Fresh from the recent betrayals and a clock ticking down, alliances destroyed and new ones being made, the surviving champions must now figure out who they can trust and if they can trust each other long enough to make it out alive or die trying to be the last one standing.

Alistair Lowe: Still reeling from Isobel’s betrayal and death curse, at least he has his brother back and has avenged him by killing his family. Alistair now is prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure his brother remains alive by the time the game ends and if that means destroying everyone, so be it. There’s only one small problem, Isobel’s curse has it so the more he tries to harm and curse other champions the more it will slowly consume him before it finally kills him. He’ll have to figure a way to kill the other contestants before his curse kills him and survive them as well. What he never expected was possibly trusting one of them again... and possibly falling for them. Alistair will have to face difficult choices: who can he trust, who can he open himself up to again, and how far of a monster is he willing to be to protect his brother even if he possibly can’t even save him?

Isobel Macaslan: After discovering the consequences of a spell her family gave her she is now official without a pulse, technically she is very much still alive but she is essentially just a husk of a person. Isobel needs a way to fix this as well as make it out alive. After betraying Alistair after he saved her she’s still feeling guilty, but she now finds herself in a new predicament, trapped by Reid she’ll have to find a way to expose the truth and save herself. The question is, how manipulative and far is she willing to go to get what she wants, how many more people is she willing to betray to get what she wants? Isobel knows one thing: she’ll do anything to make it out alive. But when the opportunity to save all the champions and break the curse appears... is she willing to place her trust in others or will she betray them all again?

Gavin Grieve: The one no one expected to live that has suddenly found his magic completely messed up. Gavin is under his own curse, a life magic curse that is a clock counting down before he dies. The only solution to his curse... would be stealing the new life given to Alistair’s brother... which means trying to make an alliance with the one enemy he has always dreamed about killing, about making an alliance with the one person he can’t help but obsess over yet the more Gavin gets to know Alistair the more he begins to realize that there is a boy underneath the mask of a monster and that he might be falling for him. Will he have it in himself to betray Alistair and his brother or is Gavin finally going to go after something he wants, to finally have something more and to finally be more.

Briony Thorburn: She was always meant to be the hero and she is willing to do anything and hurt everyone to be said hero... yet when she faces the reality of her decision and the cost of all her actions Briony is going to realize that sometimes being a hero means making the ultimate sacrifice. Can Briony break the curse and save all the champions or will it be too late and all of them are bound to die in the end? With an even bigger plot on hand Briony will have to face even more difficult decisions and realizations and dark truths about what is really going are revealed.

Finley Blair: ( he’s alive) truthfully he didn’t really make all that much of a lasting impact in this book, he was more of a side character who was always with Briony.

Reid MacTavish: The owner of the MacTavish Cursemaker’s Shop who finds himself thrust into a predicament he never imagined. Reid finds himself intertwined with Isobel and both of them are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. When Reid’s secrets are revealed and he too finds himself intertwined in the games his goals have changed and he’ll have to find a way to make it out alive.

Secrets, romance, survival, and magic all come together in the stunning conclusion to this series. I have to say I was so happy with the Gavin and Alistair content we got, I was rooting for them the entire book and this book just gave me everything I could ask for in enemies to lovers romance.

*Thanks Tor Forge/ Tor Teen for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*