The Dragon Who Would Not Be Ridden

At Highreach Academy, dragons are not meant to choose. They are trained, ranked, saddled, and forced through deadly Bell Gates in front of cheering crowds. Then one black dragon refuses. Milo Hartley is not a rider. He is a Groundborn stable boy with no license, no noble crest, and no place among the elite students who race across the sky. But when the feared dragon Rook panics during a public flight and a student falls toward the clouds below, Milo sees what everyone else misses.
Rook is not attacking. He is terrified. For breaking the rules to save a life, Milo should be expelled. Instead, he is punished with the most dangerous assignment at Highreach: care for the dragon no one can control and serve as an auxiliary handler for a broken Skyline Run team nobody believes in. Rook hates bells. The academy hates failure. The nobles hate being challenged by a stable boy. And somewhere beneath the shine of Highreach's towers, old records and older scars suggest that the truth about dragons may be more dangerous than any race.
To survive, Milo must earn the trust of a dragon who will not be ridden, a team that does not yet know how to stand together, and a sky that punishes every mistake with a fall. Because in the Skyline Run, victory is not only about speed. It is about knowing when to hold on. And when to let go.