Book Review: Fates & Furies

Title: Fates & Furies
Author: Helen Scheuerer
Genre: Romantasy, Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

What It’s About: Thea, Cal, and Kipp have been traveling for the last year together in search of the Fallen Warsword, Wilder Hawthorne. They have been chasing him all over the midrealms, only to be thwarted by monsters that he has thrown in their path, and then disappeared. Thea makes Cal and Kipp settle down for the night, after fighting off some monsters, in tents, and she has a vivid dream of having sex with Wilder. When she wakes up, she realizes that he had been inside her tent, and that he had left her a gift for her name day. She goes out of her tent with the gift, asks Cal if he had seen Wilder, and then she throws the gift into the water while screaming.

Wilder manages to walk away from her tent, and he runs into Kipp who doesn’t tell Wilder much but does reveal that Thea hasn’t been able to wield her lighting in a year—she’s never used it against the monsters they had fought. Kipp tells him that he thinks that there’s more to the story than what the Guild Master is telling, because as far as he can tell Wilder is still Wilder, so he doesn’t want to stop Wilder from visiting Thea, because very clearly it seems like she cares about him. Wilder makes his way through the underground tunneling system to a tavern, and meets up with Adrienne, his former lover who is a Naarvian Guard Captain. She asks him what they are going to do about Thea not having magic, as they would prefer to have two storm wielders. He has an idea.

Thea, Cal and Kipp go to a nearby town on their way to Vios for the Midrealm’s biggest event—the MoonFire Eclipse. As they get into the town, they realize that some of it has been burnt, and that Wilder had come through as the villagers tell them that they saw him head a different way. They head towards the lake, and they realize that there are monsters in the lake itself, so the three of them fight the monsters off, only to find Wilder showing up to finish up the monsters. Thea very quickly puts the magic-suppressing manacles onto Wilder, and tells him that she’s going to deliver him to the Kings at the MoonFire Eclipse event in a few days time. At one point, Thea and Wilder get separated from Kipp and Cal because Thea complains to Wilder that she could not find him as easily and it seemed like he disappeared into thin air. He reveals to her that there is a network of tunnels under ground, and that is how he was able to disappear. He gets them caved in at one point in order to get Thea to listen to him, and they talk a bit, with him doing most of the explaining though Thea rejects his story. Then she gets extremely sick, and so he warms her by the fire, taking the shackles off and keeping her warm against his body heat. When Thea is finally better and she sees Wilder, he is in the shackles and she can’t be sure if he took it off or not. They come to the end of the tunnel and meet with Kipp and Cal, who are drinking and enjoying themselves by the fire with Adrienne. They stay the night, and then the next day keep going on, but Adrienne has disappeared.

The group continues to travel together, when they come across a Royal carriage being attacked in which Princess Jasi is screaming. Wilder begs Thea to let him out in order to help them fight, but Thea ignores him, and he is helpless as she fights the monsters. Then, she falters, and he is somehow there—it turns out that Kipp had let Wilder out of his shackles so that he could fight. When they defeat the monsters, Jasi is freaked out that Wilder is free as he is a fallen Warsword, and he willingly goes into the shackles for her.

They take the princess and Wilder to the castle where the three royals are meeting for the MoonFire Eclipse event and Thea hands him over to the Royals. They thank her and then have him taken away to the dungeons, though they tell her later that she cannot see him. Thea does visit Wilder and sees that he is stripped naked in only his undershorts, while hanging from the ceiling in a frozen cell. They talk, and he tells her to go to the cell at the end of the block, where she finds shadow-touched children, making her realize that what Wilder has been saying was true. He also tells her that she should have kept his giftShe leaves before anyone discovers her, and goes to the castle, where she runs into Jasi, who invites her to the ball. Thea accepts, but then she spends most of the evening feeling guilty about Wilder, so she speaks with Cal and Kipp and they come up with a plan to get Wilder out of the dungeons during the ball. Cal reveals to her that he had kept the gift that she threw into the river, and gives it back to her.

Thea opens the gift, and realizes that it is a memory ball. She watches as Wilder travels to any and all remaining Warswords out there and asks them for their memories of the Great Rite. She then realizes that all of the monsters and difficulties that he had thrown her way had been challenges to get her ready for the Great Rite and that he had truly not stopped training her all this time.

Wilder in the meantime is freezing, and Torj comes to see him. At first Wilder thinks that Torj intends to laugh at him, but Torj tells him that he received a letter from none other than Talemir.

Thea goes to the ball with Jasi, and they walk around, where they meet the Wine Master, whom Wilder had previously introduced to Thea during their time in Harenth. The ball has a lot of different shops and things because Queen Reyna likes to show off different vendors from her Realm. Thea makes sure that Cal and Kipp are in place to carry out their plan, and she looks out at the ball after speaking with Jasi about Sebastian, telling her that he’s cruel and not a great person to be with. Jasi thanks her for telling her that a pretty face is not always enough for someone’s personality. Jasi leaves and Thea is by herself at some point, when suddenly a voice she recognizes well asks her to dance. She joins Wilder in the ball, dancing together, making time go by without realizing. Wilder’s internal monologue reveals that Torj helped him get out, while the Wine Merchant had helped him with the outfit for the ball. The two dance together, and then they watch the eclipse which is supposed to happen once in a century, and that is supposed to show triumph of light over the darkness. Except the eclipse stays dark for longer than expected.

And suddenly an Arachne shows up, starts attacking people at the ball, including the husband of Queen Reyna. It is utter chaos, and Thea and Wilder fight the Arachne—which is a spider-like monster with a human’s body—and they manage to get out of the city in all of the chaos, especially once Anya shows up and attacks the Kings, though Thea tried to stop her. Thea worries about Kipp and Cal, but Wilder tells her that Torj has them and that they agreed to meet at a certain place. Wilder then takes her through the network of caves and tunnels until they find themselves in a cavern where Thea finds a lot of Shadow touched people have been living, including Anya. It’s one of their many safe houses there, and Anya walks up to Thea, and shows her what happened to her as a child.

Thea watches as Anya had been hidden with her and Wren in a carriage, but then she snuck out of the carriage and made her way through the halls of Thezmarr. She watches as Anya overhears voices and hides in a corridor, and then realizes in horror that the voices belong to Osiris, the Guild Master, and King Artos, who finds Anya and shoves the Naarvian Scythe into her hands while it is streaming darkness. Thea realizes with guilt that so much damage has been done to their family and they had lost time. She spends the night in Wilder’s tent, but Wilder tells her that he’s not able to spend it with her because of the lack of trust—he is not able to trust her after the fact that she turned him in and wouldn’t trust his word from the beginning. They spend a couple of days here, where Thea talks to Adrienne, who tells her that Thea’s the only one who can truly handle Wilder, but Wilder doesn’t know what Adrienne had told her so he gets stressed out about it, only for Thea to tell him what was shared. She also speaks with Anya again, and they agree to try to make up time as sisters and be close again.

Then there is a moment where Thea spends time with Anya and Adrienne after Anya kicks all the men out of the meeting, and Adrienne tells Thea some information, but not all of it. Thea realizes that it’s because she hasn’t gained anyone’s trust, so she asks Anya what she can do to gain her trust, and Anya gives her a job—going to a tavern with Wilder and securing that tavern for a secret meeting, as well as space for sleeping.

Thea and Wilder go to the tavern, and at first, Wilder thinks that he will be in trouble, until the owner, Evander, recognizes the Handkerchief that Kipp had given Wilder a while ago. They confirm that they know Kipp, and Evander tells them that any friends of Kipp is welcome, before giving them a private booth, and bringing in food, and then getting them whatever they need. After eating, Wilder takes Thea up to the room and they have sex. It brings back her magic.

The next day, people gather—Torj comes with Cal, Kipp and Wren. Wilder and Thea are there, Anya, Adrienne and Dratos join them. Malik shows up with Dax and so does Audra and Farissa, and the Wine Merchant also comes to the meeting. The group talks, with many of them being shocked but then coming together to realize that they need to work together in order to fight back Artos’s men and monsters. Audra tells them that she has no idea where the women who were once Guardians at Thezmarr went to, though Anya tells her that if she can find them, it will be helpful. She also offers several missions that people can take and gives them a chance to think it over at night before deciding the next day. Wren is disgusted by the whole thing, especially as Anya had held her with shadows, but Thea urges her to give Anya a chance. The two later talk and Wren is extremely upset by what Anya survived, so she needs time to process it.

The next morning, everyone meets up again, but Thea cannot shake the feeling that she needs to be anywhere but here, and cannot figure out what mission to take. She is about to take off when Wilder stops her and asks her to tell him what is going on. She tells him, and he realizes that the Great Rite is calling to her, tells her that she needs to go and get her things. He’s about to go after her, when Torj stops him and tells him to remember that she needs to be supported and he needs to stand by her rather than fight her battles for her. Thea comes back, and Audra gives her one of the daggers, telling her that she will need it and that it’s on loan for now. Wilder quickly packs up his things as well, and together they set out on the journey to the Great Rite.

It turns out that the Great Rite leads her to exactly the same spot where Wilder had taken his Great Rite. Before they arrive, they are ambushed by Arachne, and they fight the three of them off, with Thea doing a great job of it. What Wilder realizes later is that he was actually scratched by one of them and the venom had gotten into his wound—there is a 50 -50 chance that he would survive per the information that Torj had shared with them during the meeting at the Tavern. They arrive at the location of the Great Rite, so Thea takes what she needs as she heads into the mist, and begins climbing up the mountain.

First, she comes across a river as she climbs and when she drinks from it, she is transported to a maze of mirrors, where she has to face herself—both the good and the bad. She does, and then she is given two doors: one that lets her keep her magic, and the other that lets her become a warsword. She chooses the one to become a warsword, and loses access to her Storm Magic.

Then she has to climb using an ice pick and ice climbing spikes on her shoes, but she comes across and ice basilisk, and has to fight against it, though her sword is useless against it. She manages to remember some of the memories of the other warswords and outsmarts the basilisk, sending it careening over the side of the mountain as a result of the landslide it created.

The last trial she has to face is the one where there are portals in the ground, and the Reapers are holding onto her friends. A young version of Anya points out that the black holes in the ground are portals that take her back to certain spots, but it’s unknown where they go until you go through them. Thea goes through the trial, jumping across the portal, fighting the reapers and also comes to the realization that Wilder that she is fighting is not actually Wilder but rather an imitation of him. She manages to defeat him, and then finds that he’s been transported back to being held by the Reapers. She makes it to the edge, and something traps her arm, intending to pull her with it through the portal, so she cuts off her arm, and calls the storm magic back to her, destroying the Reapers and saving her friends.

At this point, she meets the three Furies, who restore her hand but give her a scar that will hurt for the rest of her life. They also give her a Naarvian steel sword and tell her that she was not supposed to have Storm Magic, but that hers is so strong that she called it back to herself. They give her the opportunity to ask them one question, so she asks them what their names are—Iseldra, Morwynn and Valdara. They are surprised by the question, and ask her why, so she tells them that there is a power in names and that history should remember women of might. As she turns to leave, they tell her that they are glad that she did not ask them about the immortality because they would not have been able to grant it to her, and they tell her that she will do so much in the time she has left, and there is too much love in her heart for her to be an immortal. They reveal that she will not love any other, and they release her as the Warsword and Storm Wielder.

In the interim, Wilder had been spending several days camping out waiting for Thea. Dax, Malik’s dog joined him, and so did Terrence, the hawk. But the venom was hurting him, and he realizes that an army is marching towards him—one bearing the banners of King Artos. Wilder realizes that he would not stand a chance in his weakened state, so he shoos the horses away, sends the dog and bird away, disassembles the camp, and then chains himself to a tree. King Artos arrives and he is pleased to hear that Thea had found Wilder again, chained him, and that she’s doing her Great Rite.

When Thea returns from the Great Rite, she finds the army and King Artos. He congratulates her on becoming a Warsword—she has the totem with the Warsword insignia that is modified with thunder to signify her storm wielding abilities—and also for capturing Wilder. Torj is there as well and she decides to go get her Tverrian horse, so she asks Torj to speak so that she may learn from him about where to get it. They talk away from the camp, and Torj reveals that Wilder had been weakened by the Arachne venom, tied himself to the tree to make it look like she had tied him up, and had been taken prisoner to the Scarlet Tower.

Thea sets out towards Tver, but as she reaches the crossroads where she could get her horse or go after Wilder, she decides to let her Tverrian Stallion go for now, as Wilder is a priority. So she moves to go towards the Scarlet tower, when shadows find her, and a Shadow-touched man with two swords and a Warsword Totem materializes in front of her. After talking to him she realizes that he is Talemir, Wilder’s old mentor and friend, and he is also the Shadow Prince. Wilder had told her all about him and how he had changed to help the Shadow Touched people because of Talemir. Talemir tells her that he wants to help get Wilder out of the tower, as he is not willing to let Wilder suffer. So they set off together towards the tower.

My Thoughts: I love how Thea changes throughout this book, and how she does some things due to misguided beliefs. I really enjoyed how the author brought in Anya’s story and then what had made Wilder have a change of heart after finding out that Talemir had become Shadowtouched. I also loved the call to the Great rite, and the whole process itself, as that was very harrowing to read—what trials Thea had gone through in order to become the Warsword that she is. I am enjoying this series thus far!