Getting ready to dive into the jaw-dropping sequel to Kate J. Armstrong’s fantasy NIGHTBIRDS? We’ve got you! FYREBIRDS hits shelves August 27, and we’ve got the book 1 recap to refresh your memory before you join Matilde, Sayer, Æsa, and Fen in the explosive finale.

Scroll down for the author’s recap, and preorder FYREBIRDS here! (FULL spoilers for book 1 below!)

I’m Kate J. Armstrong: lover of long hikes, history, and vintage cocktails, and the author of NIGHTBIRDS and its sequel, FYREBIRDS. Penguin Teen challenged me to recap ten major moments in NIGHTBIRDS, and I’m here for it. In fact, I just did a four-part recap with my bestie and fellow author Amie Kaufman over on our podcast, Pub Dates. If you like your recaps with a healthy dash of behind-the-scenes “what was the author thinking when she wrote this,” then I suggest you have a listen! Now, onward we go:

1. There are girls who can gift someone magic with a kiss. In Simta, magic is illegal, but you can find it if you know which whispers to heed. The most scandalous ones are about the Nightbirds: girls with a rare form of magic they will give away with just a kiss: for a price. Most Simtans think girls with intrinsic magic are extinct. The city’s gang would kill to possess them; the church would probably kill them outright. And so the identities of the current Nightbirds – spoiled Matilde, suspicious Sayer, and timid Æsa – is their city’s best-kept secrets, protected by Simta’s rich and powerful Great Houses.

• Maybe the Nightbirds aren’t so protected after all? On the first night of the Season, all three of the Nightbirds’ clients threaten them. Dennan Hain, the ruling suzerain’s brother, tells Matilde there’s a plot to kidnap the girls. Sayer’s client tries to abduct her. Æsa is confronted by an old friend who’s become obsessed with her…or laying claim to her magic. It seems the girls aren’t so safe after all.

• The girls investigate the threats against them. Matilde goes to Krastan and Alecand Padano, two talented alchemists (and bootleg magic brewers) and discovers there’s growing unrest in her city about the prohibition against magic. Sayer goes to her best friend, Fenlin Brae, the city’s only female gang boss, to find out more about the religious zealot who attacked her. Æsa develops complicated feelings for Willan, the bodyguard who saved her from her old friend, and wonders if maybe her magic is a poison after all. Then the girls go out together to a gentleman’s club, where they all accidentally end up using their own magic: something they were told they didn’t have the power to do.

• It’s time to run from a religious cult! When a rogue church sect calledEn Caska Dae and their leader, the Red Hand, discover Matilde’s true identity, they storm her house and attempt to arrest her. The Nightbirds have to band together to evade them, and even then they barely escape with their lives.

• Alec Padano introduces them to a magical Underground, where they discover that much of what they’ve been taught about their gifts is a lie. Not only can they use their own magic, but they aren’t the only magical girls in town: the Underground is full of them. And it seems as if these Nightbirds’ powers might be more potent than they know. Together, they show signs of being like the Fyrebirds of legend – witches who once parted seas and moved mountains. When they combine their powers, they become even more powerful still.

• They try to save the magical Underground (and find out that Fen is one of them). When En Caska Dae flood the Underground’s tunnels, the three Nightbirds bind their magic together to give everyone a chance to escape. But it isn’t enough: they need a fourth toharness their true power. Which is when we find out that Fen, Sayer’s best friend, IS that fourth, and has been hiding her magic from them. Plot twist!

• The Nightbirds are arrested. Matilde is taken to the palace, where the suzerain tells her to join her team, or else. Æsa is taken to Jawbone Prison, where the head of the church threatens to kill a magical girl if she doesn’t reveal all she knows. Fen and Sayer escape, but can’t stomach the thought of leaving the others to their fates. All hatch plans to change their dire circumstances and reunite with each other.

• During a masquerade ball, Matilde discovers that her ally Dennan Hain really…isn’t. He uses her to get close to and poison the suzerain so he can take her power, and Matilde finds herself as trapped as she was before. Luckily Sayer has snuck into the Winged Palace to rescue her…though frankly, it doesn’t go at all to plan.

• A prison break! Meanwhile, Æsa uses her magic to break out of her cell and free the other magical girls being held at Jawbone Prison. Fen and her guard, Willan, show up to help, and they fight their way out of the prison…only to find themselves cornered once again by En Caska Dae.

1. All four of the girls have Big Magical Moments. Matilde, Sayer, Æsa, and Fen all use big elemental magic to escape the immediate threats against them.But in doing so, they show the city just what kind of glorious destruction they’re capable of…and blow the secret of girls with magic wide open. What will their city do about it? Hold onto your hats, because we’re about to find out…

FYREBIRDS is on shelves August 27! And remember, if you want some behind-the-scenes goodness about this series, including a reader Q&A and a fun spoiler episode, go and listen to Pub Dates.

About FYREBIRDS

With tensions rising and their powers no longer a secret, the Nightbirds must decide for whom and for what they are willing to fight for and how far they will go in the spellbinding sequel to the international bestseller Nightbirds.

The Nightbirds were once their city’s best-kept secret, but now the secret’s out. What’s more, they can do feats of magic no one has seen in centuries. They’re like the Fyrebirds of old: the powerful women who once moved mountains, parted seas, and led armies. Some say that when four join together, they become a force that shakes the earth and sends magic rippling through it. It does seem as if something has awoken in Eudea, but the four girls responsible don’t want the world to know the full extent of what they can do—at least not yet.

As the new leader of Eudea works to lift the prohibition on magic, the churchmen who do not support it—and the gang lords who profit from it—whisper rebellion. The secret resistance who once sheltered the Nightbirds is rallying, too. Smelling blood in the water, an ambitious Farlands king threatens to take Eudea. As war looms, and the empire’s fate hangs from a knife’s edge, the Nightbirds have to decide if becoming more than that are—Fyrebirds—to protect Simta is worth losing themselves entirely and the lives and loves they might have had.

Preorder here