Dominion

Rubi Morningtail has almost no magic and no memory of her life before the Annihilation, the catastrophe that wiped out her homeland three years ago. She now lives as an Azure refugee in the Dominion of the Silver Tyger, where she earns a thin living as a ribbon dancer and keeps her small gift for singing magic hidden. The world around her is split into four rival dominions, and in it power decides everything.

Then Rubi wounds an enormous battle tyger that has turned up on her doorstep. The act brings her to the attention of Blake Axefire, a supreme metal mage who leads the royal Tyger Warriors and is the last person an Azure refugee should trust. His punishment is to throw her into the Bonding, a savage trial in which tygers pick their riders and kill everyone else. Nobody expects her to live through it.

She does live, and the survival lands her on Blake's elite team. Their task is to reseal the Anchors that hold back the Demon Realm, while rebels attack, demons stir and the dominions edge toward war with one another. Rubi has to uncover what her magic really is and what happened in her forgotten past. All the while she fights a pull toward the ruthless warrior beside her, who could turn out to be her salvation or her undoing.

This is a fantasy romance steeped in Chinese mythology, from the author of Girl in Translation and Searching for Sylvie Lee.