Fate of the Sun King

The next day, as the Fort prepares for the Winter Ball, Lor and Tristan discuss the king and queen. They agree to be cautiously optimistic about their new allies. Tristan raises the possibility that their parents might still be alive since no bodies were found, but Lor dismisses it as a dangerous and painful fantasy. At the ball that evening, Lor chooses to wear a formal version of traditional hunting clothes. She’s captivated by the festive atmosphere until she sees Nadir in conversation with a Woodlands woman and feels an immediate, fiery jealousy. She learns of a local tradition in which women give a blue “Winter’s Kiss scarf” (230) to a man they wish to kiss. Seeing a blue scarf around Nadir shoulders, Lor decides to flirt with a handsome High Fae named Declan to make Nadir jealous.

Nadir watches in a jealous rage as Lor flirts with Declan and sits on his lap and drapes the blue scarf around his neck. Unable to control himself, Nadir storms over, throws Lor over his shoulder, and carries her to her room. He pins her to the bed, and they have a furious argument in which Lor accuses him of flirting constantly ever since they left the Aphelion. In the heat of the moment, they both admit they knew they were fated mates. Nadir asks, “When are you going to get it through your head that I am totally, completely fucking in love with you!” (240). Their fight turns into a passionate sexual encounter. As they make love, their respective magic intertwines around them.

Lor tells Nadir she loves him and they lie together, discussing their mate bond and Lor’s past fears. When Lor says she not used to seeing Nadir happy, he tells her, “Lor. I’ve spent my life on the edge of happiness. I’ve had happy moments, and I have happy memories, but […] the moment when you said you loved me was the first time I’ve ever known what it’s like to be free” (256). Later, as they make love again, Nadir demonstrates his magic’s ability to give pleasure. Afterward, in a state between wakefulness and sleep, Lor remembers the Torch’s warnings of heartbreak and ruin. She recalls Rhiannon’s theory that her grandparents’ love might have “burned down the world” (163) and realizes their failed bonding ritual may have caused the Breaking—a catastrophic historical event in the realm’s past.

During the First Age of Ouranos, the northern lights vanished from the sky, causing the kingdom’s magical jewels to crumble to dust and threatening economic collapse. While inspecting the mines, King Herric—the first Aurora King who created the magical arks and later became the Lord of the Underworld—discovers a strange new vein of dark, glittering rock. Suddenly, the mine collapses, and he is consumed by a black mist. Herric finds himself in a marble hall with other monarchs: King Terra of Tor, King Nerus of Alluvion, and Queen Astraia of Celestria. Each recounts a recent catastrophe that has devastated their realm. A shifting, multi-voiced figure appears before them, announcing that the First Age of Ouranos has ended and the Second Age is about to begin.

Back in the present, Lor and Nadir wake together in the Woodlands Fort. Lor is determined to find a way to bond with Nadir despite the warnings of Rhiannon, who said, “Sometimes I think it was [your grandparents’] love that burned down the world,” and the Mirror who told her, “This can never happen again” (273). As Nadir sleeps, Lor wonders, “What if [their bond] is what caused the breaking?” (273)

At breakfast with the others, Mael loudly deduces that they have finally slept together, much to Lor’s embarrassment. Tristan warns Nadir never to hurt his sister, and Nadir sincerely promises he won’t. When a tremor shakes the Fort, Cedar confirms they have become more frequent lately. Nadir then announces to the group that he and Lor are mates. Cedar reaffirms his allegiance, and before they depart for Aphelion, Lor asks to see the Staff—the Woodlands’ Artefact.

Cedar leads the group to the throne room. When Tristan reveals he has Woodlands magic, Cedar offers to help him learn to control it. Lor picks up the Woodlands Staff. Through her new mate bond, she’s able to speak mentally with Nadir. The Staff communicates with Lor, showing her a vision of the day the Heart Queendom was destroyed. In the vision, Lor’s grandfather holds his newborn daughter, Lor’s mother, as Serce recovers from the birth. Lor’s great-grandmother, Daedra, arrives with her guards wearing the Heart Crown. The guards carry the baby away, just as King Rion and the Aurora forces arrive and attack. In a desperate attempt to complete her bonding ritual with Wolf, Serce levers herself up and seizes the Heart Crown from her own mother’s head. Lor observes, “the steely glint in her eyes veering from lucid to manic” and realizes that Serce “tried to take the magic of Heart, [an] unspeakable crime. One that was scrubbed from history [and now] has become [Lor’s] curse to bear” (289). Serce rips a book from the High Priestess, Cloris Payne, and recites its lines alongside Wolf, but the ritual backfires from the overwhelming amount of power as “everything blasts apart in an explosion of blinding light” (290). 

Cloris, the sole survivor, smiles and looks directly at Lor even though she’s not really there—just observing the memory the Staff shows her. Lor recognizes Cloris as the woman she believed she had killed as a child and realizes she must still be alive. She tells the others what she saw, and they resolve to find Cloris in Aphelion. As they leave, Lor realizes that Tristan is the Woodlands’ Primary.

In a flashback, Cloris arrives at the Sun Palace in Aphelion seeking an audience with King Atlas. Cloris recalls that, though the arcturite cuffs had brought her to near madness, she had survived the destruction of Heart through the goddess Zerra’s intervention. She remembers that 12 years prior she had first approached King Rion, who had already stolen and imprisoned Lor and tried to extract her magic himself. Cloris had pleaded with him not to kill Lor. Now, using her Empyreal Seal, a mark identifying her as a High Priestess, Cloris gains an audience with Atlas. She tells that Lor, Serce’s granddaughter, is alive in Nostraza. She proposes a deal: If Atlas helps free Lor, Cloris promises to use her to find a lost magical “ark,” which she claims can amplify Atlas’s power and enable a bonding between him and Lor. To press him further, Cloris hints obliquely that she knows the truth about what Atlas did to his brother, allowing Atlas to fill in the rest himself. Atlas, who’s tempted by the prospect of such immense power and stung by the memory of Serce’s earlier rejection, agrees to the plan.

On the road back to Aphelion, Lor tells Nadir what she learned from her vision: Her grandmother stole the Crown and attempted a forbidden bonding ritual with Wolf, planning to merge their true realms, overthrow King Rion, and conquer the whole continent. Lor fears this legacy will tarnish her own rule, but Nadir reassures her. They also discuss their new telepathic mate-bond and the danger their own bonding might pose. Later, Mael and Tristan return from exploring, and Tristan confronts Lor about her relationship with Nadir—he distrusts the son of the man who destroyed their family. Lor acknowledges his feelings but firmly states that Nadir is part of her life now and asks for his acceptance.

In the Sun Palace, Gabriel becomes increasingly frustrated by the demands of Atlas’s fiancée, Apricia, who is consumed with wedding preparations. Atlas is growing desperate as the bonding ceremony, now a week away, approaches with no word of Lor’s whereabouts. The strain of lying to Atlas about his search for Lor causes Gabriel physical pain. After another infuriating encounter with Apricia, Gabriel visits Tyr, the true Sun King, still weakened and imprisoned in his tower. He reflects that Atlas usurped the throne from his brother years ago after the Mirror revealed the true Primary of Aphelion was Tyr not Atlas. Atlas claimed Tyr was dead, procured a body for a false funeral, and locked him away with magic-suppressing cuffs. When Tyr tried to expose him, Atlas tortured the warders in front of him to keep him in line. Tyr refused to move against Atlas’s wishes ever again. Gabriel urges the despondent Tyr to find his strength, sensing Atlas’s situation is becoming unstable. As he leaves, he finds Apricia’s lady’s maid, a woman he finds strangely familiar, eavesdropping outside the tower door.