The fragile daughter of a ruthless general is forced into the deadliest quadrant of the kingdom's war college — cross the parapet, survive the marked ones who want her dead, and bond a dragon or burn. The Original Line of Basgiath: ride it as it's written, or survive it your own way.
A marked child of the rebellion assigned to watch Violet and grown, against all the politics, into her truest friend and self-appointed shield. Warm, funny, fiercely protective; proof that the marked ones are people, not the villains the kingdom made them.
Rider cadet · marked one · Xaden's right hand
Garrick
One of Xaden's inner circle of marked ones — a huge, capable rider whose loyalty to his own is absolute and whose calm hides how lethal he is. The steady muscle of the rebellion's children, dry-humoured and unshakeable.
Rider cadet · the cruel rival
JackBarlowe
A vicious, ambitious cadet who decides on day one that killing the general's fragile daughter would make his name — the quadrant's casual cruelty given a face. Sadistic, entitled, exactly the kind of predator the parapet was built to breed.