My life has been built on two things since that fateful day when I was nine years old and I asked my parents to perform the inducement ceremony on me. That spell that allows mages and dragons to take the step from near-human to what we’re going to become. Mages. Dragons. It allows us access to our magic and a dragon’s ability to shift.The very day my parents attacked me. Beat me down. Drove spiked mortmagi into my skull, blinding me and stripping me of my power. And turning me into a stricken.My name is Maddie Stricken now, and my life has been built on two things since that day. Pain is the first. Mortmagi are agony from the moment they go in and every moment after that. You can learn to deal with it. Barely. Yet it’s always there. Always crushing your spirit and trying to drive you into suicide.The other thing?Rage.The people around me know that I try to bury it. I try to keep the human version of me towards the forefront. Yet that core of me is always lurking. Always watching. Always ready. Why? Because sometimes you need it to survive.I needed it when I was young, and I didn’t have it. And now I do. And I will never be dominated again.Except the world doesn’t care about my wants or needs. What happens when we’re forced from Sorrowfeld Academy to one that I’ve never heard of before? Forced into a situation where we’re being staked out to be killed?It’s time to let me drive. Human-me gets to step back and let the other part of me drive. Deepest, darkest rage steps to the forefront and takes over. I need to protect myself. I need to protect what’s mine. I need to protect my new family. And it’ll take everything in me to stop them from dominating me. Us.Our third trial and the ascendant trial are coming, and I want to be ready for it. I have a date with my parents once I find them. Then they’ll get to learn what pain is as they meet the part of me that they were the keystones in forming.I just need to survive something most people don’t.How hard can it be?