Elena Waters

When a failed exam threatens her scholarship, an attempt to fix it leads to Arina’s unwilling initiation into the local chapter of the Circles, a secret society bordering on a cult. Her new peers are four scions serving Slavic gods in exchange for their families’ wealth and influence. Coming from generational poverty, Arina despises everything they represent, but she needs them to survive. Forced to hunt folkloric monsters and compete in cutthroat Circle-on-Circle competitions, she now has one goal: destroy the Circles and get her life back. And if she has to work with Koschei the Deathless to do it, so be it.

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They made him a villain one folktale at a time. Veles has had many names—Koschei is simply the one mortals fear the most—but one thing has never changed. His hunger for revenge. Ever since the goddess of winter forced Veles into servitude, he's been plotting to destroy her. Now he finally has the means: his enemy’s abandoned daughter, clueless about her divine lineage. Arina. She alone can end the gods—by falling in love with Veles. And he's prepared to charm, seduce, and deceive to make it happen.

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Caught between death and the Deathless, Arina tells herself she's not falling for the villain. Veles tells himself she's only a means to an end. But as their lies unravel, drawing them closer, Arina learns the true cost of falling in love: the banishment of all magic. Veles included.