The Last Graduate

Chapter 1

Vipersac

Keep far away from Orion Lake.

Most of the religious or spiritual people I know ­and to be fair, they re mostly the sort of people who land in a vaguely pagan commune in Wales, or else they re terrified wizard kids crammed into a school that s trying to kill them ­regularly beseech a benevolent and loving all-­wise deity to provide them with useful advice through the medium of miraculous signs and portents. Speaking as my mother s daughter, I can say with authority that they wouldn t like it if they got it. You don t want mysterious unexplained advice from someone you know has your best interests at heart and whose judgment is unerringly right and just and true. Either they ll tell you to do what you want to do anyway, in which case you didn t need their advice, or they ll tell you to do the opposite, in which case you ll have to choose between sullenly following their advice, like a little kid who has been forced to brush her teeth and go to bed at a reasonable hour, or ignoring it and grimly carrying on, all the while knowing that your course of action is guaranteed to lead you straight to pain and dismay.

If you re wondering which of those two options I picked, then you must not know me, as pain and dismay were obviously my destination. I didn t even need to think about it. Mum s note was infinitely well-­meant, but it wasn t long: My darling girl, I love you, have courage, and keep far away from Orion Lake. I read the whole thing in a single glance and tore it up into pieces instantly, standing right there among the little freshmen milling about. I ate the scrap with Orion s name on it myself and handed the rest out at once.

What s this? Aadhya said. She was still giving me narrow-­eyed indignation.

It lifts the spirits, I said. My mum put it in the paper.

Yes, your mum, Gwen Higgins, Aadhya said, even more coolly. Who you ve mentioned so often to us all.

Oh, just eat it, I said, as irritably as I

Naomi Novik

Praise for The Last Graduate

[The Last Graduate] rips along like a force of nature. In the abstract, this is a story about relying on others but in the concrete, it is about how to survive when the odds are against you. As she did with [A Deadly Education], Novik changes the game again with the very last line. Locus

Truly one of the best fantasy series out there right now, and it s not close. Culturess

[The Last Graduate] is as compulsive a read as [A Deadly Education]. As a warning, it ends on another killer cliffhanger. BuzzFeed

Naomi Novik s Scholomance series, about kids at a preposterously deadly magical school, stands out in a ridiculously crowded field. Its sheer viciousness, its grim humor, and its complicated interpersonal politics are an immediate draw. Polygon

Sardonic students, gruesome monsters, growing friendships, and a touch of romance create a highly readable story. Some questions remain to be answered in the trilogy s last volume. The end of this installment ensures that book three can t come fast enough. Library Journal (starred review)

Praise for A Deadly Education

Eyeball-meltingly brilliant Novik is, quite simply, a genius. Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of And I Darken

Naomi Novik has written the wizard-school book that we all deserve! Constant peril, a fresh magic system, and a deeper discussion of how educational inequality currently functions than I ever expected to see in fantasy. Hank Green, author of A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Novik skillfully combines sharp humor with layers of imagination to build a fantasy that delights on every level. Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Caraval series

The Scholomance is the dark school of magic I ve been waiting for. Katherine Arden, New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale

A gorgeous book about