This was incredible amounts of fun.

Right from the beginning I was hooked by that "I have ZERO clue what's going on right now but also it's GREAT" feeling.

This story starts with Kai, a demon prince, and Ziede, a witch with wind powers. They were imprisoned, and have no memory of what happened or who did this to them. The present-day storyline follows them as they try to reunite their friends an family, while also investigating the conspiracy that locked them away.

There is also a past storyline interspersed, that slowly unwinds the backstory at a pace that neatly mirrors the present storyline.

The framing of all of this is interesting, because if anything the past storyline is the more epic, world-ending, sweeping tale of tyranny toppled against all odds. In the present, Kai is already a well-known figure of legend and the plot is, at its core, a very simple find-and-rescue mission. In addition, it occurred to me several times while reading that I think it would be more conventional to tell this story from the perspective of the hapless young human who gets swept up into this mess and has to rise to the occasion surrounded by supernatural beings.

Instead, we follow Kai and Ziede, who just want to protect their family and be left alone. As someone who is normally a big fan of political plots and intrigue, it was fun to have a plot that was basically "get your stupid politics out of my FACE."

I also really enjoyed all the relationships here. While understated, they had good resonance and felt important. Ziede and Kai's sibling-like bond was particularly nice, since we got to see so much of it, but I really like Dahin as well.

Overall, this was an excellent read and I'm excited for the sequel!