The Dragon’s False Weakness

Dorian, second son of a duke, wants what his family has withheld for fifteen years: recognition, and an accounting for his mother's death. His stepmother Morgana and his brother Roland treat him as useless, and the household repeats it after them. What none of them know is that the blood of the ancient dragon kings has woken in him and that he is the only divine-tier mage in three hundred years. He is pushed into the imperial competition for the hand of Princess Isolde, entered as a weakling who is expected to lose. He keeps up the appearance and fights through the magical tournaments and the trials in the ruins, letting out only as much power as each round requires. In the course of it he proves that Morgana poisoned his mother. He activates his ancestors' dragon array and exposes Chancellor Lysander's plot to seize the throne. That leaves him the rebels to put down, and Isolde's respect to earn.