The Arcane Trials: The Marked

By Linda Ellis Lee

The invitation arrived in the dead of night.
There was no knock at the door. No sound of footsteps. Only the rustling of paper as the envelope slid across the floor, its dark wax seal shimmering in the moonlight.
Lorna Mathis had seen strange things before-shadows that didn't belong, whispers curling through the wind-but nothing like this.
The envelope was made of thick black parchment, its surface cold to the touch. The wax seal bore a symbol she didn't recognize at first: a circle split by a jagged line, like something broken in half.
When she opened it, the air in the room seemed to shift. The letter inside was written in ink so dark it bled into the paper, as though the words themselves were alive. Congratulations. You have been chosen.
The Trials await you.
There is no turning back.
No name. No sender. Just those words.
A shiver crawled down her spine. She should have thrown it away. Should have ignored it.
But as she stared at the words, something inside her whispered back. A feeling deep in her bones. This was meant for her.
And that terrified her more than anything. The Academy Calls By the time Lorna realized the truth, it was too late.
The Academy was not just a school-it was something older, something dangerous. A place hidden from the world, where the air crackled with unseen power and the walls watched you when you weren't looking. And the Trials?
They were more than tests. More than simple challenges.
They were a curse.
For centuries, the Academy had existed in the shadows, selecting its students in secret, drawing them into a world where power had a price-one paid in blood.
Some would thrive. Most would not survive. And beneath it all, something ancient stirred. Something hungry.
Something waiting for her. Because Lorna wasn't just another student. She was something else. Something the Academy had been waiting for.
As she crossed through its iron gates, past the rows of statues that seemed almost too lifelike, she realized one thing with bone-deep certainty:
She had walked into a nightmare. And she might never walk back out.
A reluctant student is thrust into a deadly academy where supernatural trials test her sanity, power, and fate-only to discover she is the key to an ancient, world-ending curse.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F6LJ32V7
• ISBN13: 9798281544030
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"