Plated Prisoner Series by Raven Kennedy

This contains spoilers for all books in the series. These summaries contain adult content, intended for readers 18 years +

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Series Timeline

Pre Gild:
⁃ 300+ years ago, a human child managed to mend the bridge from the Fae realm (Annwyn) to Orea through love. But then, after centuries of camaraderie, a Fae King severed the bridge between realms, and the magical backlash destroyed Seventh Kingdom
– 27 years ago, Slade manifests his magic and fae form (age 8)
– 20 years ago, Slade rips the world open when it is revealed that Elore is in love with Jak, the Orea servant, and that Ryatt is his child (age 15)
⁃ 20 year ago, Auren is trafficked away from home (Bryol, Annwyn), when Auren was 5. War was raging at the time, and people were snatching children to be sold. Auren was too unique looking to be sold in Annwyn, so she was smuggled into Orea.
– Age 6: Auren is peddling money for Zakir West in Derfort Harbor (Third Kingdom)
– Age 15: Zakir graduates Auren to selling her body for money at The Solitude, under the threat that he’ll sell her to Barden East if she doesn’t comply
– 10 years ago: Auren flees Derfort to Carnith (Second Kingdom) via a boat, where her powers manifest while she thinks she’s protecting Milly, the first person she loved in Orea. Unfortunately, she ends up killing everything and everyone in Carnith.
– The next day, Auren is “rescued” by Midas (when she was 15 and he was 220). Auren had been fleeing raiders. We find out that Midas and his men were actually hunting Auren and her power display at Carnith is what led them to her. Midas was actually Barden East.
– Auren travels with Midas until he develops his plan to marry into Sixth Kingdom Royalty
⁃ Little less than 10 year ago, Midas and Malina marry
– At some point, Slade -as Rip- joins Fourth’s army and works his way up the ranks. He realizes how awful the old King of Fourth is and challenges him as Slade. He wins and King Ravinger was born and Rip was promoted to Commander. He used both identities to quell any pushback over the shift of power.

Gild:
⁃ Midas and Fulke plan their attack on Fourth
⁃ Midas gives Auren to Fulke for one night in exchange for armies
⁃ On the night that Fulke is to be given Auren, it is revealed that Midas tricked him and while Fifth’s armies were being slaughtered by Fourth, Midas’ were invading Fifth. Fulke is murdered.
⁃ Three weeks later: Auren is sent to join Midas in Fifth Kingdom, where he has been setting up rule.
⁃ They travel for one week, then are hit with a three day long snow storm (breaks on the fourth day).
⁃ They get attacked by the Red Raids, snow pirates
⁃ Sail dies trying to protect Auren and then Auren uses her ribbons to save his body from their brutal disrespect
⁃ Ravinger intercepts all of Captain Fane’s missives to potential buyers for Midas’ saddles and instead buys them himself
⁃ Captain Fane assaults Rissa and Auren turns him to gold
⁃ Ravinger takes Auren away

Glint:
⁃ Auren and Midas’ captured people are taken with Fourth’s army in their march toward Fifth, where Midas is
⁃ Malina is slowly trying to take over Sixth in Midas’ absence
⁃ Rip sets the first seeds of doubt about Auren’s relationship with Midas
⁃ Auren meets the Wrath (Osrik, Lu & Judd)
⁃ Auren begins training with Osrik, Lu and Judd
⁃ Commander Rip kisses Auren
⁃ Rip offers her the chance to stay with them instead of retuning to Midas, she declines because she knows she’ll never get away from Midas
⁃ Malina meets Loth Pruinn, and receives the map to Seventh Kingdom, where her greatest desires lie
⁃ Auren is returned to Midas, who immediately demeans her and shoves her in a cage
⁃ King Ravinger and Midas come to a peace agreement. Midas will give them Deadwell as reparations for what Fifth did, and Fourth’s army will stay in Fifth because they know a party from Third is coming
⁃ King Ravinger kills all of Auren’s guards and walks in. Auren accidentally reveals that she is the one with gold touch. King Ravinger reveals that he and Commander Rip are one and the same, just different forms.

Gleam:
⁃ Midas agrees to allow Auren a room instead of a cage.
⁃ Midas learns of Mist, Malina’s machinations, and the pressure to make gold for Fifth Kingdom
⁃ Midas sends Malina a letter requesting her to pretend to be pregnant so that he can make Mist’s baby his legitimate heir. Malina refuses and Midas sends Hood to assassinate her.
⁃ Auren and Slade kiss for the second time. She’s now kissed him as Rip and Slade and she realizes they really are the same. Slade tells her that she is “own good”
⁃ Queen Kaila of Third comes to visit Midas
⁃ Highbell City riots.
⁃ Midas realizes that Auren has some fondness for Rip. He hits her for her subordination.
⁃ Malina flees Highbell with Jeo and Loth Pruinn
⁃ Slade and Auren have sex for the first time after they both express their feelings for each other.
⁃ Jeo is killed when Hood finds them at the safe house, and Malina and Loth continue on.
⁃ Midas tells the realm that Malina is dead and goes on to propose a marriage alliance with Queen Kaila
⁃ Mist screws Auren over by running to Midas and Auren is punished for her subordination: her ribbons are cut off and she is drugged with Dew
⁃ Midas reveals he is Barden East
⁃ Midas frames Slade for the death of Prince Niven
⁃ Auren loses it and turns all her gold in the entire palace to liquid and drowns Midas
⁃ Slade is forced to rot her in order to save her life

Glow:
– They get away from Ranhold and Slade unrots Auren, but a kernel will not leave, and she will not wake. Slade takes Auren to Deadwell. Lu and Digsby follow. Then Judd and Hojat come.
– Osrik and Rissa square off in Fourth’s army as Osrik drives them to Fourth’s border 
– Auren sleeps for four days. Slade leaves to expel rot magic and comes back to Auren in a puddle of gold. He takes her to a cave where she wakes, feral, and they have sex. 
– Auren grieves her ribbons and then decides that she’s done being weak and she wants to be the herald of her destiny. Slade is ecstatic. 
– The army has been moving for weeks. Polly has been going through detox the whole time. 
– Osrik and Rissa kiss
– Auren starts training with Judd and they realize her balance is off without her ribbons
– A messenger hawk comes with news of Kaila calling a Royal Conflux 
– Auren starts magic training with Slade and tells him about Carnith: her magic developed and she killed the whole villag
– Malina and Pruinn make it to Seventh and meet the twins, Friano and Fassa. 
– Auren meets Slade’s mom, Elore 
– Auren sees the world rip 
– Malina strikes the deal with Friano and Fassa for magic
– Auren and co arrive in Fourth Kingdom (Brackhill Castle)
– They meet with Manu, who all but threatens them to take the Conflux summons seriously 
– The army finally arrived in Brackhill 
– Slade tells Manu that Auren will not be attending the Conflux, and kidnaps her, having Rissa stabbed 
– Auren is taken to the Conflux where Queen Kaila manipulates the voices she stole that night in Ranhold. Auren is stuck in a circle that is draining her magic and she cannot control it. Then her gold starts making black streaks and everyone takes this as a sign that she stole Rot’s power too. She is sentenced to immediate death. 
– Slade shows up and tries to rip into the barrier but instead makes another rip in the world, Auren has no choice but to fall through it into Annwyn
– Slade rushes to Deadwell to try and go through the rip, but when he arrives, the rip and the people are gone. And so is his raw power, the magic he needs to make new rips. 
– Malina goes through with the ritual and unwittingly opens the Bridge of Lemuria again. It is hinted that the Fae are crossing to invade. 

Gild, Book 1 Summary by Chapter

Chapters 1-5
⁃ Auren watches Midas with his saddles
⁃ We learn about how Auren is kept in her caged pathways, how Midas rescued her, and how she is gold touched. She is known as Midas’ favored.
⁃ We learn that the other saddles despise her
⁃ Auren has been with Midas for 10 years (since she was 15)
⁃ Midas sells a night with Auren to King Fulke of Fifth Kingdom in exchange for Midas being able to use fifth’s armies against Fourth Kingdom and King Ravinger (aka King Rot)
⁃ Invading Fourth will break the peace pact of the six kingdoms of Orea
⁃ Auren listens to the war planning and finds out that they are interested in the Blackroot Mines in Fourth
⁃ Auren throws a book at Risa’s face because she’s been dancing for hours and thinks she can save Risa from exhaustion. Risa is removed but then Auren is ordered to dance instead.
⁃ Fulke taunts Auren about their impending night together but Midas does not interfere

Chapters 6-10
⁃ We learn that Queen Malina wasn’t able to rule Sixth (even though she was heir) because she didn’t manifest magic. She has also been unable to give Midas an heir.
⁃ When Queen Malina asks Midas if they can talk, Auren takes the opportunity to duck out of the library and heads to the atrium but as she’s trying to settle in, Midas and Malina barge in
⁃ The monarchs argue about Midas’ plan with Fourth and Auren leaves as soon as she can to try and get to her bedroom
⁃ In her bedroom she’s attacked under Malina’s orders because Auren was “eavesdropping” on them in the atrium. Malina tells Auren that she’s not threatened by her because while Auren is in a cage, Malina is not.
⁃ The next day, Auren wakes and realizes it’s the day she is to be given to Fulke. Midas visits her in her cage and tells her to trust him.
⁃ In a fit of rage, she throws her lantern into her mirror and we see Digsby worried and caring, albeit gruffly.
⁃ Auren feels night slip in, sending chills down her body as the sun sets 👀⁃ She reminisces on the time Midas told her of his plans to marry into Fifth – and how he promised her that no matter what she’d always own his heart and they had sex.
⁃ Auren goes to the party Midas is hosting, her first time leaving the cage in months and Midas makes a spectacle of giving her to Fulke for the night and Midas orders her to sit with Fulke

Chapters 11-15
⁃ Auren is forced to sit on Fulke’s throne where they hand feed each other.
⁃ Rissa seems to try and take some of the attention off Auren by petting Fulke and dancing for him
⁃ Fulke decides he’s ready for their evening to begin, and starts to take Auren away from the ballroom but Auren decides she isn’t going to behave, like Midas asked
⁃ She defies Fulke in front of the whole party and he hits her. She begs Midas to not allow it to happen and he orders her to be taken to Fulke’s room
⁃ Before they make it out of the ballroom a messenger from Fifth’s army strides in with important info and Midas takes them all into a side office where they tell Fulke that their army was not victorious in Fourth, as he was told – in fact, his army was decimated
⁃ The messenger says that they were defeated because Midas never sent his soldiers to meet them, and Fulke has been betrayed
⁃ Midas confirms that he has betrayed their alliance. He just wanted Fulke to take his army away from Fifth so that Midas’ army could take over Fifth; a coup
⁃ Fighting between guards takes place and Auren is captured by Fulke. Fulke says if Midas is going to kill him, he’s taking Auren with him
⁃ Digby manages to sneakily kill Fulke before he can kill Auren. Auren goes into shock and cuddles into Digby, who is ordered to take her to her rooms
⁃ Midas comes to Auren’s cage and asks her to let him take care of her and clean her and she remembers how Midas saved her after she was captured during a raid when she was 15
⁃ Midas bathes Auren
⁃ Auren tries to explain how hurt she is but Midas tells her he was never going to let Fulke touch her. He claims that Fulke was a flesh trader and needed to be eliminated. He claims that he killed Fulke for her – so that his people wouldn’t have to go through what she did.
⁃ Midas tells her that she’s the only one who knows the truth of his scheming and that he has a plan to deal with the backlash of killing a King
⁃ Midas takes her to bed and holds her – Auren thinks about how long it’s been since he’s paid her this kind of attention. Midas then has sex with her, being sure to pull out. Auren seems happy but she is anything but and after Midas leaves, she sobs herself to sleep.

⁃ THREE WEEKS LATER
⁃ Auren has been suffering from nightmares of the night Fulke was murdered
⁃ Auren reminisces about the day after the coup, when Midas addressed his people regarding Fulke’s death and she says that his real power is his golden tongue – his ability to weave and manipulate
⁃ She is due to leave for Fifth Kingdom, where Midas has been setting up to “help” rule while Fulke’s son waits to come of age
⁃ Auren is escorted outside. Her first time outside in 10 years.
⁃ Auren remarks that when she chose to go into a cage, she was a battered girl sick of the world. But that she sometimes misses what she gave up for that protection.

Chapters 16-20
⁃ Auren sets off to Fifth Kingdom with a dozen of the other Royal Saddles.
⁃ Auren wants to ride a horse and Digby obliges
⁃ Auren befriends the guard, Sail.
⁃ They travel through the city to the shanties, and Auren realizes that the wealth of the Kingdom is not being distributed as she expected.
⁃ Auren gets off her horse and gives coins to a group of children but it draws attention to her being the “gilded pet” and the guards get worried about a fight breaking out. They get out of the shanties unharmed.
⁃ As they leave the city, they pass by hanging rotten corpses – a gift from King Ravinger. But Auren questions why or how Fourth would know to send the bodies there when it was Fifth’s soldiers they destroyed.
⁃ Digby orders the guards to cut the bodies down and bury them
⁃ They travel for 7 days.
⁃ A storm rolls in and Auren if forced off her horse and into a carriage to fight the cold
⁃ The storm causes the carriages to get stuck in snow so they make camp

Chapters 21-25
⁃ The storm rages for 3 days, breaks on the fourth
⁃ Auren is riding in her carriage and wakes because it randomly stops. Sail informs her they sent out scouts because there was a disturbance in the snow. Sail asks Auren to stay in the carriage but she pushes out anyway
⁃ Auren spots Rissa peaking out her carriage and Rissa asks her what’s going on and if Auren could inform them when she has news
⁃ Sail tells Auren that he doesn’t regret becoming a guard despite his disdain for the royalty because he feels fulfilled guarding her – because she is kind
⁃ Digby tells them they’d worried about a possible avalanche, and that their scout they sent to check conditions hasn’t returned
⁃ Digby decides to go track their scout and tells Sail to guard Auren while he’s gone
⁃ Auren learns from Sail that Digby specifically requested to be Auren’s personal guard
⁃ Sail escorts Auren back to her carriage but then there’s a crack like thunder and then snow pirates- Red Raids– attack (snow pirates that roam the Barrens and pillage imports and trade routes)
⁃ Auren’s carriage tries to run away but ends up crashing and rolling and she blacks out
⁃ When she wakes, she’s in the crashed carriage but soon gets snatched by a pirate. They take them to Captain Fane.
⁃ Their pirate ships are pulled through the sand by Fire Claws
⁃ Auren is separated from Sail, and Auren watches as Sail gets beaten and then set with her other guards, all freezing to death
⁃ Captain Fane appears

Chapters 26-30
⁃ Captain Fane realizes that Auren is Midas’ gilded saddle. He plans to sell her to the highest bidder.
⁃ Fane touches Auren and Sail demands he stop. In retaliation, the Captain kills Sail
⁃ Auren screams and it’s so unearthly that it’s “as if [she] could make a year in the world, as if I could shatter the skies.” Then thunder fills the sky and frozen rain starts
⁃ Auren tries to fight being taken to the Captain’s quarters and starts snarling and acting animalistic and she ends up lashing out at one of the other saddles
⁃ Rissa steps in but not before the saddle blames everything on Auren and her superior status
⁃ The pirates then sling Sail’s dead body to the front of the ship like a “sail”
⁃ Auren snaps and stalks over to where he’s strung up and, using her ribbons, cuts him down and drags him to the edge of the ship where she tosses him over. The captain obviously thinks that she failed to escape, but she wasn’t trying to, just tying to get Sail off. In punishment, Auren’s ribbons are tied in a terrible knot.
⁃ Captain Fane gets a hawk message that they’re getting guests. He tells his men to have the saddles fix up some food in the kitchen.

Chapters 31-35
⁃ The party arrives
⁃ We get a chapter describing the history of the Fae Realm, Annwyn– and how a human child managed to traverse the bridge of Seventh Kingdom into the Fae realm where she fell in love with a Fae male who stitched the worlds together via the bridge. Orea (human realm of the Six Kingdoms) and Annwyn traded magic and goods for years until a new Fae King severed the magical connection, swallowing Seventh in the magical backlash.
⁃ Auren sees Commander Rip for the first time (army commander for Fourth Kingdom)
⁃ Captain Fane tells Commander Rip that they had a tip about Midas’ group moving through and that’s why they were so far north
⁃ Rip tells the Captain that they intercepted all of the messages that he sent out about the auction of the Royal saddles. Rip says that he wants to buy Midas’ companions on behalf of King Ravinger
⁃ Rip and Fane dine together to strike a deal, Auren is not allowed to be seen so she’s stuck on kitchen duty
⁃ After dinner, Rip hands over the payment for Midas’ people but Fane won’t part with Auren, who he wants to keep for himself. Rip tells Fane he’s an idiot if he thought they were only buying Midas’ other people with a chest of treasure, and not the gilded one. They want his favored.
⁃ Fane finally agrees and tells Rip to go check the men and horses while the saddles wait. The saddles are sent to the dining room, but Fane takes Rissa and Auren to his quarters

Chapters 36-39 ⚠️TW: SA and physical abuse
⁃ Auren is terrified, but Rissa tells her to pretend like it’s a performance, a reminder to play the part
⁃ Rissa is assaulted and Auren cannot stand by so she speaks up, and Fane backhands her
⁃ Then he takes his leather belt and hits Rissa, and assaults her again with his belt around her neck. Auren stalks forward, and Fane sees her, leaving Rissa
⁃ When he tries to hit Auren, she slaps her bare palm to his neck and turns him gold
⁃ Rissa is shocked by the revelation that Auren can turn people gold – Auren tells her she must keep it a secret
⁃ Together, they push the golden captain out of a window along with the gold chest to fake “motive”
⁃ Fane’s goons break into his room when he doesn’t answer and Auren and Rissa play it off like Fane snuck off with the riches after he tied them up
⁃ Quarter, Fane’s second, doesn’t believe them and just as he’s about to harm Auren to get the truth, Rip steps in
⁃ Rip orders them to come with him, but as Auren is walking down the gangplank, exhaustion finally overtakes her and she falls off. Her ribbons cushion her fall, but barely.
⁃ “So, this is King Midas’s pet… I have to admit, I didn’t expect to find a goldfinch.”
⁃ Auren to Rip: “I know what you are,” Rip to Auren: “Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you.”

Chapter 40: King Midas
⁃ Midas gets a letter that Rip has Auren and he vows to get her back and seek revenge

Glint, Book 2 Summary by Chapter

^{This book contain POV chapters from Queen Malina and Midas. I have indicated in italics where the POV changes.}
Chapters 1-5
⁃ Chapter One, Queen Malina: she recollects how her life was before Midas, how you could see the history of her people in the way the castle had visible marks of time, and how all those little bits of wear and tear were gilded over into something new. She realizes that with Midas away, she can take back Highbell
⁃ Auren is struggling with guilt after everything that happened between Sail dying and Rissa being assaulted by Captain Fane
⁃ After Rip took Auren and Rissa, Auren was locked into a carriage. She spends the time in there unknotting and untangling her ribbons.
⁃ Commander Rip enters the carriage when they come to a stop and they size each other up. Auren wonders how no one has realized that he’s Fae.
⁃ Rip gives her directions to her tent and the latrines and tells her he will have food sent. Auren is a little shocked that she’s not being treated poorly.
⁃ Rip realizes that Auren has feelings for Midas – “The goldfinch likes her cage. What a shame.”
⁃ Auren decides she’s going to warn Midas that Rip and his army are coming for Fifth, where Midas currently is
⁃ Auren wanders camp, not trusting the freedom she appears to have. She decides to try and find the hawks so she can send a message to Midas.
⁃ She gets caught by Osrik and they verbally spar until Auren insults King Ravinger and he threatens her. He tells her she should give them info on Midas if she wants to be useful.
⁃ Refusing, she heads back to her tent. Inside she eats and washes with a cloth. Before she can dress, Commander Rip bursts in, seeing her naked.

Chapters 6-10
⁃ Rip immediately leaves and then Hojat, the mender comes in to inspect Auren’s injuries.
⁃ Hojat fixes her up and then leaves, and Rip returns.
⁃ Auren quickly realizes that she’s been placed in his tent – and accuses him of doing so that his men won’t abuse her.
⁃ Rip gets angry and informs her it’s because he doesn’t trust her to not harm his men because of her loyalty to Midas
⁃ Auren dreams of the few months right after she started traveling with Midas: Midas tells her that he chose her the moment he saw her face, that I was always going to be her that he picked. He assures her that she is his precious and that she always has his heart. She wakes in the predawn and goes for a swim by their camp but she’s attacked by a nomad family camping nearby who cut her hair off. Midas finds her and she vows that she she can only trust him and she wants him to keep her safe.
⁃ Auren wakes from her dream to find Rip still sleeping. She dresses and leaves the tent. She ends up wandering over to Keg’s cooking fire.
⁃ Keg’s family owns a bakery in Fourth Kingdom.
⁃ The soldiers around the fire start insinuating that Auren is only as good as her golden snatch when Rip stops them and orders Osrik to teach them a lesson
⁃ Auren tries to stand up for the soilders, not wanting their punishment on her conscious but Rip tells her it’s not like that
⁃ He also asks her why Osrik reported to him that she was being suspicious last night. She tries to deflect but Rip sees through her lies.
⁃ She reiterates that she wants to see the other saddles but he tells her she has to earn it.

Chapters 11-15
⁃ Chapter 11, Queen Malina: Malina had a dressmaker make her an entire wardrobe of white, blue and fur lined clothes to spite Midas’ rules that clothes should be gold. She dons a white opal crown, forgoing all gold, even in her jewelry. She enters the throne room and sits in Midas’ throne – the seat of the true ruler of Sixth. Then she directs to the crowd that she is opening up the floor for her to hear their grievances. She makes a stand that Sixth is rightfully hers and she’s going to take over Midas’ golden rule.
⁃ Auren rides in the carriage all day, and she thinks about her time as a child-beggar under Zakir West in Third Kingdom.
⁃ When they stop, Osrik collects her for Rip. He explains that he hates Midas and looking at her reminds him of his awful rule and wealth.
⁃ She is led to a meeting tent where Rip is waiting. Rip asks Auren about her life, and whether it’s true she was kept in a golden cage. She deflects the question and a boy, Twig, comes in with some food. Auren accuses them of child labor in the army.
⁃ Auren claims not to be hungry, so Rip and Osrik eat in front of her. Rip brings the cage back up, wondering what was in it for her.
⁃ She says, “It kept me safe. That’s what was in it for me.”
⁃ Rip asks her if she’d be more comfortable eating without her gloves on and she deflects again.
⁃ Auren loses her patience with his questions and yells that she wanted to be in the cage. Rip tells her he doesn’t believe her, that’s she’s telling a lie. She tells him he’s one to talk since he’s keeping secret what he is.
⁃ Rip offers her a lie for a lie or a truth for a truth, but Auren cannot bring herself to admit her truths. She leaves.
⁃ “The moment Commander Rip stepped onto that pirate ship and into my life, my world tilted on its axis.”
⁃ Auren has troubled thoughts about the things Rip said to her about her relationship with Midas
⁃ She runs into Hojat and she tries to manipulate him into taking her to see the saddles. He declines but then Lu pops in and says she’ll take Auren to the saddles
⁃ On the way, Lu sees a barrel of wine and enlists Auren’s help to steal it back from Left Flank
⁃ Lu asks her about being turned gold and if Auren hates being stared at all the time- she admits she does
⁃ They stow away the barrel and then Auren learns that Fourth is the only army that enlists women
⁃ Lu takes her to the saddles

Chapters 16-20
⁃ The saddles are a mess, fighting and scared that this reprieve is going to end and the army will abuse them after all
⁃ Auren asks Rissa to speak privately and she asks her if she told anyone about her turning the pirate captain gold. Rissa says no, but she blackmails Auren into giving her gold for her silence
⁃ Auren apologizes to Rissa for what happened with Fane – and Rissa laughs in her face and calls her naive for her ideal. Rissa tells Auren that women like them do not get HEAs
⁃ Auren asks what Rissa wants the gold for and she says to buy her employment as a Royal Saddle
⁃ They make a deal that Auren will get her enough gold to set her up in a new life once they are in Fifth Kingdom
⁃ Chapter 18, Queen Malina: Malina thinks about how much she hates the atrium ever since it was gilded into a plant tomb. She had invited a noble woman to the castle to try and woo for support in ruling Sixth in Midas’ absence. Malina has been collecting noble support for her rule but the advisors left by Midas keep trying to remind her that Midas left them in control, not her. She’s convinced that Sixth will want a Collier back in charge.
⁃ Auren is sick. Auren starts to feel terrible and Rip catches her:

“The disorienting feeling is swept away from my head, like his touch is a chain to an anchor I thought had broken away. I teeter, a boat in the water, reeling as that anchoring grip holds steady, keeping me upright.”

– Rip tells Auren to go to the tent while he fetches Hojat. Auren falls asleep and when Hojat wakes her, she startles and her ribbons catapult him across the room but Rip catches him
⁃ Rip confirms that Auren can actually move her ribbons. He asks why she hides them. Auren asks if she should show them off the way he does his spikes and Rip says, that’s exactly what she should do
⁃ Hojat gives her medicine and tucks peonies under her furs (a custom from where he’s from) Peonies for good health. A willow branch for luck. Cotton stems for prosperity. The fleshy leaf of a jade to bring harmony.
⁃ Hojat slips that Mist (one of Midas’ Royal Saddles) is pregnant. Auren is crushed. Midas had told her over and over that she could never have his baby. And yet Mist now carries his illegitimate heir.
⁃ Hojat leaves and Auren tells Rip to go ahead and gloat, but he doesn’t play her game. “When you let it go, when you finally let that out, your fury is going to light up the spirit you’ve shadowed. I hope you burn so bright that you scorch your Golden King down to ash.”
⁃ Rip tells her that he knows she doesn’t really want the life she lives

Chapter 21-24
⁃ Chapter 21, The past: Auren is helping Midas change things to gold but they stop when the sun sets and it’s dinner time. They usually eat dinner together, but Malina crashes their time together. They are jealous of each other. Malina rubs in Auren’s face the fact that Midas will be coming to her bed that night and when she leaves, Midas tells Auren she can’t react to Malina. He walks Auren to her room, where her newly built cage awaits – Midas’ physical proof that he will protect her. He tells her he’s arranged for her cage to be expanded to the library and atrium. The safety is everything she’s ever wanted, but she still feels so lost.
⁃ A few days later, Auren is out and about feeling better
⁃ Auren is mentally struggling with the camaraderie she feels with some of the members of Fourth’s army when she stumbles upon Osrik leading fighting rings
⁃ Observing, she sees Osrik bring Twig (the boy) into the ring to fight Judd, a grown man. Auren runs down and interferes and steps into the fight circle
⁃ Osrik informs her that if you step in the circle, you have to fight. Osrik taunts her and she starts to panic, having flashbacks to other times she was cornered
⁃ Rip steps in to stop Osrik’s taunts, and Twig asks Auren nicely to not try and defend him again
⁃ Rip tells her she must fight him if she wants to leave and she tells him she’s scared to fight the commander, the man called Rip because he rips people’s heads off. The group laughs, and Judd is proud that his rumor made it all the way to Sixth Kingdom
⁃ Auren demands to see the guards from Sixth that Rip is keeping, and Rip tells her she has to fight for the privilege
⁃ Rip strips off his shirt, and Auren is drawn to his body. She walks up and touches where his arm spikes have slipped into his skin. She apologizes when she realizes that she’s touching him, but he says he doesn’t mind
⁃ They fight and Rip gets angry that Auren won’t give into her instincts or use her ribbons to fight back. Rip tells her she won’t use them because she’s ashamed of them.
⁃ “What are you, Auren?” “Fucking say it!” and then Auren snaps, “I’M FAE!” And then she launches him across the snow with her ribbons.
⁃ Auren unleashes her anger, attempting to hurt him with her ribbons but he traps her, holding her and tells her it’s enough. Then, he smiles at her, proud for having found her fight. Auren asks him why he pushed her and he says because she needed him to
⁃ Auren: “you’re ruining me,” Rip: “Sometimes things need first to be ruined in order to then be remade.”
⁃ Auren learns that Lu, Osrik and Judd are the members of Rip’s Wrath
⁃ Auren asks how no one has guessed that Rip is a Fae, and he says that people will believe what fits their narrative. Rip wants to know about Auren’s family, but she claims she doesn’t have much information
⁃ They bicker again about Midas and Rip reminds her that it was Midas who taught her to be ashamed of everything that she is

Chapters 26-30
⁃ Chapter 26, Queen Malina: Malina and Jeo talk about loyalties to the Collier name. Malina gets a missive from the Red Raids, saying they don’t have Auren despite Malina tipping them off. But she’s elated to learn that Fourth’s army has her, a fate worse than the pirates. It makes her and Jeo so happy that they end up having sex. Malina is convinced that all her plans are coming together.
⁃ Auren knows that she can’t fully trust Rip but now she wonders if she can’t fully trust Midas either
⁃ Auren visits the saddles but Polly meets her at the tent’s flap and tells her to stop visiting, that they all hate her and know that she’s turned into the Commander’s whore. They won’t let her use them against Midas. Auren is too stunned to retort.
⁃ As Auren retreats, she hears the army’s messenger hawks. Auren writes to Midas, warning him that Fourth’s army is marching on Fifth. Auren feels giddy that she managed to prove her loyalty, but then immediately realizes that she feels guilt more than anything.
⁃ She goes back to the tent and finds Rip waiting for her in the dark. Rip: “I wasn’t supposed to find you on that pirate ship.” Auren: “You didn’t have to take me with you.” Rip: “Yes I did, Goldfinch.” And then he brushes his lips to hers.
⁃ He tells her she’ll be glad to hear that they’re close to Fifth, especially after she sent Midas the note. He knows what she did and he kissed her anyway.
⁃ That night Auren has a nightmare of accidentally turning herself solid gold because she couldn’t control her power. In the nightmare, Midas watches on, hungry, even though she begs for help.
⁃ She wakes to find Rip getting dressed and he tells her they’re going to start picking up speed and that he’s eager to get to Fifth now – but he had been taking them the long way
⁃ Auren finds Lu at her carriage and Lu insinuates that Auren is to blame for Rip’s mood. Lu tells Auren women have two choices: conform, or own your shit and choose yourself
⁃ Lu tells her she has the potential to be a great warrior, and Auren likes the sound of that
⁃ Auren trains with Judd, Osrik and Lu: they all remind her to use her ribbons but she can’t get over the mental block. So Osrik threatens her with a punch, and her ribbons stop it.
⁃ Auren finds Keg and asks him to help her make a bath which they carry to the saddle’s tent. “Kindness shouldn’t have to be earned.”

Chapters 31-35
⁃ They cross into Fifth and camp on the frozen shore. Auren walks away from camp to find a place to be alone and runs into Rip
⁃ Auren cannot stop thinking about how she doesn’t want his cold indifference, how much she hates fighting with him, and how much she liked his kiss
⁃ “Maybe it was right from the start, when he saw me and he knew what I was and he did not balk.”
⁃ Auren opens up and says that she never knows if what he does is real. “But I just realized something. That even if you are tricking me, I’m grateful. For all of it.”
⁃ They watch the stars fall around the mourning moon: the goddess makes this night so they can remember those they mourn
⁃ Auren admits that she’s from Annwyn. It’s been 20 years since she’s been home.
⁃ Auren realizes that when she goes back to Midas, she’s going to miss Rip. Rip tells Auren they will reach Ranhold Castle tomorrow night and that King Ravinger will meet them so he can address Midas.
⁃ They reach Ranhold Castle. Judd grabs Auren and has her help him take back the wine barrel to distract her. Judd: “The look of a person about to face battle.” Auren: “But I’m not going to be the one in battle.” Judd: “Aren’t you?”
⁃ Rip finds them and takes Auren to talk. Rip: “I have a question for you… Do you want to stay?” Rip says that he could make it so that she doesn’t have to go back to Midas. Auren tells him she cannot stay and Rip becomes angry.
⁃ Auren claims that things will be different, that she won’t allow the same existence as before. Rip tells her she’s a fool if she thinks things will change. “Yes, how magnanimous of him to lock you behind bars all day and call you his favored whore.”
⁃ Rip begs her to stop being complacent, to stop allowing Midas to use her. She tells him she will always choose Midas. “So be it.”
⁃ King Ravinger arrives with a flock of Timberwings: bird bodies with muzzled faces. Lu and another soldier escort her to a tent while negotiations happen
⁃ Fourth’s army surrounds Randhold while Auren naps. Auren uses the latrine but on the way back to her tent, she feels a giant pulse of energy – and sees him, King Rot. As he walks, veins of rot spread through the ground.
⁃ Osrik comes to get her from her tent because Midas will only meet with King Ravinger if they hand over Auren – and King Rot has agreed. Osrik commends her for never having betrayed Midas while she was a prisoner
⁃ Auren asks if it still angers Osrik to look at her and he says yes “but for a different reason now.”
⁃ Rip meets them and joins Auren’s procession to Midas’ envoy. Auren can sense how disappointed and angry he is, but she muses that even if she wanted to stay with Rip, she never could because Midas would stop at nothing to get her back
⁃ The envoy comes to get Auren and Rip helps her down off her horse after Midas’ soldiers refuse to touch her. They share a moment but Auren pulls away and Rip shuts down and walks away, leaving her to return to Midas.
⁃ Chapter 35, Queen Malina: Jeo and Malina take a ride to Highbell City where, for an hour, they pass out coin, food, fabric and dolls for children. A woman comes forward with her children and demands to know what all of this will do for the people, where has Malina been all these years while her people starve? The crowd’s opinion of Malina shifts dramatically after the woman is dragged away, and they bolt into the carriage. The carriage goes down some side roads and gets blocked by a cart. The owner of the cart is Loth Pruinn. Loth offers the Queen a token for her patience in letting him repair his cart. He collects rare and priceless items. Loth reveals to Malina that he has magic: he can show someone how to gain their greatest desire. He proves it to her by making a scroll appear in her hand – a map. But the map shows Seventh Kingdom, so Malina thinks it’s a phony map. She tells him it’s a joke and obviously wrong – that isn’t where she’ll find her greatest desire because Seventh Kingdom doesn’t exist. He simply asks, are you sure?

Chapters 36-40
⁃ Auren is reunited with Midas. She tries to hug him but is reprimanded for trying to touch him. She cries about Sail and Digby. She says she missed him and he says “You know I would stop at nothing to get you back.”
⁃ Midas starts to insult her appearance, making her feel self conscious. Midas goes on about how he’s going to hurt everyone who laid eyes on what’s his. Then he tells her he has a gift. But it’s just another cage. Auren sees her decoy in the cage, and is able to see what her life has been like for the first time from the outside looking in. She sees that she’s just a symbol for Midas.
⁃ Auren tries to tell him that she doesn’t need the cage anymore; that she’s not afraid like she used to be. She begs him to let her prove to him that she can handle herself without the cage. “I don’t have time for this. Get into the cage.” Auren realizes that she can’t do this anymore; she can’t be caged.
⁃ Midas gets very angry, and demands to know if Auren betrayed him, if she let Fourth’s army touch her. He says if she didn’t betray him, she’ll prove it by getting in the cage. He tells her he didn’t give her permission to change her mind, and that if she doesn’t get in, he’ll put her in.
⁃ Auren is distraught. This isn’t the reunion she imagined at all.
⁃ Midas taunts her about her newfound confidence, bringing up Carnith Village. Auren says that was an accident and Midas asks if she had any “accidents” while she was gone – she thinks of Fane.
⁃ Midas: “This isn’t you, Auren.” Auren yells: “This IS me!” Midas says that she belong to him, but Auren insists that she belongs to herself.
⁃ Midas grabs Auren to shove her in the cage: “He wouldn’t hold me for comfort, but he’ll hold me for control.”
⁃ Auren starts to scream. She uses her ribbons to keep the cage open and she tears the cage door right off. In the process of trying to escape, Auren pushes her decoy, turning her to gold.
⁃ Midas uses this as fuel – this is why she must be in a cage, to protect her and to protect everyone from her.
⁃ Auren: “If you walk out now, I’m done. I will never forgive you. For any of it.” Midas: “I love you, but I don’t need your forgiveness, Precious. I just need your power.”
⁃ Chapter 39, King Midas: Midas expected Auren to come back happy to be in a cage, but instead she’s changed. Midas goes to meet with King Ravinger, but he’s late. Midas wanted the “good faith” gesture of retuning Auren only as a test to see if Ravinger knew about him using her power. Ravinger arrives with the Wrath. Ravinger doesn’t believe that Midas had nothing to do with Fifth’s breach of boarder. Ravinger wants proof. Midas asks to come to an agreement, and offers reprimands on behalf of Fifth’s invasion of Fourth’s border. Midas offers gold, and Ravinger wants none. Ravinger wants Deadwell, a strip of land at the edge of Fifth. If Midas doesn’t agree, Fourth’s army will attack by nightfall. Ravinger also wants to be hosted at Ranhold because he knows that there’s a party from Third Kingdom coming and he wants to be there when they come.
⁃ Auren ponders what her life would have been like if she hadn’t been golden. Her power has cost her everything. Auren starts pounding at the door. Darkness falls and her powers shut off.
⁃ Auren hears something outside her door and then all goes quiet, and a dark energy invades. Then the door handle disintegrates into grains of golden sand and King Ravinger walks in.
⁃ Ravinger realizes that Auren is the source of Midas’ gold. He understands why she’s so trapped. He tells her that they’ll be seeing each other more, as Fourth’s army is staying. Auren asks if Commander Rip is also staying and Ravinger reveals that he is Rip. Rip and Ravinger are one and the same, just different forms.
⁃ Auren: “you’re King Ravinger.” Ravinger: “yes, goldfinch. But you can call me Slade.”

Gleam, Book 3 Summary by Chapter

^{This book contain POV chapters for Queen Malina, King Midas, and Slade. I have marked these POVs with italics.}
Prologue: Auren (10 Years Ago)
⁃ Auren remembers how alive Annwyn was compared to how dead Orea seems.
⁃ Auren is living in Derfort Harbor (Third Kingdom). She is known as the golden orphan. She works under Zakir West as a child beggar. Since she turned 15, her duties have changed. She’s been working “on her back” at The Solitude. Zakir tells her that the locals have waited years for the golden orphan to come of age and that she’s in high demand.
⁃ Auren hates her gleaming skin. She feels it’s the reason for all her misfortune.
⁃ Zakir warns her that Barden East is interested in her – a terrible flesh trader that rules the other side of Derfort. Auren begs to not be sold to him. Zakir doesn’t understand why Auren is having such a hard time accepting her place. Just lie there.
⁃ Auren is trapped in misery.

Chapters 1-5
⁃ Auren is shocked by Rip’s revelation. He’s the most powerful monarch in Orean history, and he’s Fae, hiding in plain sight. Auren feels betrayed. But Rip reminds her that she withheld her power, her ribbons, her heritage.
⁃ Auren argues that she’s been alone, the only Fae, for twenty years, until him. It was normal – safe – for her to hide herself.
⁃ Auren tells him that she’s so sick of deception, and he might as well be the same as Midas. That he wanted her to choose him, but she never knew the real him. She lets slip that she had to choose Midas, not that she wanted to.
⁃ Rip asks about her power, how it works, if that’s why she stays covered, if she lacks control.
⁃ Rip asks why she’s let Midas take credit for her power and Auren explains that she’s happy to have hidden it. She was sick of being used and abused by everyone. She asks him to leave, but he’ll only leave if she tells him why he heard her screaming.
⁃ Rip reaches down and grabs a ribbon, rubbing it gently, and her ribbon vibrates in a purr. He goes to leave but hears Midas coming, so he decides to stick around and cause trouble.
⁃ Rip transforms back into King Ravinger. Auren tries to back away but ends up seeing all the withered corpses of the guards he killed. Slade blocks her view. Auren tells him she didn’t want them dead and so Slade reverses the rot, explaining he can reverse the rot if he doesn’t wait too long.
⁃ Midas bursts in. He’s absolutely enraged. Then he realizes that the guards have seen Auren using gold-touch.
⁃ Slade: “What does it say, do you think, about a male who keeps a woman in a cage?”
⁃ Slade leaves and Midas has the guards hauled away to be killed for seeing what they were never supposed to see.
⁃ Midas has servants make Auren a bath. Auren tells him she will never go back in a cage and if he tries to make her, she’ll never turn another thing gold again. “The burden of love I held for him for so long has scraped off.”
⁃ Midas tries his best to manipulate the situation but Auren is long past being gullible. She realizes that she’ll have to play along to some degree if she’s ever going to be truly free of him.
⁃ Midas helps her bathe as they talk. Auren observes how well he gaslights her. Auren wonders what’s wrong with her that she isn’t lovable.
⁃ Midas shows Auren to her new room, across the hall, without bars. Midas holds her in bed and tells Auren that he loves her, but she knows it’s a lie, and she can only feel hate.
⁃ Chapter 4, King Midas: Midas keeps a ledger of all his plans on his person, always. It’s in code. Midas laments how difficult it is to keep all his ducks in a row. Watching the workers carve ice statues, he sees a man that reminds him of his father, Silenus “Sile” Midas. We learn Tyndall was Sile’s bastard child, and he loathed both his parents. He is from First Kingdom. He killed his father in a fire. We learn that Prince Niven is the heir to Fifth. Midas’ advisor tells him they have reports about Malina from Sixth; that she’s stirring support, wearing white, etc. The advisor also tells Midas that they are out of coin and gold trinkets that they brought and the people are getting restless. And then he drops the bomb that Mist is pregnant with Midas’ bastard. Midas is mad about Mist, but it makes him realize two things: 1) Malina was the infertile one, and 2) he needs a legitimate heir to bolster his reign.
⁃ Auren wakes in her new room. She gets dressed and notices the different fashion: lacy underthings and boned dresses. She goes to leave but her guards are unsure if she’s allowed. They inform her she’s been sleeping for three days. Eventually they agree to let her go and she tells them they cannot touch her, no matter the reason.
⁃ She asks about where King Ravinger is staying at in the castle
⁃ Then she goes about the castle collecting seemingly innocuous things
⁃ She wants to go to the library but the guards inform her that only royals can go unless by appointment

Chapter 6-10
⁃ Auren drags the guard all over the castle, enjoying her freedom. Auren goes outside and thinks about how it’s time she start embracing who she is and what she’s really capable of.
⁃ Auren climbs to the top of a parapet to look out at Ranhold City. She sees Fourth’s army camped out on a hill and realizes how much she misses it.
⁃ A captain comes and tells her to get off the parapet, that she’s not welcome there. He threatens her. She dares him to remove her and he balks.
⁃ She feels this dark voice in her head begging her to punish him for his disrespect and she realizes that she has so much more power than she ever imagined.
⁃ Auren takes her glove off and starts to bring it toward the captain when King Ravinger interrupts. “I see you’re awake, Goldfinch” The captain scurries away.
⁃ Unbeknownst to Auren, one of her ribbons wraps around his leg. Slade expresses that he’s happy to see her out and about. She says all is well. “Does anyone need to release a goldfinch? Or does she do it herself?”
⁃ Auren’s past: Auren has been working at The Solitude for six weeks and she feels broken. The innkeeper, Natia, tells Auren to keep her tip coins. She says the ships with blue sails and yellow suns are from Second Kingdom. Natia urges Auren to not give up. “Shove down weakness, and strength will rise.”
⁃ Auren snaps out of her memories to Midas storming into her room. He’s enraged that she was out, unprotected. He brings up Carnith again. He tells her to stay inside during the day. Midas tells her to not be ungrateful for what he’s allowed already and she reminds him that he should be grateful for what she’s allowed.
⁃ Midas gaslights her again, about his being this way of protecting her conscious; keeping her from regretting making a mistake and gilding someone. She stays resolute about not being locked up.
⁃ Chapter 8, Queen Malina: Malina is angry that Auren made it back to Midas and that he struck a deal with King Rot. She is obsessed with bringing Sixth to heel. A messenger comes with a letter from Fifth. Malina finds out that Midas has impregnated Mist. Midas wants Malina to pretend she is pregnant and shut herself inside. Midas wants her help in making his illegitimate child an heir.
⁃ Auren tries to leave her room, only to find it locked, even after Midas told her he wouldn’t lock her in. The guards won’t let her out, on Midas’ orders. Auren decides to try and escape form the balcony, but ends up messily hanging from her ribbons. Lu finds her. Auren is surprised to find her there, and Lu tells her that she snuck in.
⁃ Lu is disappointed in her for going back to Midas. Lu goes on to do whatever she snuck in to do and Auren explores the grounds.
⁃ Auren walks around but her thoughts stray to Rip. She thinks that he almost felt like more. But it was all a deception.
⁃ She sees Slade. And also Rip. In the same place, and is confused as to how that’s possible. But then guards come and she scrambles into some sort of antechamber to hide from them. She finds a locked door inside that leads to the Royal Library. She takes the opportunity to turn the innocuous items she’s stollen into gold for Rissa.
⁃ She also finds a Fae book; something that shouldn’t exist. A scribe sees her and tells her she cannot be in the library as she’s just a saddle.

Chapters 11-15
⁃ Auren heads for the Saddle’s wing. Seeing them all together, happy, makes Auren feel lonely
⁃ The saddles are on Dew (looks like a petal); a drug that Fulke’s saddles were on for years. Auren tells the saddles not to take the drug, but they don’t listen
⁃ Auren finds Rissa. She tells her that buying out her contact will not be enough for Midas to let her go. That she will need to plan an escape. Auren also tells Rissa that she cannot try to get rid of the gold Auren gives her until they’re far away from Ranhold. Auren wants to plan an escape with Rissa to get them both out of there.
⁃ Auren leaves and runs into her guard, who has been looking for her. When she returns to her room, Midas is waiting for her. He tells her she isn’t allowed out in the daylight, and she argues that she will be.
⁃ She says he cannot make her stay in the room and he tells her she better be careful. She counters that she will not gild anything for him again if he locks her up again. Then he tells her he has Digby.
⁃ Midas tells her that Digby is alive, but has been punished. He tells her that her behavior will dictate how terrible Digby’s life will be as a prisoner. Auren has no choice but to do what Midas wants. She is no longer allowed out of her room during the day.
⁃ Auren looks at the Fae book she took. The book is in the old Fae language, Päyur.
⁃ Chapter 13, King Midas: The subterranean levels of Ranhold castle have Dew plants. Dew: white ashen petals, only the most mature ones are useful. Midas receives Malina’s response, she will not help him. Midas summons Hood, a powerful man with Vitiligo that has magic that makes him disappear into smoke. Midas orders him to assassinate Malina.
⁃ Auren has been gilding the throne room all day, after days of work. Auren tries to walk back to her rooms, but she’s weak with exhaustion. Midas realizes that he over worked her and starts to take her back to her room. On the way back to her room, Midas is stopped by Prince Niven. Prince Niven wants to speak with Midas immediately, asking the guards to take Auren to her room instead.
⁃ Auren is about to collapse, as she cannot walk up the stairs and the guards are becoming more concerned, but are unwilling to touch her to help.
⁃ Commander Rip (Slade) comes by and sees her struggling. Rip tells the guards that they’re useless, allowing an enemy commander to approach her, and orders them to leave.
⁃ Auren almost falls again but Rip catches her and picks her up. Auren warns him that she could have gilded him and that gold isn’t his color, “I disagree. Gold has quickly become my favorite.”
⁃ As he carriers her, her ribbons wrap around him and he remarks that her ribbons like him
⁃ Auren tells him that he should stop touching her like he does, for his own good. And he snaps. Because Auren is his own good and yet she chose Midas. Rip demands to know if she still chooses Midas. But she will not give him that truth. And the ensuing distance between them is suffocating.

Chapters 16-20
⁃ “I don’t choose him. Not anymore. I’m choosing me.”
⁃ Auren invites Rip to sit with her while she eats. He muses that it’s wild how they might be the only two Fae left in the realm and they found each other that night on the Barrens.
⁃ Auren feels like Rip and Goldfinch might have had a chance, but Slade and Auren could never. Rip remarks that he can always tell when she remembers that he’s King Ravinger, that she pulls away. He tells her she can trust him and she tells him to prove it.
⁃ Slade: “I’m glad you’re choosing you.” Auren: “Are you?” Slade: “Yes, Goldfinch. Because I’m choosing you, too.” And then he kisses her, as King Ravinger.
⁃ The kiss is life changing. Her ribbons wrap around him like a present. This kiss proves to Auren that Rip and Slade are one and the same.
⁃ Chapter 17, Queen Malina: Highbell City is rioting. Loth Pruinn comes to visit Malina. Loth tells Malina that the messenger that Midas sent is not just a messenger – he’s behind the unrest in the city. Loth suggests she consider the map of Seventh again. The people are going to storm the castle with makeshift weapons.
⁃ Auren sleeps for an entire day. Midas summons her. The Queen of Third arrived last night. Her guards tell her they’ve been ordered to search her room. Auren is scared because of the Fae book. Midas doesn’t know she’s Fae.
⁃ Auren heads to the dinner. She meets Queen Kaila of Third Kingdom.
⁃ Midas has Auren sit at his right, something he’s never allowed before. But Midas tells her she cannot have any alcohol. And when she gets an attitude, he pinches her under the table. She realizes this is punishment for allowing Rip to help her.
⁃ Queen Kaila has the power to pull voices toward her as well as take voices / noise
⁃ Slade enters.
⁃ Kaila wants a demonstration of Midas’ powers. So Midas looks to Auren for them to play their sleight of hand trick. She defies him a little and instead of gilding a goblet, she gilds the whole table.
⁃ She starts to feel really depressed, when Slade’s power caresses her in comfort. She stares at fake-Rip and misses a question from Midas – this infuriates him. He orders Auren to play the harp, and she declines. He purposefully embarrassed her in front of the group. Slade is enraged, but not visibly.
⁃ Midas pinches Auren again, hurting her. And then asks (fake) Commander Rip to carry Auren to the harp – because he knows what Rip did. (Fake) Rip carriers her like a sack of potatoes to the harp. She plays for a few hours.
⁃ Midas walks her to her room after dinner. Midas is enraged by her behavior at dinner and for letting Rip carry her to her room. He tells her if she allows anyone else to touch her, ever, there will be terrible consequences.
⁃ Midas demands to know if Auren had sex with Rip. She says no and he asks if she wants to be used by his monstrous body like a whore. Auren brings up that she had to watch him have sex with his saddles so he shouldn’t be upset that she was looking at Rip.
⁃ He backhands her and a fissure forms between them that will never be healed. Auren hates Midas. Midas is stunned that he hit her and tries to apologize and emotionally manipulate her. He tells her he wants to make it up to her, tells her they should go to bed (sex insinuated). Auren snaps when he tries to kiss her, and she pushes him away with her ribbons
⁃ Midas leaves and “I scream and scream and scream, and the sky thunders back with an answering roar that makes the mountains shudder.” She leaps off the banister.

Chapters 21-25
⁃ Chapter 21, Queen Malina: Jeo wakes her up, telling her they must flee because the castle has been breached. Jeo chastises her for her ridiculous actions that led to this moment. The rioters break into the castle and begin pulling it apart. They flee. Loth Pruinn appears from nowhere. The three of them run.
⁃ Chapter 22, King Midas: Midas is watching the ice sculptors when Queen Kaila appears. Midas invites her to dine in his personal quarters. Midas continues to stew about Auren and Rip. The sculptor that looks like Midas’ father becomes the target of his lost control. Midas believes this man’s resemblance to his father is a gift from the gods and has the man taken to the dungeons for his amusement.
⁃ For three days after being hit, Auren has been left alone. And she’s been exercising.
⁃ She goes out at night and runs into Rissa- who invites her to visit Mist with her so that they can talk privately. Auren realizes that Mist is deeply unfortunate for carrying Midas’ baby
⁃ Mist verbally attacks Auren because she is convinced that Auren is spoiled and jealous. Auren leaves and Rissa follows.
⁃ Auren admits to Rissa that she’s no closer to solving their escape. But Rissa says it doesn’t matter because she has a plan for them to escape the night of the Celebration Ball (four days away). But Rissa says that Polly must come too.
⁃ Auren heads straight to the library via the antechamber. Scribes start to converge on her hiding spot so she runs but ends up huffing a bunch of dust and sneezing. Slade scares her when he says bless you. Slade covers for her with the scribes.
⁃ Auren is mad at Slade and he wants to know why. Auren explains that she’s dealt with enough of Midas being an uncaring King in public and a doting manipulator in private. She told him to prove himself to her and then he did nothing when Midas was humiliating her. Slade explains the politics for why he did what he did.
⁃ Slade tells her he wanted to crush Midas’ throat for treating her the way he did. Auren thinks about how Slade touches her in a way she’s never been touched – like Slade cannot go a second longer without touching her.
⁃ Auren turns her head to break their contact and Slade goes unnaturally still. “Why the fuck is there a bruise on your cheek?”
⁃ Slade demands to know who has raised their hand against her and immediately guesses Midas. When she doesn’t deny it, he loses his shit. Slade starts shifting back and forth between his forms. Auren recognizes his anger, it’s the same inside her. Auren reaches out and touches his chest, telling him to look at her and feel how their hearts beats as one.
⁃ Slade asks Auren to tell him to kill Midas for her. That he would do it anywhere, anytime, if she asked. But cannot ask. And this is both expected and disappointing to him.
⁃ Slade says that he’s leaving after the ball. Auren tells him that she’s trying to leave- trying to leave Midas.

“You just haven’t found it yet… We all have our edge, Auren… when you find your edge, just promise me one thing…Don’t fall… Fly.”

Chapters 26-30
⁃ Chapter 26, Slade: Slade meets with Osrik outside the library and Osrik can tell Auren got his emotions all messed up. Slade tells him that Midas hit Auren and Osrik becomes enraged, wanting to know if they can kill him for it. Slade asks about Prince Niven, and Osrik says that Lu’s night watches have been quiet, that it seems like Midas isn’t going to make a move against him. Slade and Osrik run into Midas, who asks them to speak in the ballroom. Midas brings up Deadwell, the land Slade bargained for. Then he brings up Drollard Village – an unsanctioned town on the edge of Deadwell. Midas says he knows that Slade visits there often. Midas says his advisors will leave Drollard Village just as soon as Commander Rip leaves Ranhold – away from Auren. Osrik and Slade leave to discuss: Slade tells him they need to leave and head back to Fourth anyway, so maybe they should all just pack up. Osrik is confused that he’d leave without Auren. Slade says they’ll leave in two days, not bothering to stay for the ball
⁃ Auren goes looking for Slade in his rooms. Fake Rip lets her in. She looks around while waiting for Slade to return and finds that he kept het feathered jacket that she stole from Captain Fane all those weeks ago. She then sniffs his pillow, breathing in his scent: earthen and dark, bitter like chocolate. Her ribbons fan out on the bed and start writhing in his scent.
⁃ Auren accidentally turns his pillow to solid gold. She panics while her ribbons dive around like exited kittens in his bed.
⁃ Slade walks in. Auren tells him she wanted to see him and talk to him. She explains the circumstances for how she ended up being complacent with Midas’ treatment of her. She tells him about her past with Zakir. That she knew that Midas’ treatment wasn’t good, but she told herself it could always be worse. But then Slade showed her how life could be and now all she can see, think about, is him. She tells him it’s no longer enough for her to get away from Midas alone – she wants more.
⁃ Auren: “you’re not the villain in my story.” Slade: “I am. But I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.”
⁃ Slade tells her to be honest and tell him what she wants. “You, Slade.”
⁃ Slade tells her that being with him, having him, is not like having a human man. Fae males expect everything. He wants everything from her. She says yes, and that she wants everything from him in return. Slade tells her that the moment the sun dips, she’s his and he will show her everything her body can take.
⁃ Because the sun is still up, Slade has her strip for him. She teases him while they wait for night. When it finally comes, he launches himself at her.

Chapters 31-35
⁃ Chapter 31, Slade: “Take the pleasure I give you, Auren” they have sex.
⁃ Auren spends the night awake, reveling in the joy she feels. She tries to sneak out but Slade wakes and convinces her to eat some food with him. She realizes that he’s trying to stall her long enough that the sun rises and she cannot take a bath – he wants his scent to stay on her
⁃ He invites her out to the army camp later, says Lu will sneak her out
⁃ Chapter 33, Queen Malina: They’ve been in the safe house for four days. Malina is still being completely entitled and Jeo is getting tired of her. Jeo storms off and Pruinn starts commiserating with her. He keeps urging her to go to Seventh. Malina’s gaurds come to the safe house with news from Highbell. The same forces that Midas used to incite the riots, squashed it. King Midas also issued a public statement that Malina was assassinated in the riot. Jeo tries to tell her that’s it’s over. A shadow passes over the window and they realize someone is there to kill her. They try to run and Jeo is killed by Hood. Malina and Pruinn make it out.
⁃ Auren sleeps the entire day and is woken by Lu. Lu sneaks her out the gates. Even the guards that look at them quickly look away because Lu has magic that can divert attention.
⁃ Auren finds Slade as Rip and is mesmerized by him. Auren learns she’s the only one outside of his Wrath who know about his two forms. Slade talks about how being Rip is sometimes a way for him to escape the responsibilities of being a King. Auren wishes she could not be the gold girl for one night.

Chapters 36-40
⁃ Slade says he can’t wait to get back to the sun of Fourth Kingdom, and Auren says that she doesn’t even remember the last time she laid in the sun. “You will see the sun again, Auren. You will see everything and anything you want.”
⁃ They start getting intimate and Slade wants to orally pleasure Auren – but she says she doesn’t know if she likes that because she’s never had it done. Slade is happy to be the first to taste her. They have sex and Auren realizes that this is what it should be like between people
⁃ After, Auren tells Slade that Midas has Digby and then tells him everything about Rissa too
⁃ They tell the Wrath and a plan is made for them all to leave together. Auren assures Slade that she’s ready to leave as soon as they find Digby
⁃ Lu and Slade walk Auren back toward the castle and one of Slade’s trained spy hawks being him a missive from Sixth, but it’s in code.
⁃ Lu takes Auren back to her balcony, where they run into Queen Kaila
⁃ Kaila suggests that she overheard some things that Lu and Auren said, and invites Auren to walk with her. Kaila replays Auren’s voice on the air talking poorly about King Midas
⁃ Kaila takes Auren to the timberwing perch and tells her that Midas and her will be married because Queen Malina was killed. Auren is shocked to hear of Malina’s demise. Kaila wants to know if Auren is going to be a problem and insinuates that she’s already planned to have Mist killed off.
⁃ Kaila tells Auren she wants her gone – to leave with Commander Rip. Auren agrees.
⁃ Auren runs to Mist’s room and tells her her life is in danger. Of course, Mist doesn’t believe her.
⁃ When Auren wakes, she notices that there are guards under her balcony now. Midas comes to her room wanting her help for ball preparations
⁃ She asks to see Digby and he agrees. Auren spends the day depleting herself for Midas. Midas says she must eat before they see Digby, and he watches her as she eats everything he gives her.

Chapter 41-45
⁃ Midas takes her to Digby, who is absolutely destroyed. Midas tells her that he’s broken because every rule she broke, he took out on Digby. Midas says that Mist came to Midas as soon as Auren left and told on her. Auren realizes there’s something wrong with her, her vision is swaying. Midas admits to drugging her with dew. Midas tries to assault her, telling her that the dew is going to make her love it.
⁃ She hits him with her ribbons and she screams how much she hates him, how he isn’t her king. She tells him she finally knows what it feels like to be treasured, and Midas takes that as confirmation that she’s slept with Rip. Midas traps her and has her guards hold her down. Midas brutally cuts off her ribbons. “My ribbons weren’t just attached to my back, they were attached to my fucking soul.”
⁃ Midas leaves and Auren and Digby speak. Then guards come in and dose Auren with dew again.
⁃ Auren’s Past, 10 Years Ago: Auren gets cornered by one of Barden East’s lackeys while she’s monitoring the harbor. They warn her that she better find Barden before Barden finds her. She decides to run, to try. She lands aboard a ship headed to Second Kingdom and they agree to take her away.
⁃ Auren suffers hallucinations of Digby and Sail. On dew, Auren has heat-like symptoms with inflamed arousal, cramping, disorientation.
⁃ She wakes enough to see that Midas is using her power whiles she’s drugged, without her consent. Midas dresses her for the ball and has Polly (a saddle) come to escort her. Auren feels like something is missing, but doesn’t remember her ribbons.
⁃ She finally remembers her ribbons are missing and she starts to panic about lost time. Polly tries to dose her again, but Auren manages to destroy the petal of dew.
⁃ Midas walks in and Auren desperately tries to remember everything. Seeing Rissa reminds her of their escape plan. Auren mouths to Rissa to leave, go without her.
⁃ Midas tells Auren he needs her for a demonstration and then starts the announcements. Midas announces that he will marry Queen Kaila.
⁃ Auren sees Slade in the see of people and his presence steadies her. She suddenly remembers everything. Auren misses the signal from Midas for the demonstration. Auren is lucid enough to yell at Midas. Auren: “It terrifies you, doesn’t it? Knowing that everything to you are, hinges on me?”
⁃ Auren tells him she’s going to leave him destitute. Midas says he has Rip and he’ll kill him and Digby.
⁃ Midas says: “You’ve certainly come a long way since being the painted girl from Derfort Harbor.” Midas reveals that he was Barden East.

Chapters 46-48
⁃ Auren realizes that every bit she sacrificed to get away from Derfort and the kingpins there was for nothing. Barden East got her anyway, and used her to elevate his status to ungodly heights.
⁃ Midas admits to following her to Carnith – where her power manifested. Midas realizes he could have everything he wanted with Auren, even take Sixth Kingdom. And now he owns half of Orea. Midas tells her that he’s going to own her forever, keep her drugged forever.
⁃ He ties her dead ribbon around her wrists and promises he’s going to take everything from her.
⁃ Slade finally sees her and starts stalking toward her but Midas sees and intercepts, asking him to join them for a toast. Prince Niven suddenly grabs his throat and black veins start spreading up his neck. Niven dies.
⁃ Most cry poison, but someone yells that it was King Rot because of the black veins. Midas tells Slade that he will have to be detained for questioning and Auren can tell that Slade is going to kill Midas before he ever gets taken into custody. Midas has made Slade a scapegoat and Auren will not stand by. Auren stalks forward and accuses Midas of poisoning Niven and Midas orders everyone to leave the ball immediately.
⁃ Fake Rip and Digsby come from the hall. Auren realizes that fake Rip is Slade’s brother (Ryatt) because she can see the resemblance
⁃ Midas tells Auren that if she wants to leave, leave. There’s a distraction and then Midas grabs Auren, telling Slade that if he uses his magic, Midas will kill her.
⁃ Slade begs her to use her ribbons but she says she can’t. Midas says she “lost that privilege.”
⁃ Auren cracks open. She calls on her power to rule the gold in the castle that she made. The gold melts. Auren: “You can’t cut off the strings of your your puppet and still expect it to move for you.”
⁃ Auren drowns Midas in liquid gold and he dies.
⁃ Auren’s beast is not sated – she turns the gold into a veritable tsunami but then Slade steps into her path and begs her to let go because she’s draining herself. Auren snaps back when he touches her cheek but she cannot let the power go.
⁃ Auren begs him to leave so she doesn’t hurt him but he refuses. She’s dying, a slave to her power. Slade kisses her, rotting her, in order to save her.

Epilogue, Slade
⁃ You get the last 10 minutes of book from Slade’s POV.
⁃ Slade takes rotted Auren and runs. Osrik directs him toward their group. Slade tells them to get the army back to Fourth. Digsby threatens him, telling him he’d better save Auren.
⁃ Slade will do whatever he had to do, but he knows Kaila will be a problem

Glow, Book 4 Summary by Chapter

Chapters 1-5
– Queen Kaila: Kaila, Manu and Keon are outside Ranhold waiting for the gold to stop pouring out. It suddenly solidifies and everyone is screaming about what happened. Mist screams that this was Auren’s doing, that she stole King Midas’ power. Timberwings fly above and Mist says that Auren is going to seduce and deceive King Rot as well. Kaila orders guards to check inside and see if they can find Midas. Kaila sees this as an opportunity to be the leader the people need. She learns Midas is dead and is upset by how this alters her plans. She goes inside and sees Midas encased in gold. Mist screams that this is all Auren’s fault. Kaila is convinced that Auren stole Midas’ power. Everyone is now worried that Auren can steal anyone’s power. They plan to head to Sixth and stake a claim. They plan to find Fulke’s next of kin with power and choose who takes Fifth. And they will ruin Auren. 
– Slade: Slade is rushing to get her away from the gold so that her power cannot control it and he can un-rot her. Slade is feeling awful about rotting her. They get away from Ranhold and and Slade has his timberwing, Argo, descend. Slade begins to meticulously remove the rot from Auren. However, he cannot remove a single kernel of rot from her chest. Slade worries that he killed her but she takes a breath finally, yet she doesn’t wake. Digby freaks out and demands to know what’s going on. Slade begs the gods not to kill her. He starts panicking, magic out of control and Ryatt punches him in the face. Lu tells them they need to move before the storm rolls in, so Slade picks Auren up and tells them he’s flying to Deadwell 
– Slade, Age 8: Slade enjoys taking care of the native pin birds. He dislikes his father, Stanton. His father’s work is something to do with shipping/the harbor. Slade’s father is a “loyalist” and supports that the old king separated the bridge to Orea. Slade’s mother, Elore, is Orean, one of the last to come over on the bridge. Annwyn’s land grants long lifespans. Elore has magic, although she is human. She is a diviner – her magic only works on people, not events.  Elore has never divined anything for Stanton. We find out Stanton asked for one more batch of Oreans to be brought to Annwyn in exchange for his support in the closing of the bridge. Stanton is “The Breaker,” because his magic breaks things. Slade mentions one of their Orean servants, Jak. 
– Slade: They race toward Deadwell. The area around is all rotted, fetid with Slade’s repetitive, excessive power dump. The rot hides all. They land in Drollard Village, Slade’s biggest secret. No one in Drollard can leave. Ryatt arrives at Deadwell too. When Slade isn’t in his Fae form, he and Ryatt could pass for twins. They head toward the Grotto.  
– Slade, Age 8 TW: Domestic Abuse: Slade sees his father hitting his mother. He runs over and pushes his father so hard he hits and knocks over a wall. His father comes at Slade like he’s going to hit him, but then notices that the ground around Slade’s feet is dead. Slade realizes his body hurts and he’s bleeding. Then he notices the black spikes coming out of his skin and black veins going up and down his arms. Slade starts crying, worried he’s a breaker like his father. 

Chapters 6-10
– Slade: The Grotto is a house inside of a cave. Slade and Ryatt begin to get Auren settled and Slade gets angry about her ribbons all over again. Slade tries to remove the rot again, but that tiny kernel won’t even answer to him anymore. Digby and Lu bust in, saying Digby refuses to be away from Auren. Slade dresses Auren in dry clothes and sees her severed ribbon tied to her wrist. He takes it off and puts it in his pocket. We learn that Slade picked Lu up off the streets after she was kicked out of her home at 12.  
– Slade, Age 8: Slade has been training with a sword master. His father says that he has to be physically stronger to control his magic. Elore comes out and asks if Slade can be done for the day, Stanton gets angry with her and it spawns Slade’s powers. Then Stanton is mad that Slade’s magic is affected by his emotions. Elore tells Slade: “You don’t have to be cruel to be strong.”
– Slade: Judd arrives with Hojat for Auren. Hojat says she is as if she were resting. Slade mentions the rot left inside her and Hojat tells him to monitor it. Hojat says that Judd mentioned her back and Slade gets mad that Judd said anything. They see Auren’s ruined back for the first time. Slade struggles with his Fae nature – he wants to keep everyone away from Auren while she’s vulnerable. Hojat fixes her up and puts a peony under her pillow before heading to see Digby. 
– Osrik: Osrik scrambles to get the army moving toward Fourth. They stop to rest and Keg brings Osrik to a tent where Rissa is. Osrik dislikes her for how she treated Auren, but also finds her distractingly beautiful. Osrik nicknames Rissa Yellow Bell because like the flower, she has blonde hair, is pretty, but is poison on the inside. They argue and Rissa starts to disrobe, thinking Osrik wants her to “pay” for being taken care of. Osrik gets mad and gives her his coat to cover up. “When we fuck, it’ll happen because you want it to happen.” 
– Slade: It’s been four days and Auren has not woken. Ryatt tells Slade to get a grip, and Slade tells him that he’s spent his whole life constantly checking himself, constantly in control, so he always has a grip. Ryatt demands to see how bad his rot veins are getting, and when he sees, he tells Slade that he needs to go expel power. Ryatt takes over watching Auren so Slade can go rot things. Slade goes to retrieve his Timberwing, Argo. They fly to barren lands and Slade lets loose. Slade flies back and when they land in the Perch, someone says that Lu and Judd were looking for him. He runs back to the house, and Hojat tells him that Auren isn’t awake, but her gold is. 

Chapters 11-15
– Queen Kaila: They attend Niven’s funeral. Hagan Fulke (age 21) is the new heir. Kaila wishes they could have gotten ahold of Midas’ secret notebook so they could learn some truths. Kaila announces to the remaining nobles in Fifth that she is calling a Royal Conflux – a summons for Auren to answer for her “many crimes” 
– Slade: Auren is floating on Slade’s bed on a lily pad of liquid gold. Gold calmly drips from her. The gold isn’t gilding anything – it’s just pooling. Slade grabs Auren and rushes her away from the village, just in case her gold comes to life. As he carries her away, he feels her moaning. Slade takes her to a cave, where he unbundles her, and her gold comes sloshing out of her body. Auren screams, flaring her aura to life so bright that Slade cannot look. Slade screams at her to wake up, and she does, snapping awake, and the thrashing gold stills all around her. Auren isn’t herself though, and as soon as Slade says, “goldfinch,” she attacks. 
– Slade: tendrils of gold lash at Slade, throwing him away. Slade tries to go to her, but she snarls ferally. Slade starts to taunt her, realizing she wants to fight, so he shifts to his Fae form (Rip) and tells her to fight. They fight, and then Auren freezes Slade to the ground with her gold. “You’re gorgeous when you’re unhinged” and then he kisses her. She shoves him away. Then she launches herself at him, drying to devour him instead of fight. Slade begs her to come back to herself, and she finally does. She’s desperate for him. They start having sex but Slade realizes that Auren is trying to get him to punish her. Slade changes tactics and tells her she deserves a reward instead, pleasure. “The only thing I would ever punish you for is the way you tried to give up on me.” Auren has post-orgasm clarity and starts freaking out about what happened in Ranhold. She says she became a monster and Slade tells her, no. She became Fae. 
– Auren: she feels guilty for using Slade like she just did, but he tells her there’s nothing to be ashamed of because they’re Fae, and fighting and fucking go hand in hand. Auren sees that she’s marked him with her gold, and something inside her really likes that. They return to the Grotto. Auren learns that they’re in a cave, and deflects every personal question Slade asks her. Then Ryatt walks in. 
– Auren: Auren goes to change and feels the pain in her back – but refuses to think about why. To distract herself, she offers to cook food. She formally meets Ryatt. Auren cooks the worst food imaginable. Her back continues to hurt and she keeps trying to push the feelings down. 

Chapters 16-20
– Auren: She wakes and Slade wants to talk, but she insists she wants to see the cave. She also learns that her gold is inhabiting Slade’s bedroom. Auren is surprised to hear that Slade is sleeping in bed with her – but he reminds her that he claimed her in Ranhold and she claimed him in the ballroom when she said, “He’s mine.” Slade takes her around the cave, which has cerulean fluorescence. Slade demands they talk. He says that he fucked up. He admits that he rotted her. Auren realizes that Slade has been dying in guilt over rotting her. Slade tells her about the bit of his power stuck inside her. 
– Auren: Hojat asks Auren if he can examine her back and she freaks out. But then Digby appears. Digby tells her that she needs to be seen by Hojat, and she cannot bring herself to say no to him. He’s the only one who was there, who could understand. Auren allows Hojat to treat her back and she sobs the entire time, grieving their loss, and feeling the endless trauma she has been through. Slade sits with her. Digby guards the door. 
– Auren: Slade gives her a cloth bath. Slade gives her the severed ribbon back. Auren: “I don’t want to be weak ever again.” Slade: “Oh, Goldfinch. I thought you’d never ask.”
– Rissa: Polly has been suffering from dew withdrawals for weeks, since they left Ranhold. Rissa became a saddle to straddle the line between being powerless and powerful when it came to sex. Fane changed that for her. She realized she was done manipulating men. Osrik has been taking care of her and Polly, including shoveling their snow. Osrik invites Rissa to sit at the fire and eat her meal. Rissa is fighting her attraction to Osrik. She can’t stop thinking about him because she thinks he’s the only man who could handle her as she is – outside of a saddle-client relationship. Osrik asks about her plans once they get to Fourth and she says she’s going to get as far away from Fifth as possible. Osrik tells her she could stay in Fourth – with Auren and him. They have tense, heated words and then they kiss. 
– Auren: Auren trains with Judd in the Teeth of the mountain but she’s having a terrible time finding her balance because she no longer has her ribbons. “You never notice what’s keeping you balanced until you realize you’re not standing straight anymore.” Judd reworks his training strategy to account for her new equilibrium. 

Chapters 21-25
– Auren: two of Auren’s ribbon stumps fall off. She finds Digby in the kitchen and he apologizes and cries for not protecting her. Digby tells her that he was the one that suggested she travel separately from Midas to Fifth – because he wanted her to have some freedom. But he feels like everything is his fault because of it. She assures him, without that decision, she’d still be caged. 
– Queen Malina: ^{The Past} Malina thinks that Midas is the answer to her prayers, that he will be a husband that could love her, be partners with her in ruling her kingdom. ^{The present} Malina and Loth Pruinn travel to Seventh Kingdom. They are almost out of Sixth. 
– Auren: Judd has Auren doing balance beam exercises. Slade comes and gets her for a surprise and he tells her that he’s looking forward to knowing her more – getting to see everything about her. Slade takes her to the hot springs. Auren is too afraid to let him see her back. She feels inadequate. 
– Slade: Ryatt captured one of Midas’ advisors that were in Drollard and locked him up for Slade. Ryatt and Slade verbally fight, Ryatt reminding Slade that A) Auren is not adjusting and B) Ryatt has given up his entire identity to suit Slade. Ryatt stalks off and Slade remembers all the lessons his father forced about control. Lu comes in with a messenger Hawk. It’s a notice regarding Queen Kaila. Slade says they will do nothing regarding the message; Auren needs time. 
– Slade, Age 15: Slade has been training his rot to be controlled for years. Slade gets trained with consequences, the stakes so high, he cannot fail. Slade is abiding his father just to get strong enough to take his mother and Ryatt away from Stanton. 

Chapters 26-30
– Auren: Slade comes to get Auren for magic training. On the way, he receives a messenger hawk but doesn’t tell Auren what the message is. She is worried about training because her gold isn’t working right. Slade reminds her that her magic hasn’t always been out of control – that she could pick how her magic gilded things. Slade tells her that her fear is blocking her magic and that they need to talk about everything that happened. He bag her to ask him what’s eating at her. She does, “Where were you?”
– Slade: He explains what happened during the time Auren was drugged by Midas. Lu told him that Kaila had heard her and Auren, and Lu watched Auren sleep all night until Midas came to get her for gilding. Slade came to the castle to meet with Auren in the library, as planned, but Ryatt didn’t meet them like he was supposed to. Instead, Midas took Slade into a meeting to distract him. Ryatt had been detained. Lu found Ryatt when looking for Digby, so they waited until the night of the ball, then Lu released Ryatt and they found Digby. Slade says that his instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong, but he couldn’t get away from Midas. Slade is torn up because while he wasn’t there to protect her while Auren managed to fight through an entire ball room to stand in front of him and claim him in front of Midas. His spikes break out and he bleeds – something that hasn’t happened in a long time. 
– Auren: Slade tries to apologize for “failing” her and Auren tells him the one one at fault, besides Midas, is her. She should have found her edge years ago. And she isn’t upset or feeling guilty about killing Midas. Slade tells her he’s going to teach her how to hone her anger into a weapon. 
– Auren: Auren tells Slade that she’s worried that her magic was tainted by her using it in ways she wasn’t supposed to. Slade tells her it’s not working because she’s afraid of it. Auren accidentally mentions Carnith but tries to avoid talking about it. Slade begs her to talk about what happened in Carnith. 
– Auren (Past, 10 Years Ago): After making it to Second Kingdom (age 15), she traveled with whoever she could until she started to run out of coin. Her back started to itch and peel and feel uncomfortable. Then Milly found her. Milly took her to her home in Carnith. Milly told Auren she’d learn to take care of her mule. Milly was unfazed by Auren’s differences. Milly was the first person Auren loved in Orea. Milly helped Auren through the growing of her ribbons, “Best not pluck them out. I think they’re meant to be there.” One night Auren was sleeping when she woke to the sounds of a man in the house – someone she didn’t think belonged there and she was ready to protect Milly at all costs. When Milly called Auren’s name in fear, Auren snapped. Auren feels blood dripping from her fingertips, and attacks the man. He starts gurgling. Auren starts slipping and sliding in her own blood, or so she thinks. Milly gets the lantern on and they realize that Auren has gilded the man, who was actually Milly’s brother. “Look at what you did!” Milly slips and Auren catches her, but then the gold spreads to Milly too. Auren runs, and the gold pooling in Milly’s house follows, attacking the villagers that come out to see what’s going on. Auren kills everyone in Carnith. The next night, Carnith is attacked by raiders – Midas. 

Chapters 31-35
– Queen Malina: Malina and Pruinn reach Seventh Kingdom. After 300 years, it is still desolate after the destruction from the Fae. Malina realizes how bad her situation is. It’s not like she can turn back; there’s nothing left for her. Pruinn keeps telling her to trust the map. They come upon the remains of Seventh’s castle. The land just beyond the castle is gone – doesn’t exist & below there is only air. Pruinn claims that the castle is the end of map –  her heart’s desire. She claims it most certainly is not. Two men appear, well dressed and nearly identical. They introduce themselves as Friano and Fassa – twin brothers. Friano lifts a glamour and the castle transforms into a fully restored castle. Pruinn says he knew there was something there and the twins claim they have been waiting for Malina. They claim they have prayed for a rightful heir to help them restore Seventh kingdom. 
– Auren: Hojat says that her wounds are almost done healing, but that her mental wounds will need more care. He gives her a lotus to put beneath her pillow – a lotus for resilience. Hojat says that he learned these traditions from a Healer (healers are from Annwyn, Menders from Orea). Lu comes and takes her to the pavilion to meet the villagers. Lu gives her a quick rundown of all the important landmarks in Drollard village. They go to the pavilion to eat. Auren remarks that the people of Drollard are odd. Lu tells Auren that the pain she feels from losing her ribbons means she’s alive – and that those parts that remain need to be sharpened into the strongest parts of her. Auren mentions that everything about the village feels off. Lu tells her that there are things Auren doesn’t know and that only Slade can tell her. Lu tells her there are 57 people who live in Drollard. Auren learns that Twig – the boy from Fourth’s army is one of only a few children born in Drollard. All the children born there end up in the army. Auren hears raised voices, one of which is Slade’s coming from an alcove in the pavilion. She investigates. Ryatt and Slade are arguing. Slade says he’s received six of something. She hears Ryatt tell Slade that he wants Auren gone from Drollard. Ryatt: “Why haven’t you told Auren about her? Are you ashamed?” Auren immediately feels dread. Her, who? 
– Auren: Lu comes up and alerts the brothers that they are being loud and everyone can hear. Ryatt looks remorseful. Auren notices blood on Slade and she wants to know who’s. Auren pushes past Slade, down the tunnel he just came. She comes to a door, and smells rot. There’s a barely alive, rotting body. Slade tells her that the man is a spy from Midas, that he found Drollard. Auren tells Slade that if he got the info he needed, and Drollard is safe, the torture is done. Slade reminds her that he’s done far worse things. 
– Auren: Slade walks Auren to the grotto, but Auren says she’s not going inside. That she wants him to lead her to whoever “her” is. Slade agrees. He takes her to a secluded cave. Slade warns her that she must be calm – it is of the utmost importance. They enter the cave where there’s a small house. And a buzzing noise. They enter and there’s a beautiful, young woman. The woman is ecstatic to see Slade and Auren starts to feel really worried about who this woman is.  Slade introduces the woman as his mother. 

Chapters 36-40
– Slade says her name is Elore. He tells Auren she doesn’t speak anymore, just very rarely.  Auren verbally says that she’s not fae, and the word makes Elore stiffen up. Slade speaks to Elore for the next thirty minutes, updating her on the weather and things. Auren realizes that Elore needs the calm that Slade asked for. Auren admits to Slade that she thought she was coming to meet his lover – not his mother. Slade says he would never show her that disrespect. Auren says that this is just another link in his chain of secrets – Slade says there are parts of him not easily accepted. He reminds her that he’s not a good man. “I’m good to you. But I am every bit the villain that I warned you I was.” Ryatt enters. He’s sorry for what he said about Auren, but she says that she knows why he did and that she’s not going to hurt Drollard. Slade tells her that he needs to tell her why everyone calls him Rip. 
– Auren: Slade takes her to a cave room where there’s a vertical slash in the air. Inside the slash there’s strange, mottled light peeking out. Auren: “what is that?” Slade: “This is where I tore a rip into the world.” 
– Slade, age 15: Stanton is home early. Slade is woken by a noise and upon investigation, finds Elore clutched in Stanton’s enraged grip. He’s screaming at the servants, demanding to know if any of them knew. Slade asks what his father is doing and Stanton says it’s about what Elore has done. Stanton tells Slade that Elore thought that he wasn’t home, and invited another into her bed. Slade immediately knows he’s talking about Jak. Stanton says it’s obvious Slade didn’t know by the disgust on his face, but Slade says that he’s disgusted at him, not Elore. Slade asks, why wouldn’t Elore look for affection elsewhere when Stanton treats her like garbage? Stanton demands to know which servants knew, his anger makes his magic crack the floor. “Control, father.” Stanton breaks Slade’s finger. Stanton grabs Jak by his throat and demands to know how long the affair has been going on. Elore tells him, eleven years. The servants are not surprised, Slade guesses they helped them. Elore tells Stanton that she’s loved Jak for far longer. Stanton snaps – destroying the house, and breaking Jak one bone at a time, until he snaps his neck. Elore starts crying and screaming. Ryatt comes into the room. His eyes land on Jak and he screams, “father!” Everyone then understands that Ryatt is Jak’s. Stanton traps them in the room. Slade attacks Stanton, drawing a line in the sand. Slade must either beat him or lose everything. “I will be a monster if it means I can destroy one.” Slade knows he has one shot. Their magic collides in the air, splitting the realm. “I learned control so that I could take his away.” An explosion of power causes Slade and everyone on his side of the room to get sucked through the rip. He sleeps for four days. 
– Auren: Slade explains that his power is tied to the rip and can feel it, so he’d know if Auren had entered Orea via the rip. Auren tells him that she’s sorry for what happened  but grateful that it led them together. He says he would have found her in any world. She leads him to the hot springs, and allows him to peel her shirt off – baring her ruined back to him. Auren slides to her knees to pleasure him. “With the right person, there is power when you kneel. There is adoration with submission. There is balance with control.” They have passionate sex.

Auren: “This is it, isn’t it? This is real love.” Slade: “Yes, Auren. This is love.”

– Auren: Next day, Auren tries to figure out how she got to Orea. Was there another rip? Auren overhears everyone talking about the letters Slade keeps getting. Slade finally admits to her that the other monarchs are demanding her to answer for the death of Midas in a royal Conflux. The monarchs are claiming that Auren stole Midas’ power. Ryatt tells Auren that the other kingdoms are also punishing Fourth for harboring Auren by withholding shipments. Lu lays out the truth, that they need to be back in Fourth and the only way for that to happen is for Auren to master her power again. 
– Auren: Auren goes to the gold cave to practice but there’s a timberwing (Argo) in there. She tries to get it to leave but it refuses. Auren tries to get the gold to answer her, but fails. She realizes that she’s always fought or hidden her magic, never embraced it – not the way her fae nature embraced it. She just accept her power to own it. Auren looks into herself and sees the beast. And accepts it. Than her powers work. 

Chapters 41-45
– Auren: Slade and Auren train her magic for four days, with Argo there. Auren learns how to soak up the gold her body makes. Slade taunts Auren into kissing him, in broad daylight, and she does so without gilding him. They are both ecstatic and run back to the Grotto to celebrate with more things she can now do in the daylight, but when they walk in, everyone is standing. Bad news, Kaila is sending her brother Manu to Fourth kingdom to see why they haven’t accepted the request for the conflux. 
– Auren: Time has run out. They can make it to the castle in Fourth in four days. Ryatt expresses that he’s sick of being fake Rip but will maintain the facade since Manu is coming. We learn that at some point, Slade, as Rip, joins Fourth’s army and makes his way up the ranks. He realizes how awful the former King is and challenges him as Slade, and King Ravinger is born, and Rip was promoted to Commander. He used both identities to quell any pushback. Ryatt started taking over as Rip when the challenges to Slade’s rule stopped. Auren asks what Ryatt wants to do, everyone is stunned. 
– Auren: when everyone first fell through the rip, all the Oreans were sick. Luckily, there was a wild timberwing colony right there. Slade managed to win over Argo’s mother and he was able to ride her to find food. We also learn that going through the rip separated Slade’s fae side into Rip and Ravinger. We learn that everyone in Drollard’s life is tied to Annywyn, so if they get too far away from the rip, they die. That’s why they make children born there join the army, to prevent them from becoming dependent. They visit Elore. Elore tells Slade, without speaking, that she approves of Auren. 
– Auren: they go to the rip. Auren is drawn to it, Slade tells her it’s the pull of Annwyn. Rip tells her they were in Orea for several weeks when the Rip started to fail. Slade says he shoved all his raw magic into it to stabilize it, that he’s been feeling it raw power ever since. The longest Slade has been able to go without feeding the tip is 8 weeks. Slade starts to feed his power into the rip but gets carried away and Auren tries to stop him because she can feel his aura draining. He accidentally slices her with his spike and he drops the power drain. Slade explains that the rip doesn’t like for him to stop giving it power and he gets caught up sometimes. 
– Queen Malina: Malina has been living at Cauval Castle. She says that the twins and Pruinn have been taking great care of her. She feels like everything is better here, looks better here. She feels at ease for the first time. The twins tell her she’s finally ready, for what, she doesn’t know. They take her to an atrium that is full of mist. The twins explain that their magic works in tandem. Fassa can instill something new and Friano can restore something old. They explain their magic requires as sacrifice, and the ritual will only work under two conditions: they must wait for the new moon, when the gods bless new beginnings and their powers are at their peak, and they nee the blood of a pure Orean Royal, willingly offered. The ritual will restore Seventh Kingdom. They claim that this ritual will also instill magic into Malina, allowing her to become Queen of Seventh. They tell her all she needs to do is agree. And the bargain is struck. As Malina walks the castle, she realizes that the mist has seeped into other rooms as well. Then Hood (the assassin) appears. Hood explains that he was sent to kill her, but now he is worried about what has been happening in the castle. He can feel the magic. He tells her something weird is happening and she needs to LOOK. Don’t smell the flowers, he warns. 
– Auren: they fly to Fourth. Auren is surprised by the climate, by all the rivers, and Fourth’s castle (Brackhill), nestled at the base of a giant mountain, surrounded by moats. They are met by Marcoul. Everyone disperses to their rooms. Slade tells Auren that she needs not ask for anything, that the entire castle is hers and she may do as she pleases. 

Chapters 46-50
– Slade: Slade wakes to Auren missing. He can’t find her anywhere and no one has seen her. Digby tells him to think; she’s been caged in the north for ten years, where does he think she would be? Slade finds her on the roof, soaking up the sun like a goddess. Slade walks over to her and sees that she’s crying. He asks what’s wrong and she asks

“Can you hear it?… The sun. She’s singing to me… The sun is singing the song of home.” 

– Auren: the sun seems to charge Auren with energy. Slade offers to take her into the city, but it’s her choice what they do. They venture into the city, and Auren is reminded of the horse she rode before getting capture by the Red Raids, which reminds her of Rissa getting assaulted by Fane. Slade tells her he wants a list of all the people who ever hurt her. They head toward the city, passing Compass Lake. As they start passing citizens, the people start whispering about Auren, about how she’s going to steal Slade’s magic too. 
– Auren: Auren chastises Slade for not warning her about the rumors of her stealing magic. They eat lunch then head to a market where Auren overhears a group of men speaking crassly about her. Slade comes over and buys her the jewelry she’s looking at (a simple band with a black jewel in the center). Auren asks to go back to the castle and ride in the carriage on the way back. Slade immediately knows something is wrong. 
– Auren: They get in the carriage and Slade demands to know what’s going on. Auren admits that she’s worried the men are right and she’s simply jumping from man to man to be taken care of. Auren expresses that she’s never thought about what she wants with her freedom. Slade pulls her onto his lap in the carriage. Slade tells her she can have whatever life she wants, he’ll follow her. Then he bites her neck. “You are mine, and I am yours, and whatever pleasure you seek, I will be there to watch you get it, and I will feed it to you tenfold afterward because you are mine, and I will see that you get what you need.” He strokes her to orgasm 
– Auren: Slade tells Auren he’s going to fuck her in the carriage. Auren asks why he’s so okay with her curiosities and he says that Fae are carnal and her questions and desires are natural. “I’m never going to clip your wings, Goldfinch.” He tells her he’ll let her do whatever, but at the end of the day, he’ll fuck her until she remembers it’s really him she craves. He asks what she wants and she says him. She gets him out of his trousers and orally pleasures him, letting gold drip from her hands to act as lube. Then they have sex. 

 Chapters 51-55
– Auren: They bathe and dress. Slade gives her the bracelet he bought her, telling her to guild it so that she always has gold to call upon. They have to go to dinner with Manu. Warken & Isalee Streah (and their daughter Barley) are at the dinner table. They are Slade’s Premiers, in charge of the kingdom while Slade is away – they are Keg’s family. They speak with Slade about how things were while he was away. They tell him that Fourth’s imports are being blocked, but they have stores. 
– Auren: Manu walks in. They eat and have pleasantries, then Slade brings up the shipment issues, taking the convo to more serious things. The Conflux is due to happen in Second Kingdom. Manu claims that a Conflux must take place every time a monarch dies suspiciously. Slade reminds him that no Conflux was called when Fulke died. Manu makes it seem like they won’t have a choice but to come to the Conflux. Manu says he’ll be in Fourth for one week, and he expects a decision before he leaves. They run the numbers and the entirety of Fourth can be sustained for four weeks before they run out of food – on a ration. 
– Osrik: the army has been moving for weeks, and they’re just passing through the rot that encompasses Fourth’s entire border. Osrik is hung up on Rissa – always thinking about her, making sure she wears his clothes instead of anyone else’s. Rissa comes to Osrik’s fire and says she wants to make more mistakes, including having sex with him. Osrik says he won’t when he knows she’ll blow it off as a regret after. He tells her he knows her worth. 
– Slade: it takes three days for the entire army to arrive in Brackhill. Slade catches everyone up to what’s going on, including Kaila’s campaign to win over Sixth. Slade says they’re trying to make a back door deal with First Kingdom, who wants more lantern oil. Ryatt goes off, telling everyone that Auren needs to go to the Conflux – he’s convinced it’s just a power play and they’ll release Auren after. Ryatt tells Slade he needs to step up and take care of his Kingdom, not Auren. Slade tells Ryatt that he will never understand the pressure of all that he balances. Slade divides up tasks for everyone – sending Judd to First and Lu to Fifth. 
– Auren: Auren has been practicing her magic – Digby has been training her physically. Auren has been having nightmares about Fourth suffering because of her. While practicing her magic, she notices a discolored part in the gold, but it quickly melds in. Manu approaches. Manu tells Auren that the Conflux is more than a trial – it is a spectacle. He tells her the most severe punishment is recent history was a monetary fine. He tells her to truly think about going. A guard comes and tells Auren she has a visitor. It’s Rissa and Polly. Rissa explains how they ended up connecting with Fourth’s army. Polly snaps and tells Rissa she never wanted to leave, that she liked being a Saddle. Rissa tells Auren she’s thinking of staying. Auren begins to suspect something between Rissa and Osrik. 

Chapter 56-60
– Auren: Slade must give Manu his final answer. On the roof, Auren is greeted by Argo who lets her pet him. Auren meets Slade and tells him she isn’t convinced that saying “no” to Manu is the best plan. Slade tells her to trust him to keep her and the kingdom safe. He explains that his fae nature will not allow threats to her. He reminds her that they are powerful and will be the villains for each other. 
– Auren: they start fooling around and Slade gets feral about Auren having some of his *juices* on her dress. He says it makes him want to bite her and mark her, leave her smelling like him. She too turns feral and snarls at him that she wants him, or else. And suddenly they’re having wild fae sex with delayed orgasm play. 
– Auren: Auren wakes a few hours later and realizes that Slade blissed her out instead of talking. In retaliation, she gilds his favorite jerkin and some other clothes. Auren realizes she missed the dinner with Manu. Auren heads outside, where Rissa is sitting. They go for a walk. They talk but then Auren’s guard falls to his knees. Two men with knives appear, one holding Rissa at knifepoint. Someone knocks Auren in the head and then puts a chemical cloth over her face. Manu comes into view. They stab Rissa and Auren passes out. 
– Slade: First Kingdom took the deal, but the army’s morale is at an all time low. Slade tells Ryatt that he’s instating Ryatt as the new army commander of Fourth. Ryatt accepts. Then they get word that one of their mines collapsed. Slade makes it back to the castle and is alerted that Lady Rissa has been stabbed. Osrik freaks out. They find Rissa and Hojat tells them they need to get her into surgery. Slade is absolutely gobsmacked by Osrik’s reaction, but Os helps Hojat take Rissa inside. Slade realizes that Auren has been kidnapped and calls for Argo. 
– Auren: Auren wakes in Second kingdom, Wallmont Castle. Women come to get her ready for the Conflux and Auren tries to fight back with her gold but she experiences a horrible, pressing pain through her entire body. Every time she tries to use her gold, the pain happens. The woman harming her is the Queen (Isolte Meereen of the Gathering Temperance) and tells her that she cannot use what doesn’t belong to her, calls her Lady Cheat. Queen Isolte takes her for the Cleansing. 
– Auren: Auren is forced into a tub where a group of women scrub her painfully. The Queen tells her she will submit to the Cleansing and pray for forgiveness. Auren says the help she needs is from herself and if she can’t help herself, King Rot will. The Queen continues to crush Auren with her magic. Auren realizes that her magic might have manifested in Second kingdom because of how hot and sunny it is there. Auren collects tiny bits of gold in her hand when she can. Auren is led outside to the Conflux. She is shoved inside a circle of pillars. The royalty sit above – Slade is missing. The Conflux commences. 
– Slade: He’s been flying for days, only stopping for Argo to rest. He’s a few hours away from Wallmont now, when a bolt comes flying through the air and pierces his wing and they fall. Slade rots the metal from his wing. Argo’s leg is also broken. Slade must choose to rot him or leave him to die. 
– Auren: She tries to gather the ball of gold she had collected, but finds it’s too easy to call to her, and now too easy to produce more. It feels off. Then she realizes that she cannot stop making gold, and she cannot control it. Auren notices symbols etched into the tiles she stands on. King Merewen (of Second) tells her the ruins drain the magic out of whoever is in there. Queen Kaila offers the words from that night in Ranhold, which were stollen and recorded by her magic. As the words play, Auren realizes that not only can Kaila take voices and store them, but she can manipulate them too. Kaila says that Auren stole Midas’ power and killed him, and tried to kill her as well. Auren denies that she stole the power. As her gold drains from her, black streaks appear. Kaila screams that Auren stole Rot’s power too. The Conflux rules her guilty and sentences her to immediate execution. 
– Auren: Auren realizes that she needs help this time. There’s no helping herself in this situation, and Slade isn’t there, again. She worries that something happened to Slade. Guards surround her, King Merewen calls for arms and they all draw their swords. They are going to thrust their swords into the pillars, killing her. As she feels the first prick of a sword, she thinks “find me in another life, find me in them all.” She starts to give into the inevitable when the world shakes. The swords rot away, the guards rot away. Auren looks up and sees Slade coming in on a timberwing. The moment his feet touch the ground, rot explodes everywhere, killing spectators and more guards. Auren revels in his destruction. The child of King Merewen weaves a veil of magic to protect the monarchs. Slade says if they do not release her, he will rot them all. King Merewen tells his son to drop the barrier but he collapses, seizing, from magic spend. Auren starts to sway. Slade demands her release immediately. She slumps, and Slade starts to hack at the pillar’s barrier to get her out but it does nothing. She tells him to find her in the next life and he screams no. Raw magic blasts from his body into the barrier. A rip suddenly rends through the air. The rip smells like home to Auren. Slade tells her he cannot make a rip in the barrier, that she needs to enter the rip into Annwyn. Slade tells her he will find her in Annwyn, but she needs to go before she dies. She plunges into Annwyn. 
– Slade: Slade powers the rip until it collapses. Slade is weak, but Ryatt appears, says he was so wrong and Auren should have never come. We find out Ryatt caught up with Slade in the desert when he crashed on Argo. Argo got sent on a ship home. Slade says he’s riding to Deadwell. Ryatt says he’s coming too. Something is wrong with Slade’s magic. He can no longer use raw magic – that which he feeds the rip at Deadwell, and that is needed to make new Rips. They land in Drollard Village and Slade runs for the rip. But when he gets there, the people and the rip are gone – along with his magic needed to get to them and Auren. 

Epilouge: Queen Malina
– The ritual is ready. Tricked, Malina helps Pruinn and the twins restore the Bridge of Lemuria.  There are pounding footsteps, and it is insinuated that the Fae are coming into Orea