Curse of Shadows and Thorns

Legion and Tor ride ahead as Halvar takes Elise and Siverie with him. When Elise asks what is happening to Legion, he only tells her that he did not take the second dose of the elixir he needed once he heard that Elise had escaped. They return to the alehouse, and Halvar leaves the women outside, but Elise can hear Legion suffering inside and knows she must go to him. Inside, she sees the men trying to wrap chains around Legion as his veins turn black with blood and his eyes turn red.

The owner of the alehouse takes Elise and Siverie to another room and tells them to stay there if they want to keep their heads. Elise thinks that Legion does not have an ailment, but a curse, and over the next hours, she hears the crashes of furniture and cries as Legion suffers on the floor beneath them. When Elise hears Legion’s pleas for mercy, she comes downstairs and sees that he is chained down and is being cut by Tor. She continually asks why they are hurting Legion, who still lunges at her, and Halvar takes her back upstairs for her protection.

He reveals that Legion is cursed with bloodlust, and if they don’t control the way blood is spilled once he has changed, he will have to draw the blood of others until dawn. Elise feels for Legion as she knows the man that is inside the beast downstairs, and she knows that he wants her help to stop his suffering from this curse. She is again reminded of what the witch child told her about embracing the beast within, and she knows she must choose Legion. Elise wonders if the curse is so simple that she can free him by choosing to be with him.

Elise awakes the next morning to find the sight of a battlefield downstairs, and Tor tells her that Legion is himself again. He tells her that Legion goes through this change at the end of the moon cycle or if he spills blood, and this change was particularly violent as he had not taken Bevan’s elixir, which usually helps him if he changes early. Elise thanks Tor for pulling the Blood Wraith away the night he took her fingertips, and he confirms that Legion does not know what he is doing or recognize anything but blood when he goes through the change. However, Tor does say there is something about Elise that makes Legion act differently, even as the Blood Wraith, and he seems to want to protect her even when he changes.

Elise goes to Legion, where he is healing outside. She tends to his wounds even when he tells her she shouldn’t. Legion doesn’t remember anything from the previous night. Elise asks him who cursed him, but Legion doesn’t remember, only knows that it was ordered by a Timoran king. He doesn’t even remember his real first name, and “Legion” was just one that Tor and Halvar gave him when they were cursed. He admits that he doesn’t know how old he is or if some of his memories are false. The curse prevents Legion, Tor, and Halvar from knowing who they are, but ensures that they know they are meant to stick together.

Elise assumes he is someone who was presumed dangerous to the throne, but doesn’t believe he is evil. He remembers being cursed by someone he calls the Enchantress, who gave him a stone full of fury that he keeps on a necklace, and he has recently learned how to end the curse. There is a place called the Black Tomb that will break the curse, but only a royal can open the gates of the tomb. The condition of the curse is that the royal cannot take anything from the tomb to enhance their power, and must open the tomb only of their own choice. When Legion knew of her kindness, he planned to get close to Elise, not knowing he would have trusted her so completely when they first met. Elise is determined to break the curse, even when Legion tells her the dangers of it.

Elise reads Lilianna’s accounts of her two sons, Sol and Valen, and how the former can use fury to move the earth. Though Elise is searching for answers in the journal, reading it only makes her long for a time when the Ettans ruled. Bevan brought Elise the journal, along with the news that Calder has already begun hunting Night Folk. The group wonders how they will figure out how to find and unlock the Black Tomb, and Elise convinces the others to trust Siverie and take her along. Legion gives Elise another chance to change her mind about helping him, but she refuses. They worry about what will come after.

On their way out of the alehouse, they run into Bevan, who tells them he is fleeing because Calder is beginning to test users of magic like him. He gives them an elixir to help them locate the Black Tomb, but when they find its location, several different tombs appear.

The group begins searching the tomb. When Elise sees one she thinks may be the Black Tomb, an army of fury guardians—ghosts with corporeal swords—begin to attack them. Legion tells Elise to get to the tomb as the others fight back. When she makes it inside the tomb, she sees a young girl imprisoned there and correctly assumes she is the witch child, though she calls herself the Storyteller.

The Storyteller recognizes Elise and tells her that the magic of the curse that makes Legion immortal won’t work inside the tomb, so she must hurry to free her. She also mentions that a previous Storyteller was used to rewrite Legion’s Fate and give him the curse, as royals have exploited her kind for generations. Knowing of Legion’s curse and prophesying that he would later help set her free, the Storyteller arranged for Legion and Elise to meet by making Elise’s father ill.

The Storyteller tells Elise that Legion’s curse—what the first Storyteller called the Curse of Crowns—can be broken if Elise takes a crest she finds in this tomb to another and exchanges one life for another.

Elise wonders whether she can sacrifice her own life for Legion’s freedom, but the Storyteller has seen that Legion will ultimately be the catalyst for change in the land and will somehow free all of the magic users. Elise knows that, if her life is needed for peace and equality across all kingdoms, this is a sacrifice she must make, though she asks the Storyteller (who introduces herself as Calista) to tell Legion she would have rather made this change by his side.

As Elise rushes to the other tomb, Legion tries to stop her as he fights off the shadow guardians. He knocks her blade away from her as she tries to press it through her heart, telling Elise he would rather live a thousand years with the curse than without her. As she pushes him away and attempts to kill herself again, a shadow guard lunges at her, but Legion steps in front of her and takes his blade through the heart.

Legion falls, and Elise tries everything she can to bring him back to life as the others gather around her. However, moments later, a bright white light begins to surround him, and then Tor and Halvar as well. Elise and Siv watch as the men are swallowed by this light and come out looking transformed, with Halvar saying he remembers everything.

As Legion too awakens, Tor and Halvar kneel before him, referring to him as their prince. Elise sees the way that Legion’s ears have become pointed like those of the Night Folk, and she realizes that Legion is actually Valen Ferus, the Night Prince.

Elise is relieved when Legion, or Valen, recognizes her. She realizes that the royal blood needed to break the curse was his own, as was the life that was sacrificed for another. Valen reveals that he was cursed by the first Timoran prince to forget who he was so that the Timorans could usurp the throne from the Ettans, but the magic of the land has been rejecting them since.

Fearing that he will see her as an enemy, Elise asks Valen to execute her swiftly, but Valen says he has not forgotten any of his feelings for Elise or what she has sacrificed for him. However, Valen says he has made vows to avenge his family, so he must part from Elise, who wants Valen to stay and unite the people of the kingdom.

Suddenly, they all see a signal from Ravenspire Castle and know that its guards are on their way. Valen uses fury to ensure that Elise will not speak his name to others. Though she insists she can’t leave him, to keep her safe from the bloodshed, he uses magic to send Elise and Siv away. Elise realizes that he didn’t choose her like she chose him.

Elise and Siv return to the alehouse, where they learn that Ravenspire invaded their own people in search of her and Legion. Siv apologizes and tells Elise she misses Mavie, but also says she can take Elise to her people and try to keep her safe, as they have nowhere else to go. As they go toward Siv’s clan of Agitators, Elise sees Moonvane, a magical plant, regrowing everywhere as the land welcomes the return of its prince.

One night, when they are camping, a group of Night Folk surrounds them and recognizes Elise for who she is. Siv tells Elise that these are the Agitators, and they tell them that they are now enemies of the crown. The group’s leader, Ari Sekundӓr, tells Elise they will keep her safe if she does a favor for them, though he doesn’t reveal what it is. However, she is shocked to learn that Ari, not knowing of the Night Prince’s return, believes he is the one who brought the Moonvane back to the land, and the Agitators have accepted him as their new king.

Though Elise wants to tell them that Valen has returned, she can’t because of the magic he used on her. Even so, she believes that these people will eventually come to their senses and support their true king, who will lead them to a new future for the kingdom.