“Do not toy with me. This—this is the last piece of my heart I have left, do you understand? I don’t know how to protect it once it is outside my body. If I trust you and then you cast it into the dirt, it will be the death of both of us. What is left of me will kill what is left of you.”

Aye, what the fuck

“Murder is only treason if left unfinished,” Arin said. He tucked his hands into his pockets and turned to the door. “When I am done, they will call it succession.”

I am dead inside

This is going to be chaotic, and I had to leave out so many good quotes, otherwise, this would have been even longer than it already is

Arin firmly believed an attempt on one’s life was the highest form of flattery. Becoming a threat by the very virtue of your existence, inspiring the sort of mad dedication that drives men to murder...what could be more of an accomplishment?

This was the first sentence of the book ^^ off to a great start and really setting the tone lmao

Where to begin? The fact that from page one, Arin was unhinged and I loved it? The fact that we got Marek and Sefa’s POV, and they killed me? The fact that Sylvia was slowly losing her mind, and so was I?

Hm, no, not there

“Everything I have is hers to command. What she wills, I will create. What she hates, I will destroy. I am the weapon of the Malika, and it is her alone I pledge myself to.”

Let’s talk about the fact that there were more knife-to-throat scenes in this. Let’s talk about how this book emotionally ruined me. Let’s talk about how I never want to talk about the end of the book again

10 YEARS HE WAITED 10 YEARS MY POOR BABY BUT WHAT WAS WORSE WAS MAREK ARE YOU KIDDING ME

I am ded

For the truly enlightened among us are those who understand that the realities we build were already built for us.

Sara once again built a magnificently structured world with a beautiful tone, dark/dry humour (literally top tier funnies), and tension (even though they were separated a little, there was still tension! Like, how did that happen?? I love it). The side characters, Sefa and Marek, Arin’s guardsmen, everyone was so well done!

“If you let it, fear will make ruins of the future. You will build the rest of your life on the grave of every good thing you might have had, if only you had let yourself try.”

The way I love our two main characters together is not normal. Man, they were great. Sylvia, or Essyia, was strong, violent, caring, terrified, hurting, and afraid. Arin was, well, like I said, unhinged. He was just so done with everything, and I was living for it. He was also almost always 3 steps ahead, and that was just a great time lmao

Why enjoy a moment when I was just so good at ruining them?

I did have the same problem as the first book, the world-building, while amazing, was very dense, so I struggled with the first 50%. Like, I still really loved the first 50%, but it was hard to get through.

Overall, you are not prepared for this book. So, read this duology, please, and suffer with me.

Thank you to Orbit Books and the author for this ARC!