Rites Of The Starling

She survived the trials that killed nineteen others. Now she must survive the truth that could destroy them all.
Mira never believed she deserved to fly. Six years ago, she made a choice that cost her brother his life—and she’s been punishing herself ever since. But when she’s assigned to the Rites of the Starling, deadly magical trials where Grounded earn wings or die trying, survival becomes her only act of defiance.

The trials were supposed to kill her. They made her dangerous instead.
Alongside Kael—a sarcastic Winged rebel with secrets of his own—and Lira—a healer who believes hope is stronger than fear—Mira discovers the Rites aren’t just brutal. They’re corrupt. The system designed to transform the worthy is actually slaughtering the inconvenient.
And the man enforcing it? The High Warden who murdered her brother.

When surviving means becoming complicit, revolution becomes the only choice.
Armed with forbidden knowledge and a growing attraction she can’t afford, Mira faces an impossible decision: expose the truth and risk everything, or stay silent and let the killing continue.
But speaking truth to power has consequences. Friends will be tortured. Allies will fall. And the wings she fought so hard to earn may cost her the one person who makes her believe she deserves to fly.