Threshing Day (The Empyrean)

Every year, a hundred cadets enter the Shatterfield. Only a handful walk out bonded to a dragon. Each of those must give up their dearest memory forever.

Nyla Fen is a bellmaker's daughter who can't feel magic. She can hear what no one else can: the hidden voices in stone, metal and dragon calls. Before the gates of Stormvault Academy open, she warns the officers that something is wrong beneath the mountain. They dismiss her.

They shouldn't have. Someone has scattered forbidden lure resin through the wilderness, driving disciplined dragons into a killing frenzy. Rival squads steal, trap and kill. Her own squad of thirteen is splintering, and the academy commanders refuse to intervene.

Then the legendary dragon Velith, who has rejected every rider for forty years, offers Nyla the bond she has always wanted. Taking it means abandoning her friends and a dying dragon beneath a collapsing tower. Turning back could cost her everything.

Her choice will cost the squad one of its own. It will also expose what Stormvault has been taking from its riders for generations.

If you love dragon-bond fantasy with high stakes, found-family loyalty and a heroine who wins by listening, you'll be hooked from the first bell.