I'm not one for voyeurism but I hope that trash god that cursed our little cinnamon roll at least got to witness this part and chokes on whatever wine and cheese fruit platter they are snacking on.

Sameer is not new in the sense he was already painted to be one of the main antagonist in this story at the very beginning. This is the first time though he is getting dialog and interacting with our merry band of goofs.

She is a princess but she isn't. She technically is a princess because her father was the king so that title in a way should have been given to her upon birth regardless of who her mother was but she was never raised to be a princess or acknowledged by her father, the king, so she technically wasn't a princess because no one recognized her due to the circumstances of her birth (who her mother was). Essentially, they bestowed the title on her to use her as the sacrificial lamb so the princess born between the king and queen didn't have to marry the vampire king.

BINGO! She was the kings love child and only acknowledged and brought in as the sacrifical lamb to her half-sibling who was supposed to marry the vampire king. Her "family" (saying that loosely) figured she wouldn't survive long enough to utilize any training so didn't bother giving it.

Thank you! I'm sorry but their combined history shows they aren't the wisest when it comes to communicating and taking action. Even if Evanthe wants to pull the "I did something wrong and was punished so I don't want to make that same mistake again" card, how is it she can't see that she is already interfering with destinies and fates and has been doing so since before these kids were born so she has been committed this long mine as well keep going and prevent the tragedies instead of waiting to see if they avert themselves. Geez!

Perhaps we shouldn't have kept any of this from our friends, you know, and chosen on the night Emseray/Oriana chose extinction as the party theme when she offed Edna, to share with the class. Yeah, that was the time to sit down with some potent elven wine and spill ALL THE MF'N BEANS on this girl so you know, WE ALL could be prepared. Communication is not their strongest suit and they have had the longest time to perfect it. Literally, they had millennium, if not eons, to get the communication thing down 🤯

Question - if they are so up to current events in the Demon Realm and know a dangerous person is currently ruling, why present Oriana the idea that IF she were to return to demonic realm, she would just stroll through, no issues and her only hiccup would be that the denizens would just be heartbroken she chose to leave again when this is painting a more sinister picture that the current ruling party may have a gripe with Esmeray's family so she could be slapped with high treason charges even though she is a reincarnation of Esmeray and not Esmeray herself? You don't tell people to travel to places and make it seem like paradise or at least a safe location when you know it's in a current political turmoil or is unsafe for a certain group and that person just happens to fall into that category of group it is unsafe for.

My patience with Zaria is spreading real thin. One thing my grandmother taught me was that sometimes, words don't need to be spoken even if I felt they were important. How stupid is she to continually demand answers so she can help Oriana but risk losing this golden opportunity because she can't keep her retorts to herself? At this rate, Oriana has a better chance figuring things out and confronting this dude with Arlan than relying on the grown ups who can't put their egos to the side for 5 seconds and actually act like they have existed for, I don't know, eons.

I absolutely understand Yorian's doubts and hatred towards Zaria; we've read about her exploits in 3 different books and I am starting to see slightly Zaria's stance although it has not been fully revealed but it seems Argatha/The High Elves had a hand in creating who Zaria is now but right now, this isn't about their past and who was lost and who caused that loss, right now, it's about Oriana and the present. If Sierra is recognizing the significance of that rock and the energy it's throwing off, it's time they put their grown up panties on and work together because it seems none of them truly wanted Oriana to venture into the demonic realm even if she wasn't going to be harmed. So let them act like actual ancient wise people and have this discussion without the sass, crass, and threats because in the end the only person this will truly affect is Oriana; they get to continue living whatever Midgard life they carved out for themselves while she has to give up on hers if they fail at this discussion.

*hear this

Ger would LITERALLY cut his junk off before he ever found Garrett attractive, let alone do something with him 🤣🤣🤣 That would be the quickest application and acceptance to monkhood in history. Not sure if Ger will ever have a love and if he and Conrad would just pine away for Evanna for all eternity but I know Garrett or any other man is not even in his field house.

Also to clarify, there is a possibility that the little outburst Zaria had was to cover her actions and may not be true. With her, anything is possible.

I apologize but I also never stated you said that and was agreeing with your point. My additional commentary was just my point of view of how I thought it was interesting that we are seeing more of Zaria's origin story especially knowing the other 2 books would probably never touch on it.

I agree but this is more information, at least in this book, that Zaria gave. We have seen the aftermath of her war through the eyes of the victors and victims but no one truly explained what kicked off the war and to be fair, only Zaria could provide that perspective. Neither of the other two books (Seren & Ember's) will provide us that POV from Zaria because she is the bad guy across all three books. So if the high elves with the help of other supernaturals did start the process of eradication of Black witches and killed a bunch of them because of who they were but they didn't warrant it, it brings another layer of history to this event to show that yeah, Zaria may be bad and horrible (but not as bad as Edna) but she wasn't always like this and had to become this villan to right a wrong our heros did (because let's be fair, it's not like in real history where one's ancestors did wrong to another group, most parties involved are still breathing in this universe so people know but are being mum on the situation to not show they are equally or more guilty for the slaughter and creation of Zaria Lynx). So please Zaria, keep spilling that tea. Doesn't mean Ori will embrace being an evil person and help you with your plans but she maybe empathetic and help find a way to heal as that is her true nature regardless of being a black witch, to heal and make things better regardless of who it is (to a degree...Edna can clearly burn in the pits).

I need Ori to understand that marriage is all about compromise along with communication. Neither party can get their way all the time unless both literally like or love the same exact thing (I mean, I guess that resolves issues of what to eat, where to go, and what to watch) and seeing that clearly ain't these two, him permitting her to see her ailing grandfather is part of being a loving, supporting husband and friend. This man has been trying to do everything to get Oriana to fall for him again so if allowing her time to spend with her dying grandpa whom he hates and biting the bullet to let the past go will get her there, he will gladly do it. Him doing this though is not keeping score of brownie points to cash in later. Say his stepmother did something horrible to Philip and Oriana but was lovely to literally everyone and thing on that planet; would she permit him the right he naturally has to visit her especially if something happened to his stepmother with the expectation that because she/Oriana approved him going (which he would have done regardless if she permitted it) that he needs to repay this benevolence later in the future? Same principle applies to her with Philip; he understands that for over 20 years, Philip has been her everything and sole support system so regardless of how he/Arlan feels, Oriana is not going to have that same animosity and ill-will towards her grandfather. Hell, we see she felt so bad at the wrong her grandfather/family inflicted on the Cromwell's that she made it her personal goal to continue her families pledge of defending and caring for the family even though they have moved past that stage of their relationship.

But is he lying? That man would become a fluffier lycan and push Snowflake off the bed just to procure cuddles. Don't even want to see how far Goldie will go, so yes, Drayce and Arlan are pets for their wives and it's okay 🤣

It's funny how not too long ago he was yapping at Evanthe about not handling her unresolved love issues and yet here he is, not letting go of his "strong like" (cuz we know he doesn't love her but just really likes her more than he should) of Oriana. Be Elsa you magical creature and ⬇️

Sweetie, the minute you realized that living life without him was a death sentence in itself so therefore you loved him was the day that curse was broken completely.

Pretty much unless he's been building up tolerance