The Incandescent

Doctor Walden's responsibilities at Chetwood School range from staff meetings to keeping demons outside the wards. As Director of Magic, she is exceptionally capable and accustomed to being the person who can handle a crisis. An ancient enemy waiting beyond the school's boundaries threatens to test that confidence. Protecting hundreds of students requires cooperation with Chief Marshal Laura Kenning, whose competence presents an attraction as well as a professional complication. Beneath the familiar pressures of teaching lies a more unsettling question about Walden's own relationship to danger. This sapphic dark-academia fantasy approaches the magical school through the adults responsible for keeping it running—and for keeping its young people alive.