3.4 This book needed major editing. The pacing was terrible. Ryatt was right every time. Slade made such dumb choices. Auren should’ve went to the conflux herself. For someone who cared so deeply about “the kingdom’s people” in the first few books she sure didn’t care if they all starved while she was kept safe in the castle. The characters were off. The whole book just felt like the author was forced to write one for a deadline without having a plot planned out. The only redeeming parts were the Slade flashbacks and Argo the Timberwing lol