CHRONICLES OF THE STARBORN BEASTMASTER

Aurelion Academy hadn't seen a failed bonding in seventeen years. Then came Kael Ardent. Born with a cracked soul core, Kael is the academy's first failure in a generation—mocked in front of five thousand witnesses when no beast will answer his call. But in the moment of his deepest humiliation, something else answers: a vision of the academy in flames beneath a blood-red moon, seven days away. The power that broke Kael may be the only thing that can save everyone who laughed at him. In the ruins beneath the school he bonds with Nyxara, an ancient shadow-and-starlight beast no student was ever meant to touch—and learns that his fractured core doesn't hold ordinary magic. It holds a key. One the Hollow Court has waited centuries to turn. To stop the red moon attack, Kael must master a forbidden bond, outwit the nobles who despise him, and decide what kind of weapon a broken thing becomes. Sometimes the one who doesn't fit is the only one who can hold the line.