CHAPTER 31 - BLAKE

In deep winter, Blake enters the Black Keep at night to reach House Drakharrow’s archives, driven by fear that Medra Pendragon is being pulled toward destruction and by guilt over Theo’s near-death from Aenia. He rejects asking Viktor for access, determined to act without his uncle’s knowledge.

Inside Viktor’s office, Blake picks the archive lock, noting a troubling inner heat and an unsettling mental itch. Searching yields only dry genealogies until Neville, the fluffin who secretly followed him, reveals a hidden panel. Blake enters a concealed study that appears recently used.

Blake finds Bound in Blood and Flame, but crucial pages are torn out, leaving only fragments about bloodlines, intertwined flesh and flame, and a bond that could be curse or salvation. Frustration mounts as the text offers no answers about Blake’s own changes.

He then opens a second book—Viktor Drakharrow’s diary. It reframes the Dragon Wars as a dragon rebellion fueled by highblood brutality and the widespread use of “soul-binding,” where a highblood’s soul is forcibly merged with a rider to chain dragons. The diary details erased records and a council’s plan to instill aversion in descendants to prevent curiosity about dragons and riders.

Piecing this together, Blake concludes Viktor likely knows soul-binding and intends to use Medra as leverage over Nyxaris. Fearing a renewed dragon rebellion if Viktor proceeds, Blake replaces the diary exactly, stows Neville, and leaves, resolved to warn Medra and Nyxaris.