Tessa Graham in Greymoor Academy: The Rival Explained

This Tessa Graham in Greymoor Academy analysis covers chapters 1–273 with spoilers. Several of her actions are violent; we describe them only in general terms.

Every romance needs a rival, and Greymoor Academy gives Maisie one who is genuinely frightening. Tessa Graham is not a mean girl. She is a trained political animal who has been told since birth that the crown is hers.

The intended bride

Tessa arrives in chapter 54 with moon-white hair, a white fur coat and a title she repeats to everyone: the fiancée of Prince Soren and his brothers, their intended Erasthai and future queen. She has been betrothed to Soren since childhood, and the four were promised to her through the Convergence.

She is also dangerous from the start. Before Maisie ever met her, Tessa had hurt Charlene, a woman Quinlan was kind to, and Juliette, because Quinlan spent time with his sister. In chapter 57 she tries to drown Maisie in the bath and calls it an accident in advance.

The duel and the fire

Tessa demands a duel for the crown in chapter 78. She fights like Maisie because Mercer trained them both, and she almost wins. When Maisie finally rises with red eyes, Tessa loses in front of the whole court.

Her revenge is to lure Maisie into danger during the Hunt in chapter 149. Maisie's answer, in chapter 160, is the book's most infamous scene: she soaks Tessa's room in liquor, gives her the balcony as a way out and drops the lighter. Tessa survives, badly hurt. From that moment the rivalry is a war.

The girl behind the mask

Chapter 159 gives Tessa her own point of view, and it is the most sympathetic she ever gets. She was raised on ambition instead of dreams: etiquette, politics, lessons in how to please, and constant pressure to produce an heir. Later we learn the Queen threatens to marry her off to Christian MacKeltar if she cannot get Soren's heir by next Samhain. Tessa is a tool the Queen built and can throw away.

It does not excuse her. It does explain why she is so afraid of being second.

Samhain

Tessa is the Queen's hand on Samhain night. She takes Maisie to the Ridge, reveals that the ash in the tonics was her idea, and explains the frame: Maisie will be blamed for the attack on the wedding and her letter replaced with a forgery. At the cliff she attacks the mates' marks on Maisie's neck. When Lyon Park appears and holds on to Maisie, Tessa attacks him too, and pushes him over the edge.

After the time skip

With Maisie gone, Tessa changes strategy. Instead of forcing a marriage, she plays the patient friend, enrols at Greymoor and appears at events on Mercer's arm. When Maisie returns, Tessa frames her by hurting herself, then humiliates her in the ring by revealing her scars. It works, briefly, and then everything she built starts to crack.

The mirror image

It is worth noticing how often the book pairs the two women. Both were trained by Mercer. Both were raised to serve someone else's plans: Maisie as a maid hidden in plain sight, Tessa as a future queen polished for the court. The difference is what each does with it. Maisie keeps taking her choices back; Tessa keeps handing hers to the Queen in exchange for a crown that was never promised to her in good faith.

Our read

Tessa is a strong villain when the book lets her be afraid, and a weaker one when she is only cruel. Her tragedy is that she learned exactly what the Queen taught her: that love is leverage and other women are threats. Her story is not over. She fled the stadium in chapter 270, and Maisie's Lycan has promised to catch up with her. We expect a reckoning. See our predictions after chapter 273.

Also read Queen Lysandra explained and our Lyon Park tribute.