A House of Vipers

A House of Vipers

A new dark academia mystery that begins a year after a student’s mysterious disappearance when his brother finds clues that can help him and his friends solve their boarding school’s most elusive puzzle—and find his brother dead or alive. It’s been a year and a half since Sutter Heyward’s brother, Lawson, disappeared from the secluded campus of Meddlehart Academy. Everyone has given up on finding him except for Sutter, who can’t shake the feeling that he’s out there somewhere and desperately needs help to make it home. That is, until he and his friends uncover clues that Lawson was searching for their school’s rumored buried treasure the night he went missing . . . and there is a secret society on campus still trying to find it. They are the Order of the Vipers. Sutter and his friends don’t hesitate to join the hunt, but they quickly realize that becoming a Viper involves dangerous initiation rituals where the risk is often greater than the reward. With every clue and secret they uncover, Sutter knows they are one step closer to solving the mystery of his brother’s disappearance. But as he digs closer to the deadly truth, he will discover that some things were meant to stay buried. Emma Jackson is the author of A House of Vipers . She wrote her first story at eight years old and knew immediately she wanted to be an author one day. Emma studied writing at the University of Oklahoma, where she focused on young adult fiction. When she is not writing her next story, she can be found spending time with friends and family, playing cozy video games, going on adventures with her husband, or reading on the couch with her orange tabby cat. One Sutter Everyone had their reasons for attending Meddlehart Academy. There were many things that drew people to this place. For some, it was the snowcapped mountain peaks cocooning the campus. For most, it was the prestige bestowed upon Meddlehart graduates. For a few, perhaps it came down to the age-old mystery that haunted the grounds the promise of buried treasure yet to be found. Sutter's reason was ever evolving. He only hoped it wouldn't change again this year. It had been simple in the beginning: Sutter's father had attended Meddlehart for his high school years, as had every one of his uncles and grandfathers for generations. There wasn't a question as to whether Sutter and his older brother, Lawson, would attend Meddlehart as well. It was simply a fact. Now, it was much more than that for Sutter. His parents couldn't have kept him from this campus if they tried. But he wondered if his parents would change their minds, if they could turn back the clock. If they had only known what the future held, maybe they wouldn't have sent their two sons to this boarding school. Sutter was fairly certain what his mother's choice would have been. As he and his parents approached the campus gates, he spared his mother a glance. Her lips were pursed the same way they'd been all day yesterday during the long drive up to the Colorado campus, her displeasure completely stifling. His dad hardly seemed to notice, though. As usual, he was focused on his own feelings, his own priorities, rather than anyone else's. His mouth was turned down in a frown, but he still walked onto the campus with his chest puffed out with pride, like he owned the place. Even today, of all days. The day they placed a permanent memorial for his firstborn son in the campus courtyard. Sutter shook his head. This wasn't how his first day back at Meddlehart was supposed to feel. He should have been waking up in his dorm room, getting breakfast with his friends, catching up on what had happened during their summer apart, preparing for his first classes of the semester. He should have felt the relief of finally being back here after surviving a slow, lonely, brutally hot summer with his parents at their house in Texas. Instead, he felt a simmering anger in his gut, dread weighing down his shoulders. This shouldn't be happening. They shouldn't be doing this. Didn't anyone else see that? Why was everyone on board with memorializing someone who was still alive, for all they knew? They'd never found Lawson's body; they hadn't even found a trace of where he'd gone, and yet- "Something wrong, champ?" Sutter's dad asked with a sidelong glance. Sutter halted his thoughts, flexing one hand into a fist and then releasing it as he pondered what to say. Because everything was wrong, but if there was one thing Sutter had learned since Lawson's disappearance, it was he couldn't be honest with his father about that. Not without setting him off. With his father's next step, Sutter spotted a glint of silver in his jacket pocket-a flask, something he probably thought no one would notice. But Sutter certainly did. "No," he said in response. "I'm fine. This just . . . doesn't feel right." And it truly didn't. The day was too bright, too cheerful for the occasion, the campus as beautiful as ever-a beacon of light in a sea