The cost for Solariann's magic is her sanity.
As a Sympathe, Solariann can detect and read other people's emotions. When she comes into contact with one of the Touched--wraiths who devour souls--her magic awakens into something powerful, giving her abilities she's never seen or heard of before. But it's so powerful it drives her to madness. Driven by a delusion that she will be Queen and leader of the Sympathes, Solariann infiltrates a Hatching and Bonds with a dragon, sparking a chain of events that will change her life forever.
The crown takes her into custody and learns her magic makes her invulnerable to the Touched. Since her madness makes her a danger to herself and others, they give her one month to defeat the Touched and prove her mental stability to become a fully fledged Dragon Rider. The cost of failure is her life.
To help in her task, the Council of Five assigns her a trainer to become a Rider: Lord Kiernan, the bastard son of the Dragon King with ambitions to take over the throne despite his illegitimacy. And to ensure her madness doesn't hurt anyone else, they also assign her a guard: Dariann, an arrogant Rider with a mysterious background and past. While they search for a way to destroy the Touched, Solariann finds her heart torn between the two very different young men.
Their research reveals a menacing plot decades in the making, starting with their ancient ancestors and a God of Destruction. To make matters worse, Solariann's bloodline may trace back to an ancient, noble lineage tied to prophecy. Now, the Touched are tied to the very source of magic within their country, Salachar, and if they don't find a way to heal the source of magic, an army of the Touched will decimate the world.
[PLEASE NOTE: this story will undergo revisions once it's finished.]
***Cover art belongs to Kayla Joncas (https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/kaylajoncas/)
Isidra yearns to become one of the Andarae, a global peacekeeping force of mortals and dragons. Syl has a grudge against the Andarae because they betrayed her family.
When the Sanctuary of the Andarae is attacked, a magical accident binds Isidra to Syl. Irreversibly connected by blood and soul, they're forced to team up as a dragon-rider pair and train together. That would be bad enough, since they can't stand each other...then bloodless corpses start turning up, and it becomes clear that someone's hellbent on destroying the Andarae from within.
With the future of both their races at stake, Isidra and Syl must put aside their differences to solve the string of violent crimes. But that puts a target on their backs, which means the next bloodless corpses might be them. They'll have to stay one step ahead on this magical murder mystery...
Because if they can't learn to work together, they'll die together.