The human world and the world of Myth merged three centuries ago—but some wounds never closed.

One year after Valeria and Wren helped the Archive midwife the first dragon egg since the Merge, the shell finally stirs. That should be a miracle. Instead, Alex—the bookish archivist bound to the egg by a spell he barely understands—feels a wrongness breathing down the stacks.

Out in the wilds, Isabella moves pieces that were set long ago. Her newest pawn, Riven, carries a fire no potion can smother… and orders that will ignite a trap for the city’s defenders. When a black, thinking cloud slips toward the egg and a white?veined Blight starts devouring forest and bone alike, the fragile peace of New Nadezhda buckles.

Old friends and uneasy allies converge: Valeria, Wren, Joshua Lighthouse, Rose and Max, even a dryad who’s learned to swing a blade. Together they’ll have to keep the egg alive long enough to hatch, uncover why fate keeps knotting itself around an anxious librarian, and face a Master who wants the Balance broken for good.

The dragon is almost here. So is everything that wants it dead.