Bloody magic. Ancient fury. Prepare for the gripping conclusion to the Chaos & Flame saga. Blood & Fury is coming to shelves May 14, 2024!

A single kiss set Chaos ablaze.

Picking up months after betrayal transformed Darling Seabreak into the long-lost Phoenix and every House regent into their empyreal form, Darling struggles to make sense of her destiny as a legendary creature. How can she, an orphan with no family, be the one to reunite the fractured houses and bring about peace, if she can’t control the magic of her new Phoenix body? 

Talon Goldhoard, still in love with Darling but wounded by her betrayal, is tasked with ending the vicious war that his family instigated. With the Phoenix reborn, Talon is hopeful that the bloodshed will end swiftly. Instead, the kingdom grows more fraught, with the threat of violence ever present – especially from dark, conniving forces within the walls of his own House Dragon.

As Chaos reigns, Talon and Darling must find their way back to each other – not only to survive but to save the kingdom. Can Darling harness the power of the ancient magic that runs through her blood to bring about a new peace? Or will the fury that House Dragon fueled for a hundred-year war be too strong to break?

Cover design by Jessica Jenkins; Cover illustrations by Marisa Ware 

I dream of fire.

It devours me, swallows me whole, until I am consumed by it. My hair, my eyes, my bones, all of it is flame, burning brightly, blinding me, and remaking me into something new. There is pain, but only at first, and then . . .

Then there is only ecstasy.

The fire moves through me, with me, warming, soothing. It whispers to me the history of Pyrlanum, it screams the defeats and despair of the people. It calls to Chaos and Chaos answers in fits and spurts.

The flames whisper that this is the way it should be, that this is right. We are one with Chaos, the flames and me. It is joyous about the future and cajoles me to action. The fire is everywhere, and it knows this land, this country that I call my home. The fire listens to the people, it hears their heart wishes and heartaches, and it shares all of it with me while carrying me through the air, high above it all, a place where there is only truth and freedom. There is no disappointment among the clouds, no pain or regret or fear.

There is only the phoenix.

TALON

I head down the winding corridor to the stairs leading up to Caspian’s tower. I shove past that damned doorway carved into a dragon and phoenix entwined in flight, ignoring the sickness pinching up my stomach at the sight of it. He knew so long ago, he knew what he was going to do, and didn’t tell me, didn’t trust me.

It’s hard to know if I should be more furious or grief-stricken, when I don’t even really know what actually happened. What Caspian actually did.

I climb the stairs two at a time and burst into his old rooms, eyes darting through the darkness over the paintings of that eyeless girl, my Darling, whom I haven’t seen since she burst into flames in my brother’s arms and flew away. I can’t look at them.

Caspian had a narrow balcony, attached to the nearly hidden back room of the tower where he often slept in a messy nest of pillows and what seem to have been threadbare tapestries. All of it stained with spots of paint and singed by dropped candles. The tall windows push open onto the crescent balcony, and I grasp the stone rail. I grip tightly, wishing I had real talons to gouge the stone, sparking against it. Even using my whole weight to lean in, nothing moves. Nothing shifts.

There’s only a wind tearing at my hair, tangling the dark curls. It pulls at my jacket, too, snapping the lapels and tails. The sun is hot, but the wind strips the heat away. This is the highest tower of Phoenix Crest, and I can’t hear anything but the roar of wind.

The sun cuts into my eyes from the west, clouds rolling in for a coming storm. The fields and hills spread south from Phoenix Crest, the green and gold of summer bright. A sprawling town peeks out of the trees here and there, too far to be part of Phoenix Crest, too close to be considered separate. The broad grassy field between the fortress and the woods is pastureland this time of year, shared by shepherds on one end and drake herders on the other. But in the past weeks, parts of my army have camped here as they somehow manage to obey my simple commands and withdraw from the south and west. It’s slow, but Caspian began it when he introduced Darling as Maribel Calamus at his ball in this very fortress.

Thinking about Darling hurts. The pain coils in my chest, like she has a grip on my heart and might tear it out the way Aurora did to Leonetti. And I want her to; I’d let Darling do it if it meant she was here.

It hardly matters that the thirty-two days since the explosions of Chaos at House Barghest, since I saw her violent eyes, heard her angry accusations, have felt longer than the number of days I knew her. She dug into me.

And then she turned into fire.

Discover the Chaos & Flame Saga!