Courtney Whims

The Arterian #1

513 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2025

Possession of dragon contraband in the Arterian kingdom is a guaranteed brutal execution.

And when twenty-two-year-old Katerina Blackwind finds a dragon egg buried in her father’s grave, she begins to question everything she thought she knew. She must return the forbidden dragon hatchling north to the secretive Dragon where dragons roam free and a rebellion group resides. But she can’t do it on her own–smuggling a dragon hatchling across the realm during a war between Arterians and rebels means she can be killed by either side. She knows there’s only one person she can truly trust, her old flame, Cole Ashbourne.

Yet Cole is much different than the last time Kat saw deliciously chiseled in all the right places with a raw power lingering beneath the surface. Cole is torn between his responsibilities as a newly-promoted Captain in the King’s military, and his heart.

Danger lurks at every turn, and as more secrets are unearthed Kat is left to question everything she thought she knew about dragons, her family, love, and the kingdom.