The Ember Vow

For six years, Wren Ashvale has kept a secret that could get her killed: she's a forbidden blood mage, bleeding herself thin to keep her dying brother alive. She's learned to lie to the village elders, to the healers, to herself — whatever it takes to buy Toren one more season. Then a Dragonsworn captain kicks down her door. Captain Kaelen Ashryn doesn't do mercy, and he doesn't do coincidence. Something ancient just clawed its way back into the world two ridges from her cottage, and the working reeks of exactly the kind of forbidden magic she's been practicing for years. He drags her to the Vaelmoor Aerie to answer for it, certain she's the criminal he's been hunting. He's not entirely wrong. He's not entirely right, either. As the Hollowing spreads — draining bonds, draining lives, unraveling the magic that holds dragons and riders together — Wren and Kael become the only two people willing to ask the question everyone else is too afraid to: what if the real monster isn't the one in the gorge, but the one giving the orders? Trapped between a fortress that wants her dead and a captain she can't stop trusting, Wren will have to decide how much of herself she's willing to give for the people — and the man — she was never supposed to love.