Ashes of Akkia

For centuries, the Empire of Akkia has ruled from the backs of dragons. The High Temples teach that dragons are unclean creatures born from ancient sin, their blood cursed and their minds poisonous to ordinary people. Only the unwanted may touch them. Only the discarded may survive them. So every year, orphaned and enslaved children are taken from the empire's lowest ranks and delivered to the Temple Hatcheries, where dragon eggs lie beneath black stone vaults warmed by volcanic fire.
Most children do not survive the bonding. Those who do are no longer fully human. Seventeen-year-old Lyra has spent her life believing death in the hatcheries would be kinder than the future awaiting her. Raised in the salt mines after her mother's execution, she has learned to survive through silence, obedience, and invisibility. But when a violent black dragon hatches before her and imprints instead of killing her, the bond sends shockwaves through the temple hierarchy.
Because the dragon should not exist. Known in forbidden texts as a "memory bearer, " the creature carries the fractured echoes of riders long erased from Akkian history. Through terrifying dreams and shared memories, Lyra begins seeing glimpses of the past: dragons who once chose their riders freely, temples built not for worship but control, and a forgotten war buried beneath centuries of lies. As political unrest spreads across the empire and rival houses prepare for war, the High Temple orders Lyra and her dragon to the front lines before the truth hidden within the bond can surface.
But the deeper their connection grows, the more dangerous they become - to the empire, to the dragons, and to themselves. For the bond between rider and dragon was never meant to enslave.