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After Poppy and the others escape, Isbeth catches up to them and tries to take Malik back. In the melee, Callum wounds and curses Kieran. Isbeth orders Poppy to find Malec and bring him to her and warns them all that there’s no escape—they’re surrounded by Revenants. She adds that if Poppy refuses her command, she’ll regret it until her last breath. She gives Poppy a week to retrieve Malec. Poppy demands three, and Isbeth agrees to two. When Poppy says she needs something of Malec’s, Isbeth hands over the pink diamond ring that used to belong to her heartmate, saying it’s all she has of him.

Before she leaves, Isbeth kills Blaz and Clariza, making them nothing but dry husks and saying that the only good Descenter is a dead one.

Isbeth arrives at the Bone Temple with a sizable force. When Poppy and the others arrive, she asks where Malec is and refuses to have the curse lifted from Kieran until she sees the god. Once the casket is open, she tells them that he won’t rise unless given blood and that nothing can wake him. She speaks old Atlantian to Malec and then gives the okay for Callum to lift the curse on Kieran when Cas reminds her to live up to her end of the bargain. She once again states that if Nyktos had only granted them the heartmates trial, they’d be together, though not ruling over Atlantia. They’d have traveled the realm, found a place where they felt at peace, and would have lived out their days with their son and any other children they may have had. She then tells Malec how much she loves him and insists that he has to know that, even in sleep. She kisses him and reiterates how much he and their son mean to her, then pleads with him to understand as she screams and stabs him in the heart with a shadowstone dagger. Sobbing, she apologizes some more and shouts for her army to protect their King—meaning Kolis.

Isbeth continues to taunt Poppy, and a fight breaks out. When Delano dies, the battle turns godlike. Isbeth is eventually wounded: a cut curving across her temple, narrowly missing her left eye, another on her forehead, and her nose and mouth bleeding. But when Millie tries to remove the dagger from Malec’s chest to stop the events in motion, Isbeth has enough in her to take out her first daughter with eather, remarking that she’s been betrayed by both daughters.

When Poppy gets the upper hand, she rips the crown from Isbeth’s head and backhands her with it, knocking out some teeth. Then, when Poppy screams the Consort’s name, Isbeth can only watch in stunned amazement. The awe soon turns to terror.

Poppy tells her that the Consort knew what Isbeth plotted and saw it all in her sleep. Isbeth argues that the Consort must know that she did it all for Malec and her child—the Consort’s son and grandson. Poppy returns that it was all for nothing. The Consort likely would have forgiven Malec for Ascending Isbeth, but her grief, hatred, and thirst for vengeance rotted her. What she became and brought upon the realm will not save her, heal her, or take away her pain. It will not bring her glory, love, or peace.

Then the Consort, through Poppy, tells Isbeth that what she’s done to those of her blood will not be erased. Nothing of Isbeth will be recorded in history yet to be written. She will not be known or worthy of remembrance. Then, Poppy—with the Consort—strikes out with power, breaking Isbeth’s arms, legs, and spine. She speaks in the Consort’s voice and tells Isbeth that her death won’t be honorable or quick, and that Nyktos awaits, ready to start her eternity in the Abyss. Isbeth bleeds from her pores. Her flesh cracks and peels as muscles and ligaments tear, and bones splinter. Her hair falls out, no longer rooted.

And then, she is no more.

KING JALARA †

While a vital piece of the puzzle, I must admit that King Jalara is somewhat gray-washed to me. Alas, he did play a role in history and thus must be recorded.

Hair: Golden, brushing the tops of his ears.

Facial features: Heavy brow. Straight nose. Square jaw. Thin lips.

Distinguishing features: Good-looking.

Personality: Smug.

Habits/Mannerisms/Strengths/Weaknesses: Always wears his crown. Rarely smiles.

Background: King of Solis. Originally from the Vodina Isles. By the time he fought in Pompay at the Battle of Broken Bones, Malec was no longer on the throne. It’s said that he was close to Leopold’s father. Was alive during the Atlantian’s rule. Killed Preela.

JALARA’S JOURNEY TO DATE:

Honestly, Jalara seemed to blend into the background more often than not during my research. Until Isbeth makes her move. Then, Jalara starts to flex the muscles of his position a bit more.

When Poppy arrives in Oak Ambler, Jalara doesn’t meet with her immediately. When he finally does, he disrespectfully calls her Maiden, but is visibly shocked to see that she wears the crown of gilded bones.

Not holding back, he makes it very clear how he feels about the wolven, calling them disgusting heathens and overgrown dogs. He also threatens to take every rude word that Poppy says out on her husband, taunting that Casteel has found his stay with them less than pleasant. He then relays how Ileana almost convinced him that Poppy had been captured despite his sacrifice and revels in the remembrance of his screams of rage, calling them a serenade for the ages.

When Poppy calls the Blood Queen Isbeth, Jalara gets annoyed and says Ileana is no longer Isbeth. I can only imagine it hurts his pride a little since, as Isbeth, she was Malec’s heartmate and not Jalara’s wife and he knows that she never got over him. He then taunts Poppy that she can’t defeat Ileana and outright laughs at her, saying that while she may be of Nyktos’s blood, she really is—and will always be—only the Maiden who is part beauty and part disaster.

After expressing his irritation that they called upon him to receive a message that isn’t submission or surrender, Poppy tells him that he is the message.

Kieran, in wolven form, attacks and holds him in place as Poppy beheads him.

REFERENCE PAGES

Click here to see a full-size image of the Bloodlines Tree by Hang Le.

ATLANTIAN BLOODLINES

Wolven: Kiyou wolves given mortal form by a god—thought to be Nyktos—to guard and protect the children of the gods and guide them in the mortal world.

Elemental Atlantians: Atlantians with the purest bloodline—one that can be traced to the very first and, therefore, to the gods. They are descendants of the first mortal who underwent the heartmate trial with a deity and were thus granted a longer life.

Some of the older bloodlines are the descendants of deities and the first Atlantians. Their abilities to shift are directly related to the deity they descend from, and thus the god or Primal. Some of the newer generations are descended from Elemental Atlantians and wolven. Changelings are often said to be products of a deity and wolven pairing, though I’m not sure that’s true in every case.

Ceeren: Can shift into waterfolk.