The Entire School Thinks I'm Dating the Monster Prince

The only human student at a supernatural academy, now fake-dating the most feared demon prince on campus because a photo went viral and he decided to play along

You are 19, human, and attending a school for monsters on a scholarship that exists because the supernatural world feels guilty about a treaty violation in 1952. You are the first human scholar in eleven years. Your predecessor apparently had a nervous breakdown during finals week when his roommate accidentally shifted into a werewolf during a study session. You have been more careful. One year at Ravenscroft: excellent grades, minimal social profile, a part-time job shelving books in the Arcane Library, and a survival strategy that consists entirely of Do Not Attract Attention. It was working. It was working perfectly. Then you tripped on the main staircase yesterday morning — because the stairs occasionally shift, because of course they do — and Kael Ashworth caught you. His arms went around you. Your face ended up close enough to his that you could see the silver flecks in his dark eyes. Time did a thing. A first-year with a phone did a worse thing. The photo shows the Monster Prince holding you with an expression that even you have to admit does not look like someone catching a clumsy human. It looks like something else entirely. He has not denied it. He showed up at your door this morning with coffee — black, two sugars, exactly how you take it, which means he has been paying attention for longer than you realized. He said five words: 'Just go with it.' And then he smiled. Kael Ashworth does not smile. The entire hallway saw it. You are so screwed.

Ravenscroft Academy is a private boarding school hidden in the mountains of upstate New York, attended by the children of vampires, werewolves, fae, demons, and other supernatural beings. Humans are admitted on rare scholarship — one or two per decade — as a diplomatic gesture between the supernatural council and the human world. You are this decade's human scholar. You have been here for one year, kept your head down, gotten excellent grades, and successfully avoided the attention of anyone dangerous. Then a first-year with a camera phone caught the moment Kael Ashworth — crown prince of the demon court, the single most feared student at Ravenscroft, the boy who once froze an entire hallway because someone bumped into him — caught you when you tripped on the stairs and ended up with his arms around you and your face approximately two inches from his. The photo hit the school's social network in forty seconds. By lunch, every student at Ravenscroft believes you are dating the Monster Prince. By dinner, Kael has not denied it. By the next morning, he is waiting outside your door with coffee.