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Series Recap
There is a well-known myth throughout the four kingdoms that revolves around four gifts of fate and the queens who will claim them: choice, devotion, honor, and cunning.
In the Northern Kingdom, Elise broke the Night Prince’s curse with the help of a fate storyteller, Calista. However, according to Calista, storytellers have come before her to bring about the tricky agenda of the Norns, and one of these storytellers was the enchantress, Greta, who cursed Valen and his family.
Fate also played a role in the Eastern Kingdom and Alver clans in the retrieval and acceptance of Malin’s ring, known as the queen’s ring. When someone wears the ring, the Nightrender is able to shadow walk to wherever they are, it gives the fated queen power over true desires, and eventually gave Malin the power to literally steal the memory of the Nightrender’s death from fate.
Niklas once explained the history of the ring, including the civil war between an old family of memory workers. These wars destroyed the throne of the East, and eventually led to the search from the Black Palace for the heir through a vicious masquerade.
InDance of Kings and Thieves,it was discovered that Malin’s parents were from both bloodlines, making Malin the true queen and the one to finally bring the ring back to power in the battle of the Black Palace.
During this battle, the kingdoms had their first interaction with sea fae from an underwater realm called the Ever Kingdom. When Thorvald, the Ever King, injured Eryka, Valen killed the sea king, making new enemies with new fae.
After the battle of the Black Palace, Ari was bound to Saga, a raven shifter, for one hundred years, but Fate wasn’t finished. By binding the two of them together, Saga’s curse of a cold heart was ended. The curse was placed over her by her brother, the first fate king, Riot Ode.
All of it was done to protect Saga from her cruel former consort, Davorin, Riot’s battle lord; he was subsequently cursed to become a dark presence throughout the kingdoms that would only gain strength as new paths of fate and heart bonds between fated queens unraveled.
Ari and Saga’s fated union ended Davorin’s exile, and he returned to claim Saga and take over every kingdom.
Ari was placed into a fae sleep to heal from Davorin’s dark glamour, and during his sleep he was led through different moments of the past by a mysterious fate worker he knew as Wraith. During this fae sleep, Ari saw the truth of the kingdoms’ history.
Meanwhile, Saga and Calista began a new path of fate that they soon discover was set in motion by Riot Ode in the first kingdom. They learned that centuries before, Ari’s mother and father were part of the separation of the four kingdoms. Petter Sekundär designed the broken world, and Jytte Sekundär crafted a blade with the power to destroy Davorin’s dark glamour.
With Calista’s help, every kingdom rose together to face Davorin. During the battle of the fae isles, Calista discovered how similar her fate magic—seidr—was to King Riot’s. Soon, they discovered not only was he Stefan, Calista’s brother, but also Riot’s Rave warrior captain, a man placed by the first fate king to protect Calista through the centuries. At her brother’s death during the battle, Calista discovered she was the daughter of Riot Ode (Saga’s niece), making her a royal.
When the plan to end Davorin failed, he disappeared beneath the sea, and the four kingdoms fell into a tense peace for nearly ten years.
But Calista’s secret whispers from a phantom in the dark have now grown more urgent, and she discovers a letter from her fallen brother. The letter warns her to find “the first bond” . . . only then can their story end.
The story continues ten years after the battle of the fae isles with four kingdoms in peace, but sharing a common enemy they know still exists, and a fate worker who has fled from her destiny.
But destiny has finally caught up.
Chapter1
The Phantom
Doyou know what it’s like, Little Rose?
A glow of red broke through the dust and grime of tall, gabled windows. With the rough tip of my center finger, I strummed a taut string on a golden lyre in the corner of the hall. The room was too spacious and too suffocating all at once, a place where ghosts danced to haunting tunes of a dream that seemed as if it would never be.
A dream where she’d want me the same and scour the earth to find me.
Do you know what it’s like? I closed my eyes against the pain in my skull. Frustration and despair collided like a knife dug through the soft tissues behind my eyes. Blades against my face were a sensation I’d never forget. That cruel swipe of his sword helped twist me into . . . this creature in the shadows.
That was all I was now. A creature. A phantom of darkness. A memory nearly forgotten.
Do you know? I gripped the lyre by the edge and flung it across the empty corridor, chasing away the ghosts and their wretched songs.
“No!” My voice echoed against the walls. Dust fluttered off tattered drapes in a cloud when I ripped them open, eyes on the moon. “No. You don’t knowanything.”
Crimson painted the moon, a sign of fate twisting our world again. A sign we should’ve long ago been prepared to face, side by side. Now, she would fade again. That was how I’d been taught it worked. Leave a tale unfinished, and it would fade, along with anyone in it.
Already, the heat of the song between our two hearts began to flicker, as though a flame struggled in the fury of the wind.
I couldn’t . . . not again. I couldn’t watch it again.
I thought the wait would’ve ended, I thought she’d never resist the consuming draw. The pull to her crushed me day by day. For her? I was nothing, hardly a whisper in the dark.
