“The stricken look on my face had made Bernadette laugh. She’d then given me the shawl she’d packed for herself to cover my cleavage.”

In the early chapters of the novel, a young Mildred feels anxiety about her physical and sexual maturation, particularly when her family forces her to wear a revealing gown before her betrothed, putting their political aspirations ahead of her comfort. Ironically, Queen Agatha also hypocritically criticizes her stepdaughter for “flaunting” her sexuality, and the entire situation makes it clear that Mildred is no more in control of her public image than she is able to choose her own political destiny.

“Even if I had taken an interest in someone, keeping such matters private would merely be to keep from embarrassing my father and earning more of Agatha’s scorn. Faeries did not care for propriety and maintaining one’s innocence for marriage. To them, sex was as accepted as each new dawn. A way to honor their immortal lives and the twin goddesses who’d gifted them as such.”

In this passage, Mildred highlights the differing attitudes that faeries and humans hold about sex. The exposition in this scene illustrates one of the ways in which Mildred, as a half-human, half-faerie princess, is caught between two distinct political and cultural worlds. Her marriage exacerbates this sense of isolation, for although she is held to human standards of chastity, she is also expected to fluidly enter the more sexually open faerie world. Ultimately, she feels more connected to the fae’s approach to sexuality, and she finds her relationship with Atakan to be sexually liberating.

“Meanwhile, more souls perished as our armies continued to hold the ground they’d reclaimed—a victory Garran and my father were already celebrating.”

Mildred notes that in the war with the Unseelie, both her father and Garran celebrate “victories” that prove to be immaterial, for the war continues to rage and costs even more soldiers their lives.