Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

In a kingdom where the gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms, a princess has spent her life kneeling to them and her father. Odessa is a princess from Quentis, the oldest sibling, although not often treated as such. The daughter that gets all the attention is her half-sister Mae. She has been given training in just about everything, meanwhile Odessa sits in the background and is expected to be obedient.

Both sisters are expected to marry and are betrothed. Odessa to the captain of her father’s guard, thus keeping the army happy. And Mae is betrothed to Prince Zavier Wolfe, prince of Turan. Odessa’s relationships with her family are not great. Her mother died young, and she has no idea what she looked like. Her stepmom, Margo, doesn’t care for her much, her father ignores her, her fiancé has no love for her, but her sister Mae—they may have their differences but they get along, same with her half-brother who is twenty years younger than her.

One day, the commander and Odessa are out walking in the city when they hear that the famous Guardian and his prince, Zavier, are there, coming to the king to collect Mae. Odessa runs quickly to the castle so she can be there for the reception. Her stepmom helps get her ready, tries to dye her red hair so she blends in, and dresses her in gray, as she has been her whole life. While in the throne room, Mae is introduced. The Guardian speaks for Zavier but says he won’t accept Mae—they want Odessa. After a lot of bickering and negotiation, Odessa is to be wed to Zavier Wolfe by the end of the night.

Alone with her father, the king tells Odessa the plan that has been in the making for years. Mae has been trained to be a spy, an assassin, and much more, all for the moment that she could be married to Zavier so that when the opportunity arose, she could kill the Guardian. That task is now Odessa’s. Her father wants her to spy on them, figure out what the Guardian’s powers are, report back, and if possible, kill the Guardian. The wedding ceremony takes place, a treaty is signed stating that neither can kill the other, and if they do, the other will also die. It is signed in their blood—it can’t be broken.

The next morning, Odessa is swept away to Zavier’s ship. She quickly realizes that both the Guardian and Zavier are irksome, broody, and irritating. But she keeps to herself, realizing that she also has quite a bit of freedom compared to before. A couple of days into their journey to Turan, the ship is attacked. A giant monster almost destroys the ship, and it even throws Odessa overboard. Thanks to her swimming skills, she is able to be saved, though just barely. She insists that she wants a knife or a sword to protect herself. The Guardian says they will do it. Later, Odessa overhears that Zavier believes Odessa will try to kill the Guardian, that they should not arm her, and that something is spreading. Odessa runs away before she is caught.

After a week at sea, Odessa and her handmaid Brielle and Jossalyn finally make it to Zavier’s kingdom; now they must trek on horseback to get to the city. The Guardian takes it upon himself to train Odessa, and he is brutal, both mentally and physically; so much so that Zavier comes in to stop the Guardian during one of the training sessions. Zavier and Odessa don’t get to talk much either; Zavier is keeping up his ruse of not talking much, and he doesn’t look at her during their free time. He does come to tell her that he is leaving to his city, she will take a different way, and the Guardian lets slip that it’s because Odessa is not trusted to go into the city. So she is taken to a town nearby, an almost jungle city, where her home is up in the trees. The Guardian continues her training, and Odessa is not giving up on it. She also spends much of her free time at the library, trying to get any information she possibly can.

Weeks go by; her training continues. The only odd thing that happens while Odessa is there is the king comes to visit. She is told to hide and not make herself known, all while his soldiers come into the village and burn the library and any other books that were found. One morning, during her training with the Guardian, a young girl arrives. She and the Guardian have a nice little conversation, but then Zavier arrives; the little girl runs right up to him and calls him papa.

After weeks, Zavier and Odessa are finally able to talk. He admits that the girl, Evangeline, is his, and her mother died in childbirth. Almost no one knows this secret, and Zavier would not have told Odessa; she just got lucky she found out. Odessa promises to keep that secret, along with the one of Zavier not being able to talk. But Odessa has had enough—she wants to go out and explore, especially the kingdom that she is supposed to be a queen for. So she is able to sneak into the city, but once she checks into the first inn, the Guardian appears. He’s pissed that she snuck out, and tells her she can go explore, but they are leaving the next day. The Guardian sleeps in her same room that night.

The next day arrives, and they don’t get to leave because there is an attack on the city. The Guardian tells her to go back to her room, but she doesn’t; she stays to help attack the Bearwolves. There are way too many of them, but Odessa is able to take out a few and help the Guardian out. At the end of the fight, Odessa has an arrow pointed right at the Guardian, but she realizes she can’t kill him. The Guardian realizes this as well. That night, both of them feel guilty about the day’s events.

The next day, the two share a horse and head out to a new city where Zavier will be. While riding, Odessa processes things she learned about: King Ramsy also burnt down the library in that town, the Bearwolves had green blood, and the Guardian and she are on unstable footing.

In the new city, Zavier and Evangeline are there. Odessa goes into a new normal, spending most of her time with Evangeline and spending dinner with her and Zavier. Every once in a while, the Guardian will show up and continue to train her. On one of her mornings with Evangeline, she takes her to an old cellar, where some people are hiding books. It is here that she finds out that maps are also forbidden in the kingdom.

Zavier goes back out to hunt the beasts. The Guardian takes Evangeline and Odessa to the jungle city to collect her horse. While they journey, Evangeline and Odessa tell each other that they are both princesses. When she finally falls asleep, Odessa asks questions of the Guardian. He reveals that the Bearwolves have an infection which causes them to have green blood. The disease is going fast, and they aren’t sure where it came from. The Guardian then reveals that he was bitten by one four years ago; he has already come to terms with his eventual death, but for now is happy to go out and try to find out why it is happening. He admits that because of the bite, he has enhanced powers, and that sometimes a priest will come to siphon his powers/blood to study it. He then says that Odessa can help him learn more information; although Odessa just hears that as an opportunity to maybe find a cure for him.

Back in the jungle city, they are attacked once again. Odessa fights them again and is able to save a bunch of children that were in the wrong place. The Guardian is so thankful for her actions and tells her that he is leaving soon to a nearby city that had an attack to see if they can get answers.

While they are searching, Odessa finds a litter of animals. She wants to take it home and care for it, but the Guardian won’t until they can confirm it’s not a beast. He checks the blood and it is red. Odessa says that she would have killed the animal herself if it had been green. The Guardian then makes her promise that if it came down to it, she would kill him if he became a monster. She agrees, and in turn, the Guardian shares his real name: Ransom.

The two continue going to another city where there was a recent attack — it gives them a chance to reveal Odessa as the princess but also a chance to talk to other cities to learn what they know about the beasts. While at one of the cities, they are stopped by one of King Ramsy’s soldiers, then the king himself. He looks at Ransom and tells him he has one month to get back to their capital city, or else.

When the pair get back to the jungle city, Odessa runs into Jossalyn kissing her husband Zavier. She runs away, going through a lot of feelings—feeling like she’s never a first choice. But at the same time, a bit relieved, thinking she shouldn’t feel as bad about her feelings towards Ransom now that her husband is sleeping with another. Ransom then comes in to comfort her. He reveals that he is indeed the prince, that he and Odessa are actually married, not Zavier. Odessa tells him to leave before anything else can be explained. The next morning, feeling her pride has been bruised, Jossalyn shows up and says she is so sorry. Out of somewhat kindness, Odessa sends her home, as she was homesick and Zavier was one of the few offering kindness. She then goes to both men ready to fight again.

Ransom tells her that it has been a ruse for the past 10 years, that Zavier is his cousin and that they look enough alike that they can usually switch positions. He says he knew that her sister Mae was meant to be a spy, and that she was the next best option. This just makes her feel worse—feels second best and being used as a pawn. He explains it could be seen as a kindness, since he is sick and will likely die, she will then be freed to do what she wants. He also goes on to explain that Evangeline is actually his sister. His mother married the king but never loved him, although he fell for her. For years he tried to gain her love, but they had Ransom together, then she had an affair. His father found out, killed the lover, and started to kill his mom. Ransom saved her, took her away, but she was pregnant. The child is not the king’s.

Continuing with sharing secrets, Ransom says that Odessa’s father is most likely trying to find a way to break the treaty so the kingdoms can fight for land. They think that the king is going to try and go for the vosters (fosters, sorry, I listened to the audiobook), priests with magic. If he kills them, then the treaty can be broken, or it is believed. But Ransom and his father have them hidden in their city that Odessa is not allowed in yet. Ramsy burns the libraries because some people hide information in those books, and he doesn’t want any of the other kings to get that info.

Later, there is another attack on the city, so Zavier and Ransom go out to track them. He comes back, and as he does, so does a priest who touches Odessa. She feels his magic and it hurts. He then asks who her mother is. Before she can respond, someone says that Evangeline is gone. Luckily she is found, but then they discuss the priest later. Ransom can’t feel the magic; he finds it odd that Odessa can. They discuss that maybe she has something inside her that is drawing the monsters to her; she feels extreme guilt for this, thinking the deaths are now her fault. That night, she also finally forgives Ransom and fully chooses to be his.

The next day, Ransom and Zavier go out to look again. Odessa runs into one of the king’s guards; he is foaming at the mouth and extremely hot. He strangles Odessa, and she is almost killed, but she manages to kill him instead, and green blood leaves him. Ransom is livid that this happened to her, and for the next two weeks stays by her to help heal her.

During her healing time, Odessa has time to think, and she has a hunch. She goes to a woman, Luella, who she finds out is Ransom’s mother, and starts to question her. Odessa realizes that she is under a blood oath, so she can’t speak clearly on some things. The woman admits a flurry of things. Luella created the disease that is going around. She used it on animals a while ago, and since she saw it do good things, she decided to test it on Ransom when he was a kid. It didn’t do much. Later on in life, the queen’s love for the king finally halted; Luella never loved him, but she finally had an affair, and that set the king overboard. He also found out what she did to Ransom, so he killed her lover, then attempted to kill her until Ransom got in the way. Then four years ago Ransom was bitten by one of the monsters, and it changed him. With the thing Luella gave him, and the bite, Ransom became superhuman. When the king figured that out, he started experimenting on his own, which is when Odessa ran into one of his soldiers foaming at the mouth. He hasn’t been successful, because none of his people have been bitten. Ransom is pissed at this revelation, and his mom promises she has been working on a cure and will continue to do so.

Ransom realizes that things need to stop; he is going to go to the king’s city and kill his father and his men that are infected, stopping at least one of their problems. Odessa can’t go because she is still not fully trusted. But Ransom spends his time with her until it’s time to go; all during that time, Odessa tries to think of ways she can help.

Ransom doesn’t have time to go to the city, Ramsy comes for him, along with a surprise. Odessa’s old fiancé, Banner, is there working with the king. He reveals he is not there for Odessa, he is there for the real love of his life, Brielle, her ladies maid. Not only that, but Josalyn is also there, never having left, but also a spy. The king then says he wants to talk to Luella, his wife. He knows about her daughter, but before they can continue talking about it, monsters invade. Monsters that aren’t supposed to arrive for months. The city is not prepared, as usually this is the migration for the beasts, and they have the summer to prepare and get supplies, this time they come straight for the city. The first casualty, Luella. The next casualty comes when Odessa goes to protect and find Evangeline. When she finds her, Banner arrives coming to kill Odessa. Zavier comes and tries to finish the job; but instead gets a knife to the gut while his fake daughter Evangeline holds him. Ransom and Odessa make a plan, as they finally admit that the monsters are there because of Odessa. She will take Evangeline and leave the city, he will come for them when the time is clear. A priest intercepts them, and helps them on their way. In a POV chapter from Ransom, he is walking along all the corpses, he mentions that Zavier is fighting for his life, as are many others. Then he goes to retrieve his sword, which is embedded in a woman, a woman who has the exact same hair as Odessa. He instructs his men to burn the body.