Empire Of Thorns And Wings

She was never meant to bond the last thorn-dragon. He was never meant to care that she did.

In the empire of Vaetharys, dragon bonds are earned through bloodline and privilege — except once, on the morning of Ysolde Craeven''s conscription, they aren''t.

Born to a dissolved house. Branded a traitor''s daughter. Brought to Thornspire Academy not as a rider but as a weapon to be aimed and discarded — Ysolde has survived eight years of the empire''s contempt by staying invisible. Then Aetheryn crosses the bonding deck in a straight line and chooses her, and invisibility is no longer an option.

Commander Sorvael Duskrane has spent three years building himself into the Academy''s perfect instrument: controlled, brilliant, entirely unattached. He was already bonded to Aetheryn when his first dragon died. Now the ancient thorn-dragon has chosen a second rider — and Sorvael can feel her in the bond-web like a lit torch in a sealed room. Bright. Specific. Impossible to ignore.

He was given one order regarding her: observe and report.

He was not given instructions for what to do when the archive her bloodline has been keeping for two hundred years holds the truth behind the empire''s greatest cover-up — a truth that could destroy them both.

The Unminding is spreading. Riders are going blank at the empire''s northern border, their bonds hollowed without a wound, their dragons circling in lost patterns that never resolve. The empire calls it an insurgent weapon. The truth is worse: the empire built it. And the only documented counter is the bond Sorvael and Ysolde share — the Twinbond the empire has just declared illegal and scheduled for severance.

Thirty-two days.

Perfect for fans of Rebecca Yarros, Sarah J. Maas, and Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Empire of Thorns and Wings is a full-length standalone romantasy featuring dual POV, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers, dragon rider academy, forbidden bond, he-falls-first, and a complete HEA. This is Book Three of the Enchanted Realms series. Each novel is fully standalone.