The bond is gone. The danger is not. When Ash awakens in a scorched valley with the soul-bond to Thorne violently severed, she knows only two things for certain: something ancient spared her life… and something even darker is now hunting her. Alone in the unforgiving North, Ash must survive creatures born of ice and nightmares, a witch who craves her newly awakened magic, and the growing realization that the dragon who touched her didn’t just break her bond—it changed her. Fire answers her call now. Easily. Hungrily. But power means nothing if she can’t reach the frozen prison holding the mother she thought was dead. In the Unseelie Court, Thorne faces a trial designed to end him. With the bond’s silence clawing at his mind and enemies circling, he must defend the love the Council calls forbidden—while fearing that Ash may already be lost forever. Across kingdoms of shadow, frost, and fire, two souls once bound must fight their own battles in a world that wants them broken. Because something ancient has awakened… And it has plans for them both. Shadow and Flame is Book 2 of The Firebound Chronicles. Start with Book 1, Midnight's Masquerade , for the full story of Ash and Thorne's forbidden recognition bond.