penwalla

Hi! I don't remember anything that's happened. Runes? Misogyny against blonde women in particular? Who can say.

Let's go.

We open to Violet and Xaden hanging out in his room while Violet tries and fails to rune. They talk a little bit about runes, which is more interesting than the classroom discussion but not by much. Xaden fills in some past plot events by explaining how they were runes all along: Violet's mysterious unlocking dagger, etc. Then we find out the relics the rebel kids all have were made by runes as well.

I feel like all the exposition in this series makes things that could be interesting boring. A new magical form, supposedly in opposition to the ruling body's magic, could be a cool plot point, right? But Yarros doesn't use it for anything, just explains it like she's writing the fandom wiki page for it and moves on. I do like that Violet is not naturally good at this, though. She's struggling, which is not something that happens in this novel too often or for too long. We'll see if Yarros makes her a rune master by the end.

Next scene. The fliers and riders aren't integrating well.

Until now, we’ve only been put together for rune lessons in very small increments and mealtimes, which usually end with at least one thrown punch.

“What the hell do they expect?” Rhiannon folds her arms next to me. “We’ve been killing each other for centuries, and we’re supposed to what…weave flowers into each other’s hair and confess our deepest, darkest secrets all because they gave us a luminary and hiked a cliff?”

To fix this, they're no longer going to be separated for classes. And the drifts and squads are going to be combined into mixed units. That all seems reasonable--no it doesn't, because, you guessed it, they're also bringing back being able to randomly fight each other to address grievances. Without killing, at least, so someone has learned something from Basgiath.

This feels dumb, and does not seem like it will stop the violence, but okay. Violet thinks that the riders might be outmatched by the fliers in hand to hand, because they trained to fight the venin. Violet, at your college you were allowed to murder each other at any time for basically any reason. I think you're good.

Naturally, Cat challenges Violet.

Violet is like, I wish I had known about this so I could have poisoned her in advance. And I'm like, do not remind me of how dumb this book has been in the past.

“This is for Luella.” She comes at me with a combination of punches that I block with my forearms, shifting my body so the blows glance off without their full impact. It’s…easy, like I know the choreography. Like it’s muscle memory. Her stance adjusts, and I jump back a second before she kicks out. Connecting only with air, her balance falters as I land, and she stumbles sideways.

Holy shit. She fights like Xaden.

He trained both of us.

Uh...okay? Does Xaden have some special fighting style of his own? That never came up before.

Next chapter opens with some venin-related lore in the opening quote. Riveting stuff.

Defeating a dark wielder begins with knowing where they rank in age and experience. Initiates have reddish rings to their eyes that come and go depending on how often they drain. Asims’ eyes fluctuate in degrees of red, and their veins distend when riled. Sages’—those responsible for initiates—eyes are permanently red, their veins perpetually distended toward their temples, expanding with age. Mavens—their generals—have never been captured for examination.

Cat immediately starts trying to rile Violet up by reminding her that she and Xaden used to be an item.

Violet's reaction to this feels very extreme. She's so mad she nearly throws up, but why? Some jealousy would make sense, but it feels so over the top. And it feels stupid when there's a much better reason for the enmity. Luella! The flier who died like two chapters ago despite Violet's attempt to save her! Cat's supposed to hate Violet because she thinks Violet murdered her friend in cold blood, so why the hell are all their conflicts about who Xaden is boning?

Oh, right, because Violet is the main character and all other women need to be worse than her.

Reminder that Cat's power is to rile up emotions, because that's obviously what's going on in this fight and Violet does not seem to have realized.

“Look at where we are. Riorson House.” Her mouth is close enough to my ear that I can feel how hard she’s breathing. “Who wouldn’t love all that power and the case it comes in? But I’m sure as hell not fighting you over a man’s affections. I’m going to war with you for a crown. That was the reason we were engaged. It was promised to me, and I’m not giving it to a damned Sorrengail who chose to drop the flier instead of her squadmate. Your entire family deserves to die for what you’ve put us through.”

I...what?

I guess I don't quite understand. Is Cat saying that if the rebellion succeeds she's going to be...queen? Of what? Navarre? Has it been established that that's the goal? Violet immediately gets insecure over not being important enough, but like...does it actually matter that Cat's from a royal line? Violet has two powerful dragons. One of her siblings is a rebellion leader and the other has joined up. She's insanely powerful and she's supposed to be intelligent.

I don't get where all this insecurity is supposed to be coming from.

Violet gets the upper hand in the battle and nearly kills Cat before Xaden breaks through Cat's mindwork and reminds her to not do that. But Violet's now so unhinged with rage that Xaden has to forcibly drag her off the field because she's throwing lightning at Cat and starting fires.

Next chapter. Violet has chilled out and is now mostly embarrassed about her outburst. Are we going with "that was all mindwork, none of it was Violet?" I will accept that. It doesn't make Cat's motivations make that much more sense, but it makes Violet's sudden insecurity understandable. Again, Violet forgetting Cat could do that is stupid af, but whatever.

Xaden and Violet immediately start having reasonably public sex to cope.

Sure. Why not.

They fuck, and then go back to their comversation. Xaden makes a reasonable point:

“You were just engaged to her for…” I pause. “I don’t even know how long you were engaged for.” I feel…stupid.

“I would have told you if you’d asked. That’s the problem here, Violet—you don’t ask.”

“It’s not like you ask me about my exes.” I cross my legs.

“Because I don’t want to know, which I suspect is the same reason you continue to not ask me about the things that actually bother you, but let’s just ignore that like we usually do. Seems to be working out for us.” He lays the sarcasm on thick.

Xaden says that he and Cat were betrothed for political reasons, not out of any real affection, and they had sex but it didn't mean anything to him. He broke it off because it wasn't beneficial, since Tecarus wouldn't give them the luminary. He and Violet have some more heartfelt conversation that would probably be touching if it were written by a competent author. He tells her she has to have control of herself to resist Cat's power, and she tells him she feels off-center because so many things have happened. That would be fine if it had been integrated better into the narrative, instead of being dropped on us now so we can retcon it onto our understanding of the story.

Oh, and Xaden gives Violet a dagger that blocks Cat's powers, which she's actually had all along--she took off all her weapons for the last fight. Fair enough.

Next chapter. Cat's drift and Violet's squad are integrating. Apparently this is obvious because they're the two strongest. Frankly, I would think their deep enmity for each other would make this a terrible idea from the perspective of having a functional military.

They give the fliers their patches to mark their acceptance into the squad.

Cat is rude, so they all leave, and all Violet's friends offer to kill Cat for her. She declines, and they go to the library.

Dain meets them there, because he's the expert at the language Violet needs translated. She's got some books from Tecarus and the language isn't Violet's strong suit. They're working together, but they also finally talk about all the things that happened between them. Dain apologizes. They agree to meet again to keep working on the book. Chapter end.

God, this book just goes on and on and on...the classroom portions are brutal. See y'all next time. Only a quarter of the book to go.