Aria's POV
I run until my lungs burn and my legs give out.
The slums stretch around me—broken buildings, trash in the streets, the smell of rot. I collapse against a brick wall in a dark alley and finally let myself cry. Not the quiet tears I held back in the arena. Real crying. The kind that shakes your whole body.
"Worthless," Marcus's voice echoes in my head. "Defective," Helena announced to everyone.
Dragon Tamer. The rarest ability in three hundred years, and it's completely useless because dragons don't exist anymore. It's like being able to breathe underwater when there's no ocean left.
My phone buzzes. I pull it out with shaking hands.
Marcus: Don't contact me again. You'll receive the official breakup papers tomorrow.
Vivian: Thanks for stepping aside, sis. Marcus and I are going to be SO happy together. 😘
Helena: You have 24 hours to remove your belongings from the house. After that, everything goes to charity.
I stare at the messages until they blur. Twenty-four hours. I have nowhere to go. My mother died when I was ten. My father barely looked at me after he married Helena. I worked three jobs to save money for college, but I spent it all on the stupid engagement party Marcus wanted.
I have two hundred dollars in my bank account and no home.
"Aria?"
I jump, nearly dropping my phone. A girl with short red hair and fierce green eyes stands at the alley entrance. Zara Knight—my only real friend from the Academy prep classes.
"How did you find me?" I choke out.
"I tracked your phone." Zara kneels beside me, anger flashing across her face. "I watched the whole thing. Marcus is a spineless coward, and your family is trash."
"Don't," I whisper. "Please don't be nice. I can't—I'll fall apart—"
"Good. Fall apart. You've earned it." Zara sits next to me and wraps an arm around my shoulders. "But after you're done falling apart, we're going to figure out your next move."
"What next move? I'm worthless, Zara. My ability is a joke."
"Is it though?" Zara's eyes narrow. "Think about it. Dragon Tamers were the most powerful people in history. They commanded entire armies. They changed the shape of continents. Your ability isn't weak—it just doesn't have anything to bond with. Yet."
"Dragons. Are. Extinct." Each word hurts to say.
"Maybe. Or maybe they're just really good at hiding." Zara pulls me to my feet. "Either way, we need to find out if you can tame anything else. If dragon taming is apex predator control like the old books say, maybe you can command other beasts too."
Hope flickers in my chest, tiny and fragile. "You really think so?"
"I think we won't know until we try." Zara grins. "The Taming Grounds are open all night. Let's go steal a practice beast and see what happens."
Two hours later, we're sneaking through the fence at the Taming Grounds. My heart pounds as we creep past the cages holding practice beasts—creatures the Academy uses for training new tamers.
"There." Zara points to a small fox beast sleeping in a cage. "Foxes are easy. If you can tame that, we'll know your ability works on something."
My hands shake as I pick the lock—a skill I learned from one of my old jobs. The fox wakes up and watches me with curious amber eyes.
"Okay," I breathe. "Here goes nothing."
I close my eyes and reach for my power. The golden light from the ceremony felt wild and huge, like trying to hold lightning. I try to find that feeling again.
Heat builds in my chest. Power surges through my arms into my hands. I open my eyes and see golden light flowing from my palms.
"Yes!" Zara hisses. "You're doing it!"
The fox sniffs the air, interested. I push more power toward it, trying to create the bond I've read about in books. The gold light stretches out like a rope—
And shoots right past the fox.
"What—" I gasp.
The golden rope of power slams into something behind me. Something big.
The bond snaps into place so hard I stumble forward. It feels like a hook catching in my chest and yanking. But this isn't a small tug like bonding with a fox should be. This is an anchor. This is massive. This is—
"Aria, move!" Zara screams.
I spin around.
A man stands ten feet away, wrapped in my golden light. His midnight black hair moves in a wind that isn't there. His eyes—golden, exactly like the light from the Awakening Stone—are locked on mine with an intensity that steals my breath.
Kael Draven. My best friend for ten years.
But he's not moving like Kael anymore. He's frozen, muscles tensed, face twisted in something between pain and shock.
"No," he says, voice rough. "No, no, no—not like this—"
His body starts to change.
His skin ripples. His bones crack and reshape. His clothes tear as his body grows bigger, bigger, BIGGER. Wings explode from his back—massive black wings that span the entire training ground.
Zara falls backward with a scream.
I can't move. Can't breathe. Can't look away.
Where Kael stood, there's now a dragon.
A real, actual, impossible dragon.
Black scales shimmer in the moonlight. Golden eyes—Kael's eyes—stare down at me from a face full of fangs. His wings block out the stars. His tail demolishes three cages behind him.
And through the bond humming between us, I feel everything. His shock. His anger. His fear.
His love.
"You're—" I can't finish the sentence. Can't process what I'm seeing.
The dragon—Kael—lowers his massive head until we're eye to eye. When he speaks, his voice echoes inside my mind through our new bond.
I'm sorry, little tamer. I wanted to tell you the truth a thousand different ways. But not like this. Never like this.
"Dragons aren't extinct," I whisper.
No. His mental voice is sad and gentle. We've just been very, very good at pretending to be human.
Behind me, Zara makes a strangled noise.
I reach out with shaking fingers and touch Kael's scales. They're warm. Real. He's real.
"How many?" I ask. "How many dragons are hiding?"
Kael's eyes glow brighter. Enough. And now that you've awakened and bonded with me, they're all going to know.
"Know what?"
That the Dragon Tamer has finally returned. And that means everything in this world is about to change.
The golden bond between us pulses, and I feel something else through it. Other presences. Other dragons. All of them suddenly aware of me.
All of them watching.
"Aria," Zara's voice shakes. "What did you just do?"
I stare up at the massive dragon who used to be my best friend, feeling the weight of thirty other ancient beings turning their attention toward me like spotlights.
"I think," I say slowly, "I just declared war on everyone who called me useless."