BOOK TWO OF "VIPER" Everyone expected Eleanor Lennox to die at Resson. Len included. But against all odds, she survived. And now? War is coming-whispered in the halls of Basgiath, painted in blood on the battlefield, buried in the lies of the Revolution. Assassins stalk the shadows. The enemy is already at the gate. And Len has a target on her back-not just for wielding shadowfire, not just for bonding to Nox, but for refusing to die when she should have. With Garrick and Xaden on the front lines, Len is missing half her family. But she's got Bodhi at her side, a war to fight, people to kill, and secrets she cannot afford to let slip. They used to call her the Viper. But she's not just a snake with a lethal bite anymore. She's an inferno. And if leadership wants her dead? She'll burn them to the ground.

Eleanor "Len" Lennox is a survivor. Scarred, feral, and feared by all, she thrives in the chaos of Basgiath War College. When she bonds with Noxarathian-an ancient, deadly white dragon known for killing his riders-Len becomes something extraordinary. Together, they wield Shadowfire, a destructive power capable of annihilating the Venin threatening Navarre. But beneath her terrifying reputation lies a fractured soul. Len keeps her scars, her pain, and her dark past hidden, even from her closest friends, Xaden Riorson and Bodhi Durran. The only person who dares to break through her walls is Garrick Tavis, the one man who might teach her what it means to love-and to heal. As rebellion brews and the Venin's power grows, Len must embrace the shadows within her. Because saving the people she loves might demand the ultimate sacrifice.

Just about everything is trying to kill Joan Graycastle: the King, the cadets, even some of the Riders Quadrant professors seem out to get her. Her only goal is to stay alive. The longer she's alive, the closer she is to seeing her brother again and the closer she gets to fighting the actual war being waged outside Navarre's borders. The only dragon almost guaranteed to kill her decides to claim her, though, and throws a wrench in all of her plans. "Are you a meal, Josefyne Tauri? Or are you a rider?" - fourth wing x oc