Briar St. Clair was never meant to matter.

Orphaned, unwanted, and dragged to Ashwing War College by royal command, seventeen-year-old Briar expects to be swallowed by a brutal academy built on dragonfire, bloodlines, and war. She has no title. No fortune. No reason to believe a dragon would ever choose her.

Then one does.

When Briar bonds with Nyra, a rare black dragon of starflame, she becomes the most dangerous secret at Ashwing. Black dragons are the oldest and most feared of their kind-creatures said to bond through grief, survival, and broken bloodlines. And Briar's bond awakens something buried in her past: a hidden legacy tied to burned kingdoms, ancient gates, and the first dragon heart.

Her fate becomes dangerously tangled with Kael Riorson, the enemy prince claimed by a black dragon of nightflame. Kael is guarded, infuriating, and bound by a crown-shaped curse he never chose. Briar should not trust him. She should not need him. And she definitely should not feel safer when he is near.

But when a stolen hatchling, a ruthless sorceress, and a war built on old lies threaten to turn dragons into weapons, Briar and Kael must choose between the kingdoms that fear them and the dragons that chose them.

Because the dragons were never meant to be chained.

And some bonds burn brighter than war.