Latest / Deep Trope Fantasy & Romance Podcast / Metal Slinger Recap: Full Book Summary & Cliffhanger Ending Explained
Transcript
- Rachel: Welcome to Deep Trope, where we go deep into fantasy and romance books, one trope at a time. We're your two book besties gushing over plot characters, Easter eggs theories, and of course, our favorite spicy moments. I'm Rachel, romantasy theorist. Kate: And I'm Kate, lover of all things dark and spicy. Rachel: And today we're giving you a special mini recap episode for Metal Slinger by Rachel Schneider, Book One of the Fire and Metal series. Light Wielder, the second book in the series, will be released on June 9th, so we're here to give you a quick refresh all of the important plot details before you dive into book two. This episode will cover the entirety of the Metal Slinger book, so pretty much the entire thing is spoilers. Do not proceed unless you have read Metal Slinger or If you want to know everything that happens. If you're new to the pod, welcome! We hope you enjoy this episode and we encourage you to check out our other content, including deep dives of both Dire Bound and Fury Bound from the Wolves of Ruin series. We also have some exciting content coming out soon, including an interview with spicy romantasy author Kris K. Haines a mini deep dive of her new book, Hunted by the Fae Duke. And of course, our Light Wielder reaction episode. You can follow us on social media at Deep Trope Podcast to stay informed about all of our upcoming episodes. All right, pour yourself a tumbler of whiskey and let's get into Metal Slinger. Kate: The story takes place in a world split by an ancient conflict. Long ago, five territories were ruled by families chosen by Mother Nature, each granted magical gifts for taking care of the land. However, when the rulers of one territory, the Alaha, broke the rules, they were stripped of their land and banished to live on an outpost in the middle of the sea. The book opens on the floating structures of Alaha, where Brynn has spent her entire life under the care of her adopted community after the disappearance of her parents. She has trained tirelessly alongside her best friends Kai and Messer to earn her place as an Alahan guard. Despite her efforts, she is mostly treated as an outcast and relegated to the lowest class of society. The annual Kenta Market is the first opportunity Brynn will have to set foot on dry land. Attending the market is a rare privilege that most Alaha do not get, but Brynn, Kai, and Messer's status as new guards gives them a singular opportunity they plan to take full advantage of. The three of them are hatching a plot to escape to land once they get to the market. The market itself is set on a structure built alongside a cliffside, so the Alaha will not technically be stepping directly on land. The Alaha harbor immense resentment toward the mainlanders who exiled them, and the Kenta view the Alaha as dangerous, magicless outcasts, so the market is a somewhat tense clash of cultures. The general vibe is kind of a wary excitement. The newcomers are excited for a chance to see dry land, but they're really not sure what to expect. The market is also the only time of year the Alaha are able to trade for goods they cannot grow or make in their small floating kingdom. While exploring the market, they come across a group of dancers, and Kai asks Brynn to dance. He informs her that he has asked his parents for permission to ask for her hand in marriage. Brynn freaks out and says she needs time to process. As she flees deeper into the market on her own, a volatile interaction occurs between Brynn and a mysterious, dark eyed Kenta soldier that has been following her. The soldier accuses Brynn of theft and pushes her hand against the rock face. causing a surprising and intense pain to radiate through Brynn's body. In the struggle, Brynn manages to steal the soldier's knife and get away. Things quickly escalate as the soldier chases after her and the rest of Brynn's group fights back. The brawl ends up turning into a small riot, culminating in an explosion that shatters the century old peace treaty between the Kenta and the Alaha. Brynn, Kai, and Messer escape by the skin of their teeth, retreating back across the water. Once back in Alaha, the group is interrogated about the incident by Captain Wren, Kai's father. learned that Aurora, member of the graduating class of guards and a friend of Messer's, is accused of being part of an Alahan rebellion group that planned the attack. The Kenta have demanded that both Aurora and Brynn be delivered to them to pay for their crimes. Brynn for starting the riot and Aurora for ending it with the explosion. But the captain refuses to hand Brynn over, saying she is betrothed to his son. In response, the Kenta ban the Alaha. From the trade market for two years, essentially a death sentence for the Alaha since they won't be able to replenish their food stores. Rachel: Things in Alaha are tense for the next few weeks, but Brynn continues to train with the guards and prepare for the matching ceremony where she will marry Kai. She also spends time with Messer, who is struggling with an abusive father, and preparing for his own matching ceremony where he is betrothed to Aurora. She spends a lot of time in her room, sketching in her notebook and enjoying the company of her pet bird who visits her frequently. Then a massive shockwave hits the community. The mysterious Kenta guard has deliberately sailed to Alaha and surrendered himself to Captain Wren, but he refuses to speak to anyone but Brynn. Terrified that he came to retrieve the knife that she took from him at the market, Brynn throws it into the ocean. Brynn speaks to the soldier with Kai by her side, and it's clear that they've been violently interrogating him when she sees the bruises and wounds all over his face. The soldier tells her where the Kenta Armada is as soon as she asks, satisfying Kai, but setting Brynn's spidey senses tingling. It felt too easy like that information was inconsequential to why he was there. Determined to find out what he wants from her, she sneaks into his cell at night to speak with him alone. We learn the soldier's name is Acker, and he didn't track her down for anything nefarious. He took a blood oath that limits what he can say and But he's sworn to bring her back to the mainland. He reveals that her true name is Jovie and that she is not from Alaha. A raging storm threatens to flood his cell and drown him, so Brynn makes a decision to free him to save his life and continue getting answers. He instructs her to call for the knife she threw into the ocean, telling her to reach through her mind and summon it. And to Brynn's astonishment, it works. The lock on the door is magic, but the blade is made of something called hearthstone. Which is able to shatter the lock, freeing Acker just in the nick of time. Kate: Brynn hides him in her room while all of Alaha is put in lockdown to look for the missing prisoner. While confined together in her room, Acker gives Brynn a series of revelations that shakes her to her core. Captain Wren is actually a centuries-old heir with the power of influence, which he used to conquer territories before he was exiled. This means that his son, Kai, also has this power, though it is not as strong away from land. Acker claims that Kai has been manipulating Brynn for years through his power, amplifying her emotions and feelings towards him. The influence is made stronger through physical touch like kissing, a dark spin on all of their physical intimacy. Brynn's real name is Jovinnia and she is a long-lost princess of the Kingdom of Maile, kidnapped by Wren when she was a child as part of his political scheming. Her mother is still alive and is still actively searching for her. The intense pain she felt when she touched the rock face at the market was her magic starting to materialize, which can only happen on land. The hearthstone knife, which is marked with a J for Jovie, was actually forged by Brynn herself. So while she doesn't completely believe him right away, the revelations begin causing Brynn to question her lifelong loyalty to the Alaha and especially her loyalty to Kai and Captain Wren. She needs answers, so she makes the harrowing decision to flee with Acker and make her way with him to the mainland. They make their move on the night of the matching ceremony, when everyone will be distracted. While making their way to the fishing boats, they are confronted by Kai and a number of guards. Kai admits to using his influence on Brynn but claims he only amplified emotions that were already there and that he wanted her to choose him freely. Then he orders his guards to kill Acker, but Acker swiftly takes them out. Kai ends up stabbing Acker, but Acker overpowers him. Brynn pleads with him to spare Kai's life, so he knocks him unconscious instead and they flee on a stolen fishing boat. Rachel: They deliberately head west, the least likely direction for them to choose, in an effort to throw the search party off their trail. They spend weeks sailing on the open ocean with not much more than a hope and a prayer that they'll reach land before starving or dying in a storm. Without adequate supplies, they're left eating whatever fish they can catch near the surface and drinking only the water they can collect during rainstorms. Meanwhile, Acker's stab wound is also struggling to heal since his magic is weak this far from land. A few days into their journey, they're also surprised by Brynn's pet bird, who apparently tracked them over the water and seems intent on joining them. Acker is initially terrified, since apparently this bird is a mythological creature called an eyun that is said to eat men whole without leaving a trace. Undeterred by this news, Brynn is determined to keep her pet and they name him Blue. During all of this, there's an unspoken sexual tension brewing between Acker and Brynn. As they get further from Alaha, Brynn begins having dreams about spending time with two boys as a child. One of them is Acker, and the other is named Hallis. She realizes these aren't just dreams, but are actually memories of her childhood in Maile. Her memories had been suppressed by Captain Wren's magic in Alaha, but as they get further from his influence, her memories are slowly returning. At one point, a storm threatens to sink the boat, but they are inexplicably saved by a giant squid that wraps its tentacles around the boat and keeps them above the water. As the storm rages, Acker holds Brynn and refuses to let go, further deepening the growing bond between them. They emerge from the storm unscathed along with Blue, and soon land appears on the horizon. When they get closer, it's clear that they've arrived at the black sand beaches of Roison An enemy territory that Acker advises against approaching. Brynn argues that his infected wound could kill him before they can navigate anywhere else, so he caves. Kate: The moment Brynn approaches the beach, her skin burns as if she's been doused in boiling oil. The pain is a result of her magic manifesting now that she's on land, and its delayed onset is hitting her like a brick to the face. Acker ends up carrying her over the beach and into a forest where they can be more concealed. He feeds her saigon root, which helps to dampen the pain but gives her fever dreams and keeps her mostly unconscious. The pain lasts for days, which Acker says is much longer than any magic awakening he's ever heard of. In moments of consciousness, Brynn learns that Blue is still with them and is helping Acker to navigate and watch for threats. Suddenly, they encounter a group of Roison rebels, led by a man named Vad, who can read minds. He identifies Brynn as Jovie, the missing princess from Maile. He then confirms that she is dying, her body too weak to handle the onset of her magic and therefore unable to complete the awakening. She needs to see a healer immediately, or she won't make it. Vad offers to give them the location of a healer in exchange for access to Acker's memories for 30 seconds. Acker refuses, so one of Vad's men shoots an arrow through Brynn's chest, forcing his hand. Vad makes Acker swear a blood oath not to harm Vad or his men as long as Jovie survives. I'm hereby going to continue calling her Jovie, since that's what Acker is going to do at this point. So after digging through Acker's memories, Vad holds up his end of the bargain and gives them directions to a healer about 20 minutes away. As Acker and Jovie rush to the healer, Blue starts taking out Vad's men. He was not part of the blood oath, so his actions are well within the bounds of the agreement. Jovie goes in and out of consciousness, her mind spiraling through memories of both her childhood in Maile and her childhood in Alaha. She's trying to reconcile the two versions of herself. At one point, she's conscious enough to hear people arguing about taking her to a temple and feel them holding her down on a slab of rock. Suddenly she feels pain greater than anything she's felt before, she can't see anything around her. A voice shouts for everyone to close their eyes before they go blind. Jovie is confused, but then she feels Acker press his forehead to hers and she's transported into a memory that she realizes is not hers, is actually Acker's. He's standing on a cliff with Hallis, discussing going to collect Jovie from Alaha and alerting her family after finding her at the market. Rachel: When Jovie finally comes into consciousness, she awakes in the house of the healer named Fia, and she has a pink scar on her chest but is otherwise unharmed. Fia and her family bow to Jovie when she wakes up and it confuses her. She asks Acker about it and he tells her about how healers are often zealots of Mother Nature. They believe anyone possessing one of the elemental powers to be ordained by Mother Nature herself. To protect the earth from decimation, She gave the world humans with gifts to combat the four elements air, water, fire, and earth. These humans are called the heirs, which is something Acker referenced when describing Captain Wren's magic in Alaha. Jovie learns that she is a light wielder, the first of her kind in a millennia. Acker tells her about the last light wielder in recorded history, who was a powerful but cruel queen who ruled the earth and the four elements within it. Jovie worries that she is the reincarnation of the evil queen, but Acker assures her that he believes she is meant to bring peace to the world. Jovie is also unintentionally jumping in and out of Acker's mind, feeling and seeing through his mind and body. She meets Fia's husband, Jorgen, and their son Sven. Jorgen informs the group that the locals have been rumbling about a Kenta invasion, having found the abandoned boat and the murdered men in the woods. There's now a bounty on Acker's Head, so they need to get to Kenta as soon as possible, but they're still over a day's journey from the border. They borrow a horse from Jorgen and Fia to continue their journey to the border. Along the way, Jovie again ends up in Acker's Head, and this time he notices. He assures her she's not becoming an oracle like Vad, and they share an intense moment that almost culminates in a kiss. Before they can lock lips, ambushed by Sven, who shifts into a panther and attacks them to claim the bounty on Acker's head. Blue dive bombs him and shifts gasp into Messer. Messer yells at them to run before shifting again into a leopard to fight Sven. Kate: The fight brings the shifters over the boundary of the dark forest. The forest sits on the border between Roison and Kenta and is said to be cursed. No one has ever survived a trip into the Dark Forest. Acker begs Jovie not to follow Messer, but Messer is her best friend and she doesn't hesitate to follow him. If Jovie goes in, you know Acker isn't going to let her go in alone, so they enter the forest together. They're quickly attacked by bloodthirsty flying creatures that start to rip them apart. Faced with their imminent death, Jovie's emotions ignite the immense power within her, and light erupts from her hands, decimating the creatures into ash. Her light continues to burn until the darkness is erased from the entire forest, changing the landscape forever. Acker steps in to subdue her as she struggles to control her power. They find Sven dead, but when they come across Messer, he's still in leopard form, barely clinging to life. They carry him across the border into Kenta, and And they are approached by a group of Kenta soldiers. They demand a healer from Messer, then Jovie collapses in exhaustion. She wakes up in a military camp greeted by Beau, Acker's sister. Turns out Acker is a prince of Kenta, known widely as the Soldier of Chaos. Hallis is also present at the camp, reuniting with Jovie for the first time since their childhood. When Jovie finds Acker, he's looking at a map of the kingdoms and proudly informs her. That every map will now need to change as a result of the way she eradicated the darkness from the dark forest. Beau informs Jovie that Messer is set to be transported to the king's dungeons as an enemy spy. Messer is interrogated, but Jovie and Acker confirm that he saved their lives on the boat by transforming into the giant squid during the storm. Beau has a gift for reading auras, she uses to assure the Kenta soldiers that Messer did not come with bad intent. Ultimately, Messer is spared from the dungeons, but to ensure he remains loyal to Kenta, Acker brands him with a hearthstone blade. The brand is the mark of Acker's elite soldiers and puts a target on Messer's back if he encounters enemy forces. While talking over breakfast the next morning, Beau tells Jovie about something she witnessed between Acker and Jovie the night before. Beau says she saw their auras merge, confirming that they're a fated match. Jovie is skeptical about what this match bond means for her, but Beau assures her it doesn't have to mean anything if she doesn't want it to. doesn't dictate what Jovie's future looks like, and she can even ignore the bond if she really wants to. Acker decides that he wants to send word back to Fia and Jorgen about their son's death. He says they deserve that much for everything they did to help Jovie. Messer volunteers for the job and sets off to retrieve Sven's body to return it to his parents. Rachel: Jovie Acker Hallis and Beau set off towards the Kenta capital to meet with Acker's father, the king. Acker and Jovie share an intimate horseback ride, stopping for a romantic nap cuddled up in a meadow. The rest stop causes them to get caught in a storm, forcing them to set up camp for the night. Hallis and Beau are annoyed by the turn of events, having been getting on each other's nerves the entire journey. There's clearly a history between them. As Jovie sleeps, she unintentionally projects her consciousness outside of her body. She looks down and sees herself still sleeping, but she's able to walk through the camp to spy on Acker and Hallis as they talk by the fire. Hallis is urging Acker to tell Jovie about his betrothal to the Princess of Strou a shocking revelation for Jovie. Acker sees her projection watching him, and she startles awake back in her body. He confronts her about her ability, thinking she might have been hiding her abilities from him and spying for Wren, before realizing that she's sincere in her confusion. Jovie then turns around and confronts him about his betrothal to the Princess of Strou, accusing him of faking the match bond to manipulate her. To prove the bond is real, Acker kisses her. Jovie resists at first but quickly succumbs to the intense feeling and connection between them. Overwhelmed by emotion, Jovie's power flares and she burns Acker on his chest. Ultimately, she believes their bond is real, but she still doesn't trust Acker. When they start traveling again, Jovie rides with Hallis instead of Acker. She asks him about the betrothal, and Hallis explains that Acker is loyal to a fault, and he would do anything to keep the people and kingdom he cares about safe. Marrying the Princess of Strou would provide his people with political protection, but Hallis suggests that he might abandon the betrothal at Jovie say-so Jovie then asks about the history of match bonds and what happens to matches that resist the bond. Hallis tells her that it has only ever ended in destruction in the stories he's heard. Kate: That night, they book a room in town to rest, and Jovie ends up projecting in her sleep again. This time she wakes Acker and Hallis confirms that he can neither see nor hear Jovie in her projected state. When Jovie mentions Beau has been drinking, Hallis quickly goes to her. Apparently, she only drinks when she's struggling with her magic, feeling overwhelmed by the barrage of emotions emanating from everyone around her. She reaches for Hallis, enjoying his gray aura, but she begs to be away from Jovie and Acker, who have loud, Bright auras. Jovie and Acker end up sharing a bed so Hallis can comfort Beau. Further along their journey, they're intercepted by General Samasu who demands that Jovie accompany him back to Maile and to her mother, the queen. Acker and Jovie refuse, stating they are matched and do not want to be separated, but the general claims he cannot leave without putting up a fight. To avoid bloodshed, Acker ends up signing a blood oath to prove their bond. He cuts both their hands while saying, Jovinnia, Princess of Maile, is my match. With this oath I swear to protect her until my dying breath, and I love her. And then they kiss. While Jovie doesn't understand all the implications of this oath, Hallis and Beau are outraged at his reckless actions. As further proof of life, the general takes Jovie's knife back to her mother, telling Jovie she can recall the blade in two days he has time to deliver it to the queen. When the traveling party arrives at the Kenta capitol, they are greeted with jeers and anger. The citizens clearly do not want Jovie in their territory. They call her a curse and are clearly terrified of her light magic. They even throw tomatoes at her like an old school heckling crowd. At the royal palace, Jovie meets Acker's father, King Edmond, for the first time. She is forced to her knees in front of him, her body moving out of her control, and she suspects King Edmond is using influence magic on her. Something in the king's aura also disturbs Beau when she sees him, but it's not clear what it is. Jovie declines to go to dinner that night, instead passing out in her room, exhausted from the day. She accidentally projects herself into the dining room only her towel, startling Acker. The sexual tension between them is thick, and Acker tells her if she appears to him without clothes again, he's going to finally make her confront the desire she's pretending doesn't exist between them. Acker comes to Jovie's room later that night and gets into bed with her. And while they don't have sex, they do kiss and explore each other's bodies in a very intimate way. Beau greets them in the morning, saying that the servants are all gossiping about Jovie and Acker's relationship. Rachel: Acker enlists Beau to accompany Jovie for the day and they end up at the Palace Library. Beau introduces her to Greta, the librarian, and Beau's mother, confirming that Acker and Beau have different mothers. Jovie asks her if the library has any information on matching bonds, and Greta shows her to the archives where she keeps forbidden books. Jovie is allowed to borrow any book she wants as long as she keeps it a secret. The information Jovie finds in the book about match bonds is bleak. Either their lives are so connected that they can't live apart from each other, or their hatred for each other drives them and everyone around them to total destruction. Both avenues look unappealing. Jovie discovers that Irina, the Princess of Strou, is living at the palace when she sees her in the library. She's furious at Acker for not warning her that his betrothed was roaming around the palace. When she gets back to her room, Acker has left her some supplies for sketching, but she's too angry at him to be touched by his gesture. Struggling again to control her light power, she decides to take a bath to calm herself. Beau checks in on her and says rather cryptically, Quote, your heart isn't the only one you'll break, you know? And when Jovie asks if she can predict the future, Beau says, My mother does. Jovie confronts Acker for not warning her about Irina, but he only learned about Irina's presence the night before, and didn't want to ruin their night by saying something when she was already mad at him. This does not help to calm Jovie down, so Acker uses his magic to bind her with metal filigree so that he can kiss her. This also, shockingly, Does not help to calm Jovie down, and she's still pissed. Acker interrupts their bickering by telling him that he has friends waiting for them in town. He introduces Jovie to Wells and Olivia, of his who are secretly matched. They give Jovie some insight into what the matching bond is like, but warn her that the bond could trap Jovie's consciousness if she resists it for too long. Jovie and Acker end up having a heart to heart on the carriage ride back to the palace. Promising not to keep things from one another anymore. As they approach the palace, Jovie notices that there are cages along the walls with people in them. Kate: The next day, Jovie joins Acker for training with the soldiers. He has her work with a sword, something that takes all her strength to wield compared to the knife she's used to. Despite her exhaustion, she still gets a good hit on Acker by the end of the day. That night, Jovie recalls the dagger she sent with the Maile General. When she reaches with her mind to retrieve the knife, she ends up seeing her mother in Maile. Her mother senses her presence and says Jo, right before Jovie snaps back into her room in Kenta, the knife in her grasp. While reading the Forbidden Book from the Library, Jovie learns that the blood oath Acker made for General Samasu was an especially dangerous kind of oath that has the capacity to kill the participants instantly if a lie is detected in the vow. This kind of oath is now outlawed in Kenta, and anyone found performing it can be sentenced to hang in one of the cages on the palace wall. Through her anger at his recklessness, Jovie realizes that Acker essentially proved without a doubt that he does in fact love her. This realization sends a flush to her cheeks and a giddy smile to her lips. Suddenly, we're in a room full of men, including Acker, where Jovie has accidentally projected herself. She's dripping wet and completely naked, having apparently projected from the bathtub. When Acker sees her, he sends a servant to check on her in her room, worried she fell asleep in the bath. No one but Acker can see her, so he commands her to sit on his lap, fighting to keep a poker face. Jovie tells him she actually might be awake this time rather than asleep, and she believes she's projecting this way because the bond can sense that she's close to accepting it. She whispers in his ear that she was touching herself in the bath while thinking of him, and at this point we get what I think is Rachel's favorite scene in the book. Rachel: It sure is. Kate: Acker decides to get her off by pressing his whiskey glass against her clit. He's somehow able to hide his actions from the rest of the room, despite his raging hard on. Finally, Jovie orgasms just as the king enters the room, finally ready to talk to Acker after days of absence. Of course, it's at this moment that the servant returns, frantic to get Acker to come back with her to check on Jovie. She says something is wrong and Beau requested his help. When they get to her room, Jovie sees her body lying in the tub, but Acker and Beau unable to wake her up. They believe Jovie is somehow tethered to Acker through the bond, and she needs to calm herself and get some distance from Acker in order to return to her body. After a number of hours, Jovie finally returns to her body and she immediately asks Beau to take her to Acker's chambers. When they're reunited, admits that she's in love with Acker and they finally consummate their relationship. This is Jovie's first time having sex, and by the sounds of it, she is having an amazing time. Acker takes good care of her, and they end up blissed out and glassy eyed. Jovie describes the tether beneath her sternum snapping into place as the matching bond is finally solidified. Even through her happiness, though, Jovie feels dread creeping into her gut. She knows nothing this good can last forever. Rachel: While exploring the archives in the library, Jovie is startled by Acker appearing in front of her. Now that the bond is fully in place, the projection magic can go both ways and they can finally control it. Acker says that he is currently in his room and fully in control of his body, while also projecting himself to be with her. And then Jovie and Acker's projection start fucking. Greta definitely knows what's up, but she lets it slide. Before Jovie leaves the library, Greta warns her that every gain of wealth and power comes at a cost, that it chips away at your soul a little each time. In one of the books that Jovie borrowed, she reads about Uma, who is the evil light wielder queen that Acker told her about. Uma was defeated by her lover, who poisoned her with. Hearthstone laced food The stories of this ancient evil queen are why the citizens of Kenta are so terrified of a light wielder. Hallis and Acker begin training Jovie to control her power while she's projecting. Her power is still largely tied to her rage and emotions, but she is learning to protect the spot where the magic lives in her body. That spot is where she is most vulnerable, because if she was wounded there with a hearthstone blade, it would rip her magic away from her. She also learns that what happens to her while she is projecting also happens to her physical body. Kate: Back in the library, Greta shows Jovie a portrait of her mother in the archives indicates that she was an heir of elemental air magic. Her father, on the other hand, was a common born guard, which was a scandalous romance. Jovie also sees the record for King Edmond, whose magic is listed as elemental fire, unlike the influence magic she thought she felt from him when they met. In another shocking turn, Jovie uncovers a photo of King Edmond and his wife, Acker's mother. Who's believed to be dead. Jovie is sure, however, that the woman in the photo is in fact her elderly neighbor from Alaha, Grenadine. Jovie quickly projects through the bond to tell Acker what she found, but while projecting, Jovie overhears Acker's father threatening him to go through with the marriage to Irina. He says Acker can keep Jovie as a consort, that he must marry Irina for the political gain and the power of Strou's army. Acker tries to persuade his father that they can make a deal with Jovie's mother, Queen Evelyn, but Edmond is not convinced. He believes Jovie is still loyal to Alaha and that her mother will never agree to be allies after Acker became betrothed to another woman. Jovie is shocked by what she hears, but wants to give Acker the benefit of the doubt and allow him to tell her about his father's intentions on his own. The night of the celebratory dinner arrives, meant to honor Acker's completed mission to bring Jovie home, and she notes that most of the attendees are not at all happy at her presence. Acker plans to arrive with Jovie on his arm in direct defiance of his father's orders to be with the Princess of Strou. Showing up with Jovie constitutes a breaking of the alliance with Strou, which is further solidified when the princess and her parents both abandon the dinner after seeing Jovie in Irina's place at the table. Rachel: We get a shocking time jump here, going back to the morning after the storm in Alaha when Jovie, then still Brynn, had just broken Acker out of the brig. She meets with Kai and they discuss the strategy of their rebellion. It turns out that Kai and Brynn are the leaders of the Alaha Rebellion, not Aurora. And Brynn is fully aware of who she is and where she comes from. She and Kai are determined to get the Alaha people back on land where they belong. And they scheme together to find a way to manipulate Acker into taking her to Kenta to get her close enough to kill King Edmond. They decide to position her as a naive, helpless girl who is being tricked into loving Kai as an unknowing victim of his influence magic. They stage a scenario to have Acker witness Kai using his magic on Brynn to really solidify the illusion of her innocence. The daring escape, the vulnerabilities she shows him. are all orchestrated as part of their plot to overthrow Kenta. This chapter throws the whole story on its head and gets the reader asking, what was real and what was staged? Kate: Back in the present at the celebratory dinner, things are winding down and Hallis goes to bed. Looking happy and content, Acker ends up proposing to Jovie in front of everyone. Instead of accepting, Jovie begins to cry, telling him she loves him and meaning it, but knowing what's coming. Her heart begins to break, just like Beau said it would, and Acker begins to realize something is wrong. Suddenly, the nobles start dropping like flies, and it's clear that Jovie has poisoned them all, save for Acker, who she wouldn't let drink from his cup. Jovie slips a power suppressing collar around his neck and then Beau steps in to wrap him up in metal binds that cut into his skin, confirming that she was in on the plan too. Soldiers storm in to stop Jovie, but before they can harm her, Acker calls them off, likely because of the blood oath keeping him from allowing anything to harm her. Then Jovie calls for Messer, who is disguised as one of the guards, and he begins slaughtering all the guards in the room. Jovie is breaking her own heart with her actions, but continues on before she loses her nerve. She offers Acker a deal where they will leave his council untouched if he usurps the crown from his father. Jovie warns of a looming war, where Roison, Alaha, and Maile will unite against Kenta unless he takes over the crown and joins them. She explains that King Edmond has been wanting to conquer the other territories for centuries and return to a time when everyone worshipped the heirs like gods. Beau sees his corrupt obsession with power, especially in how he treats her mother, who is forced to wear a magic suppressing collar remain a subservient consort. She claims Edmond has been chipping away at the Alahan resources over the years and denying them access to the market was the final straw that he was hoping would force them to come to land and break the treaty. That inciting incident would be all the leverage he needed to declare war and enact his plan to conquer the other territories. Acker is still not convinced, and they're running out of time, so Jovie instead stabs the king with the hearthstone blade, taking away his magic, but leaving him alive. She does this to honor the life debt that she owes Acker for sparing Kai's life back in Alaha. Acker breaks away from some of his binds and chases Jovie into the kitchen, where he kisses her before slapping her. Because of his blood oath to protect her, he can't hurt her without facing equal repercussions on himself. So he tells her to get away before he kills them both. Hallis appears again as Jovie is leaving but does not intervene. She leaves without looking back. Rachel: Woo! That cliffhanger was just as intense on the reread, but fortunately we only have to wait one more day for Light Wielder. I'm sure we'll have plenty to discuss on our Light Wielder reaction episode. So be sure to like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Alright, let's get out of here. See you later this week for our interview with indie author Kris K. Haines. Kate: Bye.