Unbound

Nineteen-year-old Nessa Thorne expects to die when she volunteers for the Empire’s selection, but instead she is sent to Confluence Academy, a brutal training ground where students wield elemental magic and bond with powerful beasts ranging from wolves to ancient dragons. There, every student is marked by their affinity, water, air, earth, or fire, yet Nessa bears a different symbol, a silver spiral that marks her as an unbound, a power so dangerous her kind was supposedly hunted to extinction centuries ago.

Forced to conceal her true nature, Nessa must navigate a deadly environment where alliances are sealed in blood and students will kill for advantage. Her greatest threat may be Raith Hollow, the only other volunteer, a formidable fire wielder whose intense gaze follows her every move and whose secrets could unravel entire kingdoms. As forbidden attraction grows between them, dangers escalate both inside and beyond the castle walls, and a sinister force begins to lurk within the academy itself, moving through shadowed corridors and hiding in plain sight. With enemies closing in and her power growing harder to suppress, Nessa faces an impossible choice, embrace the very power that makes her a target, or lose everything she has fought to protect.