Ember Wake

Jade Moreno is just an exhausted art major trying to survive critiques, caffeine, and a professor who clearly hates her. Then her painting catches fire. Not metaphorically. Actually. What starts as an unexplained incident spirals into something much worse when a dragon claws its way out of her artwork — small, smug, fire-breathing, and very hungry. The dragon insists Jade didn’t summon her by accident. She called her. Through ink, emotion, and something ancient buried in Jade’s blood. Now Jade is branded with a living rune, bound to a creature that can grow into a city-level threat, and attracting attention from people who know exactly what runes like hers can do — and what they’re worth. Between illegal magic, vigilantes with their own dragons, and familiars that keep appearing whether she wants them or not, Jade is forced to navigate a hidden world layered beneath her city — one where art opens doors, names carry power, and creation can be just as destructive as fire. Emberwake is an urban fantasy about magic that bleeds through creativity, bonds that form whether you’re ready or not, and a girl who accidentally turns her sketchbook into a gateway.