King of Battle and Blood

Isolde knows that Ana’s beloved vassal, Isla, was traveling to Cel Cera to see her family. She asks Daroc if there are any survivors, and he says that not everyone is accounted for, but they must kill any survivors who are infected with crimson mist. Adrian tells Ana, who sobs and begs him not to kill Isla if the woman is infected; Ana believes that she can find a cure. Adrian has the soldiers with shapeshifting talents transform into flying creatures and scope out the area.

Vesna and Violeta ready Isolde for the ball that celebrates the end of the Burning Rites. Adrian asks for a moment alone with her and takes her to a place in the palace where they can see the kingdom and the night sky. He tells her that his entire life was taken from him on the night of the Burning Rites 200 years ago, after which he began his conquest to take over Cordova. He tells Isolde that he misses her, and this confuses her given that he is physically present with her now.

Adrian and Isolde dance together at the ball, and Isolde stops to comfort Ana about Isla. She eats food and drinks wine that Adrian supplies for her and the other human vassals, but as she dances with Adrian again, she begins to feel faint. She is conflicted about her feelings for Adrian and worries that her attachment to him will be apparent to Henri when he arrives in Revekka for her coronation in six days. Suddenly, she starts to feel even sicker. Isolde cries out that she has been poisoned and then falls unconscious in Adrian’s arms.

Three days later, Isolde wakes up, feeling ill and too warm. She sees Ana watching over her, along with Miha and Sorin. They haven’t discovered who poisoned her, but Adrian has kept everyone locked in the ballroom for the entire time that Isolde was unconscious. Adrian now returns to Isolde and tells her that they must go to the ballroom so that she can show her strength and find out who tried to kill her. They go, and when Adrian demands to know who poisoned Isolde, Noblesse Anatoly (the father of one of the ladies who claimed to have slept with Adrian) questions Adrian’s decision to marry a mortal woman, casting doubt on Isolde’s importance. Adrian beheads Anatoly for his insolence and reminds the vampire court that just as he made them, he can also unmake them.

Three days later, Isolde has mostly recovered from the poisoning. She and the court prepare for the arrival of King Henri and his retinue. When Henri arrives, he embraces Isolde and tells her that he and Nadia miss her greatly. Isolde asks about the state of Lara, and he admits that Lara is unstable in the wake of his surrender. Isolde asks if he knows about the enslavement of her mother’s people, and he admits that he does. He tries to justify his actions, arguing that he protected Isolde’s mother and that Isolde is not from Nalani but from Lara. Isolde intuits that Henri also lied to her mother about the status of Nalani. Isolde realizes that she no longer knows her father and perhaps never did.

Isolde goes to the grotto in the garden to find peace and encounters Adrian, who is watching the fish in the pond to find a sense of calm. Isolde begins to cry, and Adrian holds her. They begin to have sex, but Killian interrupts and shames Adrian for being intimate with Isolde in a public place. Isolde accuses Adrian of wanting to make Killian jealous, and he asks her why she is ashamed of being with him. Isolde admits that she doesn’t know how to reconcile her feelings for Adrian with her love for her family and friends from Lara. Adrian tells her that she can do both; as Queen of Revekka and the soon-to-be Queen of Cordova, she can remake the world as she sees fit.

Isolde gets ready for the ball to celebrate the arrival of her father. After she dresses in her gown, she looks again at the strange book that triggered her vision of Dragos. She opens it and begins to read and soon realizes that both the book and the blade belonged to Yesenia. The book reveals that Yesenia was in love with Adrian, and he with her. This shocks Isolde, who wonders what her role in Adrian’s life is if his heart belonged to Yesenia. Ana comes to escort Isolde to the ball, and Isolde cannot help but ask her about Adrian and Yesenia. Ana tells her that Adrian cares for Isolde but did love Yesenia. He lost both Yesenia and Dragos, whom he served as a loyal guard. He watched Yesenia die and was whipped brutally, nearly to death, for trying to save her.

Isolde arrives at the ball and sits beside Adrian, though she acts coldly toward him because of her knowledge of his past with Yesenia. Henri is disgusted with the proceedings of the Revekkian court as he witnesses vampires drinking from their vassals and participating in carnal acts. Isolde leaves to get some air, and Killian follows her, telling her that he thinks Adrian is in love with her. This hurts Isolde, who believes that Adrian still loves Yesenia. Killian accuses Isolde of being in love with Adrian as well, and she heads to the garden.

She hears the sound of drums and finds herself dancing around a fire as those around her also dance and participate in carnal acts. Suddenly, the drums stop, and people begin screaming. Isolde watches as the witches of the High Coven—the coven she now thinks of as her own—are burned alive. She screams in agony as she sees a beaten Adrian dragged in front of her. She tells him that she loves him just before she is burned alive. (The scene is a vision, and she is reliving one of Yesenia’s memories.)

Isolde wakes up in Adrian’s room and tells him that she knows about Yesenia. He tells her that he did love Yesenia, but he insists that he loves Isolde and has waited centuries for her. He says that there is also something he doesn’t know how to explain to her. She confesses her love for him and asks him to make love to her before he explains anything. They have passionate sex, and afterward, Adrian explains the importance of the bloodletting. He does not view his vampirism as a curse, but in a way, he is indeed cursed. If he feeds from Isolde, he will die if she dies. Only four people know about the bloodletting: Tanaka, Sorin, Ana, and Daroc. Isolde tells him that he must closely guard her and then consents to the bloodletting. When he feeds from her, Isolde’s past-life memories of Adrian return. She realizes that she knows him and has always known him; Isolde finally understands that she is the reincarnation of Yesenia of Aroth.

Isolde tells Adrian that she remembers her past life and asks him how he became a vampire. He explains that he made a bargain with the goddess Dis in order to exact revenge on his enemies; she is the one who made him a vampire. Dis is also the creator of the High Coven. Dis told Adrian that he could find Isolde again but that he could not tell her about her past until Isolde chose to love him. Now, the two make love again.

Isolde wants to spend time with her father before her coronation. She dresses and readies herself but runs into Killian, who accuses her of being brainwashed by Adrian because she no longer hates vampires. She then finds Ana, who was her best friend in her past life, and tells her that she remembers her. They tearfully embrace. When she sees her father, he also accuses her of failing to kill Adrian. She tells him about the bloodletting and explains that the only way to kill Adrian is to kill her. They go to the coronation.

Isolde is crowned Queen of Revekka and the future Queen of the Nine Houses, but Ravena suddenly attacks, interrupting the coronation. Gesalac betrays Isolde and tries to kill her with the crimson mist, but Killian stabs him, and Ana uses her magic to kill him. However, Ana’s vassal and lover, Isla, is affected by the crimson mist and dies, leaving Ana distraught. Isolde goes to find Ravena but stumbles into her father, who tries to kill her and tells her that she should have killed herself to destroy Adrian. Isolde fights off her father and tells him to go home, but when he attacks her again, she kills him. 

Isolde then faces off with Ravena in the library. Ravena wants to steal The Book of Dis, which is not empty, as Isolde initially thought. When Isolde was Yesenia, she wrote this book of dark magic and then spelled it to appear empty. Ravena taunts Isolde for her lack of magic in this life, but Isolde starts smashing the mirrors around her, realizing that Ravena lurks in these mirrors because of her own lack of magic. (The High Coven forbade Ravena from practicing magic.) Now, Isolde tells Ravena that the High Coven loved her before she betrayed them. Ravena tells Isolde that she knows about the bloodletting. She then escapes with the book, and Isolde smashes the rest of the mirrors in grief.

Adrian finds Isolde and apologizes for the pain that her father’s death has caused her. He promises to protect her from any future pain. Isolde tells him that Ravena knew about the bloodletting, so one of the four who know (either Tanaka, Ana, Sorin, or Gorac) has betrayed them. Adrian says that they should use this information as leverage. Isolde decides to burn her father’s body, knowing that this atypical burial is an insult for a king of Lara. Isolde wants to conquer Cordova with Adrian in order to protect her loved ones from pain, free her mother’s people, and stop Ravena and the crimson mist. She remembers that The Book of Dis contains knowledge of dark magic that can raise the dead.