Spell Bound (2023)

Rook wants access to magic; Sun is the apprentice of his prospective mentor's rival. Their prickly connection has to become cooperation when the adults they depend upon are threatened. Lukens combines a young adult romance with magical bureaucracy, rule-breaking and a rescue mission. Sun's nonbinary identity belongs naturally to the world. Choose this for an affectionately combative partnership with real danger and room for its protagonists to grow.