Days of Vengeance
- its.brittanyb
- 5 days ago
- 9 min read
“You might not be royalty, Emilie, but you are my deity. You’re the only thing I believe in.”
REVIEW
Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe
Spice Level Legend How spicy is this book?
SUMMARY
Want to just skip to the spice? I got you - 5, 20, 28, 39
Book 2 opens with Emilie and Ladon still hiding their feelings and attempting to be nothing more than just friends until Cyrus wakes up. His mom, Sophia, knows but only because she overheard them in the library. They are both still struggling mentally and emotionally with everything they went through and most of the time they can’t sleep unless they are together. They know they are trauma bonded and co-dependent but they are okay with it.
Ladon is also struggling with being the King in charge while Cyrus is out. They are all still searching for Reyna with no luck.
Emilie's brother, Adrien, shows up. He is a sailor, he heard about Emilie getting kidnapped and then rescued and he is there. Her good for nothing parents still haven’t shown up but her brother is a way better person. He finds out about her and Ladon. He supports them even though he is a little worried how this will affect the alliance between the two kingdoms.
Emilie realizes something when she and Ladon are talking. When she got bit by Reyna’s giant snake she was out of it but Reyna had an antidote that Ladon gave her and she was revived. What if they just need an antidote for Cyrus?
Ladon reaches out to the new leaders of Murvort, Jesse Holden and his sister Jade. They have hated Reyna for decades and are trying to desperately build their kingdom back up. Jesse agrees to have Ladon visit but only with a select few others, he doesn’t want Ladon bringing a whole army. Emilie insists on going so they travel to Murvort.
When they arrive, Jesse tells them they have trapped the giant snake down in Reyna’s underground tunnels and that they are welcome to hunt it BUT. Jesse wants a treaty with Ladon. They come to an agreement that involves trade and supplies.
Ladon, Emilie, and the ones that they traveled with, go down to hunt the snake. While down there, they find a bunch of Reyna’s experiments in cages. Emilie doesn’t feel right that they are trapped down there so they end up freeing all of them. Then they find the snake. It's a struggle but they manage to kill it and Marco, an alchemist, extracts the venom.
The next day they are heading back home and they get a surprise - Jade is coming along. Jesse wants to make sure that they uphold their end of the deal. Jesse is also “gifting” them two prisoners - two of Reyna’s followers. Two people who sexually assaulted Ladon and Emilie.
Back at home, Marco gets to work on an antidote with Selene (the Harpy) while Ladon and Emilie attempt to get information out of the two prisoners. They don’t get any information but they do take some tongues, eyeballs, fingers, and whatever else they choose.
It takes a few days but Marco makes an antidote and administers it to Cyrus. A few hours later, Cyrus wakes up. He doesn’t really remember anything and seems in shock that he has been out for a month. Emilie feels awkward and Ladon feels guilty but they don’t think its the right time to tell Cyrus.
Emilie goes to see him later in his chambers. She doesn’t tell him anything about Ladon but tells him that she can’t marry him. She is pretty fucked up from everything that happened and she just can’t. He makes some comment about how maybe they can just take things slow. She’s like I’m sorry. He takes it pretty well. She doesn’t tell him about Ladon, Ladon wants to do that. But he’s finding it hard to find the right time without someone interrupting them.
Ladon and Emilie are sparring the next day. They are probably a little too close, a little too flirty, holding each other a little too long, and Jade walks up. She says they have spies who have spotted Reyna in Sage Harbor.
They want to leave immediately. Cyrus is like we can’t just go marching into Murvort and Jade is like actually we can, hello! Ladon tells Cyrus that he, Jade, and Emilie need to leave immediately. Which surprises Cyrus. He thought Emilie would want to stay back and she’s like fuck that. So he decides he’s going too.
Jade and Emilie leave, and Ladon has a few minutes but gets interrupted again. So they set off to hunt Reyna without Cyrus knowing.
One night, Emilie walks away from camp to pee, Ladon follows. They fuck up against a tree and then they hear something moving in the woods. They don’t know for sure but they think it’s Jade and this gets confirmed the next day when she makes some snarky comments.
They make it to Sage Harbor and manage to get one hotel room. Double beds and a couch. Jade refuses to share a bed with Emilie and also acts suspiciously when she keeps wandering off on her own. The first night, Cyrus falls asleep pretty quickly and Ladon and Emilie go out alone. They are feeling pretty free - no one knows who they are and they can hold hands and kiss in public. They are at a bar when they hear some drunk guy running his mouth about how he doesn’t have any money because he hasn’t gotten paid. He gets thrown out, they follow him to a townhouse, but no one lets him in, so they follow him to the docks. They confront him and he admits that he knows Reyna but he won’t tell them anything. They find out that he is a human trafficker and Emilie kills him.
When they get back to the room, Jade wakes up. She says she knows what has been going on and they’re both dumb. She makes assumptions about Emilie's character so Emilie ends up yelling at her, telling her she doesn’t know her at all. Luckily, Cyrus sleeps through this.
The next morning, Ladon tells Cyrus that he went wandering around alone last night and overheard a drunk talking about Reyna, and that he followed him back to a townhouse. They go to search the townhouse and find a notebook with a ship captain's log. It has a passenger list, with Reyna’s name on it, dated two days ago. So she isn’t in Sage Harbor, but they know where she was headed.
Cyrus also makes a comment to Emilie about how he’s trying to court her. That maybe if they took things slow and she was able to heal, maybe they could try again. She was speechless and luckily Ladon interrupted them and saved her from the conversation.
Jade says she has a friend, who owes her favor, who also has a ship. So later that day, they meet at the docks and board a ship.
At dinner, Cyrus hasn’t arrived yet. Jade apologizes to Ladon and Emilie. She says she finds it hard to open up to people, to trust them, and after Emilie yelled at her last night she realizes maybe she made some harsh judgments. She urges them to not tell Cyrus though. Says nothing good can come of it and why does she care? Well, they have an agreement with their kingdom and if their kingdom is having issues, it might affect her own kingdom. Ladon tells her he will do everything he can to uphold the treaty but Cyrus will know the truth about him and Emilie and he will know soon. Cyrus chooses that moment to approach and say, what?
Ladon apologizes to Cyrus and tells him he didn’t mean for this to happen, that they were kidnapped and they were all they had and Emilie became all he needed. Cyrus turns his anger on Emilie and was like you said you needed time. Ladon tells him not to speak to her like that.
Cyrus wants to know at what point did Ladon decide to steal his wife and betray his family.
Ladon is like wtf she was never your wife.
Emilie is trying desperately to get them to stop and Jade has disappeared.
Ladon says none of this was okay, being held prisoner, getting assaulted, forced to rape Emilie, NONE OF THIS IS OKAY. Ladon tells Cyrus he will never fully understand what they went through.
Cyrus says when they get back to Renoa, he wants Ladon to pack his shit and head back to Fork Malek. Emilie can either follow him or go home; he really doesn’t care. But he doesn’t want to see Ladon in the castle ever again.
Ladon looks defeated as Cyrus takes off and Emilie storms after him. She tells him he's being a selfish coward. He will never understand what they went through and now he’s doing this to his own brother? She also yells at him and says how dare he act like he has a claim on her when they don’t even know each other. Cyrus refuses to acknowledge her.
She heads back to Ladon. Jade and her were supposed to be sharing a room while Ladon and Cryus shared one. Jade moves her stuff in with Cryus and tells Ladon to stay with Emilie. She does apologize and says she wishes this didn’t happen. She seems way nicer now after Emilie yelled at her in the hotel.
Cyrus ignores them for the entire trip. On the last day at sea, they all gather in the lounge to make a plan. Cyrus won’t answer or talk to Ladon or Emilie but talks to Jade (so childish). Cyrus says he knows the King of where they are going and they will head to him first to let him know they are there.
When they get there, they are waiting in the parlor for the King and Ladon is staring at some family portraits. The butler tells him that the children in the picture he is looking at are twins that disappeared like ten years ago. The king and queen did everything to find them but they still haven’t. Losing her children, the queen eventually gave up and now the King is alone. Ladon stares at them for awhile and realizes these kids are the same teenagers he saw in Reyna’s house. The two that had killed one of Reyna’s hounds and Ladon witnessed her anger at them. She burned the boy to death then set her snake on the girl.
When they meet with the King, he tells them he doesn’t want to be involved in this hunt for Reyna. So Ladon tells him about his children. He had picked up a ring that had fallen off of one of the kids and still had it with him so he gave it to the King. The King is obviously very upset and everyone but Cyrus leaves the room.
Cyrus comes out and says he still won’t get involved but he will provide them rooms in the castle and they have full immunity for whatever they need to do to get Reyna.
They go out searching in this shady market where they have a feeling Reyna would be. They find Luther, Reyna’s right hand man, and follow him. He goes into this shady building where there is gambling and sex shows. Emilie has a panic attack seeing the public sex and Cyrus gets a little glimpse of the trauma that is left behind. They find Reyna and Luther watching the show in a private box.
They try to sneak up on them but it doesn’t go to plan. They are also with two other people and in the struggle, Reyna gets away. But Luther doesn’t. After Ladon tortures him a bit, he tells them where her hideout is.
They go there. It’s a cave along the ocean that can only be accessed at low tide. They get in there just in time and follow the cave back. Unfortunately, Reyna isn’t alone. She has about two dozen people with her.
Emilie chases Reyna through a tunnel and Reyna makes the tunnel collapse so Emilie is trapped in there with her. They fight, Reyna is frying her with her lightning, but then Ladon gets through. Reyna and him fight, she starts striking him with her lightning until he manages to get his hand on her and starts siphoning out her magic. Then she gets stabbed in the back by Emilie. Emilie throws her to the ground, stabs her repeatedly, rips out her heart and destroys it.
They go back to where Cyrus and Jade are. They dispatched of the rest of the soldiers. Emilie tells her it’s over. Jade is a little upset - she wanted to kill Reyan first.
They can’t leave because of the tide so Jade starts digging through the tents and finds some bread and wine. When the tide goes down, they make their way back to the King’s castle. They get cleaned up and head back onto the ship heading back to Renoa.
When there’s one day left of the voyage, Ladon decides he’s had enough of Cyrus ignoring him. He apologizes to him again, says he didn’t mean for this to happen but that he also isn’t going to apologize for loving Emilie. He says he hopes that one day Cyrus can forgive him because hurting him is the very last thing Ladon ever wanted to do. Cyrus tells him he can forgive him…eventually. He also doesn’t want Ladon to leave, he wants him and Emilie to stay in the castle, but could they not rub their relationship in his face?
A few days after arriving home, Ladon asks Emilie to marry him and she, of course, says yes.
Epilogue - It’s been over a month, and Cryus is still trying to get his life in order. Tonight is Emilie and Ladon’s engagement party but he doesn’t think he can go. Someone knocks on his door and then barges right in - Jade. She wants to know why he isn’t ready to go. They banter back and forth and she convinces him to go to the party. There is definitely a spark there and I wouldn’t be surprised, or mad, if we get a book about them.
