Where Phantoms Bloom

All my life, I've been invisible. As Leta Volos, a junior archivist at a crumbling university, my greatest adventure was deciphering forgotten texts. That changed the night the Phantoms came - incorporeal monsters of shadow and regret that have haunted my bloodline for generations. Fleeing through the rain-slicked alleys, I'm saved by four impossibly powerful students from the prestigious Aethelgard Academy. They are the Heirs, locked in the Nocturne, a brutal, secret survival game held in the city's hidden, spectral dimension. My accidental rescue of one of them, Kirill, binds me to their dangerous contest. They see me as a pawn, a helpless outsider. But the Phantoms that plague me are inexplicably drawn to the Nocturne's energy, and my strange, innate ability to soothe them makes me an unwilling key to victory. As I navigate the treacherous affections of these four men, I start to unravel a deeper mystery: the Nocturne isn't just a game, and the Phantoms hunting me aren't random. What is my family's true connection to this deadly tradition, and can I survive long enough to choose my own fate when winning might cost me my soul?