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Chapter 1

Midnight Revel

This was not how I thought tonight was going to go down. I stood with a group of girls in front of a giant iron gate leading up to Vesper House. Red lanterns burned along the drive, throwing enough light over the old stone mansion to make it look like a gothic fever dream. I folded and unfolded my ticket until the glossy material dampened with sweat. Gross.

For the millionth time, I wondered what I was thinking coming here. It had been years since I’d dared go to a party, and I had countless reasons to stay away. Still, I’d scrambled for a cute outfit at the last minute. Before I could talk myself out of it, here I was.

“Why are you here?” The girl’s voice practically dripped with disdain as she stopped in front of me and scanned me from head to toe. She wore a pale gold dress embroidered with flowers. A crown of tiny blossoms sat atop her bouncy golden curls, and a gilded mask fanned with tiny gold leaves. She looked like she belonged here. The type of girl who’d be invited to this kind of party.

Unlike me. I’d pulled my brown hair into a high ponytail and added a little eyeliner. My knee-length dress fanned out at the hips, its deep green a near-perfect match for my eyes. I’d thought about buying a mask, but I couldn’t justify the money for one night.

She pursed her mouth in distaste. “It’s invite only.”

The invitation crumpled in my grip. I’d checked it countless times, but each time, my name was still printed on top of the black heavyweight paper in gold ink.

Gwen Merritt.

Beneath it, there was the date, October 31, 8:30 p.m., and it had the type of fancy embossed seal of a skull and raven that screamed, I have money.

The seal belonged to the Corvus Society, Hawthorne University’s most secretive fraternity.

Corvus held the Midnight Revel once a year and invited only a select few. I’d seen girls bawling in the halls when their invitations never came.

Anyone who did make it was sworn to secrecy about identities and anything that happened beyond the gates. That didn’t stop hints and rumors from escaping people’s mouths. Whatever happened on the other side of this gate was lawless.

Which is why I was in no way surprised the blonde goddess peering down at me doubted I got an invite. Hell, I still kinda doubted it, and the card was digging into my palm.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you when you embarrass yourself.” She rolled her eyes and turned away with a huff.

The words hit hard, and I shoved down the familiar instinct to flee. To hide. I had been hiding for a long time, and it had taken a lot of courage for me to get here. There was no way I was leaving.

I needed this, needed tonight. In the three years I’d attended Hawthorne University, I’d kept my head down and busted my ass to succeed. My world consisted of three things: school, work, and studying. I’d made damn sure I never gave anyone a reason to look too closely at me. Even with my perfect grades, it was a small miracle I’d gotten a scholarship here.

The college belonged to the Elites, and I was the furthest thing from it.

Corvus members were rich and came from powerful families. No one was talked about more than the Regents, the three men who ruled the society. Whispers followed wherever Ronan Hargrave, Thorne Calloway, and Silas Voss went.

Their mere presence on campus could silence a hall. I wasn’t immune to it either. Every time I got near one of them, it was like a magnetic pull dragged me closer. Which basically meant I avoided them like the plague. Men like them were exactly the kind of distraction I’d taught myself not to want.

I was the pumpkin-spice-loving, black leggings under an oversized sweater with worn UGG boots, and brown hair pulled up in a loose ponytail type of basic. And was zero percent ashamed of that.

Not that I thought I was somehow beneath them, but I’d be an idiot not to have realized we lived in different worlds.

I was head down, all work and no play.

They were different. Each one of them came from affluent families. I bet they never thought about getting a job a day in their life.

Being invisible wasn’t an accident. I’d worked hard at it.

They were the unchallenged kings of the school.

Though I had to admit, I’d been bumping into them way more than should be possible. If it weren’t completely absurd, I would have thought those impromptu meetings might have been more than a coincidence.

Luckily, I was not delusional, so no matter how many times Silas sat at the same table in the library, Ronan ended up on the same group project, or Thorne smiled at me when he picked up his morning coffee, I kept reality firmly in place. We went to the same school, so it was perfectly natural for them to be around me. Anything else would mean they’d noticed me, and that was ridiculous.

This giant divide between us was why the black envelope waiting for me on my dorm room counter after class nearly doubled me over in surprise.

At first, I thought it was some kind of mistake, but the more I looked at the invitation, the more I thought it was real. Or hoped.