THE CROWN THAT BURNS

They called her cursed long before she ever touched a dragon. At Dragon Rite Citadel — where riders are forged for war and nearly half the students die before graduation — dragons are everything. Your worth. Your future. Your right to exist. And Lyra Vale has none. Since birth, dragons have snarled at her, recoiled from her, even tried to kill her. Students whisper when she passes. Priests call her blighted. The academy waits for her to fail. Only her father believes the truth hidden inside her blood may be tied to an ancient legend buried beneath the Citadel itself. The Crowned Dragon. A creature older than kingdoms. Older than empires. A dragon so powerful that even other dragons bow in fear. When the sacred Dragon Bridge Rite begins, everyone expects Lyra to die in the caverns below the mountain. Instead, every dragon erupts into chaos. And then— Silence. From the darkness, the last Crowned Dragon awakens. Before the entire kingdom, the ancient beast lowers its massive crowned head before the girl the world called cursed. Now the academy fears her more than death itself. As kingdoms prepare for war and forbidden truths rise from the ashes of history, Lyra discovers the terrifying secret hidden at the heart of the Rider Order: Humans were never chosen by dragons. They enslaved them. And the dragons have been waiting centuries for someone to set them free.