The Traitor Queen

The Traitor Queen (2020) by Danielle L. Jensen is the second installment in the Bridge Kingdom series, which consists of six installments split into three duologies. In this conclusion to the duology following Lara and Aren, Ithicana has been conquered by Lara’s father, and Aren has been taken captive. To redeem herself, Lara must free Ithicana and Aren with the help of her sisters.

Danielle L. Jensen is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Fate Inked in Blood (2024), A Curse Carved in Bone (2025), and the Bridge Kingdom, Dark Shores, and Malediction series. Her works have been published in over 20 languages.

This guide is based on the e-book edition published by Del Rey, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in 2020.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide feature depictions of violence, torture, suicide, suicidal ideation, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

In the previous installment of the duology, Lara, a princess of Maridrina who has recently married the King of Ithicana, accidentally betrayed Ithicana, giving her father Silas information that he used to invade and conquer Ithicana and its all-important bridge. In consequence, Lara has been exiled from Ithicana as a traitor, and Aren has been captured by Maridrina. Lara travels to Harendell to potentially gain an ally against Maridrina before returning to Ithicana to ask Aren’s twin sister Ahnna for her support in rescuing Aren and reclaiming the kingdom. She is instead put straight in the dungeons while Ahnna deliberates. Eventually, Ahnna agrees to partner with Lara in gathering Lara’s surviving sisters as allies against Silas.

Meanwhile, Aren is taken to the royal palace in Vencia, the capital city of Maridrina, where he is interrogated by Silas’s spymaster, Serin, on how to invade Eranahl—Ithicana’s secret city that still stands against Maridrina. As the weeks drag on, Serin catches more and more Ithicanians who’ve come to rescue Aren. He tortures, kills, and hangs their bodies around Aren, forcing him to watch them decay.

Ahnna arranges transportation for Lara to Maridrina, where she searches for her sisters. She is led to the mountains, where she reunites with three sisters: Sarhina (heavily pregnant and married to a local man), Bronwyn, and Cresta. They tell Lara about their lives since Lara poisoned them to save them from Silas, who planned to kill them. Lara informs them that she killed Marylyn to save Aren. Given that Marylyn betrayed them to Silas, they accept her death. Lara’s sisters agree to help her. Bronwyn and Cresta search for the remaining sisters, meeting Sarhina and Lara a week later at The Songbird pub in Vencia, where Jor, Aren’s bodyguard, waits.

Keris eventually arrives at the palace with General Zarrah of the Valcottans as his prisoner. During brief conversations with Keris, Aren suspects he does not support his own father and might make a trustworthy ally. Later, Keris offers to help Aren escape only if he takes Zarrah with him—Keris cares about her deeply and needs her to be safe from Silas. In exchange, Zarrah offers to send supplies to Ithicana so they can withstand the duration of Silas’s siege.

Aren attends one of Silas’s dinners, where he meets Carolyn, a harem wife of the former Maridrinian king. Carolyn speaks in code, referring to Lara and the other daughters as flowers. Through this code, Aren tells Carolyn to visit a “florist” in the city and tell them she’s been sent by his grandmother, Amelie Yamure, who was a former Ithicanian spy sent to infiltrate Vencia as a harem wife decades prior. Carolyn does so and finds Lara, her sisters, Jor, and Aren’s grandmother in the back of the shop. Carolyn agrees to help Lara and her sisters break into the palace, but requires the help of more wives from the harem.

Silas holds another dinner, where Carolyn sneaks in Lara and five of her sisters, disguised as Silas’s younger wives. They perform a dance before Lara confronts Silas as her sisters kill his guards. In the ensuing chaos, Carolyn frees Aren from his chains, and Lara’s sisters blast a hole in the wall. Lara, her sisters, Aren, and Zarrah escape to a nearby watch tower where Keris collects Zarrah to send her on her own escape route while Aren, Lara, and her sisters zipline across the wall to another guard tower to escape.

During the escape, Bronwyn is shot but aided by Aren. Lara creates a distraction and misleads Silas’s soldiers, allowing her sisters and Aren to escape to a cave where his grandmother waits. Lara reunites with them, says goodbye to her sisters, and she and Aren begin their journey to Valcotta, where she seeks to improve their relations and gain an ally against Maridrina.

During the journey, Lara finally explains her accidental betrayal to Aren, explaining that she had originally written the invasion information on the backs of all his stationary, but when she fell in love with Aren, she destroyed all the paper. Unfortunately, he had already sent a letter to Silas, effectively jeopardizing Ithicana. Aren informs her that Keris is her full-brother, and their mother was killed by Silas long ago.

Lara and Aren are chased into the Red Desert by Silas’s soldiers, where Lara risks her eyesight in a sandstorm to get Aren to safety. The act of selflessness softens his anger towards her. At the compound where she grew up, she retrieves her mother’s necklace from her belongings.

They journey further south, where Lara sneaks into a town for supplies but is caught and strung up at a pillory to die a slow death. Aren “drunkenly” enters the town, befriending the men and subsequently killing them to free Lara. He and Lara share a kiss, but Lara decides to part ways after they complete their mission because Aren’s people will never approve of their relationship given her betrayal.

Lara and Aren reach Pyrinat, where they reunite with Jor. Jor informs them Ahnna secured Harendell’s support and Sahrina has given birth. They visit the Empress, who speaks with Aren in private, agreeing to ally with him only if he kills Lara, which Aren refuses. They make an alliance with Zarrah instead and plan to free Southwatch from Maridrina.

Aren, Lara, and Jor return to Ithicana, where Aren is welcomed, but Lara is scorned. Meanwhile, Zarrah works separately to man stolen Maridrinian ships in Nerastis and sail for Southwatch undetected. Aren, Lara, and a few of his commanders and soldiers sail to Snake Island, where Lara risks her life, wading among venomous snakes to take the pier from Maridrina. From there, they take the bridge to Gamire Island, where a decoy naval attack from Ithicana distracts the soldiers long enough for Aren’s group to dismantle their shipbreaker weapons, allowing the troops to reach shore. They break into the prison on Gamire island, releasing all the Ithicanian prisoners, and discover Taryn—Aren’s cousin who became Lara’s friend—alive.

Afterwards, Aren finds Lara trying to stitch up her own leg wound in his Nana’s former home. He helps her, and they have sex. After a few hours of sleep, he leaves and calls it a mistake because his people will never accept her. Jor convinces Aren to leave Lara behind for this same reason, so his soldiers leave during the night while Lara sleeps.

They take Midwatch easily and receive word that Southwatch was abandoned, thus easily taken by Valcotta. In the distance, Eranahl signals its fires, calling for aid, and Aren realizes Silas withdrew his troops to launch an all-out attack on the city. Aren reunites with Ahnna in Eranahl, where they fight off the Maridrinians who are attempting to force open the portcullis used to ferry boats into the island.

Lara wakes to find everyone gone. Upon realizing Eranahl is under attack, Lara travels there by boat and enters with Ahnna’s aid. A storm approaches quickly from the distance, making the waters increasingly violent. Maridrinian fleets retreat, but Silas’s ship pushes forward at all costs, leading Lara to believe her father is present. Ahnna fires a cross bolt at the deck of Silas’s ship, allowing Lara to zipline down to him. Lara engages in combat with her father, eventually killing him. His soldiers retreat without fear of his punishment, but his cadre of loyal councilmen come after Lara, forcing her to jump into the shark-infested sea.

Lara swims toward the portcullis, which becomes stuck, blocking the tunnel. The sharks do not harm her. Aren jumps in to save her. After swimming down to find a gap at the bottom large enough for Lara to squeeze through, they attempt it, but Lara’s belt gets stuck, and she drowns. Aren cuts the belt off and drags her to the surface, where he performs chest compressions until she starts breathing again. Lara sleeps for three days, and when she awakens, Aren invites her to stay as queen and gives her hope that, with time, his people will forgive her.