Bright Burns the Flame

Welcome to Ashthorn Ward, the kingdom’s most ruthless and secretive military academy, where the deadliest weapons are not forged from steel, but from people. Nineteen-year-old Lory has spent her life surviving the harsh streets of Dunai with nothing but her skill, cunning, and unbreakable will. When she is captured and forced into conscription, she is thrown into the brutal world of Ashthorn, where rivals are deadly, failure means death, and obedience demands the loss of everything she is.

Lory quickly proves she is not like the others, and when the Ward discovers a dangerous secret hidden in her blood, she is given a stark choice, survive their merciless trials and become a weapon in service of the crown, or die within the academy’s unforgiving walls. Guiding, and testing, her transformation is Captain Khayrivven Falcrest, a cold and untouchable figure who should be her enemy, yet is the only one who seems to recognize the person beneath what the Ward is trying to shape her into. As war looms beyond the borders and rebellion grows in the shadows, Lory must navigate the academy’s lethal trials and the burden of her forbidden power before both consume her entirely.