Eighteen-year-old Milo Whitaker thought Brightleaf Books was only a bookstore.

Dusty shelves. Quiet mornings. His grandfather behind the counter, pretending the past had stayed buried.

Then the basement begins to pulse with heat, the old mirror in the back room opens onto another world, and Milo discovers the truth Arthur has hidden for thirty years: beneath the bookstore rests a stolen dragon egg, and the world it came from has finally come to reclaim it.

Marked by ancient fire and bound to the hatchling inside the shell, Milo crosses into Ember Peaks, a realm of dragons, mountain flame, and old laws that do not forgive easily. To the High Flame, his bond may be the first bridge between humans and dragons in centuries. To the Ashen Court, it is proof that humans cannot be trusted.

And on Earth, a grieving scientist has found a way to force the breach wider.

As machines tear at the boundary between worlds and dragons prepare for war, Milo must decide what kind of bridge he is willing to become. If he returns home, the fracture may quiet for a time. If he stays, he may be the only one who can stop both worlds from falling into the wound between them.

But fire does not choose the fearless.

It chooses the one who listens.