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Victoria Castro has worked her whole life for a chance at Oxford, desperate for a chance in the arts like her father before her, so when offered a chance to prove herself, she seizes it.

Determined to earn her place in the academy and the world through any means necessary, But as she balances her new life and secrets of her own, she finds only one obstacle in her way.

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Alexander Dutré was never one for academics, not even under the political pressure his family commands But as his father's health decays, he's thrust into the spotlight and a world even more foreign to him, that's before he is under the same study as her.

She irritates him more than ever before, testing his word like no one else ever has and pushing his restraint and his duty further than he would ever admit.

But when the future of the academy and their future in it seems to crumble beneath them, their worlds collide forced together by circumstance and misfortune they soon find themselves working together to turn the odds in their favor

But as tension grows and the stakes rise they soon discover that no one is who they appear to be, and the price of loyalty and desire is higher than they could have ever imagined.