The wards between Unseelie and Seelie lands are one of the primary points of contention in the war between the two kingdoms. Garran and Atakan used magic, bound in Atakan’s blood, to create an impenetrable barrier between the two fae kingdoms. For the Seelie, the wards guarantee protection from the dangerous creatures that haunt Unseelie lands, ensuring that they cannot cross to other kingdoms. The Unseelie consider the wards to be an unjust punishment in response to the cruelty of their late king, Vorx. Because the war began when Unseelie Queen Kallista’s defected to Seelie after her husband’s abuse, the wards play into the novel’s focus on Weighing the Costs and Benefits of Revenge. While the Seelie see the wards as a guarantee of their freedom from monsters, the Unseelie see them as a means for the Seelie to curtail their freedoms.

The wards also intensify the love triangle between Atakan, Mildred, and Vane. When Mildred’s feelings for Vane begin to soften, he urges her to fuel her new fondness for him so that the wards can fall and his people can be free. She worries, however, that if she allows herself to care for Vane, the falling wards will have negative consequences rather than positive ones. A compromise eventually arises when gaps appear in the wards, allowing some movement between the two kingdoms without permitting large forces like the pytherion army to pass through. In the novel’s epilogue, the wards still stand, even though they continue to fray. This pattern suggests that the wards are no longer of such great importance now that the two fae kingdoms are at peace.