Inside the Blackspire, people are not trained to become free. They are processed, numbered, tested, and turned into assets for an empire that has built its power on fear. Mira is one of the women caught in that system, a recruit expected to obey while the government searches relentlessly for traces of the old fae gifts supposedly erased from the bloodlines centuries ago. Kaelen Morvane is an imperial Champion, lethal enough to survive the games that have killed countless others and dangerous enough to be assigned as her guardian. He should be another part of the machine holding her captive. Instead, something impossible happens when their powers touch. Dragons respond. Buried magic wakes. A bond neither of them understands begins amplifying abilities that could get them executed if discovered. Their only chance lies with Maelis, a hard-edged trainer who knows secret tunnels beneath the fortress and far more about forbidden creatures than any loyal servant of the empire should. Under her guidance, Mira and Kaelen encounter void drakes, prismatic wyrms, and other dragons the regime has exploited or hunted nearly to extinction. They also learn that the upcoming tournament is more than entertainment. It is an opportunity to expose weakness in the emperor's control, if they survive long enough to use it. Attraction grows alongside suspicion as Kaelen and Mira prepare for games designed to turn suffering into spectacle. Rivals are watching. Rebellion is spreading. And the magic connecting them may be the first proof that the empire's greatest lie is beginning to fail. To escape the Blackspire, they may have to turn its deadliest tradition against the throne itself.
Inside the Blackspire, people are not trained to become free. They are processed, numbered, tested, and turned into assets for an empire that has built its power on fear. Mira is one of the women caught in that system, a recruit expected to obey while the government searches relentlessly for trac...