The Rat’s First Door

Some doors are hidden. Some doors are forbidden. And some doors remember who was erased. After awakening the impossible Fox Seal, Lian Su has become the one thing Shengxiao Academy cannot explain — and cannot ignore. The Twelve Houses still pretend the Calendar is whole, the records are clean, and the forbidden thirteenth answer does not exist. But Rat House knows better. Beneath the polished halls of the academy, secret routes shift, old ledgers whisper, and hidden names wait behind doors that were never meant to open again. When Lian is pulled into Rat territory, she discovers that survival at Shengxiao is not only about power. It is about memory, debt, silence, and the dangerous art of knowing which secrets want to be found. Ren Longwei remains her official Dragon witness, but protection at the academy is never simple. Every glance can become evidence. Every kindness can become a weapon. And every door Lian opens brings her closer to the truth the Calendar buried. Because Rat House does not guard treasures. It guards exits. And the first door is only the beginning. The Rat’s First Door is Book 2 in The Thirteenth Seal Academy, a dark academy romantasy series inspired by the Chinese zodiac, featuring secret Houses, forbidden magic, ritual trials, political intrigue, hidden academy passages, imperial secrets, magical academy fantasy, and slow-burn enemies-to-lovers tension.