The Wings That Bind

Neville, a small creature called a fluffin, pads through Bloodwing Academy's corridors, sensing a deep wrongness emanating from the Black Keep.

Neville, a small creature called a fluffin, pads through Bloodwing Academy's corridors, sensing a deep wrongness emanating from the Black Keep. He visits a girl with a broken heart—Regan—sitting on the edge of a bed, waiting. Viktor Drakharrow, ancient and terrifying in his scarlet robe, claims her as his new consort. Blake dissolved their triad; Regan's father signed the contract to win back her younger brother Persis, now held hostage by Viktor's allies. Viktor undresses. Regan obeys, retreating into her mind as the most powerful highblood in Sangratha takes what he believes is his. Every caress, she tells herself, buys Persis another sunrise. Afterward, she vows to make them all—especially Blake—fear her.

Viktor installs Regan as headmistress through execution and terror

Students gather in Bloodwing's courtyard after winter break. Headmaster Kim's decaying head sits impaled on an iron stake at the center. Viktor Drakharrow, his face half-melted from a recent battle with his nephew Blake, introduces Regan as the new headmistress. She announces sweeping security measures—lockdown patrols, a new task force, punishments for any who harm highbloods. A blightborn servant woman is brought forward, accused of stealing. Regan condemns her but cannot summon the thrallweave to execute the sentence herself. Viktor does it, forcing the woman to tear out her own throat with her bare hands. The body tumbles into the courtyard snow. Some students step respectfully around it. Others leap over the corpse like children playing a game.

Medra punches Blake, then discovers Viktor maimed him

Blake touches Medra's shoulder in a hallway. She spins and drives her fist into his jaw before recognizing him—the highblood who betrayed her and tried to turn her dragon Nyxaris to stone. Blake doesn't dodge. He says he deserved it. But Medra notices something terrible: one of Blake's eyes is gone, the socket scarring over. She presses until he admits Viktor did this to him—that he'd fought his uncle and nearly killed him but couldn't finish the job. White-hot rage tears through her. She wants to storm the Black Keep. Blake blocks her path, confessing he's terrified for her, that Viktor systematically destroys anyone Blake cares about. They walk to the assembly side by side, the thread between them frayed but reconnecting.

Medra chooses Blake's body over her own numbness After brutally beating a highblood sparring partner so savagely that Blake had to physically haul her off, Medra feels herself splitting apart. She's lost Nyxaris, lost Florence, lost her mother's soul. She doesn't want to be calm anymore. She wants to burn. She drags Blake into the first unlocked classroom, slams the…