Chapter 1: Conscription Day

The trials are physical but, the challenge is mental. Your father once told me the only weakness he couldn't tolerate was arrogance—stay humble, stay sharp. And always remember: survive first, excel second.

Excerpt of recovered correspondence of Lieutenant Xaden Riorson to Thana Valaren.

~

The relics on her arm could have parted the sea of civilians that lined up at Basgiath War College on Conscription Day. She resented those who were here by choice and feared for the lives of those who weren't.

Thana Valeran adjusted her fighting leathers for the hundredth time since arriving that morning. They were allowed to take whatever they wanted across the parapet and she came prepared. She had more knives than the King's Armoury and her father had trained her on how to use each and every one.

Thana scanned the sea of people milling around the courtyard, her heart tightening at the thought of Liam. She hadn't seen him in years and the letters back and forth just weren't the same. He had been there for her through everything until...

She let out a deep exhale. The very institution she stood before now had a lot to answer for.

Since her father's death, Thana had been trapped inside the dark halls of her mind—waking from one nightmare only to live through another, training because Garrick told her to—begged her to—repeating the cycle over and over again. If Thana was going to die, it wouldn't be in combat. She knew she would lose her mind first, just like her mother had.

The sculptured dragons that sat atop Basgiath's stone walls loomed overhead as she waited, her eyes flicking nervously toward the entrance. Recruits were already being funnelled toward the infamous parapet—the narrow, death-defying bridge that separated the weak from the strong. From the dead. She passed the distant shrieking off as birds flying through the ravine below the ridgeline.

"Where is he?" she muttered under her breath. The crowd was thinning. The sun dipped lower in the sky, casting long shadows across the courtyard.

And then she saw him.

Liam.

He was taller and broader, but it was him. His jaw was set in that same determined way she remembered, his eyes scanning the crowd with a soldier's precision. When his gaze found hers, it flickered. They stared at each other. Her momentary relief quickly gave way to the fear of losing him.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, resisting the urge to sprint to him, to throw her arms around him and prove to herself that he was real—that her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, but she couldn't. Not here. Not yet. Instead, she met his gaze with a sturn nod, and slowly, cautiously, they walked toward each other.

Without a word, they passed through the entrance to the citadel and joined the line of people climbing the steep steps towards the parapet. Thana's heartbeat hammered in her ears. She glanced at Liam, who moved with unmatched confidence. Sensing her nerves, he offered a reassuring wink.

They reached the top of the staircase, the wind whipping at her long dark hair, sending a shiver down her spine. Xaden was there, standing at the edge like a sentinel, his cold eyes sweeping over the recruits. He was calling them one by one, sending them across the deadly bridge, their fates hanging in the balance.

Garrick was by his side, scratching names into the ledger, his usual humour absent. His face was hard, focused as if he hadn't known her since they were children. It was as if the boy who had once shown her how to throw a dagger, or gently carried a cockroach outside instead of crushing it, had been transformed into this hardened lieutenant.

Thana's gaze snapped to a small, silver-haired girl—Violet Sorrengail—standing beside Rhiannon, the same girl who had bombarded her with questions that morning. Fury ignited in her veins. Violet's mother had executed the rebellion's leaders, erasing anyone who dared defy Navarre's rule. Yet here Violet stood—free—while Thana and the rest of the marked bore the weight of their parents' defiance, condemned to the Riders Quadrant to fight for their survival.

"Next!" Xaden's voice cut through the wind.

Her heart stopped for a second. She took a deep breath and stepped forward, her eyes locking with his. For a fleeting moment, something passed between them.

"Don't die," Xaden said, his voice barely above a whisper. She wasn't sure if it was a plea or a taunt.

Thana clenched her jaw, shoving the emotion aside. She refused to give him the satisfaction of a response, especially after he'd stopped writing to her without an explanation.

Garrick scribbled her name into the ledger and pressed something into her hand. A ring. His ring. "For luck," he said quietly, meeting her eyes. She nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"See you on the other side," Liam's voice trailed from behind, but she couldn't bring herself to glance back.

Then she was standing alone, facing the narrow bridge that could spell her death with one wrong step. She heard Liam's name being called behind her, but her focus was solely on the path ahead. One step at a time. She wasn't going to fall.

The wind howled, the stone beneath her feet feeling more treacherous with each step, but she pressed forward. She could hear her heart pounding in her ears, louder than the rushing wind, louder than the jeers from the crowd.

She was halfway across when the boy in front of her lost his footing and fell into the ravine. She remembered what Xaden had written in one of his letters: The trials are physical but, the challenge is mental.

She knew Roman Halt; they had been friends since they were small, and she wondered if his brother was waiting for him on the other side. Thana shook her head to clear the thought and kept going, purposefully striding past the spot where he'd slipped, refusing to succumb to the temptation of looking down.

She wanted to turn around. She wanted to make sure that Liam was still behind her. She wanted Garrick to cross this death trap with her like he did when they would train on the parapet at Riorson House. She wanted to know what Xaden was thinking behind the darkness in his eyes. She wanted her father close like he was when she was a child waking up from a nightmare. Or, she wanted to be condemned to Malek alongside him. She wished that she was doing this by choice and that her fate wasn't in the hands of Lilith Sorrengail. She wished that this was not her life.

After what felt like an eternity, she was across. Alive.

Liam was right behind her. The moment his boots touched the stone of the Rider's Quadrant, he grabbed her arm, pulling her behind a nearby pillar. Before she could react, he wrapped his arms around her tightly trying desperately to catch his breath.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, grabbing her face in his hands, and scanning her face and body for any sign of injury.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice shaking as she gripped onto his forearms, staring at him in disbelief.

They clung to each other, both asking the same question over and over again, neither caring about the answer, just relieved to be here. Together. Finally.

Finally, the hollow pit in her chest began to close over. For so long, she had felt as though she was falling from the parapet into the ravine, denied even the mercy of an end. Just the unrelenting sensation of freefall—her stomach lodged in her throat, danger always looming ahead.

As the Basgiath bells began to toll, echoing from the main building like a harbinger of the chaos to come, Liam and Thana emerged back into the courtyard. The number of cadets had grown significantly and a hush fell over the crowd. Xaden strode in behind them, flanked by Garrick, who looked less tense than before. She locked eyes with Xaden, who offered her a curt nod of approval before averting his gaze.

There was something about the Wingleader's arrogance—the deliberate way he gave her just enough to keep her wanting more—that stirred up something inside her, something that had long laid dormant. Xaden was always infuriatingly handsome, an irresistible blend of confidence and dark allure that sent her pulse racing, no matter how hard she tried to resist.

"Three hundred and one of you have survived the parapet to become cadets today," Commandant Pancheck announced, his voice dripping with an unsettling authority that sent chills down Thana's spine. She didn't like the way he looked at them like they were mere pawns in his fucked up little game.

"You will be tested by your superiors, hunted by your peers, and guided by your instincts," he continued. Thana's first instinct was to kill Violet Sorrengial. She didn't care what happened to her after that.

"If you survive to threshing and you are chosen, only then you will become riders." His words hung in the air, a promise that felt like a curse. The tension in the courtyard thickened as the crowd shifted, it almost felt like the oxygen was stripped from the air and Thana found it hard to breathe.

"I'll leave you with your wing leaders," Pancheck concluded, his smirk unsettling. "My best advice: don't die." Thana had heard that enough for one day.

The cadets shifted as some girl named Nyra stepped forward, commanding their attention. "Cadets, when your name is called, take up formation behind your squad leader."

Thana was relieved when her name was called and she found herself in the tail section, second squad, fourth wing. She was with Liam and separated from Sorrengail. She couldn't help but think Xaden had something to do with that.

"Listen closely," Xaden said, stepping forward with an intensity that silenced the crowd. "You are all cadets now. Take a look at your squads. They are the only people guaranteed by codex not to kill you. Just because they can't, doesn't mean others won't. Want a dragon? Fucking earn one."

Did Xaden say without saying anything that he wanted Violet dead, too?

The sound of wings beating the air into submission disrupted the silence, drawing every gaze upward. Massive dragons landed on the outer walls, their wings stretching wide, shadows engulfing the courtyard. Thana's heart raced as a cadet from the third wing made a reckless dash for freedom, only to be caught mid-stride, his screams piercing through the wind before being silenced.

Among the dragons, one stood out to Thana—a dark blue creature, not the largest but infinitely more intimidating. Scars covered its body and it had one marked slash across its left eye. The dragon's gaze locked onto Thana, and she felt a jolt as if their minds touched. She could almost hear its breathing in her head, a rumble that resonated deep within her.

Before she could take a step forward to get a better look at the dragons on the ledge, Liam's hand gripped her arm, pulling her back. Xaden's breath hitched at the sight, and their eyes met—Thana's confusion clashing against the fear she saw reflected in Xaden's eyes.