Wicked Onyx

The first installment in a fantasy series, the story centers on Nightsbridge Academy, which trains Hunters, warriors conscripted from powerful supernatural bloodlines under an ancient agreement called the Covenant to contain Horrors and Echoes, dangerous creatures that threaten their world.

A prologue shows Selina Evergreen, a student at the Academy, fleeing hooded pursuers at night. She activates a protection spell in a forest clearing, but it fails against the lead figure. His hood blows back, and Selina recognizes his face with shock before he kills her with cold fire.

The narrative introduces Anamaya "Ana" Onyx, a 21-year-old woman living under a false identity in Carlston Town, where she works as a critter trapper. She is the last surviving member of the Onyx sorcerer bloodline, whose power was blocked and cursed over a century ago after Ana's ancestor Dharma Onyx was accused of exterminating the entire Blackthorne bloodline, a lineage of incantors, a distinct type of magic user. Ana's curse renders her unable to feel physical pain or pleasure. She hides her identity to protect herself and her terminally ill mother, Ariana Onyx, who lives under an alias.

When Ariana dies, a posthumous letter directs Ana to a hidden box containing family heirlooms and Dharma's partially burned journal. Dharma insists she was framed and references the Libra Veritas, a book of truth hidden in vaults beneath Nightsbridge Academy. A page from the Arcanum Lex, the legal code governing magic users, establishes that no bloodline may be allowed to go extinct. Ana seizes on this law to demand admission to Nightsbridge, intending to reclaim her power, find the Libra Veritas, and expose the lies of the Arcanum Imperium, the governing body that condemned her family.

Ana's journey to the Academy is perilous. Mudarks, earthen Horror creatures, derail her tram, and Echoes, faceless Horrors that mimic her appearance, attack her on foot. Sterling Damascus, a silver-haired dhampir (vampire-human hybrid) and lead Hunter, kills the Echoes but treats Ana with contempt. A barghest Therianthrope (shapeshifter) named Drayven carries her to safety. Ana realizes Sterling is the man who murdered her father years earlier in retaliation after Ana accidentally caused the death of Sterling's sister, Annabeth Damascus.

At Bramble Tower, Ana meets her mentor Yash Vitra, Tower Master for the Unwoven, students whose connection to the Weave, the network of magic, has been blocked as disciplinary punishment. Vitra is a naga, a rare snake-shifter, and far older than he appears. His touch produces genuine physical sensation in Ana, something her curse should make impossible. She befriends three fellow Unwoven: Clary, an Evergreen Coven healer; Dori Embercrest, an incantor; and Benedict Ironhart, a sorcerer struggling with unstable Chaos Magic.

Ana's petition before the Superna Coterie, Nightsbridge's governing body, nearly ends in her execution. Vitra reveals that the Onyx punishment included a Mortem Finalem: a death sentence for the last surviving member if she has not produced an heir by age 22. Ana has six months. The Coterie unanimously overturns the execution clause, and Heidi Embercrest, an incantor Tower Master, casts the deciding vote to admit Ana, citing the need to preserve the balance of the Weave.

Ana navigates Academy life while pursuing her true goal. She discovers that Dharma once served on the Coterie, raising the question of why a leader would commit genocide, and finds a restricted corridor with a locked, intricately carved door she cannot access. She endures constant hostility: Viola, a high-ranking incantor student, shoves her through a portal into the northern borderlands, where engineered border guards nearly kill her before Drayven intervenes. A sea dragon crashes through the dining hall and targets Ana; she unconsciously channels the Weave to shield others before Vitra drives the creature back.

Ana challenges Tamina Vayne, a Baobhan Sith (a type of blood-drinking Haematophage) who publicly tortures Ruspin, a Therianthrope hound magically bound to Tamina by a blood debt that prevents others from intervening. In an arena on Coral Isle, a free zone outside Academy protections, Tamina discovers Ana's curse and projects phantom pain into her mind. Ana experiences agony for the first time but survives three minutes, winning Ruspin's freedom. Drayven then licks a wound Tamina inflicts after the bell; his barghest saliva functions as a clotting agent effective only on a potential mate, involuntarily mate-marking Ana.

Heidi escorts Ana to the catacombs, where the Weave Watchers, hooded beings who guard the Weave, partially restore Ana's connection and warn cryptically that much is hidden in memories lost. Ana will need two more blessings for full restoration.

Ana begins sleepwalking, guided by vivid dreams. Following dream clues, she finds a journal belonging to Selina Evergreen, the student killed in the prologue. Selina's entries describe bullying, a mysterious friend in Bramble Tower, and a threatening hooded figure. Each time Ana tells anyone about Selina, they forget within hours: A powerful memory spell has erased all knowledge of the girl. The spell does not affect Ana because she arrived at the Academy after it was cast.

Sterling moves Ana's combat grading forward, before the ceremony that would restore more of her power. Drayven reveals that Sterling once called Drayven away while Damascus agents burned Drayven's home, killing Drayven's mate and two children. A childhood blood pact prevents either man from killing the other. Drayven trains Ana at night to compensate for her disadvantage.

The grading escalates when real Horrors breach the wards. Ana neutralizes a mind-controlled teammate, accidentally summons fire salamanders by bleeding into a flame barrier, and channels the Weave to freeze a Landwyrm, an ancient, supposedly extinct Horror, while Sterling kills it. Ana collapses from the strain.

After recovering, Ana allows her dreams to guide her. A spectral Selina leads her to a pavilion outside Bramble Tower, where Ana discovers a hidden compartment containing Selina's preserved body with a crystalline gem on her chest. Removing the gem breaks the memory spell. Ana wakes having sleepwalked there, with Vitra standing over her and the body exposed. Vitra remembers Selina and vows the Coterie will investigate.

At the Restoration Ceremony, the Unwoven regain their familiars. When Ana touches the ceremonial wheel, a large black rook materializes, the same bird from her dreams, and greets her by name. As a sorcerer, Ana should not receive a familiar, and Heidi is visibly shocked. The Weave's partial restoration slams into Ana, and she screams: For the first time since her curse activated, she feels real physical pain.

In a brief epilogue from Vitra's perspective, he sends a covert message through his serpent familiar: "The sage spoke true. I believe the key is among us." He reflects that their hope of salvation is also the key to their downfall, revealing that his interest in Ana is tied to a prophecy.