BookThe rebel city has a giant ward stone that could protect it from the monsters, but it doesn't work. The only instructions are in the archives of the war college, so Violet goes back undercover.
Show the full plot (spoilers)
The new vice commandant, Major Varrish, demands to see Violet's young dragon, who is stuck in a magical growth sleep. When she refuses, he makes her wield lightning until she nearly burns out, and interrogation training is torture in all but name. Meanwhile Violet and Xaden are together, sort of, but he keeps secrets and she is done with them.
Eventually Violet snaps. Varrish dies, and Violet, Xaden and Dain tell the whole school the truth about the monsters. Two hundred riders desert with them.
The big reveal: the stone needs seven types of dragon to work, and there are only six. Except Violet's little dragon belongs to a seventh breed nobody knew existed.
How it ends
In the final battle the wards fail and the monsters hit the war college. Violet's old bully Jack is now one of them. Her brother repairs the stone, and her mother gives her own life to power it. To save Violet, Xaden pulls magic straight from the earth, and afterwards Violet sees his eyes rimmed in red. He has started turning into the thing they are fighting.
Next in The EmpyreanOnyx Storm
