[Book 1 of 2]
Every year, swaths of 20-year-olds descend upon a college campus. Unfortunately, this college specializes in war, in consideration of the one raging at its borders. Outposts and enemies line the eastern mountains, guarded by many from the army, but most notably, the Dragon Riders.
Zilphyer's future was determined long before she was born. As far as she was concerned, none of that destiny included Basgiath; not after she watched her grandfather descend into mad ramblings from his battles after bonding a dragon, then fell to the whims of a power-hungry Colonel who would do anything to hurt her. The quadrant destroyed the good and empowered the bad, and she wanted nothing to do with it, no matter what her name spelled.
Xaden Riorson's future was clear, no Basgiath or dragons in sight. That was, until he was 16, when his father's apostasy-turned-secession fell apart; his home was burned; and his father went missing, only to be reported by someone he thought was an ally, then murdered.
Unfortunately for both of them, Basgiath wouldn't let them off so easily.
Xaden had a two year head start and became a Wingleader, ready-and willing-to sacrifice anything to fulfill his goals. Some may call them selfish and many call him ruthless, but he's no stranger to prescribed titles.
Zilphyer stood before the bridge, but she had no intention of making it across. Her ruined future and unstable life would be given to a cause much more worthy than the torture of Basgiath: her mother, her father, and her patron: Zihnal, the God of Chaos.
Illena Draekar had no idea why she applied to be a dragon rider.
She had her reasons, of course. But her reasons were a secret, and Illena was so full of them that she didn't know anymore what was a secret and what was just a fact. She had a plan, that was a fact. But the plan itself was a secret. The war was getting worse, that was a fact, and was also a fact that Illena was the one to blame for that. Which war? That was a secret. Why she was the one to blame? Also a secret. Why she had so many secrets and so many facts? Well, that's a secret. But I'll give you a fact: she thinks it's time to fight. And what better place to begin than Basgiath?
The marked ones were there. The dragons were there, the professors, the weapons, the lies, the reasons, they were all there.
The only thing she did not expect to be there was love. But love was for children, and Garrick surely wasn't one.
Illena may have fallen in love with him, anyway. But that was a secret as well.
And also a fact.
(This is a Fourth Wing fanfiction, the characters and the story belongs to Rebecca Yarros, only the main character, Illena, is original)