One year after Violet Sorrengail dies beside Liam at Resson, Xaden Riorson remains trapped at Basgiath while Sgaeyl’s grief leaves their bond unstable and his powers dangerously unpredictable. Withdrawn, exhausted, and struggling to separate his own emotions from the intensity of the dragon bond he shared with Violet, Xaden has all but given up on the idea of feeling truly alive again—until Garrick Tavis’s younger sister arrives for her first year as a rider. Y/N is warm, sharp-tongued, and painfully alive in a way that unsettles all three men who knew her as a child, especially Bodhi and Xaden. What begins as flirtation, jealousy, and grief slowly becomes something far more dangerous: the terrifying realization that love without destiny, magic, or survival tying it together might be the realest thing any of them have ever felt.