The Emperor’s Enemy by Jasmine Mas

Here is a summary with spoilers for The Emperor’s Enemy by Jasmine Mas

Zora Ravenal, known as the Bear of the North, lives in the Northern Commune of the Commonwealth of Westmere, where she hunts dangerous creatures to help support her community and her mother. Westmere is at war with the Draconis Empire, ruled by Emperor Aleksander the Sadistic, whose Royal Mages use storm magic against the Commonwealth. A mysterious Mist has disrupted modern technology, leaving the two sides to combine military equipment with magic, swords, and other traditional weapons. Zora’s hatred of the Empire is personal. Her best friend, Aurora, is murdered by the Empire’s feared assassin, Tarantula, and Zora believes the Emperor and his forces are responsible for the suffering of her people. Four months before the main story, Zora tracks Tarantula through the forest, attacks him, and discovers Aurora’s dead body. She stabs Tarantula and removes his platinum mask but spares his life when her mother begs her not to kill him. Zora captures him and brings him to the Commonwealth, where he becomes a prisoner. Eight years earlier, when Zora was fifteen, she had also encountered a strange boy in the forest. After he insults her, she breaks his nose, and he bites her throat before declaring that she belongs to him. Her mother interrupts their fight and reveals that the boy is Crown Prince Aleksander. The encounter leaves Zora with a permanent scar and establishes the connection between her and the future Emperor.

Two months after joining the Crimson Army, Zora participates in military training and survives an attack by a giant dire scorpion. When another recruit, Kane, is poisoned, Zora kills the creature and carries him back to safety. Her actions attract the attention of Marshal Kalen Reeves, who allows her to undergo the Iron Ritual to become a Knight Mage. Knight Mages are expected to gain defensive magic that can neutralize the Empire’s storm magic, but the ritual is extremely dangerous and has a very low survival rate. During the procedure, Zora experiences visions of an emerald-colored elven figure named Barren and awakens with unexpected powers. Rather than receiving the anticipated defensive abilities, she discovers that she can wield offensive water magic capable of producing powerful storms. Reeves realizes that she is a Royal Mage, the very type of magic user the Commonwealth is fighting against. He orders her to conceal her powers and assigns her a secret mission called Code Name: Quest. Zora must remain close to Tarantula, learn from him, and discover the Empire’s most important military asset. She is formally knighted and introduced to the Commonwealth’s other Knight Mages, twins Axel and Ella. Tarantula becomes her personal magic instructor, although he remains a prisoner and wears a shock collar intended to suppress his abilities. He moves into Zora’s quarters, forcing them to share a room while they train, argue, and compete against one another. Zora’s talking pygmy owl, Squire, frequently insults Tarantula, adding to the hostility between them. Tarantula treats Zora as his inferior and calls her his vassal, while she uses the collar’s control mechanism to punish him when he provokes her. Despite their hatred, their interactions become increasingly charged, and Tarantula repeatedly displays an unusual possessiveness toward her.

As Zora trains, she struggles to control her new magic while keeping it secret from the other soldiers. She practices with Reeves in a hidden chamber, gradually learning to direct water toward specific targets. Tarantula pushes her through punishing exercises involving running, weapons, and magical combat, while their nightly chess games repeatedly end in stalemates. Zora also discovers clues that suggest the Commonwealth’s political leadership is hiding secrets of its own. During a visit to the military base’s rotunda, she notices that the elected Marshals throughout the Commonwealth’s history share remarkably similar blue eyes and facial features. Meanwhile, the Empire continues to threaten the North. Aleksander places a bounty on Zora and publicizes her capture of Tarantula, making her a target. Worried about her mother, Zora persuades Reeves to let her return to the Northern Commune, with Tarantula accompanying her. They discover that the settlement has been attacked and that council leader Manto has been killed. Two Royal Mages confront them and demand that Tarantula hand Zora over. Instead, Tarantula attacks the pair, killing them with powerful magic. When Zora becomes trapped beneath a mass of snow, Tarantula breaks free of his restraints and uses his abilities to rescue her. During the confrontation, he calls out to Barren, whose elven form appears. Zora reaches her home and discovers that her mother is still alive, protected by a local fighter named Vale. Her mother refuses to abandon the North, telling Zora to remain good despite everything happening around her. Tarantula carries the exhausted Zora back toward the forest. Afterward, Reeves explains that Tarantula’s willingness to kill fellow Royal Mages to protect Zora suggests that he has become compromised. Reeves advances Quest to its next phase, sending Zora and the other Mages to investigate suspected Imperial spies in Babilon.

During their training and missions, Tarantula’s possessiveness becomes increasingly violent. When Shadow Sword Ryse kisses Zora, Tarantula attacks him, throwing him through a window and beating him until Zora intervenes. Tarantula later bites Zora’s thigh during training and warns her against touching another man, although he also brings her medicine when she suffers menstrual cramps. Zora continues hiding her water magic while the Commonwealth prepares for further attacks. Reeves eventually sends Zora, Tarantula, Axel, and Ella to Babilon to eliminate two Royal Mages suspected of spying for the Empire. The first target, Sibrain Cortz, operates a tavern. Zora pretends to be intoxicated on fairy wine to lure him away from the others, but Sibrain recognizes the danger and attacks her with storm magic. Zora fights back and wounds him, after which Tarantula arrives and decapitates him with her dagger. Enraged by the danger she faced, Tarantula destroys the tavern’s surroundings with his magic and sets the establishment ablaze. Zora secretly uses her water powers to extinguish the flames and protect the civilians inside. Tarantula carries her out as the building collapses. The group then moves to the second target, Arcturus, who operates a bathhouse. Zora realizes that the complimentary fairy wine has been poisoned, but the group is already exposed. Arcturus reveals himself as a massive dire bear shifter and attacks them. As Tarantula and the twins weaken from the poison, Zora fights the creature underwater, stabs its heart, and uses her water magic to drown it. During the battle, she experiences another vision of Barren, who identifies her as the Keeper of his forest and charges her with protecting the innocent. Zora obtains the antidote and saves her companions. She also learns that her connection to Barren is more significant than the powers she acquired during the Iron Ritual.

After returning to the military base, Zora learns that Reeves considers the Babilon mission complete, although he warns that another player is influencing the conflict. Tarantula remains under guard, and Zora continues using his shock collar to question him about his behavior, his relationship with the Emperor, and his role in Aurora’s death. Their relationship becomes sexual, but Zora remains focused on her mission and does not trust him. When news arrives that another Imperial threat has emerged, she knocks Tarantula unconscious and leaves him behind. At the base, she discovers a newspaper depicting a Royal Mage with an ouroboros tattoo holding her kidnapped mother. The image matches a portrait she found in her mother’s journal, identifying the man as her father, Marx Ravenal. Reeves gives Zora a tracking device and detonator and orders her to attach it to Plague, the golden dragon that serves as the Empire’s ultimate military asset. Zora understands that she must reach the Empire and get close enough to the dragon for the Commonwealth to target it. She rides east toward Port Crow, intending to rescue her mother and carry out the mission. Tarantula escapes his restraints and follows her. After pirates attack Zora, he intervenes, but the two are captured and taken aboard an Imperial ship pulled by Plague. Tarantula protects Zora during the journey, continuing to act as though she belongs to him. When they reach the Empire, Zora confronts the Emperor and demands her mother’s return. The Emperor insists that she accompany him to his palace, but Zora reveals that she has uncovered his secret.

Tarantula is not the Emperor’s assassin at all. He is Aleksander himself, who has been disguising his identity by dyeing his hair, concealing his appearance behind a mask, and mutilating his neck to hide the scar left by Zora’s dagger. The real Tarantula, Aleksander’s Royal Mage cousin, has served as his body double. Aleksander explains that he has been obsessed with Zora since their childhood encounter and that his actions, including the murder of Aurora and the pursuit of Zora, are tied to his desire to possess her. He also reveals that Marx Ravenal, Zora’s father, is a Dark Storm Fae, making Zora a Royal Fae halfling. Her unusual powers and connection to Barren are therefore tied to her heritage and a history she does not fully remember. Aleksander’s shock collar has never truly controlled him; he has allowed Zora to believe she can restrain him. He reveals his true Storm Fae form and manifests liquid-platinum wings, demonstrating that his power is far greater than she understood. Aleksander believes Fae should rule over humans and expects Zora to accept their connection and submit to him. Zora refuses his offer. She uses her water magic to create a vortex during the ensuing confrontation, then plunges into the ocean storm rather than allow him to claim her. Aleksander searches for her and eventually finds her on the shore. He attaches platinum cuffs to her to amplify and control her magic, then takes her onto Plague. Zora pretends to accept him and calls him “My Aleksander,” concealing her actual plan. While riding the dragon, she secretly attaches the Commonwealth’s tracking device to Plague and activates the fusion missile system. The missile follows the target signal through the Mist and strikes Plague in midair. The dragon is destroyed, and Aleksander and Zora fall toward the ground amid the falling dragon’s blood. Aleksander uses his wings to catch Zora, and the two reach the muddy shore alive, with the Emperor still determined to keep her.

The final chapter reveals that Zora had recognized Aleksander’s identity much earlier, on the day she underwent the Iron Ritual. She recognized his voice, scent, and wind magic despite his disguise as Tarantula. Rather than expose him immediately, she told Reeves what she suspected, allowing the Marshal to design Quest around Aleksander’s obsession with her. The Commonwealth intended to use Zora as bait to make Aleksander take her to Plague, allowing them to locate and destroy the dragon. Zora knowingly accepted the dangerous assignment because destroying the Empire’s greatest weapon offered a chance to break the military stalemate and protect the Commonwealth. The epilogue returns to eight years earlier, when Aleksander was fifteen and first encountered Zora in the North. He remembers seeing her carrying a dire coyote carcass down a mountain and becoming fixated on her goodness. His obsession grows into a plan to manipulate her through years of deception, false identities, and calculated suffering. He intends to force her into submission, even if doing so destroys the world around them. The book ends with Plague destroyed, Aleksander alive, and Zora still refusing to submit to him.