Book Review: Heat of the Everflame

Title: Heat of the Everflame
Author: Penn Cole
Genre: Romance, Romantasy, Fiction, Fantasy

What It’s About:

Diem feels like she is being drowned, and the woman who is holding her nose tells her that she will have to drink the water with flameroot or they will force it down. Diem does drink it and feels the loss of the flameroot. Cordellia lets her out of the bonds, and has the Guardians tie her up, after revealing to Diem that many Descended had died at the island, but her mother was caught by Fortos and is imprisoned. Diem tries to convince her to let her go so that she can negotiate her freedom, and that she’s actually one of the Guardians, but Vance tells them to not listen to her. The Guardians ultimately tie her up to a tree, but take the Arboros Royal, and in her fear that something will happen to the Royal, Diem breaks down the tree and runs after her.

When she comes to again, she is bound to a much bigger tree, away from the camp. She stops eating and drinking anything because she realizes it all has flameroot, and she needs her powers back. At some point, Vance unchains her from the tree but refuses to tell her where he is taking her until she fights back, and he has some of his soldiers hold her down while he cuts her up and takes vials of her blood. She wants to know what it’s for but he doesn’t really tell her besides telling her that he has to go back to Lumnos. She realizes then that she had revealed to him that the Palace entry only allow the royal blood to be used and that he will try to enter the palace that way to kill all the Descended in Lumos. She begs him not do it, and tells him that there are children. Vance doesn’t care. Cordellia tries to tell him to put Diem back, but he doesn’t listen and continues using the vials to get blood from her.

Suddenly, Sorae shows up with Luther on her back, and Diem hears as Cordellia calls out to her people to get into position, and use the spears that are meant to take a gryvern down. Once again Cordellia tells Vance to tie Diem up and they put her back on the tree, which Diem realizes was meant to be a bait for the Gryvern. She is not willing to see Sorae or Luther hurt, and chases away one of the men near her so that he won’t get hurt either. Sorae and Luther land, and Luther tries to make it towards her, but he is unable because the Guardians are using arrows both with Forstan steel and godstone, which would poison Luther. Diem speaks to Sorae via their bond and tells her to get Luther out and never come back. Sorae does follow through on that request, but Luther is furious with Diem about it. She manages to use a bit of her magic to ensure that the first bolt doesn’t hit Sorae, but the second bolt is luckily unable to reach her as Sorae is out of reach by that point.

Cordellia moves the camp elsewhere, and has Diem drugged again, revealing that she noticed that the food with Flameroot was thrown into holes and assumes that the water has been too. She tells Diem that she will be sitting down with her to drink it going forward to ensure that she cannot use her magic. Diem talks to Cordellia and tells her that Vance has her blood, so he wants to go to the castle and kill everyone. She begs Cordellia to free her so that she can go to Lumnos and stop the fight there, including telling Cordellia about how Vance killed the Descended in the armory without fear or worry. Cordellia tells her that she will think about it. And for the next few days, Diem tries to engage with the Guardians that guard her but they don’t share anything with her or in front of her, only talking when she asleep. They do reveal that they still have the island of the crowns, but that there is a barricade and they’re not sure how long their people can survive on that Island. Suddenly, Brecke shows up with another soldier and releases the two on duty from their duty, telling them that Cordellia has given out wine and he and the other one are too new to be part of the revelry. Once they’re out of sight, Brecke has the soldier release Diem from the chains, telling her that she stinks and needs a bath, then has them walk away from the water, before knocking out the soldier cold. He doubles them back to Cordellia who is waiting with a boat by the river full of supplies. Cordellia tells her to go and do what she can to stop the war in Lumnos, and that she is trusting her, but that Diem needs to drink the flameroot. Brecke tells Diem that he is going to leave the realm to another one in the north.

Diem starts on her way on the water, but the wind turns the sails back around on her to Arboros, and when she tries to leave again, she capsizes. She decides to leave the boat and make her way back to camp to get a horse, but once she is there, she also decides to grab a sword. Then she gets attacked by none other than Taran, and realizes that Luther is surrounded by Guardians by the bonfire. Taran points out Alixe on the other side, and they come up with a plan that Taran will get the horses ready, and Diem will light up the bombs that they have. She has to unfortunately pivot as all of the fires are out and the bonfire is the only one. Luther picks up on her being there, and scares the Guardians so that they don’t pay attention to her. She is almost at the bombs when another Guardian notices her and their cover is blown. Alixe, Luther, and Diem fight back to back, and then she notices that one of the Guardians is coming for Luther with a godstone, so she jumps in front of him, but ends up killing the man with her broadsword. Taran throws another bomb into the fire and the four of them escape, running through the forest. They manage to run far away enough that they hide out in a hollowed tree. That night, Alixe takes first watch, while Diem is almost freezing from Hypothermia, and Luther changes her out of her clothes into his. They spend the night sleeping, and when Diem wakes up the next morning, Taran is discussing things with Alixe outside, who tells him not to bother waking them up as it’s been tough on Luther too. Diem and Luther talk, with her revealing that she was a Guardian as well, and he tells her that he knows—he had seen her enter their hiding space, and knows that she was the one that stole the layout of the armory. She also tells him that her mother is the leader of the Lumnos Guardians, and Luther tells her that he knows that too. He tells her that he had known for a long while, and thought that he would watch her by letting her be the palace healer. But then she started sneaking around finding out secrets, including overhearing him once say to his father that he’s half-descended, so she knows that secret about him. But he also took a chance on her once, by bringing a half-mortal child to her for help because he didn’t know where else to go, and that is how they started to work together, though they never got along.

Taran comes in with clothing, and Diem and Luther change. Then they spend the day near the hollow with Diem teaching them how to forage for different foods while avoiding the poisonous ones, how to make a spear out of branch to spear some fish in the river, and then how to make salve to heal. They spend some time around the fire, and Taran makes comment after comment including the fact that Diem is the woman Luther loves. Alixe takes him away from the fire so that he doesn’t reveal any more, but Diem puts it together when Luther reveals that he had used the compass spelled to show what your heart desires most to lead them to her. She tells him that she desires him as well, and they start to make out, but they are stopped with the arrival of Vance, and his group of men, who have Taran at spear point. Vance makes some unsavory comments about Diem and how it’s easy for the Descended to give up on others, pointing out that she has moved on from Henri but that he doesn’t know. He also reveals that she has been a Guardian, which shocks Taran, and hurts him. But then during their conversation about her killing one of the mortals by protecting one of the descended, Vance has his men spear Taran with godstone, which Diem knows is toxic to the descended.

Luther has her run with Alixe, who has turned both of them invisible, while he and Taran fight the mortals off. Alixe takes Diem far out of the borders of Arboros into the deserts of Ignios, and they sit there waiting for Luther and Taran to show up. The two men do show up, and Alixe runs to help Luther with Taran, while the humans stop at the border. The group watches as one of the mortals steps over the border and ends up dying by turning into fire, as a result of the anti-mortal fencing that the royal of the realm had put in in order to discourage any humans from returning. Diem looks over Taran’s wounds and staunches their bleeding, while giving hope, but later when she speaks with Luther, he tells her that there is no chance that Taran will survive—only one in four wounds has a chance of not doing damage, and Taran has two. Diem tells Luther that half the battle is believing when it comes to healing, and that it’s better to give him hope because it may just work out. The group decides the next morning that they need to make their way to a city and Luther remembers that there used to be a mortal city near the coast, so they start walking, but they don’t make it to the city before the night fall. Diem takes the first watch and begs Lumnos to spare Taran from the toxicity of the godstone, in exchange for Diem becoming her follower.

They make their way to the Mortal city by the ocean in Ignios, and they find it really eerie as the mortals appear to have fled the town. They found bones and blades outside of the city, going into the dunes, so they were able to help themselves to clothes, and weapons. They talk while washing by the Oasis, it comes out that Diem was part of the Guardians, and Taran becomes upset about it. But then Luther jumps to her defense and tells both Alixe and Taran that he’s been supporting them all those years too, and if they have anyone to blame, they should blame him. He takes off with Taran following behind him, when suddenly the King of Ignios arrives on his Gryvern, Tybold. Alixe and Diem hide inside a shack, and watch as the King orders two women guards to find Diem and spare her but kill her friends. They then watch as the King of Ignios begins setting things on fire, including buildings next to them, which prompts Diem to say something softly. Unfortunately for her, Tybold hears them and he looks right at them, but when the King asks him where they might be, Tybold tells him that they went to the dunes. So they all take off, while Alixe and Diem start running around looking for Taran and Luther. Diem finds the same weapon that Luther had taken for himself in a burning closet and almost loses it because she thinks that Luther is killed. Alixe calls her over and they find Luther and Taran inside a basement door, having just gotten away in time before they were found or burnt.

They spend another night in the city before heading out as they need to make sure that they get away before the King returns. While Alixe is on watch, Diem devises a plan and leaves the city before coming back in the early dawn hours to a furious group of friends. She had gone back to Arboros to scavenge and hunt for food that they desperately needed, as well as to get plants to help Taran heal from the godstone. She makes a paste for his injuries, they eat and then they head out across the sea and the dunes, but as they get closer to the Urboros border, they realize that they will have to go through a check point. Diem complains of heat, while everyone else has been getting cold. As they come up the guard checkpoint, Luther pretends that she is his mate, and gets snarly with the guards, who let her go without looking at her, and tell them to stick to the road. Diem, getting too hot, runs to the water and explodes into fire. This brings the king of Ignios and Tybold to the area, so Diem tells Alixe to follow through on her promise to her earlier, and Alixe takes Taran to leave. Luther refuses to leave her side however, and as Diem battles, he supports her. But in the end, she gets hurt with a dagger in the chest, and is dying. Luther is with her, and she points out that his magic is alive, so he fights off Ignios and Tybold, and just as he is about to kill Ignios, Diem tells him to stop. Tybold had been pleading with her to spare his king, in exchange for sparing Luther, and she knows that if Luther kills the Ignios king, Tybold will have no choice but to retaliate. Luther stops, and the King and his gryvern leave, so Luther returns to Diem as she is dying. She asks him to attack her with his magic to help her heal herself as her magic works off of using other’s magic to fill up her reservoirs. Taran arrives back apologizing, and they all start crying that she might die, but Diem survives, and together they all leave for Umboros.

In Umboros, Alixe and Taran head their own way, and Diem and Luther head to search for a friend that he has been corresponding with thanks to Auralie. They follow the signs of a Jaguar, and find themselves in an Inn that is completely run by blue-eyed children and individuals, who clearly are from Lumnos. Luther makes a stink about seeing the Jaguar, and a man calling himself Zalaric shows up and takes them to room number 10. There, a lady comes with two children who create light for the room, and Luther asks them to create them flowers. He then tells them that he knows that the queen of Lumnos would love to have them back if they would ever like to come back to Lumnos, and gives them instructions on what to do if they ever do decide that. Zalaric comes over to them through a hidden door, and reveals that he is one of the half-mortals that Luther had saved over the years. He goes by Zalaric Hanoverre and is a strong magic wielder as both Diem and Luther can tell. Luther asks Diem to go to the bedroom, and then talks to Zalaric, telling him that he needs a way to get past the Centenarians—the 100 Umbros Descended that read minds and get their cut of the taxes—because he has special cargo that cannot be discovered. Zalaric agrees, for a price, and then goes to figure that out. Diem wakes up in bed, and takes a bath while Luther is out, though he comes back soon, and they lay back to sleep with him holding her as he doesn’t want to be touched.

The group is together when Zalaric shows up and tells them that they will have to wait another night, not that night in order to leave Umbros as his contact can only leave then. Luther isn’t happy about it, but Diem accepts it as well as the offer for Zalaric to show them around. Zalaric keeps making fun of Taran by calling him a different name, and pissing Taran off, which has Alixe and Diem laughing along, but Luther has distanced himself from them. Alixe, Diem, Zalaric and Taran go around markets, and explore the city—at one point Diem almost buys herself some jewelry but ultimately chooses not to buy anything. Then she runs into a man who is selling the dragonfyre from all of the realm’s gryverns, including the last one of the Montios gryvern. Diem is drawn to it, and although Zalaric tries to negotiate, Diem does pay the full price for the bottle, which she returns with to her room with Luther while Alixe, Taran, and Zalaric head back out. Diem finds Luther asleep and with more of the plant that she had foraged in Arboros for Taran’s injuries. At some point during their stay, Luther and Diem had gotten into a fight, because Luther made her come but would not allow her to touch him, when she wanted to return him the favor. During their argument, he pulled her to him and had her feel how much he wanted her but wouldn’t explain to her why he wouldn’t have her.

The group follows Zalaric to a secret cavern where they meet the Cardinal. Before they go through, Diem, who has realized that she is capable of reading minds back at the markets the previous day, reads Zalaric’s mind and finds out his secret. Before they can board and be off, the Centenarians catch them, and take all of them to the castle, after seemingly killing the Cardinal, though Diem actually saves the woman. The Centenarians also make fun of Luther and Diem, that he doesn’t want her, but she pretends that it doesn’t bother her at all, and instead flirts with Symond, one of the Centenarians that she had met at the Ascension Ball. The group—except for Diem—is mad at Zalaric for selling them out, and Zalaric is surprised to find out that Diem is the Queen of Lumnos. They all get taken up to the Castle, where they meet with the Queen of Umbros, Yrselle. Yrselle reads into each of their minds and knows Luther’s secret, but tells him that what she needs from Diem is more important than him. So they agree to spend three days there. That night, Alixe, Taran, and Zalaric hang out in Diem’s room and get drunk, with Taran falling asleep in her room.

On the first day, Yrselle invites Diem to lunch with her, and Diem visits Luther to speak with him and check on him, but is interrupted by Symond who has come to get her ready to meet with the Queen for lunch. She spends time with Yrselle, and learns that Yrselle doesn’t actually follow the rules of the Crowns, disagrees with a lot them because they were only put in to place after the Blood War, and tells Diem that Crowns do not bow to other Crowns, so the request that she is apprehended and brought to Fortos for questioning is illegal. She also tells Diem that she has refused to answer the royal request that they execute Diem’s mother, as it requires 6 crowns to agree, and only so far 5 have responded in the affirmative. Yrselle had kept that over her head so that Diem could stay with her, and she also tells Diem that she knows a lot of things, but reveals that her successor will not play nicely with Diem. Yrselle explains that the Crowns always know who it is before their demise, though it’s hard to say when they will die compared to the knowledge that they gain. She is unwilling to tell Diem the truth of who it might be so that Diem could win them over, but she gives Diem access to the royal library so that she can research and learn as much as she can about everything—the Kindred, the Descended, and the mortals. Diem spends a lot of time there, and when it’s time for her to get dressed for dinner with her friends, Symond finds her and walks her to her suite, telling her that he has come to pick up two of his own. Diem sees two women leaving Luther’s room, talking about his scar and how big something is, while inside his room Luther is undressed.

They all dress up, and Diem runs into Luther outside of their suites. Everyone except her is dressed in blues and silver, representing Lumnos. Diem is in a barely covered dress of black and rubies, that makes her look like a queen. At the dinner, they end up playing a truth and dare game with the Centenarians and Yrselle asking them questions, then reading their minds, and telling everyone if it’s true or not. Diem agrees to play only because Yrselle tells her that she will answer any and all questions the following day that Diem might have. Zalaric agrees to play as well, though Diem is sad for him because Yrselle had let her know that she will probably dispose of him after they’re gone. But during the course of the night, the Centenarians reveal that Zalaric has been the one who has been collecting all of the taxes on the ports—something that he has zero recollections of, and it has him wondering if there is something else he has done that he doesn’t remember, because they do have the power to remove mortal’s memories. Diem takes pity on him, though ultimately she wins the game with her last answer. The whole group moves to another room, where the Centenarians have basically an orgy. Things with Luther are strained, so Diem keeps joining Taran in his drinking, while he avoids Zalaric, though he did admit to Diem that he is interested in men earlier in the evening. After talking to Yrselle for a bit, Diem also retires and heads to her room, where she writes down questions, and spends some time thinking about Luther.

She ultimately decides to go to Luther in the middle of the night, and when he finally opens the door, he looks horrible and disheveled. They go into his room to talk, and Diem tells him that she doesn’t need to know all of his secrets but that she wants to be with him. Before she is able to tell him that she loves him, he collapses, and she realizes that his clothes are soaked with blood, so she opens up the clothing that he has and realizes that he also got hurt by the godstone in Arboros. This is why he has been hiding his body from everyone including her, as the godstone toxin has gotten worse and it went all the way almost to his heart. He tells her that he wished he had more time, and that he tried everything that she did on Taran, but it hasn’t worked. Diem realizes that they have to leave that night, and goes to Taran, who was in bed with Zalaric. Taran comes to check on Luther and realizes that Luther got this when he was helping Taran in Arboros, but agrees to Diem’s plan that they have to leave, so Taran starts packing, while Zalaric finds Alixe. The whole team gets their stuff together while they await Sorae to arrive, whom Diem had called a while ago. Then they make their way to the dining room for a balcony, and unfortunately for them, the Umbros Gryvern shows up, though Diem manages to talk to it and ensure that they mean no harm. Sorae arrives and this sets the gryvern off, thinking that Diem had betrayed them, but she manages to get everyone onto Sorae, while she stays behind.

The Centenarians arrive and Yrselle demands that Diem stays with her for the remaining two days as agreed. Diem begs her to let her at least take Luther home and make sure that he gets well, and that she will come back, but Yrselle refuses. So Diem jumps off the balcony and gets caught by Sorae. Luther helps her up into her seat next to him. Yrselle catches up on her gryvern and demands them to come back to her palace, but ultimately Diem manages to help Sorae evade it, though she loses the flame from the Gryvern of Montios, Rymari. That flame comes back to hurt Yrselle and her Gryvern, finally calling them off, while Luther urges Diem to try using air magic. He’s the only one who has realized that she is able to wield the magic of all of the realms at this point.

They make it back to Lumnos, and get Luther into Diem’s room. Diem sends Alixe out on Sorae to get Maura, and everyone runs into the room to see Luther. For a moment, Diem has a stand off with Remis and Avana, his wife, over Luther, but Lily asks her to let them stay for her, and she does. Remis wisely settles away from Diem though often comes by to check in on Luther. Maura arrives with Alixe on Sorae, and does what she can but in the end, she tells Diem that there is nothing she can do. Diem had tried with her magic, but the godstone toxin repelled it. Maura gives Diem a sleeping draught—one of their strongest, that will help Luther in his last moments. Everyone gathers around, and Diem tries to do something more, but even she gives up and decides to head to Luther’s room in hope of finding something. Along the way, she encounters Aemonn, who tries to talk to her to tell her something, but she lashes out at him about not being a good person and lecturing him about sibling relationships. She shuts the door to Luther’s room, which has been keyed to her blood only in case of his demise, on Aemonn’s face. Then she stays there and ultimately yells at the statue of Lumnos, before cutting her hand and dropping blood on the statue, pleading with Lumnos to save Luther in exchange for anything that she wants. The statue starts crying blood, and Diem has a feeling that she signed a Bound agreement with the goddess that she doesn’t know the terms of. Lily comes knocking and asks Diem to return to her room, where she finds Luther in the throes of a seizure. When it calms down, Diem is about to use the sleeping draught to help him fall asleep into a painless death, and though she doesn’t tell Lily all of that, Lily understands her gist. But something stays her hand, and she looks over to the gifts that she had received from all the other nations. She asks Remis if there is a chance that Arboros or Sophos had kept from them information on how to cure godstone. Remis says no, but Diem trusts her instinct and uses the bottle of antidote that she received from Arboros that is supposed to heal anything and everything. She shoves it down Luther’s throat, then uses a bit of it to heal his cut, and then finally she lays down beside him.

When she wakes up, people are talking around her debating whether or not to wake her up. Finally, Luther speaks up and tells them that she’s awake. Diem is elated when she realizes and the the group of friends spend time together, until Luther is tired and the two of them get their rest. Luther tries to get frisky with her, and she teases him back but they do not go any further than that as he needs his rest to recover. When Diem wakes up the next day, and she hangs out with Eleanor until Alixe interrupts and tells her that she wants to speak with her about that weapon that they talked about in Umbros. Alixe takes her to the armory but the soldiers do not let her through, telling Diem that she is not crowned at all, which she realizes as true because the elder of Montios never got his turn before the bombs went off. With Alixe, she goes to find Remis, and kicks everyone out of the room, telling Alixe to run along. Diem tells him that she will agree with him to continue ruling in her stead as the Regent of the Crown, if he follows two orders—selects Alixe as the Head General instead of Aemonn and protects the Mortals. Remis agrees and Diem returns.

She has something that she needs to do, so she uses Sorae to fly off into the city. She knows that the soldiers are looking for her, so she makes Sorae fly down, drop her off and then disappear, then she scuttles up a tree while the soldiers from Fortos look around to try to find her. She then makes her way over to the post office, where Henri lives and works, and finds him kissing Lana in the back, where the house is. Lana stands up and tells her that they care for each other and that Henri is hers, and Diem is not exactly upset about it. Henri has found out about Diem and Luther from Vance, and she doesn’t exactly deny it either, but they do talk and she tells him that she hopes that they can be friends and fight on the same side when the war comes, before telling him that she will see him on the battle field.

Diem then takes off on Sorae into the middle of Mortal City, where she gives a speech to the mortals, and when the Fortos army shows up, she fights them, including humiliating the commander, before flying off and telling them that if they hurt any mortals, she will end them. As she flies off, the Mortals all kneel down to her for what she did for them. Diem returns to the castle, and goes to visit Teller. They talk a bit, with her revealing some of her truths to him that others do not know—like the fact that she can do other realm’s magic. She tells Teller that they are going to get their mother from Forstos, but before they can talk even more, Diem is in a lot of pain, which she realizes is from Sorae. She runs out of the castle, avoiding soldiers both from Lumnos and the Emperor Army, and then gets into a fight with Remis and Aemonn, who reveals that he had told her plan of getting her mother out of Fortos to the Regent because she had removed him from his role. Taran yells at him as well, and Luther fights with Alixe while getting off the muzzle from Sorae. Diem and Luther fight their way out and fly off to Fortos, where they meet with the king on this training ground.

Diem demands to speak to her mother, and after a lot of threats, the King takes her through the prison, where she encounters as descended from Faunos. She tries to heal him but gets pulled away, and then is taken down to a chamber where all of the mortals are held. The King tells her that he keeps all families together, which infuriates her when she realizes that there are children in that freezing chamber as well. She sees her mom, and goes to her, realizing that she had been tortured when two other men help her up. She heals her mom up and asks the King to let her talk to her mom in private. The King ultimately agrees, and puts them into a room with a godstone door. The two talk, but then Diem overhears the fact that the King has received two falcons—one from Arboros, most likely bringing the agreement to execute her mother, and one from Lumnos, most likely telling the king that she’s on her way to get her mom out. She knows then that she will not be able to let her mother stay, and when she hears the King hurt Luther, she decides to get them out. Her mom blocks her door, telling her to let Luther take the brunt of it, but she uses her mind magic to get her mom to move, and then destroys the door to get out to Luther. A battle ensues, and though her mom runs, Diem has Luther grab her while she continues battling the King. Ultimately, the King dies, with the voice of Father Fortos speaking through him, and telling her to claim him. When she does, in front of Luther and her mother, the crown above her head changes. Her mom refuses to leave the compound without the rest of the mortals, and so she goes back to get them with her mother, healing what little she can and using as much magic as she can to bring them food and joy. Then she gives them her terms—she will help them out but they have to follow her order and work with whoever she decides, something that she told her mom she will have to agree to because they need to go to see Teller.

Diem then goes around freeing almost all of the Descended that had been in the prison and healing the ones that need to be freed according to the guy from Faunos. She unites the Descended and the Mortals in getting out, though she finds out that the full army of Fortos is waiting for them. She uses her magic to fight and shield the mortals and descendants, with the help of Sorae, but her magic begins to wear out, when she uses mind magic on the commander to get him to kill himself, after she reveals herself the Queen of Fortos. She flies off on Sorae with Luther, and her mother, and once they are back in Lumnos, all the mortals and the Descendants are free to go with the request that if they can, they come to join her in her army when she calls for them. They all agree, and disappear. Diem, Luther, and Auralie make their way to the castle, but Sorae is not able to land nor is she able to pick up Teller because of all of the archers with godstone and weapons. Luther tries to shield but even his magic is running out, and he tells Diem that it doesn’t make sense to take Teller with them because it makes him an accomplice and a fugitive. Ultimately, Diem realizes he is right, and though she shows Teller that their mother is alive, she decides to leave him at the castle, while they fly for Montios.

In Montios, they find a cave to rest, and Diem and Auralie take first watch while Luther sleeps. When his magic awakens, Diem flies off on Sorae to get away from her mother because the rage in her from her mother’s lies overtakes her. Sorae takes them around, flying happily, until she takes Diem to the resting place of Rymari, the Montios Gryvern. Diem decides to leave a little piece of magic as thanks to Rymari for saving them, and places the product of her magic in the circle of magic. She also learns that Tybold, the gryvern of Ignios, is actually Sorae’s beloved, and is disgusted by the fact that they were separated by the Kindred. She returns back to the cave where her furious mother and Luther are waiting for her, and she explains that she didn’t think she was gone that long.

Suddenly, they are found by the commander of the the Fortos army that she humiliated in Mortal city in Lumnos, and he shackles her up, tries to get her mother, who ended up behind a panel of ice, and tries to take Luther. He tells her that Sorae belongs to Lumnos or else she will get hurt, so Diem sends Sorae away with the order to follow Remis as if he was the crown, while they lock her up in shackles. Suddenly, the Montios Descended show up with a girl who speaks for them, and argue with the Fortos commander that since Diem was found in illegally in Montios, the crown that is entitled to her is the Montios crown. There is a stand off until Luther points out that the commander and his men brought godstone illegally, even though it may be in pursuit of a legitimate cause. The Fortosian men acquiesce to leave them alone, including Auralie, and as they leave, Diem tells them that she has heard that their Queen is a piece of work, not revealing that it is she that is their queen.

The Montios Descended take the three of them through the cliffs all the way to their location, where the girl tells them that Luther and Auralie have to stay behind, while Diem enters the actual realm. There, she gets taken to meet with the Crown Council, who all turn out to be actually voted into power. They talk about things and reveal that she has been their Queen since the death of their King, which happened at the attack on the Island, and that their King had warned them that his death was near and their next Crown will be unusual. They also reveal that they have been governing themselves mostly by being voted into power by their people but that only the Descended are voted onto the council, not the mortals, who they have driven out of their country because they cannot handle the cold. The Council also reveals to Diem that there is a Guardian camp in the Forgotten Lands, and that there is a Descended who is leaving a ten-pointed star on the bodies of the Descended that he captures, though the children are never found again. Diem uses her forging magic, the one that connects her to the realm, frees Luther’s magic, and then continues on until she finds the man in question. He calls her to come meet him, and puts the symbol of the ten-pointed star on her, but tells her to never spy on him again. She asks the council to give her as much magic as they are able so that she may go and kill this man and end this as soon as possible.

Diem, Luther, and Auralie ride to a ledge nearby the Forgotten Lands, and Diem realizes very quickly that the land has witnessed something horrible. It is trying to choke Luther’s magic from it, and she fights with it to free him. They find the man, and she uses a bow and an arrow made of her own magic to try to hit him, but the magic dissipates around him, and when he turns around, she realizes that she had attempted to kill her own biological father. Her mother is in shock, as Luther takes them both and rides away on two horses, in order to avoid pursuit from the Guardians. They make it far, finding an overhang to hide away from the Guardians, and Luther steps out to give Auralie and Diem some space. Auralie comes clean to Diem that the man she saw was her father, Ophiucae. She tells Diem that she was a spy and a healer for Fortos and on one of her missions she came clean to the Guardians on whom she was spying because she had begun to agree with their ideas. In another mission, she was taken to the Island, where she was to stay there for a year. While wandering around, she heard him and found that he was trapped on the Island under the temple—she was going to stay there for only a year as part of her mission, and at first she wanted to free him because she thought that he was trapped there due to some unjust punishment, but in the end she ended up having sex with him and ended up pregnant with Diem. Things got worse during her pregnancy when the man would be delusional, and after Diem was born, she left Diem with her father only to turn back because of a feeling and find him using a dagger to almost pierce her heart. Auralie used the godstone dagger that she had and ended up killing him by piercing him through his heart, before fleeing and telling the King that she hadn’t known she was pregnant before she left for the mission. She thought that because Diem was born with brown eyes, she wasn’t going to be a Descended, until way later when her eyes changed.

Diem leaves her mom after learning all of this, and goes to Luther, where things start to get heated as they both touch each other. Auralie catches them and tries to fight Luther, but Diem tells them both to shut up and reveals to Auralie that she loves Luther, and that while Auralie was gone when she discovered her true parentage, Luther was there for her every step of the way, including her father’s death. Auralie breaks down and agrees to accept him. They spend the rest of the night talking, sharing their pasts and their secrets. Then they head out to the border between Montios and Sophos, where Auralie speaks to Luther separately from Diem, but as Diem watches, her mom cries and hugs Luther after he talks for a while. He later reveals to Diem that her mother had asked him why he loves her as they make their way into Sophos without Auralie, who left to go with the Guardians. As soon as Diem enters Sophos, she is blessed with both magics of the realm—electricity and the ability to remember all of the details in her memories.

They make it to the city, and there Diem decides to make her stand in the mortal temple that had been torn down. Doriel comes to speak with them, and takes them into his castle to make it more private. Diem tells him as much of the truth as she can without revealing that she has all of the realm’s powers, and Doriel decides to think on it. He has Stuart, a human teen, show them around, and during their walk, Diem finds that Teller had arrived to Sophos, which infuriates her. But the two siblings talk things out as Teller is also mad at her for the things that she has done—lied to him about getting accepted to Sophos—but he does tell her that all that she has heard about Sophos is not true and he reveals that the humans actually get paid well in Sophos, so well in fact that they’ve had to pretend to be killed back in their home countries because their families and friends were targeted by criminals when they knew that they were living in Sophos and sending money back. Before they can continue talking even more, Diem feels the swell of magic and knows that Ophiucae is coming for them, so she orders Luther to find Doriel.

Doriel is afraid to leave his people to her leadership because they think that Diem wants to take over their crown. But ultimately Diem convinces him, and later strategizes with Stuart’s help to help Doriel be faster in his fight against Orihucae, whom Doriel had called the Lost Crown—a 10 pointed star. During the battle, Luther disappears while Diem continues fighting and saving the mortals. He goes after Vance, who had headed for a school to kill Descended children. During the battle in Sophos, both mortals and Descended had stood side by side to help protect each other against the Mortal Guardians, and as soon as their shields dropped because Doriel had Ophiucae chase him far away, the Guardians turned tail and ran. Diem realizes that she cannot see Luther, so she starts screaming for him and calling him, but then he shows up around the corner dragging Vance. She spares Vance but he refuses to leave for Lumnos and abandon Orihucae, so she uses her Umbros magic to force him to leave, knowing that the magic will lose its strength after a few days but hopes that it will be enough for him reconsider.

Doriel and Ophiucae arrive back in town and she goes head to head with Ophiucae for a bit, but he doesn’t kill her—he tells her that she’s come for him twice, and while she is under his protection, which is true because the Guardians had left her alone when they saw the 10 pointed star on her, if she comes for him one more time, he will strip her of that protection. He ends up flying away when he realizes that the mortals had left to Montios, which he says is not Montios. Later, Diem and Doriel talk with Luther around, and Doriel reveals that they had done some research and knows that there was once a 10th realm belonging to a god named Omnos, the youngest of the Kindred. All he was able to find was that after the Blood War, there was someone that was placed into the prison by the temple, where the 10th’s stone used to stand. But he doesn’t have much more than that, and Diem realizes that Yrselle and the King of Montios were alive around the time of the Blood War so they would have known more, and wishes that she would have asked Yrselle more about it, but she doesn’t deny that she would rather save Luther. Diem also manages to make more of the cure for the godstone toxin, but one of the healers tells her that they have something much more potent and that this will not work at all. Diem goes over her memories using the Sophos magic, and realizes that the thing that she did different the first time for Taran was used her blood, something that she didn’t use after and the mixture seemed to do even less for them. She does that with the paste, mixes it in, and makes the healer put it on every one of them, but then leaves before she can see the outcome.

Luther takes her to Teller’s apartment, and makes out with her when they talk about Lily, because he wants to show Teller what it’s like to go after the person that you love, and what he could have had with Lily. Part of the reason that Teller had come to Sophos was to get separation from Lily because he realized that he hadn’t a chance at a future with her due to their different lifespans. Luther and Diem get into a discussion about her fear that he disappeared, and she shows him her perspective of the fight, and then he shows her his side. She realizes that he had done exactly what she would have wanted from the beginning to the end, including knowing that she would free Vance.

After they bathe each other, during which Luther shows restraint, he takes Diem to the library, surprising her. At first she thinks that there are people around because she is blindfolded when he smacks her, but he later shows her that they are alone in a part of the library, which contains the Crown Library as well. He tells her that the roof had caved in and that they will need to check it to make sure that it is all right, using her magic to reinforce the stone, which is why the king had cleared everyone out. He then takes her to a nook containing a replica of the Everflame tree, which lights up when she touches it, and Diem stumbles back down to Luther, who catches her. They enter the secret nook, where they end up having sex for the first time, and Diem then begins to read and scroll through all of the books there because she now has a memory reinforced by magic so she can look at it and revisit it later. The following day, they reinforce the roof and then end up staying another day at the library, which Luther finds strange, but doesn’t say much on it because it makes Diem happy. At some point, they end up talking about building a family, which takes Luther by surprise because Diem had told him some time ago that she wasn’t sure if she would want anything like that because Henri reminded her that she wasn’t willing to give her heart to commitment with him.

Suddenly, one of Doriel’s people comes to gather her and at first tells Luther that he has to stay here but Diem convinces them to let him escort her to the boat, where she gets on and tells him that she will be fine. Luther isn’t happy with letting her out of his sight, but knows that no one is allowed to go to the coronation. During the boat ride, Doriel gets the Bond agreement with her that she will do anything in her power to end Ophiucae while he agrees to convince the Meros king towards her cause. She realizes that she doesn’t want to kill Ophiucae but doesn’t think that she has a choice, so she agrees to the agreement, and seals it with her magic. Faunos, Meros, Ignios, Doriel and Diem are there when Arboros arrives, but Diem quickly realizes that Arboros doesn’t want anyone to know that she was at the Guardian camp, so she is out on her own. Doriel convinces Meros to vote in favor of Diem and her mom, but Ignios, Faunos, and Arboros do not. Diem realizes that she is outvoted, until Yrselle shows up and tells her that she should have given her the information instead of playing with her as she had because things would have been different, as now the future is darker. At first the other royals think that Yrselle says no to the vote, but after they bicker some more, Yrselle tells them that she said that she should say no, but that actually she is going to vote yes for Diem. Diem realizes that she is now free with her mom, but before Yrselle finished the whole sentence, Ignios kills her with a godstone dagger, and suddenly, Diem gets the crown of Umbros as well. She now carries four crowns, which means that either way, she gets the vote. But then, Doriel brings out Teller between two guards and tells her that she will follow what they say to do or else, and she watches as all of the Crowns agree to Doriel’s plan which is to set a trap on the Island so that neither gryvern nor anyone who is not a crown cannot step onto the Island ever again, and to trap Diem on the Island with that magic. Doriel tells her that he doesn’t care about the Guardians that Diem cautions are on the Island. Arboros quietly points her way to the shore towards her country, and Diem understands. As soon as the magic is sealed, and the Crowns run with their people—they only have until sunset—Diem yells to the mortals that they need to go to the southern port and leave or else they will be dead. They start running.

Suddenly there is a scuffle, and Luther, Teller and Perthe shows up. Diem is heartbroken because she knows that she will not be able to leave, and tells them to get out. Luther doesn’t like it but she explains to him that he has to leave, and suddenly Sorae shows up to come get her. Diem yells at Sorae to get Luther, Teller and Perthe, and while Sorae does grab Teller, who in turn grabs Luther and Perthe, Luther begins slipping. Diem’s heart is breaking because that means that the person she loves the most will be gone with the sunset for the rest of her life. To her surprise, Teller lets go of Perthe to save Luther, and Diem is elated but hopes that Teller will not feel guilty and carry the heaviness of that choice for the rest of his life. She watches as Perthe salutes her on the ground before he dies as a result of the magic that Doriel had put on the island and the hearthstone.

Sorae flies over to show Diem that she has Luther and Teller, and then Diem watches as she flies them home to Lumnos, happy that Teller is free and safe from Doriel and can’t be used against her in the future. She doesn’t lose hope because as long as Luther is alive, they will find a way to be together, and she realizes that when she gets free of this island, she will tell him that she wants it all—to be his mate, live alongside with him, and have a family with him. Suddenly, there is pain going through her, and Ignios shows up in her field of vision, having speared her through her heart with his weapon. He tells her that he wants to end her.

My Thoughts:

A lot of revelations in this book, but to be honest, none of them really had me going WTF? as much as the second book with her mom. My nerve endings are still stinging from all of that shock from book two that none of this is registering.

Personally, I am not willing to believe that her mother has changed and started to like Luther at all—she’s too calculating of a person in my opinion, and she will use this information somehow to her advantage to try to separate them or drive a wedge between them. But at the same time, knowing what I now know about Auralie, I do think that she will go to whatever ends she can to save Diem and will be part of the leadership alongside Luther to try to get Diem back.

I’m struggling with Ophiucae because I think he has the potential to teach her a lot or even find a way to get her off the island, but he’s too wrapped up in vengeance that he would destroy the world and his own daughter. So I wonder how he will play a role in the upcoming and final chapter of the book.

And then poor Diem. I really wanted to yell at her for heading without Luther onto the boat, because to me all of that looked like a trap. The minute that they were given another day without a proper reason and the fact that Doriel disappeared, that had my bs sensor going off with a ton of red flags. She shouldn’t have agreed to that deal because if she doesn’t fulfill it, she is without magic, and now she has no way to fulfill it as she is stuck on an Island. I think that she will get off the island in some way—perhaps she will use her memories and the books she read as well as her other knowledge to pick things up, and find a way to break this spell. Maybe even Ophiucae helps her with his blood, and then they work together for some time before she ultimately does kill him, filling in her bargain. But I don’t believe that she will stay on the Island for the fourth and final book, at least not for all of it—maybe a portion of it while Luther tries to figure out how to get her out with their friend’s help. I love Luther, and I love their relationship. This is not one of those stereotypical ‘fae bastards’ you’d see in Romance Fantasy stories like these; he is overprotective but also gives her space as evidenced during the battle of Sophos.

I’m going to miss Yrselle though, she was a badass. I do wish that she did not play those games that she did or found a way to help Diem to save Luther so that Diem could have stayed with her instead of setting up a demand or a battle. And I think that she purposefully told Diem that her successor was a male in order to throw Diem off into thinking that she has no chances to come back to Umbros and as a way to manipulate her to speak with Yrselle. It definitely backfired on Yrselle, as Diem would not ever live without Luther.

I cannot wait to read the final installment of this series and see what the outcome is for all of these characters.