Katabasis. Rebecca F. Kuang

Alice Law aspires above all to become one of the best scientists in the field of analytical magick. She sacrificed her pride, her personal life and, no doubt, her common sense in order to study at Cambridge's graduate school under the guidance of the most influential magician in the world. But the professor's life was cut short by a tragic accident, which in a sense was Alice's fault. And now she must descend into Hell and return the soul of her mentor. Armed only with the tales of Orpheus and Dante, chalk for pentagrams and a burning desire to prove that all the academic suffering was not in vain, Alice and her rival colleague Peter set out in search of the professor, in whose disembodied hands their future now lies. But it turns out that Hell is not at all what it is described in the books, and magic is not at all omnipotent. Alice and Peter will have to face the ghosts of their own past, which can either make them perfect partners or... destroy them.