Vea, a gutter-born assassin, climbs the Crown Citadel to kill General Valdus, the dragon-shifter High Commander who enslaved her city—only to accidentally trigger an ancient blood-bond (the ‘carrix’) that magically tethers their lives together, so that if either dies the other is destroyed.

To hide her from the King’s sorcerers, Valdus smuggles her north to a brutal war college disguised as a cadet, where her latent High Fae royal blood and volatile anti-magic begin to surface.

As the Fae armies breach the border demanding Vea ‘the Bloodfire Queen’ by name, the enemies-turned-mates must decide whether to fight the empire that made them or become something far more dangerous together.

Tropes: enemies to lovers, fated mates / involuntary soul-bond, captor and captive, forced proximity, assassin heroine, dragon shifter hero, morally grey / villain-coded hero, size difference, touch-her-and-die protective possessiveness, hidden royalty / secret heir, chosen one / dark prophecy, only-one-bed / skin-to-skin warming, grumpy hero and small fierce heroine (what these mean)