Thorns and Fire by Helen Scheurer

Torj is struggling, as he just broke his soul bond with Wren, who didn’t know about it. Now, Wren wants nothing to do with him, leaving Torj and Wilder to go and do warsword business away from her. Their task at the moment is to try and find the queen who was taken during the last battle. Even though Torj has a new job, he can’t stop thinking about Wren. Eventually, Torj and Wilder do find the queen, and they manage to save themselves and the queen despite being attacked by alchemists. When they finish the fight, they go to the queen, who tells them that she was forced to drink a tonic and now she has no magic.

Meanwhile, Wren and her sister Thea are back at the academy. Wren is trying as hard as she can to figure out the antidote she created to help Xavier. Every experiment she has done hasn’t been working properly, and she can’t figure out why. To top off her frustration, she doesn’t know why Torj left things the way he did. One day, Thea decides to bring up Torj to Wren and mentions that before their breakup, Torj was interested in learning about magical bonds. Torj told Wren that he could feel her magic and emotions, and wanted to know what it meant. Wren said he found a book about magical bonds and was intentionally researching it.

Wren starts working with her old mentor, Audra, for help. Audra mentions that maybe it’s where some of her supplies were picked from. So she tells Wren to go back and retrace her steps to find the missing ingredients. She, Thea, Dessa, and Kip all head out to look for ingredients. On their way, they end up running into Torj, who switches spots with Wren as Wilder was briefly injured and is healing. Now, Wren is right back with Torj and still has no answers. Torj, meanwhile, is battling with his feelings once again with Wren, now that they are reunited. He is reminded just how much he loves her, and that perhaps not the whole bond was destroyed.

As the small group continues onward, they get ambushed and Torj gets hurt. Wren takes care of him, and the two end up spending the night together in a tent. They wake up in a compromising position and pretend nothing has happened. They then go find Kip and Dessa to continue on. They quickly find the flower and harvest it, eager to get back to the academy so Wren can test it. But Torj finds out about an event happening that night, and if they play their cards right, they might be able to get some important information. That night, as Wren is preparing to get ready, Kip accidentally gives her Torj’s bag, and Wren finds the book about magical bonds. She takes it for herself.

During the ball, Torj and Wren pretend to be husband and wife for appearance’s sake. It causes them both a lot of feelings, as they both want it to be true but won’t confess their feelings for each other. Wren’s feelings towards Torj get stopped when she sees someone who once betrayed her during the war. Torj has to keep her back and tell her not to kill him. They leave the ball with some information and a lot of feelings toward each other. That night, Wren is finally able to sit down and read the book about bonds, and she knows what she is about to read will change her life. That’s when she reads about soul bonds.

Wren makes it back to school. Zavier is there now as well, working on his project. Thea still hasn’t returned, so Torj goes back to being Wren’s bodyguard, which allows them to flirt with each other. Days go by, and they still never talk about the bond. The closest they get to it is when young Devroe comes to visit Wren. She passes out, and Torj heals her. During that time he gets vulnerable and shares his feelings, which leads to them sharing a kiss. Torj realizes that he is seeing the bond again, giving him hope that it’s not completely gone. Meanwhile, from Wren’s point of view, she starts feeling the love that Torj has for her, and she doesn’t know what to think about it. It eventually leads to them kissing again, and Torj tells her everything about the bond, including why and when he broke it. Wren understands why he did it, but feels betrayed and can’t trust him. She asks for time to process everything.

Wren focuses on her studies, although she can’t ignore Torj as he is still her bodyguard. Things start to change, though, when Dessa is brought in and seen as a traitor by Devroe. This discussion leads them to talking about Wren and Thea’s throne, and that one of them is going to need to claim the crown soon in order to secure peace in the kingdom. Wren throws herself back into her studies, not wanting to think about a crown. Zavier has a magic flare-up problem that makes it so they have to stun him. He spends his time in the infirmary staying sedated. While studying, Dessa makes an observation: all of the ingredients that Wren used originally were ones that she picked personally before the war. Wren is the key. Thea eventually comes back, and the two sisters talk about the throne and whether either of them feels ready for it.

Meanwhile, Torj goes on a mission with Wilder, and it goes wrong. Wren feels everything through a golden thread. She and Thea run towards where Wren is feeling pulled to. They find Torj and Wilder, and Wren is hit with a lot of emotions, realizing she can’t be mad at Torj and needs to be with him. They share a moment together in the basement where they found Torj, and continue their moment on the way back to the academy.

Now that Wren knows she is the key, she experiments again with her antidote and feels confident that it is ready. Audra, her mentor, also agrees it’s time to take it to the council. The next morning, she shows everything to the council, and they are all impressed. They want to test it on a real subject. Queen Reina walks in, still affected by the potion they forced her to take weeks ago. When Reina takes the antidote, it works and heals her.

On a high, Wren decides she needs to become queen and take the crown. Only for Nobleman Devroe to come in and start talking about alliances and marriages she will need to secure now that she is queen. Namely, a marriage with Zavier, who is still currently healing. Torj and Wren talk about a marriage, and while Torj isn’t happy about it, he realizes that Zavier would only want a marriage in name only, so he could still have Wren. They go wake up Zavier to talk about the new development. When Zavier wakes, he mentions that he has a brother, Silas the King’s Bane, and he’s kept it a secret this whole time. Not only is that revealed, Silas also wants Wren’s crown, and now that she has it, he will be coming right for her.

Wren starts to realize some things but doesn’t share them with anyone. She creates a secret plan with Kip, and then tells Torj she wants to speak to him later that night when all the announcements are done. Zavier is able to wake up enough to talk to his people and present Wren as rightful queen. Wren then gets up and reveals her betrothal to young Devroe. Torj is furious. Of all people, it had to be him, a childhood friend turned enemy. He doesn’t want Wren even close to him. Torj runs away to think about everything, but as promised, comes back to talk to Wren that night.

Wren reveals that Torj has been poisoned, and probably has been for some time. It is going to eventually kill him. The only way to save him is to gain more time and resources, which Devroe can provide and is the only option at the moment. She wants Torj to stand by her side and to take down those who are going to go against them. She is ready for war.