The Second Circle

Three evenings. One deal. And one secret she can't tell him.

The Circle was supposed to be dead.

Clara Hayes brought down the Ouroboros Circle and the men who ran it. Now she has a trial to survive as the Crown's star witness, a lawsuit against the man who killed her father, and a boyfriend whose family name is on every file in the case. Julian Sterling is the one person she swore she would never lie to.

Then a black envelope sealed with white wax turns up in a first-year's locker.

Isolde Sterling has reformed the Circle. No masks, no basements, no drownings. Just sponsorship for scholarship students, published rules, and three evenings of "conversation." Isolde also holds the one thing Clara needs: the missing board minutes that prove who signed away her father's life. The price is a seat in the room every Thursday night, and silence about it.

Clara tells herself she is only watching. She tells herself that keeping it from Julian is kindness. But somebody on the Council is passing secrets to someone outside it, a witness has gone quiet, a girl is on a list, and Beltane is coming.

The Second Circle is Book Two of The Secret Society Initiation: a dark academia romance set in the Scottish Highlands, about the trust you can't rebuild once you have spent it, and the people who always seem to be one move ahead.

Best read after The Secret Society Initiation (Book One).