Chapter 1

My sister and I were chosen by the Blood Ledger on the same night.

In our first life, Lydia chose beauty. I chose genius.

She became the most desired girl in the vampire courts, but the Glamour Gift came with one condition. She had to win true devotion before the deadline.

She failed.

Men wanted her face. They wanted her body. They wanted to show her off like a rare jewel. But none of them loved her.

When the Blood Ledger took her beauty back, Lydia lost everything.

I became the youngest scholar in the Night Academy, solved forbidden blood theories, and caught the eye of Adrian Blackthorne, heir to the oldest vampire house.

So Lydia killed me.

She trapped me beneath the sunrise and smiled as I burned.

When I opened my eyes again, we were sixteen, standing before the Blood Ledger once more.

This time, Lydia stole the Scholar Gift before I could speak.

“Now I’ll be the genius everyone worships,” she said. “You can have beauty this time.”

Poor Lydia.

She thought she had stolen my future.

What she didn’t understand was that every blessing in this world had already been marked with a price.

Chapter 1

I only understood my sister's hatred after she killed me. Lydia Vale did not hate me because I had taken anything from her.

When we were sixteen, the Blood Ledger appeared before us on the night of the red moon. Lydia stared at the crimson light first. The man smiled.

"The Glamour Gift," he said. "Beauty that can bend a room before you speak. Desire, attention, invitations, worship." Then he looked at the silver light.

"The Scholar Gift. A mind sharp enough to read forbidden blood-script, solve ancient formulas, and rise where your family name cannot carry you." Lydia barely let him finish. "I choose Glamour." And for a while, she was right. But beauty was not rare in the courts. Not for vampires.

By the end, Lydia was no court beauty. She was a starving vampire in the lower district, hiding her face beneath a veil.

I had chosen the Scholar Gift. It did not make my life easy or hand me fame. It gave me sleepless nights, bleeding eyes, and a mind full of truths most vampires were too afraid to name. But I endured it.

Even Adrian Blackthorne, heir to the oldest vampire house in Ravenshade, began seeking me out. He was the one man Lydia had never managed to win. To her, that was the final insult. She decided I had stolen the life that should have been hers.

So she arranged my death. Not with a knife. Lydia was too careful for that. The last thing I saw was her standing in the shade, watching me burn.

When I opened my eyes again, I was sixteen. The locked library stood around me. The red moon glowed beyond the windows.

The man in the black coat stood at the table, with silver light in one hand and crimson light in the other.

Before the man could finish speaking, she shouted, "I choose the Scholar Gift!"

The man slowly turned his half-shadowed face toward her. "Strange," he said gently. "A moment ago, your heart called for Glamour."

"No," she said quickly. "I want the Scholar Gift. I want the mind. I want the title. I want Night Academy. I want everything." The man studied her.

"The Ledger answers desire," he said. "Not words. Are you certain this is truly what you want..." "Yes!" Lydia snapped. "Beauty is useless. Power belongs to the clever." Her eyes flashed as she looked at the silver light. The man in black turned to me. "And you..."

Before I could answer, Lydia lunged. She snatched the silver light from his palm. The moment her fingers touched it, the Scholar Gift sank into her skin like liquid moonlight.

Lydia gasped. Then she laughed. "It's mine," she whispered. She looked at me with the same smile she had worn on the day she killed me. "This time, Sister, I'll be the genius. I'll be the one they praise. I'll be the one Adrian Blackthorne follows." The man did not stop her. He only smiled a little more softly.

"Then the remaining gift is yours," he said to me. The crimson light drifted toward my chest. The Glamour Gift settled inside me, warm and dangerous.

The library windows rattled. The red moon dimmed. The man's body began to fade into mist. "The gifts have been delivered," he said. "May each heir pay what she owes."

"You had your turn in the last life," she said. "This one belongs to me." I looked at my sister and smiled back.

Poor Lydia. She still believed the Scholar Gift had made me great. She had no idea what it had taken from me. And she had no idea that every gift from the Blood Ledger came with a bill.

Chapter 2

Lydia began enjoying the Scholar Gift almost at once. In the beginning, the Blood Ledger was generous. Its gifts always were.

The Scholar Gift sharpened her memory and made lessons feel easier than they had any right to be. Ancient blood-script, which had once made her yawn, arranged itself neatly in her mind. Lydia loved it. More than that, she loved being seen with it. The classroom went silent. Then the whispers began.

"Since when is Lydia Vale this brilliant..."

"I wish I had a mind like hers."

Lydia lowered her lashes as if embarrassed, but the smile at the corner of her mouth gave her away.

When her gaze drifted toward me, she covered her lips and gave a soft little laugh. "Eleanor studies hard at home too," she said, sweet as poisoned honey. "She really does try. Some people just need more time."

A boy at the next desk, who had been waiting to ask Lydia for help, immediately followed her lead. "That's kind of you, Lydia. But not everyone can be taught. You and Eleanor came from the same family, but you're obviously the clever one." Several students laughed.

I looked down at my Blood Arithmetic paper. A B+. Respectable enough. Not brilliant, but nowhere near shameful either.

Every time they praised her, she looked at me, as if asking whether I regretted losing the Scholar Gift. I did not. Because my own gift had begun to wake.

The Glamour Gift was quieter than hers at first. It moved through my body slowly, changing me by degrees.

In a school full of young vampires with plain uniforms, tired faces, and ink-stained fingers, people started noticing me. The Glamour Gift was doing exactly what it had promised. Lydia noticed too. Of course she did. But she only smiled louder.

"What use is a pretty face in an academy..." one girl said beside her.

"Exactly," another agreed. "Eleanor is beautiful, but Lydia is brilliant. I'd rather be brilliant."

Lydia lowered her eyes, glowing with satisfaction. I said nothing. There was no need. She still did not understand the gift she had stolen.

Success belonged to the ones who could keep going after the gift stopped feeling like a miracle and started feeling like a burden. And the Blood Ledger never rewarded those who wanted the harvest without the labor.

Chapter 3

Lydia became the top student in our year faster than anyone expected. Within a month, her name was everywhere at Saint Orphia's.

Lydia loved being at the center of clever people. It made her feel powerful. But one thing bothered her: I was not isolated.

Now I had the Glamour Gift. My name had appeared three times on the academy gossip board, and someone had drawn my portrait in the Mirror Hall with the words the most beautiful new blood in Saint Orphia's written beneath it. And still, the girls spoke to me.

"Eleanor Vale. I'm taking you to the Crimson Cellar after class. Private room. Music. Fresh blood. You coming or not..."

A lazy voice came from the classroom door, and the room quieted almost at once. Cassian Voss stood outside with one hand in his pocket.

No one at Saint Orphia's wanted trouble with the Vosses. Cassian's father owned half the nightclubs, blood lounges, gambling rooms, and illegal fighting pits in the lower district. The professors pretended Cassian was just another student, but everyone knew better. Cassian looked straight at me.

In my first life, Cassian had pursued Lydia with the same reckless intensity. Lydia had loved it. She sat behind him on his black motorbike, and walked through school as if Cassian's violence belonged to her.

When other students annoyed her, Cassian frightened them. She had thought that made her the heroine of a dark romance. To everyone else, she had simply been cruel. I had no intention of repeating her mistake.

Cassian walked into the room and stopped beside my desk. He placed both hands on the wood and leaned down, blocking the light.

He was handsome, rich, and dangerous in the way that made girls whisper until he looked at them for too long.

"Well..." he said. "Don't make me ask twice." I closed my book. "I'm going home after class."

Cassian was used to being obeyed. My refusal embarrassed him, and the watching eyes only made it worse.

"Careful, Eleanor," he said, his voice dropping. "I'm being nice because I like you. Don't mistake that for patience."

No one spoke, not even Lydia. She sat three rows away with bright, interested eyes, clearly waiting to see what I would do.

"Cassian," I said softly, letting my voice tremble just enough, "why would you say that to me..."

His anger stopped at once. For a second, he looked completely lost.

"I didn't..." He straightened. "I wasn't threatening you." I blinked, and a tear slipped down my cheek.

The mood in the room changed. A moment ago, everyone had been afraid of him. Now that fear had sharpened into judgment, and it was pointed at Cassian instead of me.

In my first life, I had seen Cassian lose his temper countless times.

He was arrogant, violent, and spoiled, but there was one thing he never knew how to handle: a girl crying because of him. Especially in public.

He ran a hand through his hair and cursed under his breath. "Fine. Don't come. It's not a big deal." His tone turned awkward. "Just don't cry."

I did not answer. I gathered my books, covered my face, and hurried out of the classroom before the tears had time to dry.

A gilded cage was still a cage, and a pretty bird fed by its master would never learn the shape of the sky. Lydia wanted to become the genius everyone worshipped. Fine. Let her enjoy the applause. I had no interest in becoming someone's favorite songbird. I intended to grow talons.

Chapter 4

After leaving the classroom, I did not go home. Cassian would need time to recover from the embarrassment. Lydia would need time to decide whether she was angry or afraid. I needed neither.

Behind the fencing hall was an old storage room. I slipped inside and locked the door. Perfect. No Cassian, no Lydia, and no audience.

A pale girl in a dark academy uniform, sitting alone in a forgotten room, quietly memorizing Latin beneath a strip of cold afternoon light. Exactly the kind of image the internet liked.

My study account had grown fast. At first, I only posted short clips of my desk, my notes, and my daily revision routine. Then my face began to appear more often: a few seconds of me turning a page, a quiet smile at the camera, a tired blink over a stack of books. Now I had more than six hundred thousand followers. Most of them were women.

And just as I had guessed, the Glamour Gift did not care where affection came from. It did not need romance, and it certainly did not need a man. Admiration counted. Fondness counted. Protection counted. Even the warm, distant love of thousands of women behind a screen counted.

In her first life, she had believed the Glamour Gift could only be fed by making powerful men desire her. So she walked into their rooms. Ridiculous.

In this life, I no longer had the Scholar Gift. My mind was ordinary now. Not dull, not weak, just normal.

For now, I would use the internet. But I would not sell my face forever. A face was an opening move, not an empire. While my account grew smoothly, Lydia's grades began to shake.

That night, I heard her arguing with the Ledger in her room. "I'm supposed to be a genius," she hissed. "Why are there still questions I can't solve..."

The voice that answered her was cold and calm. "I sharpen the mind. I do not use it for you." "Learning remains the heir's responsibility," the Ledger said.

Lydia was not someone who knew how to sit still. Asking her to study was almost the same as asking her to suffer.

But after losing first place, she had no choice. She began staying up with her books open, forcing herself through texts she had once only pretended to enjoy. With the Scholar Gift supporting her, progress came quickly, and before long, she returned to the top of the year.

Our parents were delighted. Of course they were. Parents like ours loved a child who made them look successful. "Look at your sister," he said to me. "First again. And you..." "You came seventy-third in the year."

I tilted my head and smiled. "But I improved from last time. My class tutor said my grades are good enough for a decent university if I keep working,"

He did not look pleased. Mother's expression was even colder. In my first life, she had disliked Lydia once Lydia became too beautiful. She always said Lydia's beauty looked improper, as if a girl's face could be a moral failure. This time, that suspicion fell on me.

"I heard you have been close to dangerous boys," Mother said. "Students from families like the Vosses." I looked at her quietly. "Eleanor," she said, her voice sharpening, "do not shame this family." Across the table, Lydia lowered her eyes to hide her smile.

After our parents finished scolding me, she followed me into the hallway and stopped me in front of the antique mirror.

"So," she said softly, "what use is beauty now... This time, Mother and Father love me."

I looked at her reflection and felt almost tired. After dying once, how could she still care so much about something this small...

Mother and Father did not love Lydia. They had not loved me either. What they loved was the child who made them look successful.

Not everyone was lucky enough to be loved without conditions. Sometimes even a parent's love came with a price tag.

An imperfect life was still a life, and this time, I intended to own mine.

Chapter 5

Lydia told our parents about Cassian Voss. For the past few days, Mother had watched me as if I were some stolen relic waiting to disgrace the family.

“Do not shame this house,” Mother said. “A girl seen leaving with a Voss boy after dark does not get to explain herself. Not in our world.”

I almost laughed. In my mind, Mother's scolding had already faded into background noise. She sounded less like a parent and more like a cruel side character in a bad romance serial, so I ignored her.

After class, I did not go home immediately. It was not because I wanted trouble. It was because trouble was already waiting at the academy gate.

Cassian Voss stood beneath the black iron arch, his expression dark. When he saw me, he pushed himself away from the wall.

"Eleanor," he said. "Your sister told me something interesting."

Cassian stepped closer. "She said you keep refusing me because you think I'm beneath you." Cassian stepped in front of me, blocking the path to the main gate.

“Not here,” he said. “You and I are going to talk.”

Two boys from his circle stood behind him. They did not touch me. They did not need to.

I looked at the corridor, then at the students watching from a distance.

If I refused now, he would only make a bigger scene.

So I followed him.

We walked through a side corridor and into the old armory beside the training hall. The old armory had been turned into a storage room years ago. Teachers used it for detention, extra drills, and whatever they did not want in the main classrooms.

He shut the door behind us. "What exactly do you mean by looking down on me..."

"Are you helping Lydia hurt me too..." I asked softly. Cassian froze. "What..."

I lowered my head. "She told you I despise you. She told my parents I spend time with improper men. She told just enough people to make them stare. And now you brought me here alone."

I covered my face with both hands and began to cry.

Cassian's expression shifted from fury to confusion, and then to panic.

Lydia had found Adrian Blackthorne outside the library and asked him to help her with a blood-law assignment. Then she suggested the old armory.

She had not only brought Adrian. She had gathered several classmates too. Then she sent a message to our parents. "Eleanor left with Cassian Voss. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen."

By the time they marched toward the armory, Lydia was almost glowing. She must have already imagined the scene: me alone with Cassian, our parents furious, Adrian disgusted, and my classmates whispering about the beautiful elder sister ruined by her own face.

The group reached the armory door just as hurried footsteps sounded from the other end of the corridor. Mother and Father were coming too.

Lydia saw them and smiled. Then she grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.

Before she even looked inside, she cried out, “Mother, don’t go in. If Eleanor is really in there with Cassian…”

The corridor fell silent. Our parents rushed forward, their faces twisted with anger. Father shoved past the stunned students, then stopped at the doorway. Mother stopped beside him. Lydia's smile froze.