuation of her story at Harker, so the series setting is assumed. The question running through it is who she can trust in a city that runs on lies.