Only the strongest survive the Riders Quadrant. Every year, hundreds of candidates cross the Parapet hoping to earn a creature bond powerful enough to secure their future. Most die before they ever touch dragonback. Elara Vesper expected the Trials to be brutal. She didn’t expect to survive them alongside: the infamous Blaise Zabini, the ruthless heirs of noble Rider Houses, and the Golden Trio, whose reputations already divide the kingdom. Coldly intelligent and skilled in poisons, creature medicine, and survival, Elara quickly gains a reputation for being as unsettling as she is capable. While others fight for glory, she fights to stay alive — even if it means uncovering secrets the Citadel would rather keep buried. But survival becomes far more complicated when Blaise Zabini starts watching her too closely. Because in a kingdom built on creature bonds, loyalty is dangerous, trust is deadly, and love may be the most catastrophic weakness of all.