A Portrait of Blood and Shadows (Echoes of the Veil #1)

Welcome to Drakestone Academy—where ancient magic breathes through the walls, shadows whisper secrets, and bloodlines carry more than legacy… they carry curses.

At twenty-five, Elvana Vale is older than most first-year students. Haunted by a fragmented family history and drawn to the academy her mother once called home, she arrives with more questions than answers—and a growing darkness that stirs beneath her skin.

Drakestone is no ordinary school of magic. Its stone halls hold relics of ruin, arcane trials, and a history soaked in blood and betrayal. As Elvana uncovers forbidden truths buried deep within her ancestral name, she finds herself entangled with a mysterious classmate whose past is as haunted as her own, and a cursed relic that may be the key to unraveling—or unmaking—the kingdom of Mystral.

But some relics were never meant to be found.

And some truths were buried for a reason.