In a castle of thorns, he might be the deadliest. In the shadowy halls of a university choked by roses and vines, Valencia Lennox Vanderbilt arrives with a single ambition: finish her degree and free her mother from poverty. But the deeper she ventures into Castle Thwaite’s dim corridors, the more tangled her fate becomes. Professor Craven Belcourt is brilliant, brooding, and bound to the cursed soil he walks. His gaze haunts her. His melodies enthrall her. His mysterious past could ruin them both. But is curing his curse worth tempting fate? In this seductive continuation of The Secret Garden , where dark academia meets gothic romance, nothing is as it seems—except the danger. As Castle Thwaite’s secrets begin to bloom, Valencia must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice. Some gardens were never meant to be opened. Some love stories are written in blood. Ideal for fans of RuNyx’s Gothikana and Keri Lake’s Nocticadia , Umbra is a dark academia gothic romance steeped in haunting atmosphere, forbidden love, and deadly curses. Set in an eerie New England fortress brimming with secrets, this new adult novel blends lush prose with obsessive slow-burn tension, magical lore, and a dangerously captivating professor. Umbra contains instances and discussions of death, murder, blood, violence, sexual content, neglectful and dysfunctional parenting, abandonment, gun violence, foul language, frightening situations, blood sacrifice, mental illness, panic attacks, and attempted suicide. Please take this into consideration before entering Castle Thwaite.