Rubedo

Rebecca—a Thai-British analyst climbing London's corporate ladder—believes she's found a future in her enigmatic mentor, Frederick. Instead, she's violently remade into a deformed Tumulari vampire, and thrust into a hidden world ruled by the ironclad Pax Sanguinis.Promised restoration through the alchemical elixir Azoth's Kiss, she enters a dazzling but toxic covenant, the Children of Luke—only to learn her "e;salvation"e; is another form of captivity.As she flees and uncovers a scheme that culls mortals and immortals alike through one unassuming supplement, her struggle shifts from survival to rebellion. But every act of defiance is shadowed by Frederick's obsession, and the weight of futility grows with each sacrifice.Rebecca must choose: accept salvation on her abuser's terms—or step into the storm and become a force no one can control.Vampirism as capitalism. A deconstruction of Dark Romance. An anti-colonial body horror. For readers of Octavia Butler's Fledgling, Helen Oyeyemi's White is for Witching, and Toni Morrison's Beloved: a gothic debut that explores the cost of surviving systemic oppression and the nature of freedom.