Under Wax · Book One

All the Saints Lie

Name: All the Saints Lie
Author: Vera Hayle

Everyone lies. Especially her.

A dark academia romance. A drowned sister, a society that doesn’t exist, and the tutor everyone says was the last one with her.

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The story and Chapter One Hear it first: the newsletter

The All the Saints Lie paperback by Vera Hayle: a red wax seal over a black lake under a red sky

Forbidden: he’s her tutor.✦A secret society under a six-hundred-year-old chapel.✦He watches her window at five in the morning.✦Her sister drowned. He was the last one with her.✦He gives her a safe word. She keeps everything else.✦Red wax. Black envelopes. Thirty-one days.✦Forbidden: he’s her tutor.✦A secret society under a six-hundred-year-old chapel.✦He watches her window at five in the morning.✦Her sister drowned. He was the last one with her.✦He gives her a safe word. She keeps everything else.✦Red wax. Black envelopes. Thirty-one days.✦

IBook Two

Saints Don’t Kneel

Saints don’t kneel. Until one does.

Out on Kindle17 December 2026

The second Under Wax book is on pre-order now. Its blurb gives away how Book One ends, so it waits on the pre-order page: start with All the Saints Lie.

Pre-order on Kindle

The newsletter

From Vera Hayle · Aldermere

The Black Envelope

Only the news, sealed in red wax.

IUpcoming books, before anyone else
IIRelease days
IIIPrice changes and free days

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IIThe world

Aldermere

Six hundred years of stone, rain, fog and bells. No spoilers past Chapter 15.

A small, ancient university town in England, two hours north of London by train. The stone is the colour of wet bone.

The river Alder loops around the old town and spills into the Mere, a black, cold lake edged with reeds.

There is no secret society at Aldermere. Everyone will tell you so. But a black envelope still finds its way under the right door, sealed in blood-red wax, and the seal is a haloed lamb.

Old Court: The main quad. Keep off the grass: only the fellows may walk on it.
Staircase K: The Founders’ room, at the top, always goes to the Founders’ Scholar.
All Saints’ Chapel: Six families paid for its windows in 1612, and put their own faces on the saints.
The Boathouse: Aldermere Boat Club, on the Alder. Someone is out on the water at five in the morning.
The Penitents’ Bridge: An old stone footbridge over the Alder, at the end of the towpath lamps.
The Mere: The black lake below the town. It doesn’t give back what it takes.

A red coat folded on a flat stone at the edge of a black lake in the fog — The red coat, folded on a stone by the Mere.

A row of stained-glass saints in a dark gothic chapel, coloured light on the pews — Six saints in the glass. They have faces.

A winding stone staircase lit by iron lanterns beside a tall leaded window — Staircase K. Seventy-three steps to her door.

A lone rower on a misty river at dawn beside lamplit college buildings — The river Alder at dawn. Someone is always rowing.

A stained-glass saint in armour holding a pair of scales — Saint Michael in the glass, with his scales.

A wet towpath with gas lamps and fallen leaves leading to a stone bridge in the fog — The towpath to the Penitents’ Bridge.

Stone tomb effigies in a candlelit vaulted crypt — The founders, under the chapel.

A black lake in thick fog between bare trees — The Mere, in the fog.

IIIFree to keep

Phone wallpapers

Twenty-seven lock screens from the Under Wax books, on Pinterest. Save the ones you like.

A dark lake between black trees under a red sky and a crescent moon

A dim study with red velvet curtains, a gothic window and a leather armchair

A carved gothic window with red stained glass and autumn ivy

A gothic college chapel seen through a stone arch hung with red ivy

A candlelit chapel aisle leading to a red rose window

All the wallpapers on Pinterest