Realm of Wind and Vines by Marion Blackwood

Here is a summary with spoilers for Realm of Wind and Vines by Marion Blackwood

Selena is hanging in there. She made the choice to put hate in her mate’s heart, and now Draven can’t even look at her. She is holding on to hope that he will one day remember her, and she is actively trying things to make him remember how he originally felt about her. Draven, meanwhile, if he isn’t ignoring her, is trying to humiliate her at all times, including tying her up and leaving her for others to find. Orion and Isera are also traveling with the two of them, and Orion continues to find ways to make Isera angry.

All four of them sit down and have a conversation. They have a mission to complete. They need allies to take down the Icehearts, and as they are visiting courts, they realize the Icehearts have already gotten to many of them and have scared them all into helping. During one of these visits, it turns to fighting, and Draven feels a slight pull toward Selena, but he decides to ignore it. Though when they have to flee and Draven holds her as he flies, he feels it again and drops her from the sky. At the last minute, Draven grabs her again, but when they get to the ground, he pushes her away, claiming that she is doing something to him that he doesn’t want.

While Selena wants to talk about the pull, they are interrupted when Rin shows up. Rin was part of Draven’s old clan and an old friend. But she is now being controlled by the Icehearts thanks to the dragonsteel. She is forced to take their orders, and her orders are to attack and get Draven. During the fighting, Rin and Draven both transform into their dragons, and Draven gets hurt badly. Selena gets possessive and uses her powers to take down everyone who is attacking her mate, though in the end, Draven still ends up passed out. Selena grabs him and takes him to a cave so she can heal him. Isera and Orion follow close behind, also slightly injured. While the two of them bicker, Selena pours everything she has into healing Draven, then passes out.

Draven wakes the next morning, sore and next to a passed out Selena. He is angry that she healed him and doesn’t want to feel like he needs her. But when Selena wakes up, she insists that he needs a bit more of her power to heal. As soon as he feels the bond again, he pushes her away.

Their next plan is to head to a nearby clan. In charge of the clan is Serena, who immediately doesn’t want to trust them thanks to what Draven has done in the past. She allows them to stay to make their case as to why they should join their side. That evening, she invites them all to a party. Selena uses it as an opportunity to make the bond grow jealous. She and Orion dance together, and Draven does grab her and pull her away from Orion. They have one of their first real conversations, but when things get real for Draven, he leaves, not wanting to feel the bond.

Days go by while they continue to meet and prepare, and also figure out which court or clan to visit next for allies. Selena decides to have her own plan, which is to seduce Draven. It works, and they have a moment together, but at the end, he still hates her and leaves. Selena is slowly running out of options of what to do with her mate. That soon turns to the back of her mind as the Icehearts arrive, both Jessinia and Bane.

Orion and Selena manage to tackle Bane down and keep him down with their magic. They don’t want to kill him yet, because if Jessinia finds out her mate is dead, she will release all sorts of unhinged plans into the kingdom and no one will be safe. So they sit there patiently waiting, while Orion feeds Bane some of his old memories to keep him occupied. Orion offers to put Selena through his memories as well to infiltrate his mind, and she agrees. Selena sees how terrible the fae treated him and Jessinia in the past. By the end, she feels a little pity and realizes it is no wonder they are such terrible people for what they have been through.

Orion and Selena start to hear the fighting die down, and Isera comes to tell them it is because Jessinia took Draven and left. That is when Selena starts to feel immense pain through the bond. She makes Orion torture Bane as well, just so that everyone feels the pain. Once the torturing stops, Selena decides she is going after Draven. Everyone wants to plan, but she is ready to go right then, so that night she enlists Isera for help.

The two girls arrive and realize it is a trick. Draven is not there, but Lavendera is, and she is basically the new right-hand woman for the Icehearts. She gives the girls a note saying that Jessinia wants to have a meeting to trade hostages. The next day, they do just that. Draven has definitely been tortured, but looks fine besides that. They make the switch, but Jessinia is not done. As everyone else has already left through a portal, she brings out Selena’s parents and has them murdered right in front of her. Jessinia says this is not a game. It is war.

Selena goes back, not wanting to be comforted, but wanting to sit in her rage and fury, which soon turns to vengeance. Selena decides that her revenge first needs to start with Lavendera. They make their plan quickly, and Selena even gets close enough to have a knife to her neck, ready to make the kill. But the Queen of the Dryads shows up and says that no one is allowed to kill Lavendera. She begs for her safety, and there is no other debate because Jessinia arrives and comes right after them. They are all forced to run away, and they follow the Dryad Queen to her home in hopes for answers.

On the way to the Dryad kingdom, Draven is the one who helps Selena escape, and Selena has decided she has had enough. When they stop, she starts a fight with him and uses her magic on him to make him feel what she feels for him. He struggles, but with her encouragement, Draven manages to break free of the hatred and is back to his normal self. The two make up, have their moment together, and are happy to be feeling the bond again. They then go back to the Queen to get their answers. Her answer as to why Lavendera can’t be killed yet is because the Dryads claim her as one of their own. At the same time, another theory is that Lavendera is Bane’s child.

The group decides they need to make a new plan, as Bane should still be recovering from his torture, so now might be the best time to make their move. The plan is to sneak Lavendera out of the castle and use her as a hostage, or at least keep her on their side. During the planning, Selena realizes that she needs to be the villain, but not for everyone. She just wants to be the villain for the Icehearts. She wants to come out of the war still partially herself.

Orion and Isera use a glamour to impersonate the Icehearts, and they are able to sneak into the castle, grab Lavendera, and sneak back out. But once Lavendera finds out it was a trick, she freaks out, saying they ruined everything and that she won’t be able to get what she came for. She reveals that she is the Queen of the Seelie Court’s daughter, which upsets Orion, because Isera said it was her, and that was the only reason Orion joined their side. Lavendera has been alive for 6,000 years and was there during the first war. She has been infiltrating the Icehearts because she wants the Soul of Trees. Not only that, but the Mother Dryad has been fused with Lavendera and is now part of her, which is why she hasn’t been aging all those years. The group promises to help her find the Tree of Souls.

Their meeting is interrupted when they are once again attacked. This time it is by the purple dragon clan, which was Serena’s clan, a clan they thought was on their side. But she reveals she had no choice. Dragonsteel was used on her, and the whole group walked right into their trap. During the fighting, Selena runs to protect Isera and ends up getting blasted. Selena blacks out for a moment and wakes up to blue and silver eyes. He says to her, “Selena,” and she responds with, “Who is Selena?”