“You only got to be that close to the king if you had something to offer him. If your magic was something he might need.”

The issue of trust is prominent throughout the entirety of the novel, and the characters’ reactions to magic or the lack thereof is also paired with their ability—or inability—to trust. In this passage, it is clear that the king only lets those with magic power close to him, while rejecting those who lack magic. This dynamic explains his rejection and torture of the young Nyra. Ultimately, the king only favors those who have power that he can utilize for his own ends; all others are discarded.

“There was so much weight to his concern and the reasons that compelled him to worry for me. Micah had become my anchor since leaving the palace, my confidant and closest friend. But the way he was studying my face was… more.”

Although Micah only appears briefly in the narrative, his presence in Nyra’s life and his kind attention to her needs render him a potential romantic rival for Dacre. This particular scene indicates that Micah clearly has romantic feelings for Nyra. While the majority of the novel focuses on Nyra’s fraught relationship with Dacre, Micah’s affection for the lost princess foreshadows a potential return for Micah later in the series.

“I would kill every one of them for her. Guilt and remorse could gnaw away at me later.”

Dacre’s view of the ethics of violence is very different than Nyra’s, and his thoughts clearly illustrate his willingness to embrace morally questionable actions causes that he deems just. He therefore uses violence to serve his goals, even though it hurts him to do so. He understands the cost of violence, but he is still willing to compromise his own ethical code to serve the rebellion’s goals. Dacre’s extreme determination puts him in conflict with Nyra as they spar and discuss the rebellion.

“‘You’re going to regret this,’ she promised, even though her voice barely carried over the sound of her ragged breaths. Even if she was right, I didn’t leave her behind.”

Nyra’s statement to Dacre foreshadows the truth of her identity and the condemnation that Davian will later deliver to Dacre after the discovery of Nyra’s true identity. Dacre does eventually regret rescuing Nyra, and his father makes him regret his choice further by belittling him and showing him contempt. In this early scene, Nyra tries to warn Dacre, and her words foreshadow the grief and betrayal that is to come.

“They could have prepared me for what was happening, let me use the stairs the same way they descended, but they let me fall.”

Nyra’s fall into the hidden city is significant. Dacre, Wren, and Kai all walk down the stairs, but they let Nyra fall into the water. Their failure to warn her of this hazardous change in terrain demonstrates Nyra’s outsider status in the rebellion, and this problematic status will persist as long as Dacre continues to distrust her.

“Being a fae without magic was unheard of in this realm, and yet, here I stood with no proof that I would ever have any sort of power to control.”

Nyra’s lack of magic relates to the idea of trust, for although she truly believes that she has no magic, she has no realistic way to prove that this is the case. As a result, she cannot earn the trust of the rebel leaders, and her anomalous lack of magic contributes to her outsider status and heightens her initial isolation in the hidden city.

“Find your magic. I could practically hear my father’s commands echoing in my mind. The water can’t beat you if you use your power. The ocean had been dark that night, just like the water beneath me.”

Nyra’s thoughts in this passage provide a brief glimpse of her father’s past torture and abuse. The scene also explains Nyra’s emotional reaction to her fall into the water upon entering the hidden city. In her mind, water is associated with physical and emotional torment and with her failure to find her magic. Later, however, Holly Renee will reverse this connection when Nyra comes to associate water with healing via the hot springs.

“We always give you traitors a choice. They knew exactly who they were fighting for, what they were fighting for, and that’s what they chose.”

Dacre’s words reflect his attempt to justify the rebellion’s use of violence, further illustrating his perspective on The Moral Ambiguities of Rebellion. He believes that because the recruits are given a choice to either join or die, the decision to kill those who do not join is ethical. By challenging this idea, Nyra slowly begins to change Dacre’s thinking.

“Taking advantage of an opening, I threw all my weight into a kick that connected with his rib cage, and I smiled.”

Nyra’s character growth is strongly associated with her combat ability as she trains. As she becomes more capable of defending herself from danger, she grows more confident in her role in the rebellion. In the past, she lacked control because she was locked away and tortured, but now she has the ability to find freedom and safety for herself.

“‘Do you know how many hours I spent trying to train myself into finding my magic? How many different people were brought into the palace to make me find it?’ She clamped her mouth shut, and I narrowed my gaze on her. ‘For a handmaiden’s daughter?’”

Nyra slips up in her conversation with Dacre when the details she offers indicate that her status in the palace was more than that of a mere handmaiden’s daughter. His suspicion about her past foreshadows his eventual discovery that Nyra is really the lost princess. Even in this earlier scene, Dacre continues to be suspicious of Nyra, though he does not understand the broader picture until his grandmother reveals Nyra’s identity in her letter.

“He had been cruel to me, but I still didn’t want him to stop.”

This statement indicates that Renee is dabbling in the tropes common to the dark romance subgenre, which often combines elements of lust with elements of cruelty and glorifies abusive behavior. In this scene, although Nyra knows that Dacre has been unkind to her, she still feels an intrinsic draw toward him, and the narrative implies that her past abuses have caused her to be less discerning when dealing with additional mistreatment. This moment also foreshadows the physical intimacy that the two will have despite Nyra’s misgivings about trusting Dacre with her true identity.

“As soon as the words left my mouth, I was bombarded with thoughts of him touching other women in the same way, of him touching Mal. Someone he respected. An irrational anger boiled inside me and made me think clearly for the first time all night.”

Nyra’s jealousy about Dacre reveals her romantic feelings toward him. When she grows angry at contemplating the idea of him touching a woman he respects, her reaction to this imagined scenario illustrates her insecurity about her own place in the rebellion. She does not feel that Dacre respects her as a person, and she is therefore unwilling to trust him despite her growing attraction to him.

“The thick darkness of the room embraced me as I lay there and allowed myself to think about what it would be like if this wasn’t my life. If this wasn’t our world.”

By personifying the darkness itself as an “embrace,” Renee imbues this particular scene with ominous overtones that heighten Nyra’s sense of unease and longing. As she lies beside Dacre, Nyra contemplates a world in which they were not divided by secrets, and she wishes that they could be together without the complications of empire and rebellion. If they were not on opposite sides of the conflict against King Roan, they could trust each other, but the hidden reality of her identity as Princess Verena prevents their relationship from fully blossoming.

“He would worship me in a way that I could never dream of. But as I tried to imagine it, all I could think of was the man across the fire from me and the way he would destroy me instead.”

Nyra compares her desire for Eiran to her desire for Dacre. She knows that Eiran would treat her with kindness and respect, but instead, she wants Dacre to “destroy” her. The use of the term “destroy” in this particular context is significant, for it illustrates the destructive nature of their romantic relationship and foreshadows its catastrophic end in the novel’s final chapter.

“I had heard of the rebellion’s cruelties just as much as I had experienced my father’s. I didn’t want to think about which of them was worse.”

As Nyra contemplates the rebellion’s practices, her thoughts reflect the novel’s focus on The Moral Ambiguities of Rebellion. Although Nyra knows that the rebellion can be cruel, she has experienced her father’s abuses firsthand, and she therefore struggles to find a more nuanced understanding of violence and its uses when applied to the loftier aims of empire and rebellion.

“I spoke the words into Wren’s ear before I could think better of them, but if I was going to have to face this, I wanted to do it with someone I trusted at least knowing part of the truth. The only truth I could give her.”

Nyra craves trust and longs for the release of finally telling someone the truth about who she is. In this scene, she must face Faris, a notable figure from her past as Princess Verena, and she wants to face this moment with Wren by her side. This urge further illustrates the depth of Nyra and Wren’s friendship despite the unspoken political differences that separate them.

“Without thinking, my other hand moved to cup her chin, gently turning it toward me so that I could fully see the marks my father had left on her. Her warm blue eyes met mine and where I expected there to be pain and fear, it was determination staring back at me.”

In this scene told from Dacre’s perspective, his observations highlight Nyra’s confidence even in the wake of Davian’s brutal violence against her. This moment illustrates the intensity of her newfound agency and her will to survive. Additionally, Dacre’s casual intimacy when he touches her face also illustrates his deepening affections for her.

“More pain sliced through my arm. This place reminded me too much of home. It brought back memories of the dozens of times I had to visit my mother in a similar room when she had failed again and again to produce my father a rightful heir.”

Nyra’s guilt about her mother’s death has a significant effect upon her intensifying involvement in the rebellion. She is haunted by her failure to use magic or to save her mother from death, but now, as she drifts further and further from her father’s influence, she realizes that he is to blame for her mother’s demise. By joining the rebellion and changing her perspective, she gains the ability to think more critically about her father’s actions and reevaluate the rebellion’s goal of overthrowing him.

“My mother’s stories had been the only thing I had. But her stories were nothing but fables that she told to a girl who was desperate for freedom.”

Nyra’s reflections upon her past life further illustrate the extent of her growth. With some much-needed distance from the traumas of her youth, she now has empathy for her younger self and the suffering that she endured at her father’s hands. She also has a more sophisticated understanding of the freedom she once yearned for. This freedom is something that Nyra still seeks, for despite her distance from Marmoris, she is remains tethered to The Impact of Dysfunctional Family Dynamics.

“‘Like the former queen?’ she asked, and her eyes only seemed to narrow further. No one ever called my mother by her name.

 ‘Exactly. I was named after her. My mother was quite fond of the former queen.’ Lies. Lies piled on top of more lies.”

The knowledge that Dacre’s grandmother has about Queen Nyra is a significant hint that she will play a role in uncovering Nyra’s true identity. Nyra’s rueful thoughts about her ongoing deception illustrate how far King Roan went to erase his first wife from public record; this attempt was also designed to erase Nyra from memory so that he might start a new family and gain a new heir. These thoughts also demonstrate Nyra’s guilt about lying to those who helped her escape the dungeon, as she criticizes herself for lying.

“I started to reach for Nyra’s hand as we began the descent down the sharp rocky hillside that bled into sand but thought better of it. I had already let her get too close, even with my lack of trust, and it was foolish.”

Dacre claims not to trust Nyra, though he yearns for her physical touch. He criticizes himself for letting Nyra close to him, which draws attention to the fact that he will eventually betray her at the end of the novel, just as her reticence about her identity will prove to be an indirect betrayal of him and his cause. In this moment, he senses something is wrong, but he cannot piece together the clues to realize that Nyra is really the lost princess.

“She tried to pull away from my touch, but I held on to her. Her eyes searched mine, desperate for some reassurance. But I had none to give her. Not when I felt like such a damn fool. Not when I desperately wanted to believe her, but I couldn’t.”

When Nyra’s magic emerges and startles them both, the incident makes Dacre even more suspicious of Nyra, for he does not believe that she was unaware of her magical ability. Her newfound yet reluctant trust in him is contrasted with his stubborn lack of trust. This uncertain dynamic will ultimately lead to the ruin of the pair’s fledgling relationship.

“Guilt slammed into me as I thought of my mother. Tears threatened to spill over as I thought about what could have been, if only I had been stronger. She would still be queen. She would still be alive.”

With the arrival of Nyra’s magic, she realizes that her father would indeed consider her to be an ideal heir, and this thought intensifies her guilt over her mother’s death, furthering the novel’s thematic examination of The Impact of Dysfunctional Family Dynamics. Rather than blaming King Roan for his own abusive actions, she feels personally responsible for her mother’s death because she was unaware of her latent magic.