Riftborne by Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox

Here is a summary with spoilers for Riftborne by Bree Grenwich and Parker Lennox

Fia is a twenty-three-year-old Riftborne refugee trying to live quietly in Sídhe’s capital, working in Ma’s apothecary and keeping her past hidden. Her white hair and shadowed eyes already set her apart, and the branded mark on her hand is something she keeps covered at all times. When she volunteers to deliver tonics to an elite gathering in the Grove, it is meant to be routine. Instead, the night forces her to confront the past she has been avoiding. After running into girls from her former foster home, their comments about the drowning of her Riftborne friends trigger a violent reaction. Fia’s power erupts without warning, stripping their voices and leaving them collapsed on the ground. She believes she has killed them, and to her horrot, Genral Laryk Ashford was there to witness it all. Later, Laryk reveals they survived, their memories altered so no one else knows what happened.

Laryk uses that moment to force Fia into his control. He offers her a place in his elite unit, Faction Venom, framing it as an opportunity to learn control over her ability. The reality is a threat. If she refuses, her actions will be exposed and she will face consequences for attacking nobility. Fia initially considers running, but after nearly losing control again in a crowded street, she realizes her power is unpredictable and dangerous. She accepts Laryk’s offer because she believes learning control is the only way to prevent harming others. She is worried to tell Ma, as the guard have killed many of her loved ones. 

Training begins with a deliberate attempt to provoke her. Laryk forces her to confront the guard responsible for opening the dam that killed her friends. In that moment, her power manifests more clearly as something tied to her spine and mind, allowing her to lift and control others. She stops herself from killing him, but Laryk executes the man anyway. From that point forward, Fia understands that while she is being trained, she is also being shaped into a weapon. Instead of elemental control, she can enter and manipulate consciousness, influencing thoughts and actions directly.

Under Callum Mercer’s leadership, Fia trains alongside other recruits with different abilities, including lightning, fire, shielding, and nature manipulation. Before training fully begins, they are bound by blood oaths that prevent them from sharing information. Mercer introduces the primary threat: Wraiths, shadow entities drawn to arcanite crystals, capable of suffocating victims and moving undetected. No known weapon can kill them. Training intensifies to prepare for these encounters, including simulated suffocation. Fia struggles more than the others, often losing consciousness when her power activates defensively, highlighting both its strength and instability.

At the same time, her personal life deteriorates. Her relationship with Ma breaks down as Ma refuses to accept Fia’s involvement with the Guard. This conflict is rooted in Ma’s own past loss at the hands of the Guard, making reconciliation impossible. Fia eventually leaves the apothecary and moves into the Compound, fully separating from her previous life. Within the Guard, she begins to understand more about her ability. During a confrontation with Baelor, she discovers she can control someone without force, entering his mind and commanding his actions directly. 

As missions approach, the danger of the Wraiths becomes immediate. A reconnaissance team is completely wiped out, confirming the threat is active and lethal. Training escalates into full combat simulations, where Fia’s ability proves ineffective against mindless illusions, forcing her to rely on others like Nazul for protection. After passing their final test, the recruits are officially inducted and prepared for deployment. Before leaving, Fia breaks into the restricted storage area holding their blood oath vials and destroys her own, removing the magical restriction on her silence. She then returns to Ma and reveals the truth about everything, including the Wraiths. Ma responds by creating a potion that allows temporary resistance to suffocation, giving Fia a practical way to survive encounters with the creatures.

Fia is then separated from her team and sent with Laryk to Emeraal. During the journey, she learns more about his abilities, which involve reading intent and anticipating actions, though they do not work on her. She also discovers her own power extends into dreams, realizing she has been entering other people’s minds while they sleep; including looking into Laryk’s dream which happens to be a sexual one about her. This expands her understanding of her ability beyond anything she was told during training. At Emeraal, she is excluded from strategic discussions, reinforcing that she is being used rather than trusted. This only makes her more upset towards Laryk who brought her and then she felt abandoned. Especially when he keeps spending time with his second in commmand, Narissa, who Fia believes is a very beautiful girl. After a particulary long day where Narissa and Laryk spent a lot of time together, Fia decided to go and find a distraction for herself. Though Laryk quickly found her, and brought her back to their shared room. Their fight turned quickly to kissing and they spent the night together where Laryk admits he has had feelings for Fia for quite some time now. 

That night Fia wakes to a dream that the Wraits snuck into the town. Though when Laryk goes searching, he finds nothing. The next day the king and queen arrive and there is a party in their honor. Fia’s friend, Osta also arrives, and they all go to the party, which is when the attack happens. The Wraith attack on Emeraal confirms the scale of the threat. The creatures bypass expected defenses and target the arcanite directly. During the battle, Fia uses Ma’s potion to counter their suffocation ability and discovers she can perceive movement through darkness using her mind. In a critical moment, she draws the surrounding shadows into herself, absorbing and then releasing them in a way that disrupts the Wraiths. This display of power is unlike anything seen before and confirms her connection to the shadows is far deeper than simple manipulation; in the process she passes out. 

Immediately after the battle, Fia is taken by forces from Umbrathia, a separate realm connected to the Wraiths. She is brought to Ravenfell, where she meets Aether, who identifies her as one of the Umbra, a shadow-wielding people. He claims that Sídhe has been draining resources from other worlds, including his, and implies that Fia’s origin and abilities tie her to that conflict. When she sees the darkness physically present in her own reflection, it confirms that her identity is not what she believed, as she looks very different.