Blackened Blade by Isla Davon

Micai has been in prison for more than five years—tortured, forced to fight, all while they try to break her. But Micai is strong and won’t let them break her spirit. After a particularly brutal day, Micai believes they have finally killed her as she is burned, but when she wakes, she seems to be in a familiar place. She thought she died, but instead finds herself back at Wensridge Academy, a place she went to school 10 years ago—a school where any magical being can attend and learn, from shifters to fae and anyone in between. As she investigates, she realizes she and her body have been sent back 10 years in time, and Micai is ready to take revenge on those who put her in prison. One of the first people she wants revenge on is her half-sister Seria, who is one of the main reasons Micai was in prison.

Micai remembers that 10 years ago she was submissive and weak, but she has grown up and has no plans on being her old self; she wants her second chance and is going to take it. She bites back at her teachers, her bullies, and anyone who comes near her and belittles her. At one point, she even bites back at another student she can’t remember, but it seems everyone else is intimidated by him—except Micai. The student lets Micai’s sass slide for the time being.

As Micai continues, she often runs into some old friends: Kane, Knox, Anders, and Xander. They were her childhood friends, but when her sister Seria came into the picture, they pushed Micai to the side and chose to follow her sister. Some of the boys are shifters. As Micai runs into them again, she is reminded that she wants her revenge on them all and starts by standing up for herself.

After a long first day, Micai has time to herself where she can look at her body. She realizes she has bruises all along her back, and she isn’t sure where they came from or if they mean anything in particular. She also remembers a bracelet that her sister Seria gave her. Micai throws it off her wrist, realizing it is attached to her prison life. It makes her think about what connections Seria already has if she was able to give her that bracelet.

A new daily life starts for Micai. She wants to be stronger, so she starts training herself. She is finally able to have meals every day and gains strength that way as well. She also continues to defend herself against all sorts of bullies—and there are a lot of them. Still, right at the top of the list of bullies are Knox, Anders, Kane, and Xander. When she is in a particular class with them, she remembers more about her childhood with them. Especially on her birthday, they would always come to her and cheer her up, as growing up it was a day seen as the day Micai killed her mother in childbirth. The class she shares with the boys is a singing class, and it also brings back memories of one of Micai’s old cellmates—who just so happens to be her mate, Zrael.

Micai’s bullies get bolder, and some even try to attack her. Yet, thanks to her personal training, she is able to fight them off. Soon, a self-defense class is added to her schedule, and she loves learning from the elf teacher, Gadriel. Micai gets so good during the training that she is even able to take out Kane, a shifter. During her own free training, Micai finds a beast and decides to fight it and track it as part of her training.

Little things start to look up for Micai—she stands up to her bullies, she makes a slight friend, Annex (who introduces her to his brothers Creed, Mallyn, and Ezra), and her trainer Gadriel likes her. However, one day she gets led on by one of her classmates, who she thinks likes her, but he ends up spiking her drink and trying to put her in the forest so she can get harmed. Micai puts up a fight and builds more barriers around herself so others won’t get to her. But since she is out in the forest, she decides to go find the beast and have a fight with it. It’s a brutal fight, and at the end Micai feels much better.

We then start to get POV chapters from Creed, who is currently fighting the grief of losing his sister, and he’s ready to take revenge. We also get one from Mallyn, who is hesitant about Micai at first but starts to like her. Annex, who is a little unhinged, starts to get obsessed with her as well. He finds some of her bullies and takes care of them himself. Annex then decides to push the limits and has Micai come to a fight night with him and his brothers; she agrees and it goes well.

Back in Micai’s singing class, she is supposed to get up and sing, but she refuses, as she made a promise to never sing again because of the death of her mate in prison, Zrael. They met on her first day there, and Micai sang to herself to calm down. But Zrael was right there, telling her to continue. As the two got closer and closer during their time in prison, Zrael mentioned that he was a siren, and sirens can find their mate by hearing their voice. He knew they were mated as soon as he heard Micai sing. For five years, the two found solace in each other, until Zrael was killed.

As Micai continues her personal training, Gadriel stumbles upon her. He saw her fight some of her bullies, and now he wants to help her. He wants to make sure she never has to worry about her safety again. He offers private training almost every night.

In an Ezra chapter, he talks about how much he is falling for Micai. As he is searching for her, he hears a beautiful voice—it’s Micai’s. As he hears her sing, he realizes they are mates. He wants to go straight to her and tell her, but he sees that her singing is emotional, so he decides to keep it a secret until the right time. But Ezra can’t believe he is lucky enough to have a fated mate.

Micai wakes up on her birthday, and her sister Seria is the first one to be there. She wants to go shopping with her. But Micai knows this drill—she is only offering it because it will eventually humiliate Micai. She declines and thinks it’s going to be an ordinary day. Until Annex and Ezra, not knowing it’s her birthday, find her and take her out shopping. They let her look at every shop. In the chapters from their point of view, they see that she has a darkness in her, and they want to know more about her and want to harm anyone who has hurt her.

During a training session, Gadriel also gives her a gift—an elven knife. He says that he is proud of how far she has come and tells her to keep the knife on her as often as she can, because he has a feeling she might need it sometime soon.

The winter ball finally arrives, and while Micai wasn’t planning on going, Annex and Ezra invite her as their date and buy her a dress she had looked at when they went shopping together. Micai agrees, and she is the talk of the school, as she is with two of the Infernal Four members. However, right in the middle of the ball, monsters start attacking. Annex and Ezra tell Micai to stay behind and stay safe. But Micai knows she can help, and she ends up taking a big monster down. Callum arrives, surprised that she took the monster down. Then, when Annex and Ezra arrive, angry that she disobeyed, they all realize that Malum isn’t with them and hasn’t been seen all day. Micai doesn’t know why they are suspicious of that, but when the monster she fought in the forest arrives, Micai runs straight to it, being pulled towards it. As she fights it, it turns into a man—it’s Malum. Before she is able to discuss the shift with Malum, Ezra gets hurt and starts to die right in Micai’s arms. She prays that he won’t be taken, knowing she can’t handle another heartbreak again.