The book opens with a memory of Arwen as a child following Halden and Ryder into her step-father’s shed. When Halden gets hurt Arwen heals him, the first time she ever uses her power. Ryder sneaks off and abandons them.
It does kind of lay the groundwork for who Ryder turned out to be as an adult – selfish and impulsive, at least up until the moment he gets to prove himself by protecting the children. Halden is more of a mystery, but we never do learn about his time in the army and how he became such an asshole – and therefore so important to Lazarus.
I ended up being entirely intrigued by Kane’s brief interaction with the Fae God Onyx. Was he unable to tell Kane that Arwen is alive or was he just fucking with him? He said he wasn’t allowed to return home because the other Gods didn’t like that he was interfering in mortal affairs, so is that why all he was able to do was the mortality spell on Kane? Maybe his return home had two conditions, it works out as intended and also no additional interference?
Meanwhile in Lumera, Arwen is finding out that the environmental devastation caused by Lazarus means it sometimes rains literal fire. As somebody who lives in a country where the northern portion of multiple provinces are being evacuated due to out-of-control wildfires and we have smoke advisories as part of our regular weather forecasts – I am absolutely on the side of killing Lazarus. Or at least massively de-funding him.
I can’t say that I predicted Amelia’s betrayal of Arwen – and then her eventual betrayal of Exxon Lazarus – but I wasn’t surprised when it happened. She is definitely playing a long game of siding with whoever will help her most, and while Shell Lazarus was able to help her get rid of her father (and man, that was a stone cold choice) Amelia is ultimately on the side that will best preserve the future of her people. For the same reason I absolutely knew Alaksander would show up when it counted. He’s smart enough to know that any peace his people have is temporary once Imperial Lazarus wipes out his opposition.
I was very surprised when Kane did not take Wyn with him when he rescued Arwen. In the first book he had a whole team of soldiers on his back so it wasn’t due to lack of room. I understood later that there needed to be a soldier on site for plot reasons, but normally Arwen would be insisting they also save her friend.
Another thing I can say I wasn’t able to predict was how Golden would resolve the issue of Arwen’s death in the prophecy. Obviously she wasn’t going to kill of the heroine, but I thought maybe her father would show up and resurrect her. The phoenix solution was much more elegant.
Also, can I just say that Hart is my all-time favourite character in this series? He is such an unrepentant ho, and he is all, yeah I decided to be a rebel because why not and also my swag brings all the halflings and witches to the yard. I really really want there to be a final sequel where Kane and Mari finally bend the rules of physics to get back to Lumera to rescue them and when they get there it’s all green and lush and the citizens just say oh yeah the new King put all the useless gentry to work building irrigation canals and solar panel factories and we have a three-day work week and nobody goes hungry and everybody loves our new King and also he’s responsible for half the population that is starting Kindergarten this year.
And also I really want Kane and Arwen’s oldest daughter to fall in love with a Hemolich and move to Rose, just because it would wind him up so much.