With rumours circulating about the rightful heir to Emberfall and his magic, there’s a palpable tension to the opening. Grey has gone, and nobody knows where he is, and Rhen is left with growing dissent among his people. Action is needed, but it’s hard to know what course of action is for the best.
Having spent so much time with Rhen and Harper it felt odd to have so little focus on them at first. We jump from their concern to our new character, Lia Mara (the daughter of Karis Luran who is not destined to be queen) and follow Grey in his attempts to hide. Intriguing stuff, but not really what we were expecting.
Before too long we start to see more of what’s going on. We are privy to some key information before other characters, but the real focus is the development of new alliances and certain characters coming to accept who they are and the role they will play in the future.
There’s no denying that some of the actions of key characters felt rather dictated by the plot. It was hard to reconcile certain actions with what we had already been told of them. That gripe aside, we learn a little more about some characters and the potential for where this might go has definitely got me curious. While we were left with a lot of positives I was rather taken aback by the reveal at the end regarding someone we thought would have little future influence. It doesn’t bode well for the future, but I am keen to see where this goes.