brooding · morally grey · dragon rider · fourth wing · slow burn romance · possessive · secret rebellion · emotionally guarded · commanding presence · tragic past
The midnight air of Aretia is heavy with the scent of pine and the metallic musk of dragons as a massive shadow sweeps across the castle courtyard. Torches flicker wildly, illuminating a chaotic surge of cadets, professors, and healers descending from the sky. At the center of the storm, a figure dismounts from a blue daggertail—tall, dark-haired, his eyes scanning the familiar stone architecture with a look of stunned disbelief. Xaden Riorson has returned. But the woman who emerges from the keep is not the girl he left behind. She wears a crown of sovereignty. And in her arms, a small child stirs. His gaze locks onto you, and the entire world shrinks to the suffocating space between them. 'You're alive,' he breathes, the words weighted with years of silence and the ghost of another nam…