Contents
Chapter 34
Overview
After a fraught night, Jovie joins Acker, Irina, Fredrich, and “Wells,” who is exposed as Messer in disguise. Acker admits his father wields multiple stolen gifts and may be influencing him. The group escalates their aims: not only killing Acker’s father, but toppling all monarchs and installing their own choices, regardless of council opposition.
Summary
Jovie cleans up after the previous night’s charged encounter with Acker and wrestles with the Bond’s emotional spillover—proof he loves her even as she catalogs his betrayals. Hungry and wary, she heads to the tavern kitchen, where Acker, Irina, Fredrich, and “Wells” debate whether she can be trusted.
Acker admits he trusts no one, including himself, then reveals his father believes Acker went to Maile to retrieve Beau. He discloses that his father possesses fire, kinesis, and influence, and may have subtly manipulated him; mangi stones might have blunted it, or the king is conserving power.
Acker then exposes “Wells” as Messer, citing scent, behavior, and refusal to make fire. Messer shifts back to his true form, unsettling Irina and Fredrich. Messer explains how he discovered Fredrich’s abduction of Jovie and tracked them via mangi stones and fungi scent, deciding to shadow Acker to intercept.
Personal tensions flare—Messer teases Jovie about her entanglements; Acker defends her; Irina bristles and is called out over a consort named Wesley. They briefly consider Wells’s fate with Evelyn and Beau, with Jovie assuring Acker and Fredrich that Beau will protect him.
Turning to strategy, Acker proposes to cut off the head of the snake—not only his father, but all reigning monarchs. Messer warns that killing rulers invites worse successors, but Fredrich suggests they replace them. Acker agrees: they will decide who wears the crowns. If councils resist, Acker concludes, they will be eliminated.
Who Appears
- Jovie (Jo)Protagonist; processes last night’s kiss and Bond, joins the kitchen council, and hears the radical plan to replace all monarchs.
- Acker (Ace)Admits his father holds multiple gifts and may be influencing him; unmasks Messer; proposes deposing all monarchs and installing replacements.
- MesserShifter revealed impersonating Wells; explains tracking Jovie and Fredrich; challenges and banters while pressing for a concrete plan.
- FredrichAbductor of Jovie; unsettled by Messer’s shift; supports replacing monarchs after their removal.
- IrinaAcker’s wife; present at the strategy meeting; bristles at jabs about her consort, observes the group’s power shift.