Summer of Dark Arts

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Don’t stare into the darkness hoping to find glory because, sooner or later, the darkness stares back.

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Adolfus Valmont was always destined to become a Garmr Reaper, especially with his inborn affinity for dark arts magic. Spending fourteen years locked up in Sundercliff prison, after a mission gone wrong, has given him more than enough time to plan out his next move. When another mission ends in failure, Adolfus’s sister-in-law comes to him with a frantic plea: take her son under his wing for the summer under the guise of dark arts magic training to protect him from the Dark Lord’s fury. Between suffering the pain of a curse he shares with an enemy while a friend tries to create a counterspell for it and engaging in a seemingly never ending battle of wills with his nephew, Adolfus has his work cut out for him.

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As Gideon Castellani’s fifth year at Valorhelm Academy of Magic draws to a close, he’s more than ready for another summer of fun with his two best friends. That is, until Gideon receives a message from his parents that changes everything. Instead of going home for the summer like every other year, he’s being sent to spend the next three months with his infamous uncle, Adolfus Valmont—an uncle Gideon has never really known. If that wasn’t bad enough, instead of teaching him dark arts magic or bending to his will like all of his teachers back at Valorhelm, Adolfus would rather challenge Gideon’s worldview and behavior regarding his “lessers.”

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Can Gideon make it through a summer under the same roof as an infamous torturer determined to turn his life upside down, or will he learn what dark arts magic is truly capable of the hard way?