Blood Bound

That night, Bastet helps Skylar escape her room so Skylar can join Astrid in the raid to the king’s office. Because the office’s door requires the king’s blood to open, Skylar, his daughter, places her hand on the knob, and Astrid touches her hand to gain entry as well.

Inside, they search for information. They find a letter mentioning that Vatra is also suffering from the Blight—the same magical ecological disaster plaguing Arturea. They also discover a register of all Blooded citizens, which lists Skylar’s missing friend, Cam Nightlock, as a “Champion.”

Skylar insists on taking the register, but Astrid refuses, fearing the consequences if they are caught. To win the stalemate, Skylar stabs her own palm with her hairpin, causing an identical wound to appear on Astrid’s hand due to their blood bond. The pain forces Astrid to drop a potion she was about to use. Skylar takes the register and leaves, but not before Astrid wishes her luck on the island.

The next day, Astrid researches dragons in the castle library, still feeling a phantom pain in her palm from Skylar’s self-inflicted wound. She and Bastet discuss the Blight, concluding that if Vatra is also affected, the Vatrans are likely not hoarding the Heart’s magic but that something may be wrong with the Heart itself.

Frustrated by the lack of information, Astrid instinctively casts a summoning spell for “truth.” The spell causes a nearby tapestry to ripple, drawing her attention. The fabric depicts the ancient battle between Nyx and Aeloria—neither figure has the upper hand, and they hardly look as though they are fighting at all. Stepping closer, Astrid notices the details that contradict historical records, including Nyx’s mate mark and the design of his witch wand, which feels strangely familiar.

On the boat to Isla Draka, Axel reveals that his mother was killed by a witch assassin trying to get to Zryan. Skylar inwardly wonders whether she was a Precog. He uses his power as an Influencer to calm Skylar’s nerves before she begins her trial.

On the island, Skylar follows a river of lava toward the mountain Draka as dragons test her with elemental attacks. After a Solar Celestial dragon temporarily blinds her with light, she becomes disoriented. She is then drawn away from her path by beautiful, mysterious music emanating from a cave. When she approaches, the dragons become hostile and attack with lethal intent. A mysterious voice in her mind urges her to run. The island’s magic seems to aid her escape, and she lures the dragons to a volcano; their combined elemental blasts strike it simultaneously, causing it to erupt.

While the Vatran royals are at the docks for Skylar’s departure, Astrid goes to the king’s office to return the register. She overhears the king and Zryan discussing a newly captured prisoner, stashes the register behind a statue, and follows them to the dungeons. There, she watches as Zryan brutally interrogates a rebel named Mikhael Strand, cutting off two of his fingers to force him to reveal the location of rescued conscripts. The king, satisfied, leaves Zryan to finish the interrogation.

Once his father is gone, Zryan’s demeanor changes. He reveals to Mikhael that he is secretly working with the rebellion to help the conscripts escape, and the torture was a performance for the king. After knocking Mikhael unconscious, Zryan discovers Astrid hiding. As he confronts her, Astrid suddenly collapses in agony, screaming as she feels a backlash of immense pain through her blood bond with Skylar.

Hunted by the dragons on Isla Draka, Skylar flees toward the cliffs. Cornered, she leaps off the cliff. While still falling, the fear and pressure cause her latent power to erupt from her body in a massive, uncontrolled explosion of energy that blasts the dragons from the sky. She then hits the ocean.

The fall renders her unable to swim, but Axel, who has come onto the island against the rules, pulls her from the water. They are surrounded by a circle of devastation where all life has been drained from the land and cliffs, a result of her power surge. Staring at the destruction in awe, Axel identifies Skylar’s true nature, stating, “You’re an Exhauster” (227).

Astrid awakens in the dungeon in Zryan’s arms, having fainted from the pain of Skylar’s power surge. Zryan admits he orchestrated the brutal interrogation as a red herring to throw his father off his trail and is secretly helping the rebels. He confesses that he cares what Astrid thinks of him, and the tension between them escalates until they are nearly kissing.

They are interrupted by a guard announcing that Skylar has returned from the island. Astrid’s fearful assumption is that Skylar must have bonded with a dragon, sealing her fate in the duel. To get her out of the dungeons undetected, Zryan teleports them both back to her balcony.

Skylar returns to the castle, defeated and without a dragon. She feels doomed as she is a dreaded Exhauster and has also failed her mandate as a rider. As she and Axel await royal judgment for Skylar’s difficulty in finding a dragon, Astrid approaches. Instead of gloating, she expresses sincere concern, and the two rivals share a moment of dark, hysterical laughter over their shared predicament.

Zryan interrupts them, his tone unreadable, and summons Skylar to the king’s office. In the office, King Zachary confirms in the presence of his wife, Queen Ottilie, that he once had a brief “meaningless” dalliance with Skylar’s mother. After rumors grew of an unknown heir, Zachary tracked down Skylar and her mother and sent a party of Dreki to kill them and eliminate a potential rival to his legitimate children. Zachary had believed Skylar dead because the Dreki commander lied to him. 

Shocked that her own father wanted her killed, Skylar remembers the night of the hunt. She had watched a guard stab her mother and her Exhauster power had erupted, draining him of life. She had run away, suppressing the memory of her powers. The king tells Skylar he is happy now that she survived as she can use her Exhauster powers to defeat Astrid. Skylar inwardly seethes with rage but keeps her expression neutral. Zachary promises Skylar the throne if she succeeds in the duel, but she knows he is lying. Privately, Skylar vows to kill the king after the duel is over.

Jessa confronts Astrid in her room, revealing that she knows about the secret missions to the king’s office because she had Fionn’s (an Ulven) familiar, who can move unseen, follow her. Jessa is terrified for Astrid, having also learned that Skylar is an Exhauster. Overwhelmed by stress, Jessa breaks down, and the two friends comfort each other, reaffirming their sisterly bond.

True to her promise of no more secrets, Astrid shows Jessa what she found in the king’s office: The burned remnants of a letter. The fragments reveal that someone has told the king he had a plan to fix the Heart, and that it is not working—suggesting the Heart’s troubles are known and unresolved.

The next morning, Axel finds Skylar at the cliff’s edge and discusses her new training regimen, which will include a Masked Ball and a pre-duel “Measuring” ceremony. Mjolnir speaks to her telepathically, calling her “Death Bringer” and hinting that the dragon whose soul matches hers was not on the island.

As she walks past Arach’s Temple, Skylar feels an intense pull from the dragon egg inside. Drawn by the call, she walks toward it. She feels the wards scorch her as she steps through the door, then draws their magic into herself, the burning subsiding as she does. She approaches the egg and places her hands on it, feeling an immediate connection. Before the assembled Artureans and Vatrans, the egg begins to crack and erupt in flames.