THE MIDNIGHT RITUAL: THE INITIATE'S SACRED TRIAL(The Immortal Syllabus Book 6)A PUBLIC RITUAL. A FORBIDDEN CLAIM. A SECRET THAT COULD SHATTER THE UNIVERSITY OF THE DAMNED.Circe has embraced her hunger.No longer a chaotic initiate struggling against the void, she stands before the Convocation of Twelve Incubus Lords as the Curated Synthesis-a perfect, weaponized blend of Succubus ambition and structural discipline. But the Midnight Ritual of Sacred Trial is not merely a test of academic merit; it is a psychic execution designed to expose the slightest fracture in her foundation. To survive the crushing, entropic weight of the Bound Ley Lines, Circe must do more than endure. She must prove that her surrender is not a weakness, but the ultimate form of Sovereignty.Professor Blackbourne demands absolute structural integrity.As the Lord of Dominion, Azreal watches from the threshold, his possessive fury coiled tight. He has forged Circe in the fires of his Vicious Devotion, but the Cabal refuses to accept their Claim without a price. When the Lords challenge the legitimacy of the Cursed Manuscript-the ancient source of Blackbourne's power-the trial shifts from a ritual of judgment to a shadow war for the very soul of the Scholarium. To validate his Dominion, Blackbourne must push Circe beyond the limits of pleasure and pain, using their connection as the anchor for a magic so volatile it threatens to tear the Veil.The Vampire Scholar waits in the cold.When the Cabal invokes the Final Protocol, the battlefield moves from the heated ritual circle to the freezing, data-void depths of the Restricted Archive. Julian Noctis, the Lord of Cryptology, holds the key to their survival-but his assistance comes with a devastating cost. He craves the Forbidden Ciphers hidden within the manuscript, and he creates a dangerous, triangular alliance that tests Circe's loyalty. Caught between Blackbourne's scorching, forge-fire heat and Noctis's arctic, intellectual calculation, Circe becomes the nexus of a power struggle that predates the Infernal Treaty.The Curriculum has evolved.With the Demonic Cohort watching and the Archive's defenses active, Circe must face the Final Scrutiny. In a chamber where every heartbeat is data and every gasp is a variable, she must decide: Is she merely a student of the dark arts, or the Sovereign Consort who will rewrite the history of the dark species?THE MIDNIGHT RITUAL is a high-stakes Dark Academia Paranormal Romance that delves deep into the lore of the University of the Damned.