Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

by Rebecca Yarros

You’re going to love Violet. She’s smart and stubborn. Reminds me a lot of you, actually. You just have to remember when you meet her: she’s not her mother. —Recovered Correspondence of Cadet Liam Mairi to Sloane Mairi

“I waited six hundred and fifty years to hatch. Waited until your eighteenth summer, when I heard our elders talk of the weakling daughter of their general, the girl forecasted to become the head of the scribes, and I knew. You would have the mind of a scribe and the heart of a rider. You would be mine.”

“You are not a black dragon, or any of the six that we know of. You’re a seventh breed.”

“You must save yourself,” Tairn demands. “I chose you not as my next, but as my last, and should you fall, then I will follow.”

Most generals dream of dying in service to their kingdom. But you know me better than that, my love. When I fall, it will be for one reason only: to protect our children. —Recovered, Unsent Correspondence of General Lilith Sorrengail

“Me,” he whispers, a faint, almost indistinguishable red ring emanating from his gold-flecked onyx irises. “You should be scared of me.”

We have tried every method we know of, as you requested. There is no cure. There is only control. —Missive from Lieutenant Colonel Nolon Colbersy to General Lilith Sorrengail

“I told you once that you’d turn for love,” he says, holding his arms out. “And so you shall.”