Mo Nightshade was perfectly happy with her life as a mundane bookstore clerk. No dark magic. No villainous schemes. No monologues about world domination. Then a cursed summon arrived, and just like that, her everyday life went up in smoke. Literally. Now she's stuck at Umbra Academy, a prestigious (and completely ridiculous) school for future dark overlords, where dramatic cape-twirling is a graduation requirement and betrayal earns extra credit. To make things worse, she's been declared the next Dark Lady of Blackthorn Keep, a title that comes with a crumbling castle, incompetent minions, and a seat on the Villain High Council she has no idea how to use. The only problem? Mo is terrible at being a villain. Her rival, Valerius Crowe, is powerful, ruthless, and obsessed with proving she's unworthy of her title—which would be easier to ignore if he weren't also frustratingly attractive. At least she's not alone. She has a couple of friends who are just as bad at villainy as she is: Nyxir "Nyx" Obscuris—a gender-fluid Infernal Titanborn demon who can shift their form at will, much to the horror of their rigid, tradition-obsessed noble family Lucian "Luce" Frostbrook—a gay ice mage from a bloodthirsty assassin clan, who would rather write love poetry and sculpt snowflakes than stab people. And then there's Julian Fennar, the too-kind white magic scholar who doesn't belong at a villain school but refuses to leave. Not that we should talk about him here. If villainy is mandatory, at least they can all fail spectacularly together. And maybe, just maybe, redefine what it means to be a Dark Lady. What to expect? • Female MC • Young adult characters • Magic academy with dark fantasy elements • Rivalry, slow-burn romance, and morally grey characters • Villainous politics, betrayals, and reluctant leadership • A found family of misfits, including a gender-fluid demon and a poetic ice mage • Snark, wit, and a protagonist who absolutely refuses to be what society expects • Chapter length: ~2,500-3,500 words • Slow release (~1 chapter per week) The goal is to have approximately 25 chapters (75000 words) in the first book. I started writing this story because my wife loves YA stories about high school and college. And her birthday is exactly 25 weeks away from the moment the first chapter of this book is posted on RR. I hope you will enjoy this ride with me, and I hope she likes it when she reads this book :)