Her land is in the Empire of Zeved ever since its conquest, but this does not touch them much. The only exception is when the Aurati, an order of women who serve the Empire, visit each year and their seers deliver prophecies. On this occasion, the seers do more than prophesy: they decide Kaia, Maren's girlfriend, has their gift and will come with them. Maren is devastated when Kaia's taken away, and vows to get her back no matter what.
To do this, she determines she'll take a dragon, which the Empire has since no human can stand against them. Dragons come from her country originally and her people have an ancient bond with them. Infiltrating the nearby dragon fortress that keeps them, Maren finds increasing danger but also unexpected allies, with her quest soon growing to encompass far more than she ever planned before, while she discovers her own gifts that involve dragons.
The books are a duology written by Rebecca Kim Wells. Shatter the Sky came out in 2019 and Storm the Earth followed the next year.
Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: The emperor is sliding toward this by the second book, as his ruinous taxes, along with conscription and repression of dissent in general turns most citizens against him. Only the nobles (mostly) and the Talons (dragon riders) are loyal to him, rather than simply going along in fear. The former is because he keeps them in the lap of luxury, while the latter are honored as his elite soldiers. It's the Talons who have kept him on the throne even in the face of growing popular loathing, because no one can fight a dragon. Once that begins to change, he's doomed as riots and rebellion spreads.
- Action Girl: Maren is competent with a knife or her bare hands. She uses trickery and evasion however far more, or dragons she's bonded to fight on her behalf.
- Aerith and Bob: The books intersperse names that are real or close to it with invented ones, like Maren, Kaia, Rashida vs Ferrik, Kellyn, Patak etc.
- Agony Beam: Faris has the power to remake the pain from any old wound a person has suffered and so torture them by inflicting this once again.
- Amazon Brigade: Though they're not primarily warriors, the Aurati are an all-female group who have warriors among them.
- Amicable Exes: Maren and Kaia seem to be this way or heading toward it after they've broken up by the end. They at least are polite and respectful to each other.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Right before Kaia is taken away after she at last found her once again, Maren declares her love for her.
- Armored Dragon: Emperor Rafael has his dragon Vix in armor for the final battle.
- Aura Vision: In book two, Maren begins seeing dragons' essences, a bright glow around their bodies.
- Big Bad: Emperor Rafael is the main villain of the story, as a cruel, greedy and repressive ruler whose actions lie behind everything bad in the story (or continues the evil his predecessors did).
- The Big Damn Kiss: Maren foresees herself kissing Sev after the two meet in the imperial palace. When they do, it's after she's broken up with her girlfriend, and signifies that she chooses him instead. They become lovers after this.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Maren is in a committed relationship with her girlfriend Kaia at the start of the story. Then once Kaia gets taken captive, Maren immediately sets out to rescue her. In doing so, she meets and befriends a young man, Sev, with similar goals. Maren and he become attracted to each other though she feels guilty about this, still loving Kaia, rekindling their love when they reunite. She's told both are her heartmates by the Prophet of the Aurati, but dismisses it as a lie at first. Maren though continues having a bond with Sev. Kaia and her drift apart over time due to experience changing them, and Maren leaves her, ending up with Sev at the end.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Piera, a noblewoman who Sev knew years before, acts like she's on his side and will help him against the emperor Rafael, her husband. It turns out she's loyal to Rafael and sets Sev up for him, exposing his plans.
- Blood Magic: Maren is bonded with the old mother dragon Naava through drinking Naava's blood with her own shed into a fire near her.
- Bond Creatures: Dragons here must choose humans before they accept them as riders, and can telepathically tell if the human is worthy. However, aromatic oils are used by humans too in influencing dragons' minds using the smell, such as by calming them. The Prophet of the Aurati bonds with a dragon through drinking the dragon's blood while shedding her own into a fire. Maren though bonds with them through kindness and understanding after she communicates via telepathy.
- Breath Weapon: The dragons here, as usual, breathe fire. However, they are unharmed by fire themselves.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: The Prophet of the Aurati cannot lie. It's linked to her power of prophesying.
- Child of Two Worlds: Maren is the child of a Zefedi father and Verran mother. The Zefedi conquered the Verrans, while ruling their land still. While her parents love each other and have a good marriage, it's something that puts her in the middle between the two peoples. Maren too stands out from her Verran neighbors, as she inherited Zefedi looks from her father. Nonetheless, she considers herself fully a Verran due to being raised among them. She's glad while being in the midst of Zefedi however that her height and skin color (unusual among Verrans) don't stand out, as they had before all her life, which lets her blend with them.
- Coming of Age Story: Maren, who is seventeen when the story starts, goes on a quest to rescue Kaia, her girlfriend. She has to take on significant responsibility and danger while doing so, growing into a strong young woman as a result.
- Damsel in Distress: Kaia is taken away by the Aurati seers to join their order, against her will. Maren, her girlfriend, goes to get her back.
- Distressed Dude: Sev gets taken captive at the end of the first book and imprisoned by the emperor, with Maren going to rescue him.
- Dragon Rider: The Empire of Zefed has them, called Talons, the dragon guard. Earning the right to ride a dragon however is difficult. Only the Zefedi are given them. The Verran people had them originally before the Zefedi conquered them. However, they are still in the dragon mountains as dragons will die if taken away too far. Verrans are barred from work in the fortress housing the dragons and riders. All the Verrans despise it. Long ago, the Verrans had ridden dragons as well and even breathed fire too it's said. They were only defeated after a Zefedi emperor stole them, which explains their animus for this. The bond between a rider and dragon is reputedly unbreakable when raised up from a hatchling. Maren infiltrates where the dragons are raised to get one so she can become a dragon rider and go rescue her girlfriend, who has been taken captive by the emperor's servants. Different oils are used to control and train the dragons it's revealed, which Maren learns about. She eventually rides a dragon herself, through winning her trust instead of control with the oils. It turns out that the emperor is himself a dragon rider, riding the biggest one, named Vix the Ruiner. The Senatese, a people who he wants to conquer, also have (free) dragons whom they ride it's revealed, and defeated his own dragon riders through using them. Control over dragons is what makes the empire so powerful since no human soldiers can beat them. The dragon riders (called Talons) are thus the most elite soldiers the empire has.
- Dragon Tamer: The imperial dragons are controlled and raised by the use of special oils whose smells affect them, but this leads to their enslavement or worse. Maren on the other hand is a positive counterpart, singing to the dragons and bonding with them. She raises one, Tasia, from a hatchling and never misuses her gift, freeing the dragons instead.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The Aurati Prophet actually gets visions of the future due to telepathic bonding with a captive dragon, who dreams about these things. Maren starts having them too after she bonds with the dragon on freeing it.
- The Emperor: Rafael, the emperor of Zefed. He's also often called the Flame of the West. A cruel tyrant, he rules over four conquered kingdoms, whose monarchs are answerable to him, with the Aurati (an all-female order) and dragon riders enforcing his will. The main villain of the story, he is a man driven by greed who will do anything to get his way. Due to his increasing repression which incites common people's hatred, almost nobody really likes him.
- The Empire: The empire of Zefed, which has conquered several countries and is waging war against others for this purpose. It's pretty obviously bad to the reader not only because of this but also using dragons as its tools in a very cruel way, though most Zefedi are indoctrinated into supporting it. A resistance exists however, with some Zefedi opposing it. They constitute an elite in the empire, which claims its wars are caused by those they conquer.
- Erotic Dream: Maren dreams of herself passionately kissing Sev, reflecting her attraction to him. It makes her feel guilty as she's already with Kaia, her girlfriend.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The emperor is mostly called this or The Flame of the West, his other title. It's not until in the second book that we learn his name is Rafael.
- Eye Scream: Sev stabs Rafael in the eye with a shard of glass during their fight.
- Fantastic Naming Convention: Zefedi people often have last names in the form of 'ben' something (e.g. Gao or Garret), but not always.
- Fed to the Beast: Emperor Rafael keeps an oubliette inside his palace which houses starved dragons who had failed the rider training, feeding people to them who displeased him.
- Fingore: Sev has his fingers broken whenever he lies when he's being questioned by the emperor as a form of torture. He gets threatened with them being severed entirely too if he keeps lying.
- Gaydar: Maren is pegged by Vienne, a Zefedi girl around her age, as feeling attracted to other girls very quickly after they meet. Vienne soon hits on her as a result.
- Gender-Restricted Ability: Only a girl of the Verran people can become the Prophet, as their people are mystically linked with the dragons who provide this gift. Even then, only a few actually can do it.
- Greed: Emperor Rafael is driven by incessant desire to conquer more land and gain greater power, no matter the cost. It undermines his rule, since taking so many resources and conscription for this has increased opposition to him.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Kaia grows increasingly jealous of Maren's feelings for Sev when they reunite, becoming paranoid Maren wants him instead of her. Maren is loyal to her though at first, but Kaia's envious attitude ironically serves to slowly drive them apart, along with other things.
- Hereditary Homosexuality: Kaia has two mothers, and is also seeing Maren, another girl.
- Hiding Your Heritage: Maren hides anything which would show she's of Verran heritage, putting on Zefedi clothing and going by their customs to infiltrate a Zefedi fortress. As her father is Zefedi, with Maren's looks akin to his, she passes physically quite well. Her name is also Zefedi, after his mother.
- I Have Your Wife: Emperor Rafael tries to coerce Maren into standing down when she's fighting him near the end by holding Sev hostage, who he knows she cares for. It doesn't work.
- Immediate Sequel: The second book starts exactly where the first left off.
- Inciting Incident: Kaia being taken away by the Aurati to forcibly join them kicks the plot off, as Maren determines she'll rescue her, no matter what this takes.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Sev has his fingers broken whenever he lies while being questioned by the emperor.
- King Incognito: Sev it turns out is the shadow prince, the last surviving member of Ruzi's royal family after the rest were killed by the emperor for treason. He has been living as a fugitive for years since and even infiltrated an imperial dragon fortress. Maren is at first betrayed because he didn't tell her, but soon understands.
- Magic Music: Though not explicitly called magic, the dragon songs which Maren (along with dragons, naturally) sing (both vocally and telepathically) can often wake up drugged, enslaved dragons, freeing them from their stupors.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: After they reunite, Kaia and Maren have sex in the forest.
- Mama Bear: Naava is the mother of all the dragons. She sets out to free all of them after Maren has liberated her, unwilling to rest if any remain slaves.
- Mercy Kill: It's not stated explicitly but even so clear that Naava kills the dragons in the oubliette as they are too mad due to abuse and cannot recover.
- Middle Name Basis: Sev goes by this, rather than his first name Vesper. It comes from his middle name we find out, Severin. He used it while a fugitive to escape detection.
- Mindlink Mates: Maren is mentally linked with the girlfriend Kaia, it turns out, experiences flashes of things she goes through. It appears to be one way though. The same thing happens with her and Sev too.
- The Modest Orgasm: The second time they're described as having sex, Kaia cries out very quietly when Maren brings her to climax.
- Muggle–Mage Romance: Maren's relationship with Kaia is turned into this as she has clairvoyant ability that Kaia's shown to lack. She later breaks up with Kaia and sees Sev, who also lacks magic.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Not all Zefedi believe in the empire, it's shown. Sev hates the way dragons are treated under the emperor's commands, and his tyranny overall. He reveals that his entire family were killed as a result of speaking out against the emperor. Maren's father too is Zefedi and a good man who embraces life among the Verrans after marrying one, her mother. It turns out there's an entire resistance movement among the Zefedi later.
- The Needs of the Many: Naava agrees to help Maren with rescuing Sev as she owes her for being freed. She's not willing to if it's a choice between this and rescuing all the dragons (her children) however, asking Maren if she would really expect that.
- Non-Heteronormative Society: Everyone fully accepts people who enter into same-sex relationships. Maren and Kaia, two girls, openly date. In addition, Kaia has two mothers and this is a public fact no one comments about. This appears to apply not only with the Verrans of Ilvera, but also their Zefedi rulers, since they don't comment on this either. Some of the Zefedi are also quite open about hitting on people with the same sex, and no one cares. Also, a couple people are referred to with they/them pronouns (presumably nonbinary) whom again no one bats an eye at.
- Oh, My Gods!: Characters swear by Tera's bones mostly (presumably a deity they believe in) or wish other people well with "Tera be with you".
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Sev is only called this usually. It turns out that his full name is Vesper Severin. He was a fugitive in hiding, therefore only going by this makes sense.
- The Order: The Aurati are an elite group of women who serve the Zefedi emperor. Most serve as the administrators in different places, reporting back to him. Some however have magical gifts, such as the seers, predicting the future for not only him but also his subjects. Any girls they find with the same gift are forcibly inducted into their ranks. Others are taken on voluntarily as apprentices.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They are scaly fire-breathing reptiles with wings as per usual, but different in several other ways from common depictions. Dragons have telepathy, communicate by song and can be controlled with aromatic oils due to a strong sense of smell (they can tell any individual human apart from others easily). They can bond with humans if the conditions are right, by means of an oil, telepathy or both, and be trained to carry them. As in many examples, they can live for centuries, with Naava being this old. Their dreams can also see the future, and humans bound to them can telepathically as well. They have an immunity to dragon fire too.
- Power at a Price: Faris is capable of causing pain to other people, but every time she uses it the harm to herself increases.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: Everyone firmly believes prophecies the Aurati seers give always come true, though according to legend one exception exists: if a person learns a seer's true name and speak it into a clear pool on the night of a new moon, they can not only see the future for themselves but change it. However, soon it's revealed the future is actually uncertain, with the seers at times delivering contradictory visions.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Maren and Kaia are shown to be girlfriends very early on when after the two begin skinny dipping together they make out passionately.
- La Résistance: There is an organized rebellion within the empire called the Dragons it turns out, with Sev part of it, aiming to overthrow Emperor Rafael.
- Revenge: Sev tells Maren his motive for opposing the empire is vengeance as his family was killed for opposing the emperor. He finally gets it by killing the emperor himself.
- Rotating Protagonist: In Storm the Earth Sev is the second protagonist, with chapters alternating from showing what happens to him and the primary protagonist Maren.
- Ruling Family Massacre: The entire royal family of Ruzi, aside from Sev, were killed by the emperor for treason over opposing him.
- Seers: The Aurati seers come down from the north every seven years for touring the Empire of Zefed, giving out prophecies and counting its subjects while they receive them. It's called a service, though the people who reside in the dragon mountains know this actually serves as a meant of control for the emperor. They help him by predicting the future often. They are an entirely female order, and occasionally take girls into their ranks, as it seems only women can become Aurati. Maren's girlfriend Kaia is forced into their ranks. It turns out though there's only one Prophet, with the rest just passing on her prophecies or making up vague ones which people buy into. Dragons here are the source of the Prophet's foresight as well, since their dreams can show the future. Prophets thus bind themselves with a dragon to see them via telepathy. Only a few Verran girls can become the Prophet.
- Shared Dream: Maren starts having these with Sev in book two as a result of her telepathy. They can also sometimes get glimpses of things which have yet to happen. It's called dragon dreams, as this comes from dragons ultimately.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: While in Aurati custody, Kaia was repeatedly beaten in an effort to make her supposed seer ability come out. As she had none, it didn't work. They had also kidnapped her to begin with. After she's freed by Maren, Kaia is withdrawn and easily triggered as a result.
- Shoulder-Sized Dragon: Tasia, a dragon hatchling whom Maren raises, is small enough to do this at the start. She often sits on Maren's back or shoulder when they travel.
- Skinny Dipping: Maren goes swimming naked with her girlfriend Kaia at the beginning of the story, making out (at least) in the water together too.
- Slave Liberation: Maren begins freeing dragons as the story progresses, both as a result of being utterly appalled how they're treated by the empire, but also to undermine it as they serve as its greatest weapons. Those she frees in turn help to free others in many cases.
- Slave Race: Dragons in the empire of Zefed are enslaved and used as basically living war machines through drugging with oils which affect their minds.
- Sole Survivor: Sev is the only member of his family alive. The rest were killed as a result of opposing the emperor.
- Switching P.O.V.: In the first book, protagonist Maren is the only POV character. We start seeing things from Sev's perspective in the second book though, with chapters alternating from her to him.
- Telepathy: Maren gets flashes of what her girlfriend Kaia is experiencing over long distances, and can sense what dragons think as well. It later lets her see what Sev is going through as well. Dragons in turn communicate partly by telepathy themselves, and can bond to humans doing so. People can talk by telepathy over vast distances.
- Truth Serum: The Aurati use one to interrogate people. Maren is forced to take it while applying for work in the dragon fortress, so they can tell she isn't working against the emperor. Her plans really would go against him, but use of Exact Words lets her pass. It's later revealed the serum is named Brika's kiss. This doesn't always work either, and can't force people to answer. Once they do though it lowers resistance against truthful answers greatly.
- Uptown Girl: Maren, a commoner, becomes attracted to Sev, who it turns out is a prince. It's mutual, and they later become lovers.
- Would Hurt a Child: Sev relates to Maren how once when the emperor became convinced that people in one city were plotting a rebellion against him, he sent an army over which slaughtered everyone, the children included.
