Aether and Ash

 Born without Aether in a realm carved by it, Mirabelle was never meant to matter. While warriors are forged into Hunters- those who chase, tame, and command the Aether-born creatures of Telmoria, Mirabelle was raised in the dorms beneath their estates, scrubbing floors, counting nickels for spoiled bread, and learning early that hope was a kind of cruelty. Escape was a story she stopped telling herself years ago. 

Fight, however, was still hers to claim. When a royal Trial meant to showcase power spirals into carnage, a creature no warrior can control turns its fury on the crowd, and locks eyes with her. And Mirabelle, who has nothing, does the unthinkable. She threatens the Heir of Atlassian himself, to leash the beast his court failed to contain. What should have ended in silence instead earns her the attention of Damien Azarios, the coldest blade Clan Atlassian has ever bred. A Sovereign-in-waiting carved in discipline and control, Damien does not make exceptions. Yet he wants this unfortunate anomaly, the girl, to be exactly that: a single, erasable exception. But sometimes, exceptions become the ink that rewrites fate. Especially when the world is already beginning to fracture. 

Across the Realm, ancient beasts stir from slumber, and Clan built on centuries of dominion is now being hunted by the very forces they once claimed to master. Something older than Aether is waking, and it remembers what was stolen. To claim the place fate forced upon her, Mirabelle must become more than the girl they abandoned years ago. A soldier. A symbol. And something harder, someone who stands when no one stays, who fights to earn the ground she never asked to walk.