Six years ago, the Citadel burned Verum to the ground for an unspeakable crime; the theft of an unhatched deathling. Verum's allies rose up against them in retaliation, held at bay only by the Citadel's military elite: the Rider Corps. Trained soldiers on dragonback continue the war against Verum's allies and the search for the deathling, but when a Riders Corps commander accepts a Verumese survivor as a recruit, the Citadel balks. It is a strategic move for intel, but Breana Avery's knowledge of what happened at Verum may come at a price too steep to pay.