Fate of the Sun King

In a flashback to the First Age of Ouranos, King Hawthorne surveys his kingdom, The Woodlands, which has been overcome by a malevolent blight. The forest has turned violent, killing his people with sentient vines and chasms that open in the earth. A grotesque infection also plagues his citizens, causing leaves and branches to sprout from their eyes, mouths, and noses. As Hawthorne considers seeking aid from across the sea, he is ambushed by animated vines that constrict his limbs and throat, dragging him into the darkened woods.

Two days after the incident at the brothel, Lor and Willow have reconciled, and Lor prepares to return to the Heart realm with Nadir, Mael, and Tristan. Nadir flies Lor to the outskirts of the settlement, and they find a room at an inn. They then set out to meet Nadir’s contact, Etienne, a High Fae with an eye patch. Upon seeing Lor, Etienne immediately drops to one knee and swears his allegiance, revealing he is a citizen of Heart who has awaited the return of his queen. He explains that he was a common soldier in Heart’s army who witnessed the blast from a distance and was thrown by its force, injuring his eye. Though he did not know Lor’s grandmother personally, he knows someone who did.

Etienne leads Lor and Nadir to a tea shop that is a base for a group of rebels. There, they meet Rhiannon, a High Fae who reveals she is the cousin of Lor’s grandmother, Serce. Overjoyed to meet Lor, Rhiannon shares details of Serce’s past. She reveals that Serce was once intended to bond with Atlas as a political alliance but refused after learning she would be made to compete in the Trials. Only after that refusal did she meet and fall in love with Wolf, Lor’s grandfather. Rhiannon also explains that Serce and Wolf worked with a priestess named Cloris to perform a special bonding ceremony—because both of them were Primaries, their bond would produce an even stronger power amplification than a standard bonding ritual. Rhiannon believes something went terribly wrong that day, causing the destruction of Heart.

In the First Age of Ouranos, Queen Amara of Heart pleaded with her nobles to help fund a defense against a mysterious plague called the Sleepness, which caused its victims to fall into a permanent slumber. The nobles were dismissive, as the plague had only affected the lower classes. After much persuasion, Amara convinced them to contribute. However, just as they agreed, the nobles themselves began succumbing to the Sleepness one by one, collapsing at the dinner table.

While speaking with Rhiannon, Lor grows jealous watching Nadir flirt with another woman. Nadir soon departs, telling Lor he has an errand but will return in an hour to escort her back to the inn. He makes her promise not to leave without him. Continuing her conversation, Lor asks Rhiannon about her grandparents. Rhiannon explains they were “mates”—a rare, fated pairing that makes their magic call to one another, constantly pulling them toward each other. She tells Lor that some mates have an even more rare gift that allows them to communicate telepathically. The description of this bond perfectly matches Lor’s experience with Nadir, and she realizes that he is her mate. Rhiannon adds that mates who refuse to bond face a slow, painful descent into agony and madness before death—with no Evanescence—the mythic heavenly realm—awaiting them.

Shaken, Lor leaves the shop to wait for Nadir. Outside, she finds a lost little boy named Aris and offers to help him find his mother. He leads her through a series of dark alleys to a dead end, where Lor realizes she has been tricked just before she is knocked unconscious.

Nadir returns to find Lor gone. In a panic, he gathers Mael, Tristan, and Etienne. Furious at Etienne for the security lapse, Nadir nearly reveals that Lor is his mate before Mael intervenes. The group splits up, with Nadir and Tristan searching the abandoned warehouses. There, they encounter a magical darkness, and Nadir suddenly hears Lor’s voice in his mind, faint and muffled, calling his name. Realizing she is close, he breaks into a run.

Lor awakens bound in a dark room, where she overhears her two captors discussing their plan to alert “the king” of her capture in the morning. Remembering Rhiannon’s words about mates, Lor focuses and sends a telepathic call to Nadir. Her captors realize she is awake and make it clear they intend to sexually assault her. She screams Nadir’s name aloud, and the door to the room explodes as Nadir and Tristan burst in, their magic overwhelming the men. As the rescue unfolds, Lor loses consciousness from her existing head injury while Nadir carries her to safety.

Etienne uses his abilities to transport the group to The Woodlands. Nadir takes the injured Lor to an elf healer named Alder who determines Lor was drugged but will recover. When Lor awakens, she regards Nadir with a new understanding. After she is stable, the group prepares to leave, but they are immediately surrounded by Woodlands guards led by King Cedar.

During the First Age of Ouranos, Queen Zerra of Aphelion languished in her palace during an unbearable, months-long heatwave that was killing her people. Indifferent to their suffering, she was preoccupied with her own discomfort. Suddenly, she was transported from her divan to a cool, marble hall. There, she found the other rulers of Ouranos—Queen Amara of Heart, King Terra of Tor, and King Hawthorne of The Woodlands—all equally confused by their sudden arrival.

King Cedar reveals that magical wards on his borders alerted him to the presence of Woodlands royalty—Lor and Tristan. He invites them to stay at his Fort as his guests, promising discretion and information. Lor and Tristan agree, hoping to learn why he never tried to help them when they were imprisoned in Nostraza. As they walk, Lor privately processes that Nadir is her mate, which is now blatantly obvious to her. They also notice a black rot afflicting the trees, which Nadir believes is connected to other disasters across the continent.

At the Fort, they are greeted warmly by Queen Elswyth, Cedar’s wife. Both she and Cedar express relief at their return, which perplexes Lor and Tristan. Lor is shown to a guest room, where she bathes and immediately falls into an exhausted sleep.