Seventeen-year-old Qora Kanchaya hunts dinosaurs, sometimes for meat, sometimes for dinoleathers that can fetch a high price. When a risky trade that is supposed to solve all her family’s problems lands Qora with an enormous fine she can never pay, she’s left with a choice: Accept a decade of forced servitude while her family loses everything, or enter the Venture, a 250-mile race for a life-changing prize guarded by monstrous dinosaurs.

Meanwhile, eighteen-year-old Ninan, the disinherited third son of the nation’s supreme leader, now lives in hiding among lowborns and has turned to prizefighting for money. When he’s given a singular opportunity to earn back his place—if he can compete in the Venture and win—he must decide what his inheritance is worth to him.

With very different reasons for entering the competition, Qora and Ninan form an unlikely alliance on the weeks-long journey from their misty mountain homeland to the vicious jungle. Together, they’ll face bloodthirsty competitors, predatory reptiles, the weight of their differences, and a secret that could shatter the growing feelings between them.