These Twisted Bonds (these Hollow Vows, #2)

The second and final installment of Lexi Ryan's duology that began with These Hollow Vows, the novel is set in a faerie realm divided between the Seelie Court of the Sun, ruled by the power-hungry Queen Arya, and the Unseelie Court, whose Throne of Shadows has sat empty for over two decades. The story follows Abriella, a former human transformed into an immortal fae in the previous book and magically bonded to Prince Sebastian (also called Ronan), Arya's half-Unseelie son. The bond is a magical link that lets them feel each other's emotions. Sebastian manipulated Abriella into the bond knowing it would kill her, then saved her with a magical Potion of Life, all to claim the Unseelie Crown of Starlight. The novel opens as Abriella, enraged by his betrayal, flees the Golden Palace.

Abriella wraps the palace in darkness with her shadow magic and rides east through the Seelie countryside. At an inn, she overhears an orc guard discussing Queen Arya's camps, where imprisoned Unseelie children are injected with anti-magic toxin. She follows the orc to a camp, traps sentinels with her power, and watches as allies from the Wild Fae, an independent faction outside the two courts, rescue the children through a portal. An orc captures Abriella and injects her with the toxin, stripping her magic. She wakes the next morning to find her captors dead, a bloody knife beside her, and flees on foot.

Mishamon Nico Frendilla (Misha), the telepathic king of the Wild Fae and brother of Abriella's friend Pretha, reveals himself as one of the allies from the rescue. He transports Abriella to Castle Craige, his mountain palace, and explains the crisis she has inadvertently caused. Although Sebastian wears the Crown of Starlight, Abriella still holds its magical power: The Potion of Life tied the power to her immortal existence rather than to the physical crown. Without both united, no one can sit on the Throne of Shadows. Through Storm, Misha's magical hawk companion, Abriella witnesses events at the Unseelie palace. The throne physically hurls Sebastian from its seat, while Sebastian's half-brother, Prince Finnian (Finn), leads a weakened resistance. Misha teaches Abriella to block Sebastian's emotions and reveals that Arya has been sending captured Unseelie children into mines beneath the Goblin Mountains to retrieve fire gems, rare magical amplifiers; he identifies the green gemstone Sebastian gave Abriella during their bonding ceremony as one such gem.

Abriella settles at Castle Craige, helping at an Unseelie refugee settlement where she discovers she can feel the collective emotions of the Unseelie people. A mysterious illness begins affecting settlement children: They fall into an unbreakable sleep. She secretly visits Sebastian and demands he dismantle his mother's remaining camps. He agrees.

When Finn and his allies arrive at Castle Craige, Abriella joins their strategy meetings. Finn recognizes the sleeping children's condition as the Long Sleep, a symptom he witnessed 20 years earlier when the court lacked a ruler. As a court dies, its children are affected first. He announces his plan to visit the Underworld, a liminal space between the mortal plane and the Twilight (the faerie afterlife), to consult Queen Mab, the legendary creator of the Throne of Shadows. Only the High Priestess of the shadow fae can open a portal, and she is accessible during the Lunastal holiday, an annual harvest festival. Finn needs Abriella because the priestess is oath-bound to serve whoever holds the crown's power.

At the Midnight Palace, Finn negotiates a tense alliance with Sebastian, and the brothers agree to present a united front against Arya's forces. Abriella casts a sky of brilliant stars over a crowd of Unseelie protesters, reassuring the people with a display of the crown's power. Finn privately confides that his magic has been draining inexplicably during sudden spells, leaving him powerless.

A surprise attack by the queen's fire fae devastates the Unseelie capital. Abriella exhausts her magic rescuing sleeping children from a burning infirmary and is captured by Arya's agents. Sebastian tracks her through the bond and rescues her near a mountain temple from Sluagh, nightmarish creatures that lure victims with hallucinations. Recognizing that Abriella heals faster near Finn, Sebastian brings her to him.

The group travels to Staraelia, Finn's childhood village, for Lunastal. To protect Abriella's identity, Finn introduces her as his betrothed. Abriella discovers she can project her shadow self independently of her body, a power associated with Mab herself. Finn tells her about Isabel, the human changeling he loved, who died in his arms when Arya's curse struck on their bonding day. He gives Abriella a mountain cottage as a permanent home.

The High Priestess Magnola refuses to open a portal. Her oath to Mab activates violently, and an otherworldly voice speaks through the dying priestess, addressing Abriella as "child of Mab" and directing her to a portal beneath the Mother Willow tree. Finn and his allies kneel before Abriella, recognizing her as the lost heir of Mab's bloodline and the rightful Unseelie queen. Finn confides that he suspects Abriella is his tethered match: In Mab's bloodline, a tether is a one-way magical link through which a ruler can draw supplemental power from another fae. He believes Abriella's extraordinary magic use has been unknowingly draining his own strength, explaining his spells of weakness.

Finn and Abriella travel alone into the northern Goblin Mountains. On the Silent Ridge, a magic-free zone that nullifies the bond with Sebastian, they confess their love and spend the night together. They open the portal beneath the Mother Willow by mixing their blood and enter the Underworld, where Mab appears wreathed in black flames.

Mab confirms Abriella's lineage: She descends from Mab's granddaughter, whose last child was transformed into a human and hidden in the mortal realm. The prophecy Sebastian believed promised a king who would unite the courts actually foretold a queen. Mab presents two paths: Sebastian could sacrifice his immortal life to surrender the crown, after which Abriella would need to kill Arya, or Abriella and Sebastian could travel to the River of Ice to permanently solidify their bond and rule together. Privately, Mab warns Abriella to embrace her shadow self, the dark and angry parts of her personality, because that power will prove essential.

Finn and Abriella narrowly escape the collapsing Underworld through an underwater passage. Finn is devastated that Mab's solution requires Abriella to permanently bond with Sebastian, telling her he cannot remain her lover while she builds a life with his brother.

Abriella agrees to travel to the River of Ice with Sebastian. En route, they are ambushed and captured. Arya imprisons them in iron sarcophagi that continuously dose them with toxin. She reveals her true plan: She has been keeping Abriella's sister, Jasalyn, prisoner, slowly bleeding her over the River of Ice. Because Jasalyn also carries Mab's blood, Arya intends to use it to undo the ancient division of the realm and reunite both courts under her sole rule. Sebastian's sentinel Riaan is exposed as Arya's spy.

Trapped for days, Abriella embraces her suppressed anger and bitterness as Mab instructed, gaining control of her shadow self. Drawing power through her tether to Finn, her shadow projection passes through the iron, disconnects the toxin supply, infiltrates Arya's chambers, and kills the queen with her own dagger. Abriella frees Sebastian and races to rescue Jasalyn, who is tied above the River of Ice. Riaan stabs Abriella and takes Jasalyn hostage, but Sebastian kills Riaan and carries both women to safety.

During recovery, Sebastian reveals a final secret: The green gem he gave Abriella is a bloodstone, an ancient artifact capable of stripping immortality from someone with Unseelie blood. He drinks the liquefied stone before Abriella can stop him, becoming mortal. This transfers the Unseelie crown to Abriella, reuniting it with its power, and dissolves their bond. He frames his choice as a king's sacrifice, freeing her to rule without being bound to him.

At the Midnight Palace, Abriella sits on the Throne of Shadows, and it accepts her. Finn stands at her side as her tethered match, the partner whose power sustains her rule. Sebastian departs for the Court of the Sun, where he will rule as a mortal king in secret alliance with the Unseelie. In the epilogue, set six months later, Abriella has settled into her role as queen. Jasalyn has joined her in Faerie and is recovering. Abriella and Finn prepare for a bonding ceremony that will deepen their tethered connection, allowing power to flow between them in both directions. Beneath the stars on their mountain rooftop, Abriella wishes for peace and for every faerie in the realm to know a love like theirs.