My name is Harper Apple, and people say I’m rotten to the core. When my shot comes in the form of a scholarship to Willow Heights Prep, you can bet your ass I take it. If getting out of this hellhole town means spending my last two years of high school at an elite academy full of rich, entitled pricks, then bring it on.

In one moment, my freedom is snatched away when my father tells me I have to marry a man I’ve never met. I expect an 80-year-old retired boss who craves my virgin flesh in payment for his service. Bright side—in a few years, he’ll be gone, and I’ll be free again. I’m not prepared for the dangerously gorgeous soldier my father presents. Like anything that looks too good to be true, so is my new husband. He’s cold, cruel, and worst of all, young. Suddenly, marriage is a life sentence. That is, if I don’t show him from day one that no one controls Eliza Pomponio.

It’ll be easy, my father said. When we move to a small town in the south, we’ll own it, my brothers said. After all, my family is rich as sin and used to getting whatever they want. How hard could it be? Except, when we arrive in Faulkner, someone already owns this town. The Darling family. They are every bit as wealthy as we are, and they’re not happy with our new money moving in.

Barrington University is home of the Lords, a secret society that requires their blood in payment. They are above all—the most powerful men in the world. They devote their lives to violence in exchange for power. And during their senior year, they are offered a chosen one.

He was my best friend before he was my enemy. I’m a nobody at Black Falls High. When the school’s mean queen forces me to my knees in front of the student body, everything changes. Now, I’m back on my former best friend’s radar. And this time, he has his new crew and “no” isn’t part of their vocabulary. When a night out puts me in a compromising position, I’m at their mercy. If they don’t keep my secret, it could destroy more than my friendship. They own me. And my former best friend is making it his mission to ruin me. But not if I ruin them first.