53 pages • 1-hour read
A Dawn of Onyx
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Chapters 19-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
Kane tells Arwen that Halden is a murderer. He explains that since his conscription, Halden has become an assassin for King Gareth and has been sent to Onyx to kill every Fae that he can find. Kane gives Arwen a history lesson about the Fae, providing her with knowledge that is guarded by only a few high-ranking Onyx officials.
He states that centuries ago, there was once an entire realm of Fae. However, they were a dying breed, and their king, Lazarus, was the last full-blooded Fae in existence. Their realm functioned on a unique form of Fae power called “lighte”—a finite resource that came from the earth which the Fae could use to fuel anything, as well as to heal, build, or destroy. As the Fae died out, the resource of lighte became rarer and more valuable, but King Lazarus refused to ration it. The resource waned, and as a result, the land was decimated and became nearly inhabitable. Fae refugees from the realm crossed to Evendell, where they made a home in the closest kingdom—Onyx. Upon realizing that his people were fleeing, Lazarus built a wall to keep them in. However, a seer delivered a prophecy. With the knowledge recovered from the prophecy, a group of powerful Fae led a rebellion to save the realm. This effort failed and thousands died. Only 100 rebel Fae survived and escaped to Onyx.
Kane then connects the story of the Fae to Halden by informing Arwen that three years ago, King Gareth of Amber made a deal with King Lazarus. Gareth would give Lazarus “fresh land devoid of people” and would receive ”untold power, riches, and lighte” (246) in exchange. Kane learned of this plot through his own spies’ efforts. Knowing that Lazarus would gladly destroy an entire mortal kingdom to make space for his kingdom to exist in the mortal realm, Onyx went to war with Amber to prevent Lazarus’s invasion. As part of Amber’s brutal initiative, Halden has been employed to kill any Fae defectors, thereby delivering on Lazarus’ need for vengeance against those Fae who deserted him. Kane vaguely mentions that Lazarus wants him and that Halden will likely tell Gareth of his whereabouts. Hearing this, Arwen feels guilty about helping Halden to escape.
Kane and Arwen are rescued from the cellar by Commander Griffin, and Arwen is sent to the infirmary to heal a few wounded banquet attendees. When she returns to her quarters, she finds Kane lying on her bed. He informs her that tomorrow, he and Griffin will hunt down Halden and his friends. Kane and Arwen spend the night getting to know one another. Arwen shares stories of Abbington and her family, and Kane apologizes for the damage the war has inflicted on her family. He reiterates his promise to find them. Arwen tells him about her love for running, and when Kane admits that he doesn’t do much for fun anymore, she insists that they’ll change that after the war.
Arwen asks why he kept pretending to be a prisoner after his initial “escape” from the dungeons. He admits to wanting to be near her and to adopt a persona that she liked rather than being recognized as the king she hated. Arwen realizes that he thinks himself unworthy of love and kindness. He proves her right by explaining that he brings pain and harm everywhere he goes. When she insists that there’s always time to make things right with those people, Kane tells her that everyone is dead.
Their conversation turns back to Halden, and Arwen insists she and Halden never had sex and that she is a virgin; she also lets it slip that she felt nothing when Halden kissed her in the dungeons. Kane’s jealousy reveals his true feelings for Arwen and while she feels the same for him, she doesn’t admit this aloud. She acknowledges that she has come to trust Kane; she privately considers telling him about her plan to find the burrowroot in the Shadow Woods during the eclipse tomorrow night, but she decides not to, fearing that he will argue with her about the dangers of the journey.
Chapter 20 Summary
Arwen sleeps late and nearly misses the eclipse. She packs her things in a rush and seeks Kane out, hoping to be honest with him and enlist his help in finding the burrowroot safely. However, when a guard tells her that Kane is out with Commander Griffin, hunting down Halden, she decides to go out on her own without informing anyone else. Arwen eventually finds the oak tree where the burrowroot grows, but she also encounters two large chimeras devouring a fallen deer. Arwen remembers a note in one of Mari’s books, which claimed that chimeras can’t swim. Arwen whistles, drawing the attention of the chimeras. She throws two rocks at the female’s head, angering it into giving chase.
Chapter 21 Summary
Arwen leads the chimera to the pond and waits for it to lunge at her, using its momentum to throw them both into the lake. Arwen clings to a rock while the female chimera struggles to swim and loses the battle. However, when the male chimera tries to help his mate even though he cannot swim himself, Arwen turns back and save the female from the water. She uses compressions and her magic to coax the female back to life. The male chimera spares Arwen one last grateful glance, and the pair wander back into the woods.
Arwen races back to the tree and manages to pick several stalks of burrowroot just before the eclipse ends. Just as she gathers her belongings to leave, Arwen is intercepted by a man-wolf hybrid that is capable of speaking. It attacks her as if it has been searching for her specifically. Just as it’s about to feast on her abdomen, the male chimera attacks it. The hybrid severely injures the chimera. In pure rage, Arwen swings her sword with vigor at the hybrid, killing it. Arwen races to heal the male chimera, drawing power from everything around her. As her magic begins to work, a glow as bright as the sun emerges beneath her hands, and the forest around her begins to feel hot. She fully heals the chimera, then collapses. Just before she loses consciousness, Kane and his soldiers find her.
Chapter 22 Summary
Back at the Onyx palace, Arwen drifts in and out of consciousness as healers work on purging her of the hybrid’s venom, which has infiltrated her bloodstream through the wounds left by the monster’s claws. Meanwhile, Kane hovers over her. When the torturous pain of extracting the venom causes Arwen to scream, shadows suddenly lash out from Kane, covering the room in blackness; this phenomenon also completely relieves her pain, and she loses consciousness again. She has a nightmare of being abused by her stepfather, Powell, who used to lock her in his work shed and lash her back with a belt in punishment for every little thing she did wrong.
When Arwen wakes again, Kane is seated beside the bed. She realizes that they’re in his room, which smells like lilies. Arwen examines her injuries, which look gruesome but are not permanently disfiguring. However, the wound on her chest has left a thin, permanent scar from collarbone to breast. Arwen suddenly recalls the shadows that were unleashed from Kane as the healers worked on her. She asks him if he is a warlock, but he simply implies that there is much that he needs to tell her.
Chapter 23 Summary
Kane and Arwen go for a walk in Shadowhold’s gardens, and Kane informs Arwen that while she was asleep, she was calling out for someone to stop He asks if it was the same person who gave her the scars on her back. She admits that the culprit was her stepfather, Powell, who died of a stroke many years ago. Kane then reveals that he is Lazarus’s son and is therefore a Fae; it was Fae magic that Arwen witnessed as she was being healed. Kane reveals that he is the one who led the Fae rebellion against his father, and his actions led to the loss of many Fae lives, including his brother. Kane reveals that he is 215 years old and that his true identity is known only to his closest advisors, as well as to King Eryx and Princess Amelia. Arwen learns that the wolfbeast that attacked her was a Fae mercenary sent by Lazarus; Kane explains that powerful Fae can shapeshift, but this skill is rare and costs an extraordinary amount of lighte to accomplish. These Fae mercenaries have been killing Kane’s soldiers at unprecedented rates.
Kane further reveals that the Kingdom of Amber has conquered Garnet—the very kingdom to which her family sailed in search of a refuge. Kane plans to send Arwen to Siren’s Cove in Peridot, where she will be safe from Lazarus. Kane plans to stay behind another few days. When Arwen asks if there are no more secrets between them, Kane promises that there are none. Before they say goodbye, Kane rectifies what he said when they first met. He admits that he was wrong to believe that she sacrificed herself for her brother because she thought herself to be worth less than Ryder. Now, Kane believes that her choice was the bravest one she could have made. They share their first kiss, and he departs.
Chapter 24 Summary
Arwen travels with Mari, Commander Griffin, and four other soldiers in a week-long journey to Peridot. In the carriage, Arwen tells Mari everything that she has learned. Griffin disapproves, as the Fae information was supposed to remain a well-guarded secret. As the journey continues, Griffin shows his annoyance with the women at every opportunity, and he is most irritated with Mari. Mari continues researching the Fae in her books but can find nothing about lighte. Arwen believes that lighte is the key to either saving the Fae lands or to bringing them to Evendell.
On the morning after they stop at an inn, Arwen finds Griffin and a fellow guard sparring outside. She challenges Griffin to a round, wagering that if she lands a single blow on him, he must compliment Mari. If she fails, then she promises to be silent for the entirety of dinner. Arwen is overconfident and loses the sparring match. Griffin enjoys the silent dinner, but when Mari grows increasingly annoyed that Arwen can’t respond to her, Griffin begrudgingly compliments Mari’s hair, then flees the room. The women are bewildered by his unexpected kindness.
Chapter 25 Summary
Arwen and her entourage reach Peridot’s coast and settle in Siren’s Cove. King Eryx and Princess Amelia greet them. When King Eryx suggests a potential arranged marriage between Griffin and Amelia, Mali scowls.
Later, while delivering clothes for that evening’s dinner to Arwen’s rooms, Amelia warns her about Kane. She claims that Kane has not been fully truthful with Arwen. Remembering Kane’s promise to her, Arwen believes that the princess is only jealous. Amelia leaves, and Arwen gets ready, When the door opens once again, she is surprised to see Kane enter the room. He is rendered temporarily speechless by her beauty.
Chapters 19-25 Analysis
As Kane and Arwen grow closer, the author uses their new sense of intimacy as a device to deliver crucial world-building about Fae history and the practical mechanics of lighte magic. Combined with Kane’s explanation of the Fae wolfbeast’s capabilities, this information broadens Arwen’s understanding of Onyx’s enemies and suggests that for all of Kane’s sudden transparency, he is still keeping critical secrets from her. His deliberately vague mention of the seer’s prophecy reinforces this pattern, making it clear that he still holds unspoken truths destined to Arwen’s understanding of their burgeoning relationship. Thus, even amidst their growing trust for one another, the two remain subject to the complexities involved in The Ambiguity of Political Propaganda.
This theme is further developed with the revelation that Amber has conquered Garnet, for Arwen must contend with the fact that the refuge her family sought is in reality yet another source of danger. As she confronts the potential personal costs of this war, she turns to her former captor, Kane, and as he gradually grants her higher levels of trust, this gesture inspires a similar response in her, further blending political undercurrents with personal sentiments. Despite her efforts to believe the best of her home kingdom, Arwen finds herself trusting Kane and Onyx’s motivations in the war against Amber and Lazarus. However, Amelia’s warning that Kane is not being fully truthful prevents Arwen’s trust from becoming absolute and plants seeds of doubt about his real intentions. These points of insecurity and uncertainty set the stage for the novel’s climactic battle, for Arwen knows that if Amelia is correct and Kane betrays her trust, the Onyx ruler will have the ability to destroy Arwen completely.
Even with these heightened tensions, the novel’s romantasy focus is emphasized in a series of vulnerable moments. For example, a key indicator of the pair’s strengthening relationship can be found the re-emerging symbol of lilies. The narrative has revealed that lilies are Arwen’s favorite flowers, and the strategic appearances of this symbol throughout the novel suggest that Arwen equates lilies with a representation of home. Thus, when a healed Arwen wakes in the aftermath of the wolfbeast’s attack and finds herself in Kane’s room, which smells comfortingly of lilies, the narrative suggests that this gesture is Kane’s wordless attempt to show her that he cares about her and that Onyx could become her true home.
As the narrative’s primary focus highlights Arwen’s own inner development, she breaks free of The Prison of Fear by learning to fence, surviving the wolfbeast attack, and becoming Kane’s trusted advisor in matters of strategy. In fact, her defeat of the wolfbeast gives her a profound sense of confidence that she carries into new moments of conflict. This inner shift is evidenced in her decision to initiate a sparring challenge with Griffin. Even though she ends up losing the contest, the scene makes it clear that she is now driven by an element of calm, easy determination, and her demeanor during the mock-battle suggests that she is prepared to meet the more serious challenges that will dominate the novel’s conclusion.
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