Twisted Vows Summary: Dark Academy Romance

Last Updated: October 22, 2026

Table of Contents

Twisted Vows: A Dead Girl at the Gates of Blackwood

Twisted Vows by I. V. Marie opens with a nineteen-year-old girl waking on the wrong side of death.

Wren Loughty died in a car crash beside her younger sister, and she comes to consciousness outside the iron gates of a Gothic institution that trains the dead.

This novella belongs to the Immortal Consequences universe and serves as the third entry in The Souls of Blackwood Academy series, blending dark fantasy, paranormal romance, and a brutal boarding-school hierarchy.

TL;DR: The Quick Summary

Wren Loughty dies in a car accident and wakes outside Blackwood Academy, an afterlife school where souls train as reapers before memory loss erases who they were.

She is sorted into Pettyworth House and thrown into a cutthroat academic system where students injure rivals for favors and class standing.

Central pairing: Wren is partnered with Augustine Hughes, a 263-year-old student known as the Demon of Blackwood.
The hidden agenda: August has been told Wren is a “catalyst” whose power can break the academy’s wards.
The core tension: He must earn her trust while hiding his oath to the rebel Demien Order.
Key ideas: grief that never fully heals, betrayal as a training tool, and the cost of holding onto humanity.

Inside the Book: Details and Specifications

Genre & Subgenre: Young Adult / New Adult dark fantasy; paranormal romance and romantasy
Core Narrative Tropes: Dark magical academy, enemies to lovers, forced proximity and paired assignments, morally grey love interest, secret prophecy, reaper lore
Tone & Atmosphere: Gothic, melancholic, suspenseful, emotionally charged, with sharp sarcastic dialogue
Primary Conflict: Wren must survive Blackwood’s competitive brutality while August tries to fulfill his oath without letting his sister send her to Reformatory
Pacing Style: Fast and episodic, built around three trial stages of “The Hunt” and escalating betrayals
Book Structure: 19 chapters with alternating first-person perspectives, mostly split between August and Wren, closing with a Headmaster Silas chapter
ISBN: 979-8217234530
Pages: 192
Reading Age: 14 years and up

Twisted Vows by I. V. Marie Summary: What Happens in the Story

Spoiler warning: this section covers the plot, including the ending.

Augustine Hughes waits at the forest edge outside Blackwood Academy for a letter delivered by his sister, Edith. The letter carries the name he has waited 263 years to hear: Wren Loughty, the catalyst said to hold the power to break the school’s magical wards.

Elsewhere, Wren dies in a car crash with her sister Maeve. She wakes on the academy grounds and meets Headmaster Silas, who serves her enchanted tea that dulls her emotions before telling her she is dead.

Silas explains that Maeve crossed over to the Other Side, but Wren’s soul was selected to train as a reaper of lost souls. She faints, then spends three days weeping in her room before the sorting ceremony.

By blowing on an unlit candle, Wren ignites a crimson flame and lands in Pettyworth House, the house for academically inclined students.

On her fourth day, a student named Maya Romero drags her out of her room with threats of Reformatory, a feared disciplinary chamber, and warns her to avoid August Hughes.

In her first class, Wren learns that all afterlife souls share a single translating language. Drawing on sensory memories of a childhood park with her sister, she summons wind, fire, and water. Later, in Elysium Hall, she bumps into August and trades insults with him rather than backing down.

Housemaster Russo assigns his corporeal magic class a scavenger hunt called The Hunt, pairing students to find three hidden jewels. Russo partners August with Wren, to his visible displeasure.

That night, Edith projects herself through August’s mirror. She orders him to earn Wren’s trust and train her over eighteen years so she can serve as catalyst during a future Decennial trial. August agrees, pledging to eventually strip away his remaining humanity and join the Demien Order fully.

The next morning, August takes Wren to an old shed near Bonestrod Hall and forces her to stab him in the stomach so she learns self-defense. They then enter Bonestrod, hide from older students Irene Bamford and Masika Sallow, and find an “R” carved into a wall.

A secret passage leads them to a stone statue holding an amethyst. The statue attacks, and August explains that corporeal magic draws on anger.

Wren taps her fury over her death, blasts the statue with silver sparks, and is knocked unconscious by its counterattack.

August takes the amethyst, carries Wren to her dorm, and writes notes excusing her missed classes.

That night, Wren joins him at an underground party run by a student named Omar Hamdi, drinks enchanted wine, and dances on a table until August carries her back to her room.

In his own room, August finds the words “THE SOULLESS ONE WAITS” scrawled in blood on his mirror. The message reminds him of his obligation to the rebel faction.

The second trial takes place at Memorium, a church-like hall listing students lost to the Demien Order. Under a pew, they find a trapdoor and a chamber holding a blood-red ruby, sand, and three carved wooden discs showing a match, a cake, and a basket.

August guesses wrong during the transmutation and briefly sprouts pink scales and gills. Wren recognizes the basket as her mother’s birthday tradition, transmutes the sand into a lupine blossom, and releases the ruby.

Leaving Memorium, two students, Carson and Evie, ambush them under a blood vow for class immunity and hold a knife to Wren’s throat. August slits Evie’s stomach, impales Carson with a tree branch, and slits his neck, sending both to the infirmary in comas.

Wren is horrified by the carnage. August tells her that survival at Blackwood requires becoming something unrecognizable. That night, Edith appears in his dream and orders him to have Wren sent to Reformatory to harden her mind against psyche magic.

For the third trial, the pair enter the Opal Chamber and drink Mind Integration Elixir, merging their minds into a shared landscape. They pass through a projection of Wren’s home in Maine and into August’s worst memory: a blood-soaked room where his father murdered his sister and caused August’s death.

A fire figure appears and paralyzes August with terror. Wren pulls him out of the panic, and together they face the flames, claim the emerald, and return to reality.

They celebrate in August’s room with enchanted whiskey and talk about grief, loss, and the families they miss. Wren asks to stay, and she falls asleep holding his hand.

Watching her sleep, August decides Edith cannot be allowed to send Wren to Reformatory. He secretly drugs her so she sleeps through the following day and turns in all three jewels alone, claiming full credit.

When Wren wakes, Housemaster Russo tells her August completed The Hunt by himself. Believing she was used, she confronts him on the roof of Bonestrod Hall.

August hides behind a cold, arrogant act, claiming he only used her to secure his standing. Wren vows to make his eternity a living hell and shoves him off the roof. As he falls, knowing the landing will shatter his bones and send him to the infirmary, August smiles, because he would endure anything to keep her away from Reformatory and away from himself.

Later that night, Wren visits Headmaster Silas. He admits he personally caused the crash that killed her because her soul carried rare potential, argues that betrayal is a necessary forge, and waives her punishment.

Wren leaves his office determined to conquer Blackwood Academy, closing out I. V. Marie’s novella on a note of ambition rather than grief.

Continue Reading: Immortal Consequences Summary: Blackwood Academy’s Dark Trials

Who Appears in Twisted Vows

Character	Role
Wren Loughty	Nineteen-year-old from Maine who dies in a car crash and is sorted into Pettyworth House at Blackwood Academy
Augustine “August” Hughes	263-year-old student called the Demon of Blackwood, bound by oath to his sister and the Demien Order
Headmaster Silas	Founder and headmaster of Blackwood Academy who selects candidate souls and engineered the crash that killed Wren
Edith Hughes	August’s sister and High General of the Demien Order, who communicates through mirror projections
Maya Romero	Student from Barcelona living across from Wren in Pettyworth House who guides her through early classes
Housemaster Russo	Instructor for corporeal magic who assigns The Hunt
Housemaster Marigold	Supervisor of Pettyworth House and instructor for Elemental Activation and Sense Connection
Housemaster Wesley	Instructor for psyche magic
Omar Hamdi	Student from Chambers and Fiddle who runs the underground party and elixir trade
Olivier Dupont	Century-old French student who masks grief behind wine and partying
Masika “Masi” Sallow	Amber-eyed student in Russo’s class who moves through Bonestrod Hall with Irene
Irene Manette Bamford	Dark-haired student described as a force of chaos on campus
Carson	Student who ambushes August and Wren under a blood vow for class immunity
Evie	Carson’s partner in the ambush, injured by August during the fight
Maeve Loughty	Wren’s younger sister, who died in the same crash and crossed over to the Other Side
The Soulless One	Unseen leader of the rebel Demien Order

Top Quotes

“You died on that road. And now your soul has been chosen to reside here, at Blackwood Academy. It’s a prestigious honor . . . one few are granted. Here, you will train to become a reaper of lost souls.”

“Sometimes you have to become something unrecognizable in order to survive here.”

“Betrayal is a necessary lesson here at Blackwood . . . It will forge you into the person you must become in order to flourish here. It will help you find the power you will need to survive.”