The book opens on the ship where the handful of survivors of Lazarus attack on Peridot are making their way to safety. Things have gone horrendously irrevocably pear-shaped.
One of the things that becomes clear in this book is that Kane’s way of dealing with trauma is by getting drunk and cracking jokes. I can empathize, this is exactly my way of dealing with trauma. Is it healthy? No, no it is not. It does however have the dubious benefit of pissing off every other person who is in the metaphorical boat with you. Also in this case, the actual boat.
They finally arrive in Citrine, an enchanted city under the sea. Honestly the place sounds pretty amazing – diverse restaurants, 24-hour night life, everybody dressed to the nines. I love seafood so I might be biased here, but still.
They also manage to pick up the human embodiment of a Labrador Retriever, Prince Fedrik. For a simple farm girl from small town Amber, Arwen is keeping some high company these days. Fedrik makes no secret of the fact that he is attracted to Arwen, but she’s too busy having her push-pull relationship with Kane. I did think it was a risky move for Fedrik’s parents to throw the Onyx and Peridot citizens out of their city while Fedrik is with Kane, given Kane’s sketchy reputation. Maybe they want his sister to inherit the crown instead.
I also have to admit, as much as I am enjoying this story I sometimes wish that Dagan and Griffon would sit down with everybody and teach them the most basic OpSec rules. Like – don’t touch the magic treasure in the cursed treasure cave that wants to kill you. Or stay inside the magic hiding circle where your enemies can’t see you no matter how pissed off you are. Or, I don’t know, don’t tell people important secrets no matter how much you like them and how nice/hot they might be. Just for starters.
I also think everybody is being overly hard on Arwen when she is having trouble processing her grief over her mother’s death – and the news that she might not even be her mother’s biological child. Recovering from grief takes a long time and everybody seems to think that she should just get over it already, or at least handle it in a way that they deem more appropriate. It just doesn’t work that way.
But eventually Kane and Arwen finally finally FINALLY get together and profess their love to each other – mere chapters before they are separated. And this time nobody is coming to rescue Arwen, they all think they saw her die. Arwen is going to have to fight her own way out and then probably go hunt down Kane to save him from himself, because her man has a death wish now.
Truly, a woman’s work is never done.