A Fire Endless (elements of Cadence, #2)

The second and final installment in the Elements of Cadence duology, the novel unfolds on the Isle of Cadence, a land divided by the clan line, an ancient magical boundary. The Tamerlaines of the east enjoy abundant resources but pay physical costs when wielding magic, while the Breccans of the west craft enchantments freely but endure harsh weather and chronic scarcity. Above both clans, spirits of fire, water, earth, and wind inhabit a parallel realm governed by Bane, the tyrannical King of the Northern Wind.

The novel opens with Kae, a spirit of the northern wind who has secretly protected the isle's bards, refusing Bane's order to curse the earth spirits. Bane tears two of her four wings from her back, strips her of her title, and banishes her to the mortal realm.

In the east, Sidra Tamerlaine, the clan's healer, discovers a mysterious blight afflicting both trees and humans: a mottling of purple and blue veined with shimmering gold. Her husband, Torin, the new Laird of the East, traces the infection to a southern orchard. They suspect the blight stems from unrest in the spirits' realm and ask Jack Tamerlaine, the clan's bard, to sing for the earth spirits.

Jack has been adrift since his wife, Adaira, departed for the west. Raised as a Tamerlaine, Adaira was revealed to be the blood daughter of the western laird, Innes Breccan. When Jack plays for the blighted orchard, Bane sends a storm that destroys the tree spirit answering his call. Before the dead hearth in his mother Mirin's cottage, Jack summons Ash, the Laird of Fire, who reveals that Bane has shackled the fire spirits and plans to devastate the isle. Ash tells Jack he must travel west to dethrone Bane and unite the two clans.

In the west, Adaira navigates life under the watchful eyes of her blood parents. Innes shares painful truths, including the death of Adaira's younger sister, Skye. To survive among the Breccan nobility, Adaira must build tolerance to Aethyn, the only western poison with no known antidote, which turns shed blood into blue jewels. When Jack's music crosses the clan line and eases her Aethyn agony, Bane responds with a violent storm. Innes explains that a bard's music grants unchecked power in the west and orders Adaira to tell Jack to stop singing. Adaira also learns that Jack's father, Niall Breccan, is alive and imprisoned.

Sidra discovers the blight spreading on her own heel and tells no one. After an argument, Torin wanders the moors and steps through a spirit portal into a landscape of perpetual twilight. Lady Whin of the Wildflowers, ruler of the eastern earth spirits, explains that Bane inflicted the blight as punishment for her kind's defiance. Torin must solve its riddle before he can return. He finds he is invisible and intangible, unable to reach Sidra, and overhears that she is pregnant. A hill spirit reads a riddle from a lightning-struck tree: It speaks of ice and fire brought together, sisters divided and reunited, and a debt paid in salt and blood.

Jack crosses the clan line and reaches the Aithwood, the western forest, where he meets his grandmother, Elspeth, at Niall's cottage. Elspeth tells him of Iagan, the last Bard of the West, whose unchecked music drained the land's magic. Jack is intercepted by Rab Pierce, the son of a western thane, who throws him into the castle dungeons. Rab forces Jack into the culling, where prisoners fight to the death, pitting him against his own father. Gagged and locked in a helm, Jack refuses to fight. Just as Niall pins him down, Adaira arrives. She has the helm removed and invokes "draping the plaid," publicly claiming Jack under her protection.

Reunited, Jack and Adaira reconcile and recommit to their marriage with permanent blood vows. Adaira introduces Jack to Kae, the banished wind spirit she sheltered at a cottage on Loch Ivorra. Through Kae's memories, they learn that Iagan once summoned all four elemental courts and sang them into submission, forcing each to surrender tokens of power that fused into his body, granting immortality. Iagan ceased to be a bard and became Bane. Jack realizes that if music created this tyranny, music can undo it.

Torin, invisible, haunts Sidra and watches her assume the responsibilities of laird. When his young daughter, Maisie, requests a bedtime story about the spirit sisters Orenna and Whin, Torin suspects these are the "sisters divided" in the riddle. After failed attempts, he identifies the riddle's "fire" as fire spurge, an eastern plant used in healing. He crushes flowers from both sisters and fire spurge on a stone. His blood drips from blistered palms, and his tears provide the salt. The remedy shines with the radiance of the moon.

Meanwhile, Moray Breccan, Adaira's brother, escapes the eastern dungeons and flees west, where Innes imprisons him and grants him a culling. Moray proposes that Adaira help him seize power by assassinating Innes, but Adaira refuses. Jack negotiates Niall's full freedom as the condition for serving as Tamerlaine witness, and at the midnight culling, Niall defeats and kills Moray.

Sidra travels west to collaborate on a cure for the blight. At a feast, she has her guards serve as cupbearers, tasting the cups meant for her, Jack, and Adaira. When two guards' blood hardens into jewels, the cups are proven poisoned with Aethyn. Sidra brews an antidote from fire spurge, and a servant identifies Rab as the poisoner. Innes offers Adaira the right to execute the Pierces, but Adaira lowers the sword and urges the nobility to lay down their weapons and trust each other. The thanes disarm and kneel.

As Bane's storm rages and the Aithwood burns, Jack stands on the clan line and sings to undo each element of Iagan's tyranny. He faces Bane and sings the final stanza. The stolen power breaks free, stars weave into Jack's hair as the crown transfers to him, and Bane disintegrates. Adaira, guided by Kae, reaches the burning forest and sees Jack crowned with stars. She calls his name, but fire surges between them. When it subsides, Jack is gone; only his harp remains.

Torin arrives at the Breccan castle and heals every blighted person with the remedy, including Sidra and Adaira's father, David Breccan. Niall reaches Mirin's cottage and helps revive her from a grave illness. Adaira and Torin then walk the unbroken portions of the clan line, speaking benedictions that dissolve the curse. Innes asks Adaira to be her heiress, and Adaira accepts. The first trade between the clans begins at Niall's former cottage.

In the epilogue, Jack, now King of the Spirits, asks the assembled folk to accept his crown and let him return to mortal life. Ash warns that surrendering the crown means losing his music forever. Jack accepts, names Kae as his successor, and she carries him on the wind back to the mortal realm. He materializes in the snow and walks to the trading house, where Adaira wraps him in her cloak. Jack tells her his song is now their shared life, waking and sleeping at each other's side. Adaira leads him down the river road to Mirin's cottage, where firelight burns through the darkness.