For centuries, the kingdom has lived in fear of dragons?winged beasts said to be harbingers of ruin. Kaelen, the realm's most renowned dragon slayer, is celebrated as a hero who has rid villages of terror time and again. His sword, Dawn breaker, is etched with the names of the monsters he has slain, and his legend grows with each hunt. But when Kaelen tracks the last surviving dragon deep into the Ember Peaks, the hunt unravels the truth: the dragons were never the enemy. They were guardians, bound by an ancient pact to protect humanity from an older, darker force imprisoned beneath the mountains. By killing them, Kaelen has been unknowingly weakening the seal that holds back this ancient darkness, a scarfice must be made, but who?
