Heir of Illusion by Madeline Taylor

Here is a summary with spoilers for Heir of Illusion by Madeline Taylor

Iverson Pomeroy has been called a pet for many years now. Though she understands why, as the beautiful collar on her throat keeps her bound to the King. Though many in the castle believe her to be the King’s favored, Iverson can’t wait to get out and use her powers. She is able to completely duplicate herself, a power she believes only she has. She uses that power to spy around the castle. While spying one day, she sees a fae enter, and she can tell that he is high fae. Though invisible and hiding, the man knows Iverson is there and starts to talk to her. Their interaction is quick, and Iverson comes out and shows herself before leaving again.

Iverson goes to visit King Baylor and plays her part as pet well. Though Baylor is worried about the killer in the city, the Angel of Mercy. This assassin has been killing people for months now and they still have no leads. While Iverson is there in the meeting, she is introduced officially to the fae from earlier, Thorne. He is an ambassador of the God of Death.

That night Iverson sneaks out of her room and goes into the city. She reveals herself as the Angel of Mercy and goes for one of her kills. Thorne watches the whole thing and confronts her, and even mentions that he will let it slip to the King that it is his pet doing the killing unless she agrees to help him. Ivy says no and leaves anyway.

The next morning, to work off some steam, Iverson goes to her sword teacher, a man who feels like a father, Remy. They have a great session until she is called to Baylor. She notices that he looks haggard. He says that there was another killing, and now he is paranoid and wants protection for her at all times. She is furious because she knows it is Thorne who told him about the kill. Thorne then walks into the room to talk to Baylor. Baylor dismisses Iverson, but Baylor asks her to stay. She hesitates and ends up staying. Thorne says he is here to get a sword for the God of Death, and he wants Ivy’s help to do so. Baylor says he will think about it and Thorne leaves. Because Iverson hesitated earlier, she has to be punished, so Baylor uses the necklace against her to torture her a bit. He says he will allow her to help, but she also needs to be a spy for him.

Baylor tells the two of them to go into the tunnels to look, but also gives a cryptic message to Iverson not to listen to the whispers. Baylor sent his men down there to start building more tunnels, and Remy is at the front end of it. On her way down, Iverson feels an intense pull from her necklace, something she has never felt before, and then she hears the whispers. Thorne has to remind her why they are there. Since the tunnels are small, Iverson goes first, and she falls right in. Eventually Thorne comes for her, and the two have a small moment together. Though Iverson touches him and he freaks out and tells her to never touch him again.

After the tunnels, they decide to investigate a missing person whom they believe might know where the sword is. They visit his wife, who claims she has no idea. Though they quickly find out she was lying, and her husband was abusive and that was why she was lying. Iverson makes some comments to help comfort her, and later regrets it, believing that she may have said too much in front of Thorne, but luckily he doesn’t make any connections.

Iverson decides she doesn’t know much about the sword and wants to know more, especially because she believes there to be a connection between her necklace and the sword. So she goes to Darrow, a friend and a shop owner. Darrow tells her not to touch the sword, it is only going to do more damage for her, but doesn’t go into more detail.

Investigating the missing man doesn’t go any further, and it turns into a fight for Iverson and Thorne. Thorne ends up saying a number of things about her being a pet and then flies away. As Iverson processes things, she gets called to go service Baylor. She reveals that she hasn’t ever done it herself. Every time she has been summoned, she makes a perfect illusion of herself and sends that version of her to go be with Baylor. Though it is still a piece of her and she still knows what happens. The next morning Thorne sees the illusion for the first time and knows immediately which one is the real one and which one isn’t. He tells her to name the clone, and she names it Rose, after her middle name. He then apologizes for what he said and came to tell her that the God of Death has summoned him back home. Thorne promises to come back to the ball, where Baylor will pick his new wife.

Iverson can’t wait for the ball, as she knows she won’t be getting picked as the bride, and it means she won’t have to be the pet soon. But as it gets closer, her family comes to visit. She has no desire to see the man who raised her. She is excited to see her brother. At the ball, she feels so excited that she is about to gain so much freedom and start somewhat of a new chapter. She just needs to figure out how to get the necklace off. Thorne arrives and she feels absolutely betrayed. Thorne is not who he says he is. He is the God of Death himself. She realizes why she isn’t supposed to touch him, because she can’t have contact with death because it will kill her. Thorne goes straight for Baylor and they have a conversation. Iverson hears part of it and realizes that it is about her and that Thorne wants her. Baylor gets possessive and says it will never happen. As the time comes for Baylor to announce his new wife, he surprises everyone and says it will be Iverson. All hell breaks loose as some of the other contenders’ families get upset and call Iverson names. In return, Thorne kills them brutally. Iverson can’t handle anything and runs to her room.

That night she gets summoned to go to the King’s room, and she claims she is sick. The next morning Baylor comes into her room and bed and touches her. She hates every moment of it and feels sickened by it. He even tortures her a bit because she denied him last night, but eventually duty calls and he leaves with a promise that he will be back for his bride. Iverson panics and feels numb. She breaks things in her room and ends up lying on the floor feeling dead to the world. Thorne comes in to apologize about the night before but finds her in that state and starts to draw conclusions. Though Iverson refuses to talk, she does ask to get out of her room. Thorne flies her away and she is able to process, and Thorne gives her that time but wants to know more and pushes for it. Iverson then tells her story of when she was a child. Her adopted father tried to drown her, and when she passed out he thought he succeeded, so he put her in a box and buried her. But she never drowned, and when she woke she had to dig herself out of the ground. When she got out of the ground her father was there, shocked she was still alive, but King Baylor was there with his queen as well. The King saw her and wanted to bring her back to the castle, especially when he found out she was an illusionist. Her father said yes and let her go. Baylor groomed her, put a necklace around her to control her, and even attempted to make her kill his own wife. She refused, and the next day his wife was dead anyway. She has felt the guilt ever since because she believes she could have stopped it. Thorne is angry that she has gone through all of that and is ready to go kill Baylor himself. Iverson has to stop him because if Baylor dies without taking the necklace off her, she dies with him. They need to find a way to get it off her before they kill him, and Thorne wants to help.

Thorne takes Iverson back to the castle, and when she wakes the next morning the news everywhere is that her father’s neck was slit while he was sleeping. The killer made it look like it was done by the Angel of Mercy. She feels no remorse, but decides to go out exploring to look for the sword again. While out she is attacked, but Thorne comes to save her, something that she knew he would do. In the process Thorne gets injured and she touches him to help heal him. They are both shocked that she touched him without anything happening. The two have an intimate moment, but then Thorne leaves.

That night there is a dinner. Baylor, Thorne, and Iverson are all together, and Thorne says he will continue to look for the sword but wants Iverson’s necklace off of her. Baylor says he will think about it and dismisses Thorne, leaving Iverson alone with him. Baylor wants to know whose side she is on and says there will be problems if she is on the wrong side.

That night Iverson continues her search for the sword. This time she follows the whispers and it takes her to the dungeon, where she meets the Queen of Illusions, Maebyn. Iverson is surprised to see she has the same necklace as she does. They are both prisoners of Baylor. Maebyn says that the whispers will come for her next and that she shouldn’t listen to them. Iverson starts to turn away when she runs into Baylor’s right hand man. He attempts to assassinate her, stabs her and almost gets away with it, but Iverson grabs her own knife and in turn stabs him and kills him. Though injured and now poisoned, she needs to hide the body. When she returns to her room later that night, Thorne is there. He is proud of her for killing him, but then he sees that she is injured and insists that he take care of her. That night Thorne holds her until she falls asleep, but he isn’t there in the morning.

That night Iverson has a dream about her future wedding with Baylor, so she goes to him to have a conversation about it. It turns into a fight about how Baylor will dispose of her when she has outlived her usefulness. Mid-fight, Remy shows up and says he found the Angel of Mercy, and it is Iverson. Iverson is shocked and decides that Remy has been listening to the whispers and is now a Forsaken, because there is no way the man who basically raised her would turn her in like that. Baylor gives her a direct command to go into her room until he arrives. Thanks to the necklace, she has to obey.

Iverson finds out that Baylor is making plans to expedite their wedding so that he can protect her. So Iverson waits for her moment. When Baylor arrives, she has her clone Rose take over, and Iverson is able to run away. She watches as her clone goes to the aisle and is about to say “I do” when Rose stabs Baylor in the face. Iverson meanwhile is slowly losing consciousness. Being so far away from her clone, she can’t handle it anymore. That is how Thorne finds her, broken and bloody. He flies her nearby to get her fixed up.

After being healed, she has enough time to explain to Thorne what is about to happen next, which is pure torture. Since she still has the necklace on, Baylor can torture her from afar. Thus starts hours and hours of torture where she can’t breathe, she screams, and so much more. Thorne holds her through all of it until it is finally done.

Iverson starts to recover but doesn’t get enough time because the Forsaken are coming for them. It turns into an all-out fight, and Thorne manages to find the sword. When Baylor arrives, he believes that he can control Thorne by using the sword’s magic. Thorne pretends to play a part and go for Iverson, but in reality he swings the sword at Iverson to take the necklace off of her and successfully does it. Baylor then turns his focus on Iverson. He says that he is the true Heir of Illusion, not Maebyn in the prison. He then goes to stab Thorne, but Iverson intercepts the hit and Baylor stabs her badly, enough that Thorne believes her to be dead.

Iverson is in a lot of pain, and Thorne keeps saying that she is dead, but she doesn’t feel fully dead. Eventually she wakes up, surprising everyone there. Their surprise turns to paranoia. They make Iverson show her back, and when she does everyone is shocked to see wings. Iverson is the true Heir of Death. He clarifies and says that he is just a reaper, and when the God of Death disappeared, he took over because no one else would. He then tells Iverson that she is indeed the Heir and that her ascension has just begun.