What happens to a phoenix who never learns to fly? She’s done waiting to find out.
- Series: Richmond Academy, Book 4 of 5
- Author: W.M. Dawson
- Genre: YA fantasy, magic school
- 🌶️ Spice: 0.5, kissing, holding, and yearning
- Kindle Unlimited: yes
About the book
Shayla Montgomery survived the Earthbinding. She’s not sure she’ll survive what comes after it.
The wind tunnel beneath Richmond Academy has been unstable since the night she touched it — and it isn’t calming down. The council wants it contained. Her father wants a guardian worth the family name. And Shayla just wants to make it through one term without losing control of the one thing she can’t afford to lose control of: herself.
Then the new cohort arrives, and Shayla realizes the tunnel was never the real threat.
A silver-eyed transfer student who watches too closely. A water-shifter with a smile like a closing door and secrets to match. A quiet historian who seems to know more about Richmond’s buried history than anyone should — including the parts about guardians who never finished what they started, and the family that’s spent generations deciding who gets to try.
Somewhere in that history is an answer Shayla’s been too afraid to look for: what happens to a phoenix who never learns to fly.
You’ll love this if you like
Elemental magic · mysterious new students · academy secrets · slow burn · found family · a heroine taking control of her own story
Content notes
Emotionally controlling parent · peril and violence · mild language · YA. See all content notes.
Keep reading
The finale, Trial by Spirit, arrives December 15, 2026. Pre-orders are open now.
