Blood Bound

In a world divided between the witch queendom of Arturea and the dragon-ruled kingdom of Vatra, an ancient magical contract called the Covenant compels the firstborn heirs of both nations to duel to the death every generation. The victor's nation gains guardianship of the Heart, an infinite source of ambient magic and convertible energy known as Vitalas. This is the first book in a series.

Astrid Nachstern, the witch princess and sole heir to the Arturean throne, has spent six years hidden in the remote Isfjell mountains, training for a duel she believes she cannot win. Her opponent, Prince Zryan de Veras of Vatra, commands Mjolnir, a colossal thunder dragon, and is a Prime, the rarest rank among the Blooded, Vatra's people born with magical abilities. Astrid has been unable to perform battle casting since her father died shielding her from an assassin's arrow, a death caused when her own poorly controlled spell rebounded into him. When a Vatran assassin penetrates Isfjell's defenses, Astrid's personal guard, Jessa, and Jessa's soul-bonded animal companion, or familiar, Quincy, save her life, signaling it is time to leave for Vatra.

As Astrid travels south, she witnesses the devastating spread of the Blight, an environmental catastrophe destroying Arturea's ecosystems. She believes the Vatran king is blocking the Heart's magic from reaching Arturea and resolves to investigate. She carries two secrets: a hidden familiar named Bastet, a tiny black cat, and the fact that she has not yet manifested a Gift, the unique power a witch and familiar develop together.

In the Vatran capital of Talrok, Skylar, a dagger juggler in a traveling troupe, searches for her best friend, Cam, a Projector able to send visual mental messages, who has vanished, likely seized by King Zachary's forced conscription of Blooded citizens. Skylar's mother was murdered by the king's Dreki, his elite royal guards, when Skylar was 10; her dying act was to press a silver hairpin into Skylar's hands. Her mother's lifelong warning, "You are not Blooded," taught Skylar to hide the power she senses within herself. Before Skylar can find Cam, the troupe's leader, Aldric, sells her for profit, drugging and delivering her to the Arturean witches.

Queen Guinevere (Gwen), Astrid's mother, is behind the capture. Her spymaster, Veronica, discovered that King Zachary fathered an illegitimate daughter older than Zryan, making Skylar the true Vatran heir. At the welcome feast, Gwen drags the bound Skylar before the court and declares, "Allow me to introduce you to your firstborn child" (75). The king orders Skylar killed, but Mjolnir crashes through the ceiling and obliterates the guard, declaring telepathically, "She is not to be hurt" (82). The Custodian, keeper of the Covenant, writes Skylar's name in place of Zryan's, binding her to duel Astrid.

Astrid is furious her mother acted without telling her, transforming her situation from preparing to die against a warrior prince to being forced to kill an untrained, innocent woman. Yet the Blight is worsening, and winning the duel is the only way to save her people. A Blood Binding ceremony links Astrid's and Skylar's mortality so that harm to one affects the other.

Both heirs train intensively. Astrid casts a shield spell for the first time in six years. She and Zryan develop a charged intimacy through encounters including a midnight library meeting and his rescue of her and Bastet from assassins. During the rescue, Astrid accidentally Teleports with Zryan, something impossible since Teleporters cannot normally transport others, hinting at a unique connection.

Astrid proposes an alliance with Skylar to break into the king's office, combining her ward-breaking potions with Skylar's royal blood. Inside, they find a register of conscripted Blooded listing camp assignments; Cam's entry instead bears the cryptic designation "Champion"—a category distinct from the standard camp postings—which neither understands. Astrid also discovers charred remnants of a letter proving the Blight affects Vatra too, stating the king's plan to "fix the Heart" is failing (250).

The king sends Skylar to Isla Draka, the volcanic dragon island, to bond with a dragon. Mysterious music lures her off the designated path, and the dragons turn lethal. As she leaps from the cliff to escape, an explosive burst of power drains all life from the surrounding earth. Axel, the nobleman assigned as Skylar's handler, identifies her as an Exhauster, one who drains life force from living things, a power previous kings hunted to extinction. Shortly after, Skylar pushes energy into the ancient dragon egg in the castle temple. The egg, dormant for 500 years, hatches into a tiny bronze fire dragon she names Kaida. The king publicly claims Skylar as his daughter, proclaiming her the Chosen Heir, the figure fated to hatch the egg and unite the lands.

At a Masked Ball, Zryan creates a magical replica of Astrid's mountain home and they share their first kiss. He reveals he can only Teleport with Astrid, confirming she is an Amplifier, a witch whose Gift enhances others' magical abilities. Skylar learns that Champions are taken to the Heart itself. That night, an assassin kills Jessa, who had swapped masks with Astrid. Quincy dies moments later, unable to survive without his bonded witch. Astrid's grief triggers Bastet's transformation into a massive winged panther, the same species as the legendary familiar of the ancient witch king Nyx Nachstern. Together, Astrid and Skylar kill the assassin, who confesses he was hired from within the castle.

Astrid discovers through an ancient tapestry that Nyx and the Vatran queen Aeloria bore each other's mate marks, magical signs of a fated bond, meaning they were partners rather than enemies. The history underpinning the duels is a lie. On the eve of the duel, a locator spell reveals Cam is dead, devastating Skylar. Astrid spends her last night with Zryan, asking him to protect Skylar and save Arturea if she dies.

The morning of the duel, Mjolnir fails to appear, and the infant Kaida enters the cage in his place. Skylar provokes Astrid, trying to goad her into striking so Astrid will survive. Astrid gains the upper hand but refuses to kill her. Both heirs stand in mutual refusal, and mate marks sear into their foreheads. The cage breaks open: The Covenant's requirement that "two must become one" has been fulfilled through a platonic bond forging their souls together rather than through death.

Queen Ottilie, King Zachary's mate and Zryan's mother, deploys a member of her menagerie, her elite force of Primes and Dreki, to attack Astrid with fire. Astrid casts Forsvare, her strongest defensive spell, for the first time, deflecting the flames. Soldiers storm the arena. Mjolnir reveals that Zryan has been arrested for secretly leading a rebel movement smuggling conscripts to safety and taken to the Heart. Astrid, Skylar, and their familiars fly to Sarkan's Pass.

Beneath the canyon, they find thousands of hexagonal cells encasing dead Blooded people whose energy was siphoned to generate replacement Vitalas. This is what happened to the conscripts, including Cam. They free Zryan from chains in a chamber above an empty pool where the Heart once stood. Queen Ottilie arrives and reveals herself as a Prime Nullifier who can suppress all nearby magic, a power she has hidden for years. The Heart was stolen over 20 years ago, and she has been draining Blooded citizens to generate replacement energy. She claims Nyx and Aeloria came from another world and demands Skylar's hairpin, which she identifies as a witch wand capable of cutting a passage between worlds.

When Axel holds Astrid at knifepoint, Skylar drives her pin into his throat, killing him. Battle erupts. Ottilie flees on her dragon. A mysterious stranger on a lunar dragon, whose shadows had briefly protected Skylar during an encounter in a Stone City alley weeks earlier, slashes open a portal with a second wand and carries Skylar through it. Zryan, amplified by Astrid, Teleports onto Mjolnir and follows. Astrid reopens the portal and flies through on Bastet.

She emerges into a lush world of dense jungle and twin moons with no sign of Skylar or Zryan. As she and an injured Bastet land in a clearing, dozens of Exhausters converge, draining all life from the vegetation. The portal seals behind her. The story continues in subsequent volumes.