Definitely Not The Dragon God

Aris scrubs floors at Wyrmrock Academy, and every dragon on the grounds recoils at his presence. When a classmate orders his dragon to burn Aris's hair, the beast refuses—the flames won't touch him. The students mock him for being a charity case, a floor sweeper who will never mount anything but a splintered broom. Aris brushes it off, but the scuffle leaves his nose bleeding. Later, in the headmaster's private study, he dusts a dormant dragon egg tucked away on a shelf. He talks to it in the quiet moments. All dragons despise and avoid him, but this one is just an egg, left in the dark to be forgotten like him. A drop of blood falls from his nose onto the shell. The egg cracks.

Headmaster Victor Thorne sees it happen through a crystal orb and rushes to the study. He risked his life smuggling this sovereign egg out of the deep ruins, and it rejected him so violently he nearly burned alive just brushing its scales. Aris is holding it like a cobblestone, and it's warm—something is moving inside. Thorne tells Aris the egg is a runt, poisoned by his blood, and won't last the week. Dragons have always run from Aris like he's the grim reaper, Thorne says, and that's why he kept him away from them. But silently, to himself, Thorne admits a deeper truth: dragons don't hate Aris. They're terrified of him. They smell the dragon god's chosen on him. This is the secret Thorne has buried for twenty years—if the council ever sensed this power, they would strip his title and hand the academy to Aris. He gives Aris a command pin and sends him to Duke Caspian Valmont, the finest dragon healer on the continent, with a single instruction: if things go south, leave Thorne's name out of it. Aris leaves still believing he is nothing but a curse to every dragon he meets.

Aris arrives at the Valmont stronghold to find a coup in progress. Kane, a captain turned traitor, has cornered Duke Valmont and his foster daughter Bea, demanding the commander's signet ring. Bea fights to protect the man who raised her, but Kane's frost dragon freezes her defenses solid. Aris steps between them with nothing but a bag holding a dying egg and a lie about being a messenger. Kane's dragon lunges. The egg's energy spikes, and a sudden storm rips through the battlefield. In the chaos, Aris grabs the Heaven Breaker, the legendary lance of the first Valmont commander—a weapon that weighs more than a mountain to anyone it hasn't chosen. It pops out of its stone cradle like hollow wood. Aris swings once. Kane falls. Duke Valmont, watching the markings on the egg match ancient texts of the sovereign bloodline, makes a decision on the spot: Aris will marry Bea, join the Obsidian Order, and face the trials. Bea calls him a gutter rat not fit to shine her boots. Aris hands back the relic, protests that he only came to save a dying egg. The Duke tells him to keep the lance. Then the egg convulses. The blast from the battle may have just killed the one creature that ever chose him.