Three Shattered Souls by Mai Corland

Mikell takes his small recovering group to his homelands. Mikell himself is dealing with his love Euyen’s death, and Royo is still upset with Aeri for hiding so many secrets from him again. All of those feelings get put on hold, and Mikell makes it to his home, which has been in battle recently. His father is expected dead. He goes for a moment alone, but Sora comes to him anyway. He decides since things are already bad, he should tell Sora his last secret. Sora’s sister is dead, and he hasn’t told her in weeks because he wanted Sora to still have some fight in her. Sora leaves angry, but Aeri comes after her to comfort her. The group also starts to realize that Aeri herself has some side effects from using the relics. As Sora and Aeri are talking, a town crier announces that King Joon is dead. Sora looks to Aeri and tells her that she needs to be on the throne, that it is hers.

Now that Joon is dead (although not everyone believes it), Aeri meets with some officials and royals. She wants to get her crown back now that Joon and Euyen are dead; it should be hers. But someone else wants it, Count Roon, and he offers the crown to Aeri, but she must be married to him, even though he already has a number of other courtesans. Aeri leaves the meeting saying she will think about it, but Royo is there to tell her not to do it. Later that night, there is an assassination attempt on Aeri while Sora is in the room with her. Everyone looks for the killer.

Soon after, Sora learns from one of the courtesans, who is also a poisoner, that Tiyung is dead. In a fury, she runs to Mikell and attacks him, furious that he once again withheld information about people she loves. Mikell has to stop the attack and tells her he had no idea that Tiyung was dead. After Sora calms down, they all decide they need to go to the Temple of Knowledge. They need answers on the relics, especially because Aeri’s freezing episodes are getting worse from wielding multiple relics. They believe that this temple has not been touched by Joon yet, and all the other information they have gotten has been tampered with by Joon.

Tiyung, meanwhile still alive, continues to try and get to his father Seok and claim his new throne. Tiyung also finds out that his father has put a giant bounty on Sora, Mikell, and Aeri’s heads. It is the biggest bounty he has ever seen, meaning everyone is going to be looking for them. What they are being charged with is Tiyung’s death.

The group of four, Sora, Royo, Aeri, and Mikell, start traveling and also start looking at some of their feelings. Mikell finally breaks down and grieves Euyen, and the rest of the group is there to help him through it. Royo and Aeri finally start admitting their feelings again and start sleeping together. Sora is also starting her friendship over with Mikell, and Mikell says it feels like a family to him. They manage to get to the temple and find no information about multiple relics. But one priest does tell them that they are wanted fugitives and are wanted for the death of Tiyung. The group then decides to go to the Rose Palace, where Mikell can claim his throne.

Once there, Mikell kills the governor and claims he is in charge. He finds out that King Joon is not actually dead, and now Mikell wants his head. Tiyung and Zara eventually meet up with them as well. They are reunited, everyone relieved that Tiyung is actually alive, and they share their stories. During that time, a servant tries to poison Mikell, so he decides to clear out the staff who are loyal and who are not. The rest of the group is hesitant and sets up guards around Mikell overnight, not thinking he will be safe.

They prepare for war against Joon once and for all. Sora and Mikell continue to get closer, as do Royo and Aeri. Royo keeps struggling with the fact that something bad is going to happen to Aeri, and that maybe Mikell will use her powers in a way that will be helpful overall, but harmful for Aeri. The group finds out that Joon is on a ship, and they decide now is their time to kill Joon and get the sword relic. Mikell convinces Sora to stay behind and help guard Tiyung.

During a stealthy battle, Zara ends up dying, and Mikell manages to get to Joon, say his final words to him, then kill Joon. A little skirmish happens, and Aeri uses her magic to save Mikell. It freezes Aeri completely. Mikell grabs Joon’s crown and puts it on her, which helps her breathe again, but she doesn’t wake up for some time, making Royo very concerned again. He takes her back to their ship to help wake her up. Mikell burns Joon’s boat and throws Joon’s head into the water. When he gets back, they all realize that Sora and Tiyung have been taken. They find out Seok is to blame.

They go find Seok and all hell breaks loose. It ends with Mikell telling Aeri that she needs to kill him using the relics. After a lot of debate and tears, Aeri agrees, and Mikell is sent to the Road of Souls. While there, he is reunited with Euyen, and to him it feels perfect. But Euyen tells him it is not his time and that he is so close. With that, Royo is able to bring him back, and Mikell chooses to come back to the living. This power has hurt Aeri greatly though. In the midst of all of the fighting, the Dragon Lord comes down and kills Seok, telling everyone to stop fighting. She then turns to Sora, makes a new crown, and tries to give it to her. Sora doesn’t want it, but the Dragon Lord says that if she does not take it, then nothing will change. As Sora is agreeing to this, she also must say goodbye to Aeri, who is still slowly dying, and the Dragon Lord will absorb her essence. Royo is devastated as she slowly disappears. Once the Dragon Lord leaves, every soldier turns to Sora and bows to the first ever dragon queen.

Everyone tries to recover from the death they have all been facing the past months. Royo is taking it the hardest and is constantly drunk. Sora is working with Mikell and Tiyung to make the country good again. But Sora has something she wants to do. She goes to the prison where her old poison master, the one who ruined her life and many other girls, is chained up. She goes with the intent to torture him and make it last, but she realizes that it will not change how she feels. Instead, she keeps him chained up and tells the guards not to feed him, just let him die.

Two years later, Royo, still devastated, has made a decision and done his research. He is going to go to the Road of Souls, as he has nowhere else to be.