Vale

One scholarship a decade. This year it's Wren. Vale Academy gives a single full ride every ten years, and Wren Halloway didn't apply. She arrives to find her room already shared by three upperclassmen — Ansel, the headmaster's nephew; Marek, who owns every student's debt; and Judah, who was the last scholarship student and never left. They call her their ward. It's a tradition, they say. Two centuries old. Perfectly normal. So Wren plays along. Dinners. Ledgers. Midnight signatures. And in the archive she follows the word 'ward' back through ten decades of scholarship students who all stayed, none of whom graduated — until she finds a sealed file with her own photograph inside, taken years before she ever heard of Vale. A dark why choose academy romance about a scholarship, a debt and a girl who edits the ledger.