Blake Drakharrow reflects on a moment of intoxication, both from power and from the blood of Medra Pendragon. Blake believes that Medra must forgive him for what he has done because they’re magically bound together. He recalls tasting her blood for the first time, an experience so powerful that it inflamed his hunger rather than satisfying it. As Blake drank from Medra that night, the ground erupted around them. He realized afterward that she’s now in more danger than ever before and that she will never forgive him for what he has done.

Ten months earlier, Medra awakens naked on a pile of corpses in a new world, having expected to remain dead after sacrificing herself to destroy a god. She senses immediately that this is not her home world of Aercanum. A rat-like man named Barnabas discovers Medra and is about to bite her neck when his “master,” a young prince, kills him with a crossbow bolt. The prince, Blake, orders his soldiers to capture Medra and give her robes to cover herself. Medra observes everyone staring at her red hair, deeming it highly unusual.

Blake leads Medra in chains toward the city of Veilmar. Medra feigns amnesia to avoid questions about her origins since she knows that no one will believe her if she tells them that she’s an outworlder. Blake’s group is met by a soldier, Lucius, who’s thrilled by Medra’s appearance, calling her a “blightborn.” Blake reveals to Medra that he and his soldiers are vampires—or “highbloods”—who rule the land of Sangratha and that she, a mortal, is now their property. He explains that her red hair and pointed ears mark her as different from other mortals. Blake now plans to take Medra to the Black Keep, an onyx castle on one of three islands off the coast.

At the Black Keep, Medra is taken before a great hall crowded with leering vampires. A noblewoman rips out a few strands of Medra’s hair; Blake demands them back and pockets the strands himself. Medra is presented to a council on a dais, led by Blake’s uncle Lord Viktor Drakharrow. As she stands before them, a mysterious female voice speaks inside Medra’s mind, taking Medra by surprise.

The council debates Medra’s fate. They recognize her physical traits—red hair, pointed ears, and lithe build—as the marks of a dragon rider, a lineage thought extinct. Riders died out with dragons, hundreds of years ago. A young highblood named Regan Pansera steps forward first and urges Viktor to kill or expel Medra. Another highblood, Lord Mortis, proposes three options for Medra: Test her blood and offer her to the goddess, destroy her, or mate with her to preserve the rider bloodline. To save herself, Medra bluffs that she may have the power to bring dragons back, inwardly noting that there are no dragons in her home world. Intrigued by Medra’s words, Viktor decides that Medra will live but must be bound to his nephew. He performs a blood ritual that magically connects Medra and Blake, leaving a permanent teardrop-shaped mark on their wrists. Viktor then announces to the hall that Medra is now the Second Betrothed Consort to Prince Blake Drakharrow. Across the hall, Medra sees the furious face of Blake’s First Betrothed, Regan. Medra also spots a little girl in the hall, looking bored.

Blake leads Medra from the Black Keep to a different castle, revealing that it’s Bloodwing Academy, a school that Medra must attend with him to learn the ways of the ruling highblood. Blake and Medra argue about their forced betrothal; Blake is contemptuous of Medra, stating she’s beneath him and that he never would have chosen her willingly for a consort. Blake explains that the academy is divided into four powerful vampire houses—Drakharrow, Avari, Orphos, and Mortis—and that students are sorted into subclasses: warriors, healers, strategists, and scouts. Dragon riders were once a fifth class but are now considered extinct.

Blake informs Medra that Regan will show her around the next day and then gives her a brief tour before abandoning her at the First-Year dormitory. Inside, a student warden, Florence Shen, welcomes Medra. Florence, a mortal, explains that the dormitory is for non-vampires and shows Medra to a private room equipped with a wardrobe of school uniforms. Alone, Medra reflects on her bizarre new reality as a vampire’s captive, betrothed, and student. To explain her complete ignorance of highblood society, Medra decides to pretend that she’s from a land very far from Sangratha and has lost her memories.

The next morning, Regan greets Medra with surprising warmth, addressing her as “sister.” Regan explains that she and Medra are now tied as co-consorts and must look out for each other. Triads, such as Medra, Blake, and Regan, are a common arrangement for highblood alliances, a means to consolidate power. Medra is surprised but grateful at Regan’s change of heart. In the refectory, Medra meets members of Blake’s circle: His irreverent cousin Theo Drakharrow; his friend Coregon Phiri; and two other nobles, Quinn Riley and Visha Vaidya.

Blake is sullen and quickly leaves after Theo jokes about tasting Medra’s blood. Theo warms up to Medra and points out other prominent students, including Kage Tanaka, leader of House Avari, and Catherine Mortis, leader of House Mortis, who’s accompanied by two blood-bonded servants known as thralls. Thralls are mortals who effectively function as blood bags for the highblood, supposedly of their own volition. When Medra describes the practice as barbaric, Quinn cruelly implies that her betrothed, Blake, is much worse, coming from a “traditional” family that used to hunt and kill mortals. After Regan leaves to change, Theo remains with Medra, continuing to explain the dynamics of the school’s four houses.

Regan returns and shares a timetable with Medra, escorting her to her first class, History of Sangratha, but both are supposedly under the mistaken impression that the class begins at 9:30 am. Medra arrives to find that she’s 20 minutes late. The instructor, a mortal named Professor Amina Hassan, publicly humiliates Medra for her tardiness and perceived arrogance. When Medra questions the exploitative power dynamics in vampire society, Professor Hassan delivers a lecture presenting highbloods as the saviors of mortals. According to Hassan, the first vampires were created after a young woman, known as the Bloodmaiden, sacrificed herself and revived the dying land with her blood. Her family consumed the soil saturated with her blood and became the first highblood. Time and again, the highblood have rescued mortals, first from a great famine, then from a plague called the Blight of Shadows, and then the Dragon Cataclysm. Recognizing the sacrifice of the Bloodmaiden and the highblood, mortals willingly accept them as their superiors. Though Medra pretends to listen to Hassan, she knows that what the professor is parroting is official, one-sided history.

After class, Medra learns from her new acquaintances, Florence and a dwarf named Naveen Sharma, that the school bells ring to signal classes, but she hadn’t heard them. They hurry to their next class, Restoration.

In Restoration, taught by Professor Gabriel Rodriguez, Medra remembers Regan asking her to raise the subject of dragon healers for extra points. However, the question enrages Professor Rodriguez, who recounts the painful family story of his ancestor, a great healer who was killed on a futile mission to save a dying dragon. He accuses Medra of being part of a scheme to trigger him and assigns her detention during lunch, as well as a 50-page end-of-term essay on dragon history.

After class, Rodriguez confronts Medra, suspecting that she’s an agent of Viktor Drakharrow, who he believes may have a secret dragon. Medra denies the professor’s accusations. Rodriguez leaves Medra to clean a dusty storeroom and read from a stack of dragon books during the lunch hour.

Medra rushes from her detention to her next class, Advanced Weaponry. Florence intercepts Medra, warning her that the class is a dangerous, upper-level course for vampires only and that her schedule has clearly been sabotaged. Inside the training courtyard, Medra finds Blake, Visha, Quinn, and Coregon. The instructor, Professor Sankara, is delayed, and Blake is supervising. Visha immediately challenges Medra to a spear fight, and Blake allows it to happen.

Initially, the vampire Visha’s superior speed and strength overwhelm Medra. However, as the fight progresses, Medra taps into what feel like latent rider instincts, her senses sharpening and her endurance surprising her opponent. Medra also applies the training in combat that she received from her mentor Odessa in Aercanum. Medra turns the tables and disarms Visha, winning the duel. As Medra leaves the ring, Visha attacks her from behind, starting a vicious brawl. Visha breaks Medra’s nose and ribs and is about to stab her when Professor Sebastian Sankara finally arrives and stops the fight, berating Visha for cheating. Blake is standing beside him. Impressed by Medra’s fighting prowess, Sankara decides that she will officially join the class, citing the historical precedent of mortal riders training alongside highblood warriors. He then orders Blake to escort the injured Medra to the house healer.

As Blake escorts Medra through the halls, the scent of her blood agitates younger vampire students. They’re confronted by Kage Tanaka and his House Avari entourage. One of Kage’s followers, Kiernan, makes a predatory advance on Medra, and Blake moves with vampire speed, striking Kiernan in the throat and sending him flying into the wall. Blake explains to Medra that her rider blood is uniquely alluring to vampires and pins her against a wall, warning her of the danger she’s in. Medra must practice caution. Blake reveals to Medra that their bond is not yet strong enough for him to feed from her but implies that it eventually will be. Medra feels a surge of anger against Blake, believing that he encouraged Visha to fight her. Medra also realizes that Regan was sabotaging her all through the day.

After being healed at the Drakharrow infirmary, Medra goes to the Dragon Court for the headmaster’s Commencement Address. The courtyard is dominated by four enormous stone dragon statues. There, Headmaster Kim Min-jun delivers a harsh speech stressing excellence as the only worthy value and underscoring the subservience of blightborn students. During the address, Medra feels her mind and body being invaded and realizes with horror that Regan is using magic to control her body.

Under Regan’s mental compulsion, Medra marches to the black dragon statue and climbs it. The woman’s voice in her head returns, furious at Regan’s compulsion but unable to break the powerful vampire spell. Once Medra is atop the dragon’s head, Regan forces her to let out a pathetic roar, which draws ridicule from the gathered students. Headmaster Kim, angered by the disruption, commands the perpetrator to stop. He then uses his own powerful compulsion to override Regan’s and commands Medra to get down. Powerless to resist, Medra leaps from the dragon’s head onto the stones below.

Medra awakens in her room, having been healed from the fall. Florence is by her side and confirms that Regan likely used a coercive vampire ability called “thrallweave” to control her. To discuss her eventful first day, Medra is scheduled to meet with the headmaster the next morning. Concerned for her new friends’ safety, Medra tries to push Florence and Naveen away, but Florence refuses, declaring her loyalty to Medra.

Alone, Medra confronts the voice in her head. The entity reveals that she’s the spirit of Medra’s mother, Orcades, who died giving birth to her. Orcades explains that a fragment of her soul latched onto Medra’s at the moment of her intended death in her home world, saving Medra’s life by pulling her into Sangratha. Orcades hadn’t anticipated that she would remain stuck in Medra’s head.

On her way to meet the headmaster, Medra argues with the spirit of Orcades about their situation. Medra is determined to find a way to expel Orcades from her mind, and Orcades suggests researching ancient books.

Headmaster Kim questions Medra about the previous day’s events, but Medra refuses to name Regan as a culprit since she suspects that naming her will only lead to further trouble. Instead, Medra tells Kim that the problem isn’t a single student but the school’s ruthless ethos itself. Professor Sankara arrives at the meeting and successfully petitions for Medra to remain in his Advanced Weaponry class, as she has shown a highly unusual aptitude for warcraft. Professor Rodriguez then storms in, arguing that Medra is too vulnerable to thrallweave and must be taught a defensive counter-spell called “thrallguard,” which he can teach her privately. After a debate, Kim agrees to the additional classes, and Medra’s schedule is officially revised to include both advanced combat and private magical defense training.

Medra’s second day is much calmer until Advanced Weaponry, where she sees a shirtless Blake training. While watching Blake’s tattoo-covered physique, she’s forced to confront her unwilling attraction to him. Medra finally puts Blake out of her mind while Professor Sankara works with her one-on-one to build her strength.

Afterward, Medra attends Basic Combat for Blightborns, a class taught by the legendary dwarven scout Magda Stonefist, also known as “Grimblade,” a legendary warrior. The class focuses on practical survival skills for mortals. Medra excels, handily beating a second-year student, Lace Ironstride, in a sparring match. After class, Naveen recounts what he knows of the last civil war—that House Avari and House Mortis were allied against House Drakharrow and House Orphos—though he acknowledges that his knowledge is incomplete and tells Medra to ask Florence for details.

Medra goes to the Bloodwing Library to research how to remove a spirit from a host body so that she can separate Orcades from herself. Medra meets Florence’s mother, Jia Shen, a kind but timid blightborn librarian. Visha and Quinn arrive and openly bully Jia, knocking over her book cart. Theo, accompanying the highblood women, appears ashamed and picks up a few books to hand back to Jia before putting his head down and disappearing down the aisle. Jia explains that this harassment from Drakharrow students is new and likely retaliation for Florence’s friendship with Medra. However, when Medra tells Jia that she will stay away from Florence to protect her friend, Jia dismisses the suggestion.

Medra asks Jia for books on “soul magic” under the guise of a school project. The texts that she receives on necromancy and blood magic are discouraging, suggesting that separating a soul from its host is almost always fatal. As she studies, Regan and Blake walk by, indulging in a public display of affection for Medra’s benefit. Soon after, a guilt-ridden Theo approaches Medra to apologize for his part in sabotaging her first day and invites her to a nightly bonfire party on the beach, which Medra declines.

Finally, Blake approaches her table and taunts her for reading a book on dragons, which he dismisses as ancient history. He tells her that she should be grateful the dragons are gone, calling them even more brutal than vampires. His comment sparks Medra’s determination to learn everything she can about dragons.