WARNING: Late Arrival Spoilers abound for previous books in The Heartstrikers.
"I know how tempting it is to give up your own happiness for others. Believe me, I know, but that kind of thing only goes so far. It might seem good and noble, but there's a point where self-sacrifice becomes a liability, not a gift, and I think you passed that a long time ago. You've spent so much of yourself trying to be a good emperor, it's left you with nothing of your own. No happiness. No hope. No love."
— Julius Heartstriker
Julius has finally brought peace to his clan. His sister Chelsie and the enslaved F-clutch are free, his mother is cowed, and nearly everything is running smoothly. But Bob has killed Amelia and stolen Chelsie's egg, the Chinese dragons have invaded, Algonquin is still raging, and on top of it all Marci is dead.
Marci, on the other hand, is finding death to be less restful than she imagined. She has to cross the chaotic Sea of Magic to the Heart of the World and prove her worth to become a Merlin, then decide how to handle magic itself in order to deal with spirits, Mortal Spirits, and humanity's afterlife.
And the Leviathan, the Nameless End that Algonquin invited into the world long ago, is finally seeing its plan come to fruition.
This book provides examples of:
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Xian delivers one to Chelsie after they're reunited for the first time in six hundred years.
- But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Dragons can only get pregnant in dragon form during a mating flight, so Chelsie and Xian were only ever together in their human forms. She got pregnant anyway.
- Chekhov's Gun: Raven's spellwork on Emily has one key weakness: There's a single name that dictates who owns the spellwork. That starts as Raven, but Myron scratches it out and puts in his own name. Marci scratches it out again to set the DFZ free.
- Crazy-Prepared: Raven spread the various legends of himself in order to boost himself to Mortal Spirit levelsnote . That's not being prepared, that's just being clever. The prepared part was that he started the legend of ravens being able to bring back the dead just so he could resurrect people if necessary.
- Deader than Dead: Dead human souls are kept safe in their "deaths," a small hole in the Sea of Magic carved out by the memories of those who are still alive. When this death collapses, the raw magic shreds the soul to nothing. Mortal Spirits of death are supposed to rescue them first, but Ghost is the only one around right now. During the magical drought, there wasn't enough magic to sustain people after death, so they simply stopped existing.
- This also applied to all the spirits, who could never die and can only be banished temporarily. While the humans referred to them as "sleeping" during the magical drought, from the perspective of the spirits (who didn't know if the magic would ever come back), they were dying for real.
- Deal with the Devil: When the magic first disappeared, Algonquin was so terrified of her own death that she reached out to the Nameless End, a monster that eats planes. So long as she still thinks she has a chance, she won't let it take the final step, but if the heroes push her too hard she is going to pull the metaphorical trigger.
- Distracted by the Sexy: The Golden Emperor pulls this reaction from most first-timers who meet him.In magnificent accord with the rest of his perfections, the emperor's voice sounded like a temple bell mixed with the world's most well-played cello and... and every other low beautiful sound Julius could think of. It went straight through him, making him want to immediately agree with whatever was said, if only to hear that heartbreaking voice again.He was actually day-dreaming about what it would sound like when he realized that — lost in the pure joy of hearing him speak — he hadn't actually comprehended a word of it.Julius: ...what?*Beat*Golden Emperor: I said: "we accept."The emperor repeated, his deep voice just as wondrous as before, but slightly more irritated.
- Failed a Spot Check: Horribly subverted in that the Leviathan did notice Marci flying around on her spirit while Algonquin was completely busy fighting the city, proving Marci was the first Merlin and that Algonquin's plans never succeeded. This does not go well for any of them.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: The door to the Heart of the World only opens for a Merlin. Interestingly, once the door is open, anyone can walk in, but they can't actually do anything with all the incredible spellwork unless they're a Merlin.
- You Have Researched Breathing: In-universe. In her death, Marci learns that humans actually have a magical half, a tangible "soul", and is excited to pass that knowledge on to the living. Amelia points out the fact that humans have a word for it in the first place is proof that humanity has always known and that it was only after the Drought that it began to be questioned.
