War of Fire and Fury by Marion Blackwood

Here is a summary with spoilers for War of Fire and Fury by Marion Blackwood 

The girl is in a prison and is being forced to go over what someone is telling her are her own memories. The man keeps telling her that her name is Selena, but she doesn’t remember anything. After going through memories for hours, the man forces her to rewatch three memories over and over again, and it is pure torture. Eventually, it snaps her out of her memory loss and Selena remembers everything. She realizes she just suffered from memory loss and that Orion tortured her to snap her out of it. Orion is there to tell her it is all okay and gives her an outlet to let her magic go. She is able to torture the other prisoners down in the cells. Once she feels a bit more collected, the two promise not to tell Draven what Orion did to her to get her back, and then they go get reunited with everyone.

Selena finds a distressed Draven, but they find comfort in each other, though they both know they still need to have a discussion about things that have happened over the past few weeks, specifically the way Draven treated Selena when he had hatred in his heart. The group all discuss what needs to happen next. They all believe that the Icehearts are going after the last dragon clan, the Gold Clan. The problem is no one knows where the clan is, except maybe the Icehearts. So Orion brings in his spy Nysara and asks if she can find out. Luckily, she already knows and says that the Icehearts are preparing to go into the deserted lands to look for a pocket realm. The group decides to get going to get a head start. Even better, Orion has someone in his court who can open pocket realms, Hana. They bring her along as well.

Isera, Orion, Draven, Selena, Gray, and Hana get to the deserted lands first and start searching, but they don’t have enough time. The Icehearts arrive along with the dragon Kander, who can attack memories. Draven decides he wants to take out Kander, believing him to be a big threat, so when the opportunity arises, Draven rips out the throat of Kander, killing him. While everyone is watching that happen, the Icehearts grab everyone else in the group and hold them captive. With a knife to Selena’s neck, they tell Draven to stay put. Orion also decides to switch sides and tells the Icehearts his allegiances now align with them, though when he gets close enough, he tries to stab Jessinia and fails. Jessinia doesn’t take the betrayal kindly. She grabs Orion and carves his eye out. Before she can get to the second one, Hana offers to open the portal for the Icehearts to save her king. The Icehearts agree and take everyone in the group captive except Draven.

Jessinia puts them all in a prison and stabs Selena twice. None of them are in good shape except for Hana, but that is quickly remedied when Jessinia decides she is going to break Hana and turn her to the Icehearts’ side. It takes two days, but Hana breaks and joins the Icehearts, and she is then forced to open a portal to the pocket realm for them to go to the Gold Clan. They are all to go inside and find the clan leader. Hana is to put the silver on the leader so that the Icehearts can control him through Hana and bring him back. They all go in and quickly find Severin, a very down-to-earth clan leader of the Gold Clan. Hana puts the silver on him and they leave back through the portal. The Icehearts now control the final dragon clan. Though the victory is short-lived because Draven shows up and starts a fight, and Lavendera, queen of the dryads, arrives with some from her court as well, thus solidifying which side she is truly on. Gray quickly opens a portal for all of them to escape, which they do, all except Hana and Severin.

While happy to be with Draven, Selena has been struggling for days. She needs an outlet for her magic and she doesn’t want Draven to know. She tells him she needs a bit to herself and goes back to Orion’s prisons to unleash her magic on the prisoners there. She actually kills several of them. Afterwards she feels terrible and tells herself she can’t do that again. On her way back to her rooms, she witnesses a moment between Orion and Isera, where Orion breaks down about fully losing his eye and Isera, despite the constant banter they have, comforts him.

Back in her and Draven’s rooms, Selena is still trying to process, so when Draven asks if she is okay, she breaks down and Draven lets her process everything. After figuring out her emotions, they spend the night together. The next morning everyone reconvenes in the war room to talk about next steps, until they are interrupted when they hear that the Icehearts are coming and they have a full force of dragons with them. They start preparing for the next battle.

The full battle starts, but Orion, Selena, and Isera have a side plan. They manage to get Bane secluded and in human form. It takes all three of them and all of their power, but they are able to get some information out of him, specifically where the dryad sacred tree is, and then Isera is able to get the final blow in, something she has desperately wanted, to kill her tormentor. As Bane dies, Jessinia loses it. Even more so, she goes berserk when she sees Hana take the steel off of Severin, realizing that she has been played. Hana was never broken, it was all part of their plan and luckily Severin was kind enough to go through with it.

They soon realize that Jessinia is going after the fae. Selena forces Severin to use his magic to put up a force field around the city. He’s angry that he was forced to do something else. He and Hana eventually leave. This doesn’t stop Jessinia. She starts destroying the dryads, and Lavendera is saddened that her people are dying. Orion lets Gray open a portal and allows as many to come through to save them. Gray gets killed in the process.

Selena is still processing her magic problems and still doesn’t want to tell Draven. Soon Lavendera offers a piece of information. She knows how the fae and the dragons can bond. Draven and Selena decide to be the first ones to do it. It works and the two are able to communicate in each other’s minds. On top of that, they are now bonded by life, meaning if one dies, so does the other. Now that they are bonded, they decide that they need more allies, so Draven and Selena fly to the Western Isles to get more of Draven’s clan. This gives them time to figure out their bond, and they both realize that their powers are much stronger now. But while Selena is experimenting with her powers, she starts to panic again and doesn’t have an outlet this time. Draven almost finds out about her magic issues, but Selena asks for some time to herself again.

Draven is reunited with his home for the first time in years and is seen as a hero. The two spend their time together, but most of the time Selena is focused on her powers and not wanting Draven to find out about it. Eventually, when they have gotten Draven’s clan ready, they go back to Orion’s court, and many of them start to bond with the fae. Orion is one of the first to bond as a symbol of good will, and then everyone starts to find matches. Though Isera refuses to bond with anyone, not wanting to be tied down.

Still struggling, Selena goes out on a walk and ends up at her parents’ home. She realizes it was a bad idea, as the root cause of her magic problem is her parents. She has a breakdown and expels magic. She also sees some fae on the streets that she knows have tormented some of her friends, and her magic calls to her. She uses her magic on the fae and kills them. Orion happens to see it all and knows that Selena is too far gone and needs to tell Draven. Draven comes to collect Selena and helps her work through all her emotions. Eventually, she is able to attach some of her magic to their bond, and she feels much better now that Draven knows.

They now need to go get the Soul of Trees for Lavendera and the dryads. Isera, Alistair, Orion, and Selena decide to go straight into the castle while the dragons start a battle in a different area to distract Jessinia. It works for the most part, though at one point Isera gets hit badly. Lyra also comes to help protect them, but a wall falls on her. Alistair finally admits his feelings for her as she is dying, and he pours all of his magic through their bond in hopes it will bring her back. He puts too much into it and passes out, but it works because Lyra wakes up and Alistair is still alive. Orion runs and grabs the tree and they all start their journey out of the castle.

Instead of going to Lavendera for the tree, they decide to go help Draven and the other dragons, which turns out to be a good idea as there is a brutal fight going on. Selena is able to find Draven quickly and fights on his back. With their new bond, Selena is able to take down more than 20 dragons with her magic. But her magic is depleting and a new clan, the White Clan, shows up and tries to take Selena down. Soon the fight transitions from air to ground. All the dragons shift to human form and start fighting with the fae.

In the midst of the fighting, Lavendera comes and asks about the tree. Once she has confirmation that Orion has the Soul of Trees, she brings the dryads out to fight.

Jessinia has been hiding, but Draven and Selena decide to go after her. Draven gets some good hits in and uses his magic. She half shifts and starts to escape. Not wanting to lose a chance that might not come again, Selena makes the choice to jump off Draven and onto Jessinia. Draven panics at this choice and makes it known through the bond. Selena stabs Jessinia and uses her magic to put fear in her, then continues to shred her wings. The two eventually land hard on the ground, with the impact killing Jessinia but also causing significant damage to Selena. When Draven arrives, he finds a half-dead Selena already saying her goodbyes. Draven grabs their healer, who says it is already too late and that he does not have enough energy anyway. Isera offers to bond with the healer in order to save Selena. That is the last thing Selena hears before she passes out. She wakes not long after in the same spot, surrounded by everyone. They officially win, and it is solidified when the Silver Clan comes over and offers their surrender.

Lavendera finally gets her tree and the mother dryad comes out. Lavendera tells them all that she is 6,000 years old and that her time is done. Since she had no children, the dryads need a queen. The queen mother chooses Isera. Soon after, Lavendera turns to dust and vanishes. The queen mother also offers Orion a new eye.

The next day is Isera’s very quick coronation. She crowns herself and promises peace for her people. Afterward, Orion professes his love, and Isera realizes that the two of them have a mate bond. Orion says that he has known for weeks and has just been waiting for her to find out. The two decide to start figuring out how their courts could become one. Draven and Selena get their happy ending as well and are excited to explore the world together as free people in a free kingdom.