The Reckoning
The Reckoning is the third book in Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti's New Adult fantasy romance series Zodiac Academy, following The Awakening and Ruthless Fae. Picking up after a deadly Nymph attack during a Pitball match leaves the campus reeling, the story follows fae twins Tory and Darcy Vega through Hell Week, a brutal tradition in which senior students haze the incoming class, as they prepare for the Reckoning, a series of elemental trials that will decide whether they keep their place at the academy.
As the twins prove themselves more powerful than anyone expected, the ruling Heirs, among them Darius Acrux and his father Lionel, grow more determined to remove them from the picture, whether through sabotage during the trials or worse. Multiple points of view track the growing romantic tension between the twins and the Heirs alongside the political intrigue surrounding the Vega sisters' claim to the throne.
Written for readers of reverse-harem romantasy academy series, The Reckoning is fast-paced and explicit, continuing a story built on morally grey love interests, magical academy trials, and high-stakes court politics.
Fae twin navigating Hell Week and the Reckoning trials alongside her sister.
Tory's twin sister, also targeted by the Heirs as a threat to their standing.
One of the Heirs, initially hostile toward the twins.
Celestial Councillor of Fire and Darius's father, opposed to the twins' rise.
Cardinal Magic Professor and Pitball coach at Zodiac Academy, not one of the Heirs.
It is the third of the nine Zodiac Academy books, after The Awakening and Ruthless Fae. The series is finished, so you can read straight through without waiting on a release.
Not to follow this book. Peckham and Valenti have built several series in the same world, including Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac, which retells events from the Heirs' side, and Darkmore Penitentiary, set about five years later. The nine Zodiac Academy books are the spine and work on their own; the others add perspective rather than plot you are missing.
No. Despite the academy setting, Zodiac Academy is new adult and explicit, and the bullying the twins take from the Heirs is severe rather than implied. Readers coming to it expecting a YA magic school find the tone very different.