The War of Two Queens By Jennifer L. Armentrout

alwayswandering
Sep 7, 2024
6 min read

Updated: Dec 24, 2024

Starting off where book three ended, Cas is in the clutches of Isbeth, the Blood Queen of Solis (who is also Poppy's biological mother) when he sacrifices himself for Poppy's freedom. She has Cas in a dungeon and comes to visit him with her creepy Revenant handmaidens who have a lot of face makeup. We learn that she's not a god, she's a demis - a false god.
Meanwhile Poppy is assembling her army to take some of Solis’s cities. Everyone keeps chiding Poppy that she's not acting like a proper queen, but she doesn't care. She's so upset about Cas being imprisoned that she can't even think about his name, it's just ...him... everything she is doing is trying and get Cas back to her.
They take the city of Massene, trying to minimize civilian casualties, but the army in Solis has already killed a bunch of people and hung their bodies all over the walls, dressed in Maiden veils like Poppy used to have to wear. In the castle, they find an old lady that speaks in rhymes. The old lady mentions a prophecy that Poppy is the queen of flesh and fire, and the first mortal came from draken fire and the flesh of a primal.
Poppy has her drakens (dragon shifters) with her, and the one in charge is called Reaver. He tells Poppy that the first female descendent of the Primal of Life and her have a lot in common, and she's going to need to drink blood.
Back to Cas's POV - a queen’s handmaid comes to his cell and tells him that Poppy has blood from both the Primal of Life and the Primal of Death. Also, Nyktos is not the true primal of death as we all once believed. Cas is wondering about this handmaiden who for some reason has come to visit him.
Poppy is dreaming, and they're back in Cas's cavern. Cas is there too, they kiss, but also have a chat, right before Poppy wakes up, they both think that maybe it isn’t a dream, but it is real. Before she can talk about her dream to Kieran, a big storm comes and kills 16 of her drakens with lightning. She tries to heal them but she can't because Reaver tells her that only the Primal of Life can heal beings that are of two worlds.
After this devastating attack, Reaver starts to throw a bunch of information to the group. They all thought Nyktos was the Primal of Life and Death, but he's not either of those things. Kolis is the Primal of Death. Eythos was the Primal of Life, he's Nyktos's father. - read Flesh and Fire series to learn even more about them.
Poppy and her army move on to Oak Ambler, a port city. They take it and save all the innocents. Poppy gets a surprise ‘gift’ of Cas's chopped-off finger in a box, wearing his wedding ring. There's also a note that says her mom is sorry for hurting her like this but she needs her to come home. The group discusses how to get Cas back, and they decide to use Primal magic to locate Cas, even though it's forbidden.
Tawny shows up, she looks different; her hair and eyes have turned white but she's healed from her coma. While in her coma, she learns a lot, and she travels just to tell Poppy what she found out. She saw Vikter, who is a viktor - someone charged by the Fates with protecting someone important. He knew all kinds of stuff about Poppy but he can't tell them everything because it would make the Fates mad and bring an unfair balance into the world. He gave Tawny a much longer version of the prophecy that talks about two promised queens, one of flesh and fire and one of ash and ice. Vikter also said that it's forbidden to say the Consort's name because it's so powerful, but he says Poppy knows who she is.
Poppy, Kieran, and Reaver go to the ascended city to get Cas back. They run into a handmaiden with a painted face, she tells them that there is no way they can sneak into the castle and that they should just walk into the city and surrender. They do.
They arrive while the queen holds court, Poppy corners her and demands to see Cas, and the queen says sure. He's in bad shape and blood-crazed, but Poppy heals him. He's just going to stay in prison for a bit more, though. Poppy stabs the queen's pet Revanent, named Callum (who also was the one who took Cas’s finger off). Sadly Callum can’t die, but Poppy at least feels good about killing him.
Poppy spends a long time talking with her mom. She explained that Malec is her heartmate, and Cas's mom tricked and imprisoned him. She thought he was dead but he's not, and she wants him back. In the meantime, the queen imprisoned and coerced his twin brother Ires into impregnating her. Her real father is the cave cat that Poppy saw in the castle in the last book.
Back with Cas, the handmaiden with a painted face, Millicent visits him. She washes her hair and face, and she looks exactly like Poppy. She states that she is Poppy’s sister. She says Poppy is the Harbinger, and Cas will either have to kill her, or everyone will die. As he is processing this, Callum comes to visit him, and stabs him so he will lose blood and go fully mad; thus making it incredibly difficult to get Cas to escape.
Poppy, Kieran, and Reaver decide it's time to grab Cas and run. They fight their way to the entrance of the dungeon, and Malik shows up to help them, but he won't leave with them because he and Millicent are heartmates. Cas is lost to bloodlust, so they knock him on the head and Malik takes them to a safe home. Cas is able to recover, and Poppy and Cas get to reunite.
While recovering Malik and Reaver decide to reveal some more info to the group. They believe that Poppy is a Primal. When Poppy was born, it was prophesied that she would destroy the world. Her adoptive mom Cora didn't believe that and tried to escape with her. The dark figure, or the dark one that haunted Poppy’s nightmares and killed her mom, it was Malik. Cas and Malik start fighting, but the Queen comes and wants to have a chat.
The queen knows that Poppy knows where her heartmate Malec is, and she demands Poppy free him before she can be free. To make sure they don't go back on their promise, Callum curses Kieran and says that he will die in two weeks, and the only way to fix the curse is to give in to the queen's demands and bring back Malec.
The group manages to dig up Malec. But they are also worried about Kieran and his curse. It has them thinking that it might be time for the joining. They do so, and now their lives are all tied together.
They meet the queen and give her Malec’s coffin. She ends up stabbing him. She discovered that a sacrifice of love was needed to bring back Kolis, the Primal of Death. She wants to bring him back so she can unmake the universe. Callum is surprised that she killed Malec, he thought there was a chance that she would kill Poppy. All hell breaks loose, fighting is everywhere, and death is everywhere. Poppy figures out that Seraphena is the Consort and calls her name, and using both their power she's able to kill the queen; her mother.
Poppy passes out, and when she wakes up, the battle is over and everyone on their side comes back to life because Poppy has completed her transition and she's now the Primal of Life. Her appearance has also changed, she has fangs. A darken appears, his name is Nektas, and he is one of the oldest darkens. He shows up and explains that the Primal of Life is a female role, and both Malec and Ire’s were told not to have daughters because this could happen, but it happened anyway. They also find out that Kolis was released, and now they have to kill him, and many of the primals and gods are also awakening to help end the war.