"Heart of Night" by Angelina J Steffort
“Heart of Night” …. made my blood run cold.
At the end of “Wings of Ink” the curse is broken but Myron is left without Ayna the woman who reached his heart and brought freedom to the Crows.
A prison, no matter how gilded is a prison, still.
A guard who smiles to your face then gives orders to have you tortured is an
evil jailer, still. Ephegos’ had hidden
behind friendship, swore he only wanted revenge for the death of his sister
when he kidnapped Ayna. He lied. Underneath that smile was greed for power,
fueled by evil. Pain was his dearest companion, as long as it was someone
else’s agony. He would see to it that Ayna suffered every day. For though she believed
Myron to be dead, he knew the truth, Myron lived and would suffer the agony of
separation from his mate; the pain of knowing that she was in the hands of a traitor
willing to kill to get what he so long coveted. In her painful belief of Myron’s
death, Ayna wouldn’t let Ephegos win, she would somehow get free. In spite of the
physical pain that Ephegos had his persecutor inflect upon her and the
emotional agony of losing Myron that was tearing her up inside. She couldn’t
allow his death to be meaningless. She would prove worthy of her mate. She had
lost so many to death in her short life, her father, Ludelle, her first lover and
the crew of the Wild Ray, she thought of as family. Executed by order of the
King of Travas, carried out by the General of the prison in Travas. Without her
magic, that Ephegos had somehow stolen from her, there was no escaping from him
without outside assistance. She had to hang on, to plan, to endure.
So, when it came even though it came from an
unexpected source it was to be accepted with trepidation. One who was bound by
a promise tied with magic, the other in the form of a young female servant who
could slip around unnoticed. Ayna was loath to trust either since one was
inflecting physical torturous pain while the other fed her the poison that kept
her magic from reaching her. However, hope, even the slightest bit, was
something to hold on to.
As usual without knocking, Ephegos enters the
room when she sees he has brought another. Though he shaved his head and
mustache she would recognize him anywhere, The General. They were working together.
The executioner of those she loved, the jailer who’d had her thrown in a
dungeon for months before giving her to what she had hoped was to be her death,
as the bride of the Crow King. So, there was more than simple revenge that Ephegos
reached for. As the weeks passed, Ayna
would learn more about his plan to rise in power, but what his “allies” didn’t
know was that Ephegos wasn’t going to stop until he ruled over all the land, and
the people, supernatural and human.
Finally, she had a reason to hope, she must find
a way to escape. Forced to dress in finery and sit at the table and eat with
her captor, across the table was the reason she had continued to fight death,
Myron. Just knowing he was alive meant he loved her as she loved him. He’d
risked everything to come for her. They would escape or they would die together.
Ephegos, took great pleasure is seeing
them so close, unable to touch, to communicate except with their eyes. He
wanted Myron to know that his beloved wife was to be sold to the King of Tavras,
a monster in human form. The man who had
given the orders to have her father and the crew of the Wild Ray executed
before her eyes. Somehow, she must escape, free Myron and those with him from
the dungeons before Ephegos could sell her off.
Reading this tale made
my blood run cold. My heart was breaking for Myron and Ayna, the loss of so
many Crow Fae. My skin crawled whenever Ephegos walked on the pages. And I
could see the blood rolling off the page as the words described Ayna’s torture.
The thing that kept me reading was in part the same as Ayna the belief, the
hope that Myron would come, and they would be together again. That Ephegos
couldn’t, wouldn’t win. That somehow in the end the Puppeteer and his minions
who had manipulated the Fire Fae, the Crows, the humans in battle and hatred
towards each other would fall out in the end. But there was more to this. Why
did the King want Ayna, a pirate, a traitor to the crown, the wife of the Crow
King?
There may have been
less physical presence of Myron in this tale, but he isn’t any less felt. The
story drew me back to images of the of the dark ages, with its political
strife, torture as a means of control, feudal Kings and rivalry. Where Kings
and their ilk ruled by fear, intimidation, and the brutal force of the lackeys
they paid to do their dirty work. I never thought I was a blood thirsty kind of
person but by the end of this book I was back in the stands at the Colosseum
screaming for the gladiators to spill the blood of their opponent. At the heart
of this second book is the love, determination and loyalty that Myron and Ayna
earned from others who would risk their very lives to help free them. So yes,
it is dark, a bit savage, with a brief moment of romantic spice, characters
that got caught up trusting the wrong person, but the strength of the love and
belief in the need to right so many past wrongs make this a story I am so glad
I didn’t miss. Myron, Ayna and their cohorts fought valiantly but still left us
standing on a precipice at the end of this book. I wouldn’t have had it any
other way. I recommend this book. However, to truly understand the whole story
start at the beginning with “The Fall of The Wild Ray,” then pick up with “Wings
of Ink” before diving head long into “The Heart of Night,” while we sit on the
edge waiting for “The Claws of Death”…..
