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Series Recaps

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The SEEKERS series

Seekers Recaps

MAY DAY (BOOK I)

Here's what happened in May Day (Seekers book 1) Jack Valentine is patrolling Magdalen Bridge in Oxford on May Morning with Cam, Naia, and Boyd, other members of the Seekers. Despite the Seekers usually only dealing with their Silver peers, their captain has ordered them to prevent any human students from dying while jumping into the river, a dangerous May Day tradition. While they are distracted doing this, a body drops from near the top of Magdalen College tower, and Jack smells the scent mark of Silver violence. The team collects evidence from the scene at Silver speed, and reports back to Captain Langford, who admits the unusual patrol was because she suspected something might happen during the celebrations. She tells the team that she was warned by the Solis Invicti that London has had a couple of 'scab kills' during major traditional events - kills made by a rogue Silver who murders humans rather than using the sanctioned ways to get their blood supply, and who run the risk of revealing the existence of the Silver to the human populations. The team lay out the evidence they found: the dead man was a local property developer named David Grant. Naia was able to take swabs from his body, which have been taken to Ed's lab for analysis, and she also found a ticket to an opera at the Oxford Playhouse from the night before. Jack adds that Grant was a fifty to fifty-five year old Caucasian, with dark hair, wearing an expensive but ill-fitting suit and a gold wedding band. He had no coat or umbrella, so was not planning to be outside. He had been mostly drained of blood, but there was no evidence of a Silver bite on him, only a needle mark in the back of his right hand, surrounded by a bruise, with sticky residue from surgical tape. Bits of red lint were stuck to the residue, and a sample has also been taken to the lab. His body was marked with the scent of Silver violence, but not Silver passion. The captain tells Jack's team to follow up with the lab, but to hold off on further enquiries until she has contacted the Solis Invicti. At the lab, Cam and Ed are very awkward around each other, and Jack wonders why; she knows that they used to date, and are friendly, but they have recently been very cool towards one another. Ed tells Jack and Cam that the red lint is synthetic velvet, and may be a match to the upholstered seats at the Oxford Playhouse, but they will need to bring him a sample to compare. He also tells them that there was a smear of Chanel Noir Moderne lipstick on one of the swabs from Grant's mouth. With the investigation on hold until the Captain has approval, Jack and Cam go to the Solomon College bar to get drunk. They meet Naia and Boyd, and end up discussing the case, realising that all of the scab kills are intended to be big spectacles; this isn't a rogue Silver who can't control their urge for blood, but a calculating one deliberately trying to make a scene. Jack tells Cam she suspects Killian Drake, the Baron of Oxford, whom she has a grudge against (see the events of Killian's Dead). Cam tries to dissuade her, but they agree to investigate him if necessary. They carry on drinking, and later, Cam has to carry a very drunk Jack back to her room and put her to bed. Jack wakes to find Naia pounding on her door; the Secundus of the Solis Invicti has arrived for a briefing. Jack arrives late to the meeting, smelling of alcohol. The Secundus introduces Thomas Meyer, a member of the Solis Invicti, and Dr Tabitha Ross, part of their medical team, who will be attached to the investigation. Jack is instantly attracted to Dr Ross. She tells the Seekers that Grant's blood was most likely drained through the puncture on the back of his hand, perhaps through an IV, unlike the London scab kills, which all featured bite marks. Meyer suspects that the perpetrator is the same, despite this difference in the method, and theorises that the murderer is using humans to dump the bodies to avoid leaving a personal scent mark. The Secundus gives the Seekers the okay to investigate, specifying that Cam should speak to Grant's wife. Mrs Grant tells Jack and Cam that she believed her husband had been having an affair since January, but she had no proof. She isn't particularly upset by the idea; she stayed for the convenience, not love. She mentions that Grant was always scribbling in a notebook. When Jack and Cam return to the college, the Secundus sends them to speak to Gabriella De Palma, the director of the opera Grant attended the night before his death; he also tells them that Grant apparently disappeared with a short, dark-haired woman after the performance. At the theatre, Jack realises that Gabriella is Silver. They interview her in her suite at the Randolph Hotel, where she explains that Grant was a patron of the operatic society, which allowed the Silver to operate without arousing suspicion about where their money came from; she has enough wealth to fund the opera herself, but loyalty to the Primus prevents her from arousing suspicion by splashing money around. She tells the Seekers that Grant attended the opera with two men around his age and a woman in her forties, all human. She also mentions that he had a reputation for being handsy with women, but this unknown woman did not seem to be tolerating that. When pressed for her whereabouts, she says she was backstage after the show, and then was supposed to have a midnight dinner with Killian Drake, but he never showed up, so she ate alone in the Randolph dining room. After the interview, she takes Jack and Cam back to the Playhouse and they meet some members of the cast and crew, including the lead soprano, Alicia Tresor, and the stage manager, Iain Halberd; they are all human. Gabriella gives the Seekers tickets to that night's opera. Jack insists on interviewing Drake alone, sending Cam to report to the Secundus. She admits to herself that she would happily frame Drake for this case in order to 'pay him back' for the disappearance of Winta. At his Summertown house, she outright accuses him of killing Grant, but Drake denies it, stating that he wouldn't be so crude. He claims that he never agreed to go to dinner with Gabriella, but that she had been pursuing him romantically and would not accept that he had refused the date. Instead, he says he was in London with the Primus, which means Jack cannot fault it. Drake taunts Jack about her obsession with him and she swears to make him pay, then leaves. That night, Cam and Jack attend the opera. Cam lectures Jack about her grudge against Drake, and hints that it might be fuelled in part by attraction, which she vehemently denies. They end up sat next to Drake and his date, Veronica, in the front row. When Drake helps Jack out of her coat, she hears his pulse increase and he teases her about her low-cut dress; she enjoys his discomfort. As the opera starts, Jack realises all the actresses are wearing Chanel Noir Moderne lipstick. After the show, they go backstage with Drake; they speak to Gabriella, and Drake introduces Jack to the lead soprano, Fabiana, who is not the same lead soprano that Gabriella had introduced her to earlier that day. Fabiana tells Jack that Grant was always backstage, scribbling in his notebook, and that he made her uncomfortable; Halberd breaks up the conversation to hurry the singers to leave the Playhouse. Jack is concerned to realise that she has grown used to Drake's company, and irritated that he seems to be inserting himself into their investigation. Jack, Cam and Drake ask Gabriella about the lipstick that the singers are wearing, and she says that it must have rubbed off when he came backstage the previous night - but Jack notes that she had not mentioned that he came backstage when they spoke earlier. Gabriella denies that Grant was having an affair with one of the singers. As they leave, Drake confronts Jack about her grudge against him, and asks how long she will keep attacking him over a 'twenty-year-old fling'. He manoeuvres her against the wall and Jack is overwhelmed by her attraction to him, but remains in denial. He claims he turned down Gabriella because he didn't feel a 'lightning bolt' with her, and hints that Jack is searching for that feeling too; he offers to help her. She is confused about how he makes her feel but tells him to stay away from her. The next morning, Cam reports to the Captain and Jack heads to Ed's lab with the upholstery sample. Ed has discovered that Grant's blood contains a large amount of Rohypnol; he was injected before his blood was drained. Ed offers no theory as to why Grant would have been sedated, and they note that the drug made his blood smell revolting, so it is unlikely that his blood was drunk by a Silver. Jack needles Ed about his awkwardness with Cam, but he ignores her. Meanwhile, the Captain has told Cam that the woman Grant left the opera with was an insolvency lawyer, and Grant was in deep financial trouble. She left angrily as soon as the opera finished, because Grant had tried to grope her. Jack is still trying to link the murder to Drake, but she and Cam are forced to admit that the case doesn't make any sense. Jack asks Cam again about Ed, but he says he isn't ready to talk yet. They head to the canteen and have lunch with Naia and Boyd, who report that they have made no progress. Jack fills them in on the discoveries they have made so far, and Naia suggests they should check the 'Creep Box' files for any Silver with a history of using Rohypnol. They find a file on Matthew Felton, who is known to abduct and drug humans, and dress them up and pose them before drinking from them. Naia and Jack pay him a visit, and find him asleep in his attic with the unconscious bodies of three human women, whom he has dressed up in costumes and suspended from the ceiling with silk ties. Naia and Jack are outraged and Naia breaks Felton's arm. They untie the young women and interrogate Felton, who admits to drugging his victims with cocaine and sedatives of his own invention, but not Rohypnol, which he says makes the blood taste too bad to drink. Naia takes samples of his blood and bone marrow for DNA testing, and also samples of his sedatives. Felton claims that nothing he's done is illegal by Silver law, which is true since it doesn't threaten their secrecy, and Naia and Jack, frustrated by this, beat him up and leave a fire burning in his room (which is also technically legal in the eyes of the Silver). At the lab, Ed confirms that Felton's samples do not match the drug found in Grant's blood. Jack and Naia talk to Tabitha; Jack is awkward with her, but Naia invites her to come drinking with the team that evening. In the bar, Jack and Tabitha flirt, and Ed arrives with Carrie, which upsets Cam. Jack tries to distract him with a potent cocktail of blood and alcohol (a Valentine's Massacre) and they all get very drunk. Jack wakes up the next morning with Tabitha in her bed, though they are both fully clothed and neither of them remember doing anything beyond stumbling home. Jack is called to the conference room and tells Tabitha she will return with coffee after the meeting. In the meeting, the Secundus tells Jack's team that Killian Drake will be helping with the investigation. They confirm what they know about the case so far and Drake suggests looking at the records of Cope, Grant, and Carding Limited, a property investment company linked to many wealthy Silver. He also suggests investigating Sir Percival Windsor due to his gambling debt, which may have caused him to have problems with CGC, and Lydia Gainsborough, who may have been speculating with CGC. Boyd expresses frustration that they are investigating Grant when, if the case is related to the London scab killings, he may have been randomly chosen as the victim, but the Secundus tells him they need to pursue all avenues. After the meeting the Captain reprimands Naia and Jack for their behaviour towards Felton, saying that he has powerful friends. When Jack assumes this means Drake, she tells her to stop fixating on him; she reveals that it was Drake who insisted Jack be made a Seeker twenty years ago. Jack is very uncomfortable with the thought that he has helped her. Naia and Cam tell Jack she needs to get her act together or she will ruin any chance she has of joining the Solis Invicti, and that she's deliberately sabotaging herself rather than admit she had a bad start with the Secundus. Jack goes back to her room with coffee but finds Tabitha has left for work. Jack, Boyd, and Meyer head to the offices of CGC while the others visit Grant's business partner Carding and Lydia Gainsborough; on the journey Meyer gently teases Jack and she realises he has a sense of humour. The offices are surprisingly empty, but the team hear voices in a closed office. Suspecting a hostage situation, they kick in the door, but find Grant's other business partner, Mr Cope, arguing with Sarah Jenkins over some documents that prove embezzlement. Boyd notices something in the documents, but indicates to Jack he doesn't want to talk in front of Meyer. Sarah tells them that it is unlikely the embezzlement was linked to the murder, due to the timing, but that Grant was a 'social-climbing sleaze' who was trying to start an affair with her. The team then head to the home of Percival Windsor to question him. Windsor is hungover and has the scent of three women on him, and he does not invite the team in. They hear dogs barking inside the house, although most Silver don't have dogs due to their heightened sense of smell, which makes Jack suspicious that he is guarding something. Boyd asks to be allowed to send a Seeker to one of his parties to monitor the guests; Windsor refuses, even when Meyer name checks the Secundus, and makes it clear he will not cooperate with the Seekers. He leaves and his butler closes the door on them. When they arrive back at Solomon College, the other half of the team have found nothing. The Secundus says that the Solis Invicti will handle the similarities to the London murders, and the Seekers should focus on the leads that involve Grant. Once the Invicti have left, Boyd reveals that several of the companies named in CGC's documents look like they belong to the Solis Invicti, or even the Primus. Captain Langford makes it clear that she will pretend not to know about this and the team have the weekend to investigate. Later, Jack talks to Cam and Naia and realises she has to apologise to Drake for her behaviour towards him. Jack meets Drake in his conservatory. He needles her about her crush on Tabitha, and Jack thinks he might be jealous, but then Veronica appears wearing a bathrobe and Jack dismisses the idea. When Jack apologises, Drake guesses instantly that the captain told her about his involvement in her joining the Seekers; he seems unsettled by her attempt to be friendly, and tells her just to be herself, but ditch the vendetta. They bicker, but Drake points out that it's more like flirting and touches Jack's hair, which sets her on edge. Jack asks him to escort her to one of Percival Windsor's parties the next night so that she can investigate his social circle, and Drake teases her about it being a date, but agrees. Later, Jack fills Cam in on the conversation and he suggests that she and Drake should deal with their sexual tension with a night together, an idea Jack pulls a face at. They check Grant's phone records and find a mobile number that called him fifteen times in the month before he died. The next morning Naia tells Jack that Tabitha has finished the post-mortem on Grant, and they go to her house to visit her lab. They also see that there was more lipstick on and inside his mouth than they had thought, which indicate that it didn't just rub off accidentally, but came from him kissing someone, but Naia and Jack agree that an affair with a human (as the opera singers were) is most likely unrelated to the murder. Tabitha tells them that Grant's heart and part of his liver was missing, an amount roughly equivalent to the Shakespearean 'pound of flesh', confirming that the motive is almost certainly Grant's finances. She puts time of death between midnight and 2am, and has sent samples of the DNA under Grant's nails to Ed to examine for a match. Jack awkwardly invites Tabitha for a drink, and she accepts, offering that night, but Jack remembers she has to go to the party with Drake and tries to leave without setting another date. Naia makes Jack ask for Tabitha's number, and Jack realises Tabitha fancies her back. Later that day, Jack buys a formal dress for the party, and texts Tabitha; they arrange to go out the following night. That evening, Drake picks Jack up for the party. He tries to touch her hair again and she bats him away, but he points out for Jack to keep her cover, they will have to touch, and what's more, mark each other with a possessive scent mark. This requires a kiss where both parties consent to mark each other. Jack initially refuses, but realises she has no other options. They kiss and Jack is overwhelmed by her attraction to him; the mark takes very quickly and leaves Jack wanting more. Drake points out that the kiss felt more intense than just something she was doing for the sake of the investigation but Jack brushes him off. Inside, Windsor greets Drake and Jack notes that the party is mostly old Silver men with young Silver women as their dates, with the odd human girl as well. Drake kisses Jack again to confirm their cover and she is surprised the mark is affecting her so much by making her want him. She tries to split from him to investigate but he points out that no one will talk to her on her own, so she begrudgingly includes him. They speak to a man named Harrison, who asks if Drake knows about Grant. He hints that Grant was involved in some sort of scam targeting humans, not Silver, since he 'knew' what would happen if he crossed the Silver. He was a frequent guest of Windsor's parties. Another man named Mainwaring joins them, and lets slip that it is possible at these gatherings to buy your way into being turned Silver; this is illegal to do without the Primus's knowledge, but Jack doesn't know if this is happening secretly, or with the Primus's approval. A bit later, as the men talk about themselves, Jack notices the women slipping away, and follows them upstairs. She finds a room set up like an auditorium, filled with the women and about twenty men, who are mostly human with a few Silver. One of the men seems familiar, and threatening. She realises this is the ceremony for turning those who have bought their way into becoming Silver. A list of six names is read out, and the first selected man leaves with one of the women, escorted by two Silver men, but the Silver return bloodied and alone, and Jack realises he has died during the turning. The rest of the men do likewise, all dying, until the last man goes out and returns successfully; however, Jack notes that he was Silver to begin with. She realises this is a racket to con these men out of their money, and then kill them. On her way back downstairs, Jack is cornered by Felton, who threatens her with the Solis Invicti. She is about to fight her way free when Drake arrives to rescue her; Felton does not know who Drake is and the situation escalates. Windsor, toadying to Drake, punches Felton and kicks him out of the party. He encourages Drake and Jack to stay. They join the dancing, and have an intimate moment, but Jack continues to deny her feelings for Drake are real, insisting it is the mark. The moment is ruined when Jack spots the buffet of humans laid out for the Silver to drink, but she can do nothing without breaking her cover. To distrat herself, she starts a game of Ring of Fire, using Valentine's Massacres as the drinks. Some time later, Jack and Drake leave in a chauffeured car, and he tries to kiss her again, but she refuses. She passes out and wakes to a text message from Tabitha talking about their date; Jack realises it's going to be hard to explain Drake's scent mark on her. She accuses him of deliberately sabotaging her budding relationship with Tabitha, and he tells her he never claimed to be a good man. Jack storms out and texts Tabitha to postpone their date until the day after, when the mark will have worn off. The next morning, Jack struggles with the way the mark makes her want to be with Killian; she compares it to an addiction. Cam and Naia immediately notice the mark and assume that she and Killian have slept together, so she explains the kiss and denies that it meant anything, but they do not believe her. Boyd tells the team that the Silver companies on the books of CGC Ltd are real, and successful, but have no leads to anyone actually involved. Jack reports back on the scam at the party, and Boyd insists they tell the captain. The captain says that their priority is containment; she will deal with the people who were at the party, and the team are not to tell anyone else, especially not the Solis Invicti, who have returned from London. She also tells Jack to try not to let on that the mark was because she was at the party. The Seekers meet with the Invicti so Ed can explain his findings. Drake is also there, and acts as though he and Jack are a couple, holding her hand, and she realises he is also trying to hide the reason behind the mark. Ed informs everyone that the DNA results show that the London killer, and Grant's killer, had fed from two of the same people, and it would be too much of a coincidence for a London Silver and an Oxford Silver to share a food source. He also confirms that the red fibres found on Grant's body are from the seats at the Oxford Playhouse. Tabitha arrives to give the report from the post-mortem, and scents the mark and sees Jack and Drake holding hands. After the meeting, she leaves quickly, and when Jack chases her, she tells her that although she likes Jack, she won't fight Drake for her. Jack convinces her to talk once the mark is gone, and she leaves. Jack tells Drake off for letting Tabitha believe the mark was real, but he claims it was more important to keep up the deception for the Invicti, which she grudgingly agrees with. He flirts with her and implies it isn't just the mark creating the attraction between them, but Jack leaves. Cam tries to talk to Jack about Drake but she refuses to discuss it. They realise that the only people they know who came from London to Oxford are the Invicti, and that they have to keep quiet until they can find proof. They set off to investigate Magdalen College without being seen, as directed by the captain. That night, they sneak into the college, and find a Silver, Mary Thompson, in one of the rooms. She claims she heard screams on May Morning and saw a Silver running past, but the only detail she saw was a flash of purple and green from under a dark coat. Jack notices a black mark on her wrist that follows the path of her veins; afterwards, Cam tells Jack she is Black Mary, a folk legend who drained the blood of children in her care and who was marked with the black veins by the Seekers to mark her out. Jack asks Cam if he's okay about Ed, and he says he will be; he asks her about her love life, and tries to comfort her that she still has a chance to talk to Tabitha. On Tuesday night, Jack and Tabitha go on their date. Jack tells Tabitha that she only let Drake mark her for a mission; Tabitha points out that it wouldn't have worked if she wasn't attracted to him. She also tells Jack that Drake specifically asked her to be at the meeting, presumably so she would know about the mark so he could stake his claim on Jack. Jack says she's choosing Tabitha regardless of Drake's plans, and Tabitha agrees to give it a chance. Later, they go back to Jack's and kiss, but Tabitha stops things from going any further, saying it's too fast. They go to sleep together, but Jack is kept awake by anger towards Drake for complicating the relationship. The next day, Jack confronts Killian at his house about calling Tabitha to the meeting. They argue about the mark again, and the tension between them ends up with them kissing intensely. Jack asks Killian to bite her, which she finds deeply erotic, and afterwards she accidentally calls him by his first name for the first time. She storms off, but realises that they've marked each other again. She texts and cancels her plans with Tabitha for that night, planning to hide until the new mark has worn off; she also receives a text from Drake asking her if she's free that night. She blocks his number. On Thursday, the captain gives Jack and Cam David Grant's mobile phone; they see that the number that called him fifteen times in April is labelled 'Work'. When they call the number, it's a co-working office space called OfficeBox. They head to OfficeBox and find out that it's a front; David Grant hired a furnished room there to sleep with prostitutes. Later, Cam counsels Jack to be honest with Tabitha about the new mark; she calls Tabitha to talk, and they agree to discuss it the next night after lots of drinks. Still looking for Grant's notebook, Jack and Naia head back to his house to speak to Mrs Grant, who is very drunk. The house is in the process of being packed up, and Mrs Grant tells them debt collectors are taking everything; she also tells them she knew about Grant's space at OfficeBox and didn't care. They take a coat of Grant's in the hope of using his scent to find out more. When Jack asks about the notebook, she's surprised he didn't have it on him as he apparently carried it everywhere; he had had many notebooks before this one, but they have not turned up in the house even though she's looked. She's too drunk to leave alone, so Jack and Naia take her back to Solomon College to sleep it off, but there are no spare guest rooms so Jack has to let her sleep in her room. In the night, while Jack and Cam are discussing the notebooks, Mrs Grant mumbles 'gym', and in the morning she tells them he has a locker at a local gym. Jack asks Faizan to check it out. Boyd and Naia find Grant's notebook at Magdalen. It is full of sketches of women annotated with disturbing sexual comments detailing his violence against them. This book is only a few months old and contains around 20 different women, but it seems likely the remaining books detail a long history of his behaviour. The most recent drawing is of Alicia Tresor, one of the opera singers from the show Grant attended the night before he died. At the back of the book is a sketch of the Solis Invicti's mark, a stylised SI, and the name Benedict (who is the Tertius of the Solis Invicti); the team decide it's best to rip the page out before they pass the evidence on, and hide the fact that they know the Invicti were involved somehow with Grant. Later, the captain instructs them to take the notebook to the Secundus, who introduces them to Benedict. Jack recognises Benedict as the person in charge of the Casting racket at Windsor's party but doesn't say anything. Benedict is dismissive of the notebook, saying that they know the killer is the same as the London scab killing randomly, so they don't need to investigate Grant any further. At lunch, the team talk to another Seeker team (Ellie and Quentin) who have also been pulled off a case by the Invicti. Naia tells Jack they need to keep their mouths shut about any Invicti involvement in Grant's death, as they are ultimately reporting back to the Invicti, so it would be pointless at best and dangerous at worst. Faizan calls; he didn't find the notebooks in Grant's gym locker, but has requisitioned the CCTV. Jack and Tabitha's date sees them end up at Oxford's blood bar on Holywell Street, which she has some history with. They refuse to let her in until Gabriella de Palma vouches for her. By the end of the night, Jack and Tabitha are very drunk and decide to start fresh and forget about Drake. They kiss, and Jack tries to mark her, but it doesn't work; Tabitha says it's too soon, but doesn't seem to mind. After Tabitha heads home, Jack is followed by Benedict, who claims he is 'curious' about her after a 'friend' mentioned her. Jack feels he is threatening her. The next day, Jack finds that the Invicti have had a tip about a future planned murder at the Queen's birthday celebrations, and they head back to London, leaving Benedict to keep an eye on the Oxford investigation. Jack informs the captain of Benedict's role at the party and his threats the previous night, but the captain dismisses her concerns, giving several excuses as to why Benedict might have been involved and saying that his behaviour towards Jack seems normal. Later, Jack tells Boyd they should have shown the captain the page they ripped out of Grant's notebook, but he says she would have dismissed that too; Jack decides to investigate Benedict herself. Naia and Jack visit Alicia Tresor, the soprano, at her house in North Oxford, which is much grander than Jack is expecting. She seems like a shell of her former self. The stage manager, Iain Halberd, is also there, and although he is polite, he refuses at first to let Jack speak to Alicia alone. Eventually Naia distracts him and Jack asks Alicia about her relationship with Grant; she angrily denies that they had one. Seeing they won't get anything out of her, Jack and Naia leave. Back at Solomon College, Cam tells Jack he found out why Ellie's team had been taken off their case by the Solis Invicti: some blood sample evidence had gone missing in an investigation about the disappearance of a wealthy human man who had drained his bank accounts and then been found dead with a Silver violence mark on him. Jack realises the Invicti are trying to cover up the Casting racket, and speculates that they're just doing it for the money. She notes that the only place they've seen an excess of money is in the Invicti-linked companies Grant was using to embezzle money. Later that day, Jack is in the stationery cupboard when Benedict corners her, locking them both inside. He asks her if she's ever wanted to join the Solis Invicti, and, not sure if it's a threat or a bribe, she gets angry and tells him she saw him at Windsor's party. He tells her he was there on business and insinuates she'd better consider who's side she's on, before leaving. Jack is left very shaken. She tries to convince Cam to help her question Matthew Felton again, and he tells her she's just looking to provoke Benedict, but she decides to do it anyway, so Cam brings him in. Felton confirms he was acquainted with Grant through 'a mutual friend' before Benedict interrupts the interrogation and sends him away. He dismisses Cam and starts to threaten Jack, but realises there's CCTV on and keeps it subtle, once again leaving her sure he's behind the sham Casting, but worried about investigating further. Eventually, Jack finds something on the footage from the gym: Iain Halberd, the stage manager from the Playhouse, removing a black duffle bag from Grant's locker. Jack goes to question him, but finds Drake waiting for her outside the college. He tells her they can't ignore what's happening between them; she tells him she's acknowledging it, but doesn't want it so she's avoiding him until the feelings fade. He asks her spitefully if her feelings for Winta have ever faded, and Jack tries to shut the conversation down, but is shocked when Drake drags her into an alleyway. His aggressive behaviour, and his eyes, seem unnatural to Jack, and she struggles to get away from him, but he pins her to the wall and backhands her dangerously hard across the face even while he's trying to convince her to be with him. Suddenly, he lets go, and his eyes seem to return to normal. He starts to tell her something about her blood but is interrupted by someone shooting a dart at them; he steps in front of Jack to protect her and the dart hits him in the neck and he collapses. Another dart flies past and Jack flees back to the college carrying the now unconscious Drake. While Drake is being assessed in the sick bay, Cam takes the dart to Ed's lab so he can assess its contents; he asks Jack about the bruises Drake has left on her face, but she tells him that Drake wasn't himself. Tabitha arrives to treat Drake and speculates that the dart contained some kind of poison as his wound has turned black, though she has never heard of a poison that would do this to a Silver. She asks if it might have interacted with something already in his system, and Jack is forced to tell her that he had bitten her, and said something about her blood right after the attack, which leaves things awkward between them. Jack is very conflicted about her feelings towards Drake and pleads with him to wake up. Ed comes back with the results and says Drake will be fine tomorrow. Cam and Ed show Jack that the dart has the Solis Invicti crest engraved on it and Ed tells her that the contents had a lot of common components with Felton's sedatives; Jack concludes that the dart was a warning from Benedict to stay away from Felton. That night, Jack can't sleep and sneaks down to the sick bay to sit with Drake; she falls asleep holding his hand, but when she wakes up, she snaps at him and leaves. On her way out she bumps into Tabitha, who tells her she's giving Jack up in the face of Drake's claim, which he reiterated to her that morning. She also tells Jack about haematopsychosis, which is a psychosis induced by Silver drinking the blood of a Silver they've marked; Drake's aggressive behaviour might be explained as this. She leaves, but tells Jack to call her once she's talked to Drake. Jack tells Drake to leave her and Tabitha alone, but is caught off guard when he apologises for the night before, and tells her he won't interfere in her relationship with Tabitha. She decides not to tell him about the Invicti sign on the dart, but does explain about haematopsychosis; Drake isn't convinced he wasn't acting on his own bad impulses. Jack leaves, feeling awkward about not knowing how she feels. The team tell Jack that the Secundus called them about the dart after someone unknown reported it to him; the contents were something that was being tested and shouldn't be out in use yet. They speculate about the reasons behind the Invicti's involvement in everything, wondering if they are gathering money and resources for something in the future. Jack learns that Benedict has left Oxford as the London scab killer has been found (a Silver named Charles), but he has an alibi for the time of Grant's death, so Boyd says he'll ask the captain if they can keep investigating. Jack goes to check on Drake in sick bay but finds he has gone home, and Cam finds her there. They talk about Jack's conflicted feelings, then Cam tells her that he and Ed have made friends again, though they haven't gotten back together. The next day, the team get orders to pretend that there was no incident with the dart and they know nothing about it. Boyd tells them they need to tie up the loose ends as the captain has instructed them, on the Invicti's orders, to close the case. They also need to write up reports. Cam and Jack go back to Alicia Tresor's house to talk to Halberd. After they show him the footage from the gym, he tells them that Grant had been stalking Alicia but nothing could be done because he was too valuable a benefactor to the company. She eventually became ill from the stress and refused to perform. He says he burned the notebooks without Alicia's knowledge, to protect her from seeing them. After they leave, Jack and Cam reflect that without seeing the last notebook, Halberd doesn't seem to know how far Grant went in his abuse of Alicia, but they don't think he is the murderer. They also realise that even with large donations to the company, Grant's missing money is such a big amount that must have gone somewhere else, presumably to paying Benedict for the fake Casting. Back at the college, the team discuss how to write the report to leave out what they know about the Invicti, which is difficult. While they wrangle, Jack realises that the identification of Grant's killer as the London scab killer might be down to someone planting pre-existing evidence to throw off the investigation. Naia finds the ticket from Jack's visit to the opera on her desk, and realises that Jack saw the company perform La Traviata, whereas the ticket in Grant's pocket when he died was for Tosca. Jack looks online for information about the change and finds dress rehearsal pictures that show Gabriella de Palma wearing a purple and green skirt, which matches the description of the murderer given by witness Mary Thompson. Cam and Jack go to the Randolph to talk to Gabriella, and find her packing now that the show's run is over. She realises they know, and confesses; she did it to protect Alicia, who never told her what was going on, and did it publically to warn away other predatory men like Grant. She tells them Grant had got Alicia pregnant, and when she refused to abort, he beat her up until she miscarried, which was when Gabriella snapped. Gabriella gives Jack and Cam the rest of Grant's notebooks, and heavily implies that Drake told her where to find them. She also implies that she stole the rest of Grant's missing fortune to make restitution to Alicia. She shows no remorse, and Jack privately agrees with her, but given the keen focus on the case they cannot just let Gabriella off; they take her to Drake's mansion for punishment. She is boxed for one year - the worst punishment for a Silver, where they are drained of blood and shut in a small box underground. Many boxed Silver go mad, though a year is a fairly short duration given the severity of the crime. On their return, Jack ponders the loose ends of the case, but Boyd tells her to give up. He says that the captain spoke to the Primus, who confirmed that the fake Casting at Windsor's party was a set-up to dispose of some humans who had learned about the Silver. It doesn't ring true to Jack, but there is little she can do. Jack also receives a written note of apology from the Primus for the incident with the poison dart, which he claims he has been informed 'by his guard' was an accident with an 'impromptu weapons test'. Jack thinks that perhaps the Primus is uninvolved, but being lied to by Benedict, but she decides not to publicly pursue the issue for now and just keep watching. At dinner with Tabitha that night, Jack fills her in on the case. She accidentally calls her her 'girlfriend' during the conversation, and Tabitha agrees to try out being officially together. On the way home, they kiss and mark each other. When Jack gets back to her room, she finds an envelope with Drake's scent on it has been pushed under her door; it contains photographs of the captain and Benedict talking together, and Benedict handing over one of the poison darts to her; the captain is part of the Invicti's plans. There is also a note from Drake that says 'I'm with you'. A couple of days later, Jack visits Naia at 4am with a can of petrol in her hand and asks her to come with her to visit Matthew Felton, but Naia refuses; Jack thinks she's a hypocrite for choosing peace with the Invicti over punishing Felton and getting to the bottom of what's going on. Jack goes alone, and splashes petrol throughout his house before setting it, and a sleeping Felton, on fire. Read on to find out what happens next…

JUDGEMENT DAY (BOOK II)

Here's what happened in Judgement Day (Seekers book 2) Recap coming soon!

WINTA'S DAY (BOOK III)

Here's what happened in Winta's Day (Seekers book 3) Recap coming soon!

VALENTINE'S DAY (BOOK IV)

Here's what happened in Valentine's Day (Seekers book 4) Recap coming soon!

The QUICKSILVER series

QuickSilver Recap

KILL ME QUICK (BOOK I)

Here's what happened in Kill Me Quick (QuickSilver book 1) Recap coming soon!

A QUICK STUDY (BOOK II)

Here's what happened in A Quick Study (QuickSilver book 2) Recap coming soon!

QUICK AND THE DEAD (BOOK III)

Here's what happened in Quick and the Dead (QuickSilver book 3) Recap coming soon!

Solis Invicti Recap

The SOLIS INVICTI series

A BARGAIN IN SILVER (BOOK I)

Here's what happened in A Bargain in Silver (Solis Invicti book 1) The world has been overrun by zombie-like creatures called Weepers. They used to be human, but now they need human flesh to survive. The only thing standing between humanity and complete annihilation is the Silver, a vampiric race that drink human blood. They’re willing to provide protection to the few remaining humans, but only in exchange for their servitude and their blood. On the first night the Weepers appeared in London, they attacked Emmy while she was walking home from work. She was rescued by the gorgeous Drew, who explained the danger she – and humankind – were in. He is Silver and also the Secundus, the second-in-command of all the Silver. The title gives him command of the Solis Invicti (more about them later). Drew took Emmy back to his place, where he healed a cut on her arm with a kiss, leaving a silver mark in its place. She changed her top and left a ripped T-shirt behind in his bin. That’s not the last we’ll be seeing of that garment. Drew then took Emmy to a safe house, where the ruler of the Silver, the Primus, gave a speech laying out his plans for the human race. They were not pleasant. Emmy made a break for it, determining never to surrender to slavery, and ran back to Parker’s, the bar she worked at. There Emmy reunited with her friends Jeff, Sarah, and Danny, who had hidden themselves from the Silver’s search. Together, Emmy and her friends planned an escape from the Silver safe zone, an area separated from the rest of London by a barricade the Silver had built. To mount their escape, they needed supplies, so Danny and Emmy raided a supermarket for food, but were attacked by Weepers. While rushing to get back to the club, they were discovered by another Silver, Benedict, who killed Danny. Emmy escaped back to Parker’s, but discovered Jeff and Sarah dead on her return. She discovered the T-shirt that she had left at Drew’s nearby, which begged the question: had Drew done this? Emmy searched for somewhere else to hide, but was caught by Cam, a Silver pretending to be human. Weepers attacked, and Emmy tried to escape from the Silver in the confusion, but Drew knocked her out. He took her back to the Palace, a hotel across the road from Parker’s that the Primus had turned into his headquarters. She then met the Primus, Solomon, face-to-face for the first time. He was more alluring than Emmy had expected. Drew asked Emmy to give them a week to prove that the Silver were not monsters and, persuaded by their arguments, she agreed. With that agreement in place, Emmy moved into a suite at the Palace, with Drew’s help. They almost kissed, but Emmy couldn’t admit her attraction to him, because she still suspected he might have had something to do with the deaths of her friends. With that suspicion at the forefront of her mind, she distanced herself from Drew, so it was Sol who took Emmy through the admission process for the safe house; Emmy's wrists were tattooed with her blood type and a mark that indicated she was under the protection of Sol. But that’s not the only thing that marked her as his. In order to ease the pain of the process, Sol kissed Emmy, who responded despite her best intentions. The kiss left a scent mark on Emmy that indicated to the other Silver that she was Sol’s property, much to Drew’s irritation. Emmy wasn’t thrilled about it either. She resolved to avoid Sol until the mark had worn off, and demanded to move out of the Palace to live with the other humans. Sol reluctantly agreed, but gave her a choker to wear as a mark of his protection. Emmy then moved to Parker’s, which had been renamed ‘Sol’s’ and re-opened, this time for the exclusive use of the Silver. Before she had even settled in, Benedict intercepted her and told her that Drew had killed her friends in cold blood, which made her even more determined to avoid him. Emmy also met some new faces: Laila, a Silver who was in charge of the club; the Solis Invicti, who were Sol’s bodyguards and soldiers; and Alice, a naive human who idolised the Silver. Emmy was given the job of running the upstairs bar at the club. As she cleared up glasses from the outside terrace after her first night, she fell and was saved by Sol. Caught up in the moment, they had sex, with Sol drinking Emmy’s blood. This renewed the scent mark on Emmy. Sol declared his intention to enforce it this time, which Emmy really didn’t like. He explained the danger: that she hadn’t fallen, but had been pushed by an unknown Silver moving too fast to be seen, who had left a different scent mark behind. The next morning, Drew was furious to discover that Emmy had spent the night with Sol. He argued with Sol about who had more claim on her. Emmy told them both that she was her own person, and left. Which is what triggered the drinking. That night, Emmy went out with Cam – who had become her friend – and Cam’s friends Carrie and Ed. After several hours of alcohol, Sol encountered them inebriated together, and he wasn’t happy. He sent Emmy back to the dormitory, expecting her to be safe there, but a Weeper had managed to get in through the window. It appeared to be tracking Emmy using the same T-shirt she had left at Drew’s, and had later found at the scene of Jeff and Sarah’s death. Emmy fought the Weeper until the Solis Invicti came to remove it from the city; the Silver can’t kill the Weepers without infecting the air and water with the virus. Sol took Emmy back to the Palace to treat her wounds, and explained that the Weeper virus can be transmitted via open wounds. Emmy had to be placed into quarantine until it was clear that she had not been infected, or at least that was Sol’s plan. Drew had another suggestion. He argued that he should be allowed to try to make Emmy Silver instead, to eliminate any risk of her turning Weeper. But Emmy refused, because she didn’t want to become Silver. During Emmy's quarantine, Drew questioned Emmy about her relationship with Sol. He pointed out that it was unfair for Emmy to blame him and not Sol for her friends’ deaths. Emmy became confused about her feelings and fled back to the club to distract herself with work. But that evening, she was cornered by Charles, a creepy Silver customer, who bit her and began to drain her blood. She was rescued by Tommy and Benedict just in time, but was close to death. She woke up on the roof of a building, with Benedict. It turned out that he hadn’t been rescuing her after all. Instead, he had been gaining Emmy’s trust just so that he could use her to take down Drew and Sol and gain control of the Silver. He was the one who had killed Jeff and Sarah, and had been behind all the attempts on her life. He revealed that Drew had fallen in love with Emmy and had ‘silvered’ for her, forming an unbreakable bond between them. That meant that if she died, Drew would too. Benedict intended to kill her, and thereby kill Drew. He left her on the rooftop to die. But in the nick of time, she was found by Sol, and healed by Drew through their bond. The two explained that they could not punish Benedict without revealing weakness in one or both of them, which would be dangerous for their new society. Drew’s bond to Emmy was dangerous. As a result, Sol made it clear that this had to be the end of his attachment to Emmy. Finally, Drew tried to talk to Emmy about the silvering, but Emmy asked him to give her some time to recover, grieve for her friends, and think. Read on to find out what happens next…

THE PRICE OF SILVER (BOOK II)

Here's what happened in The Price of Silver (Solis Invicti book 2) The world has been overrun by zombie-like creatures called Weepers. They used to be human, but now they need human flesh to survive. The only thing standing between humanity and complete annihilation is the Silver, a vampiric race that drink human blood. They’re willing to provide protection to the few remaining humans, but only in exchange for their servitude and their blood. On the first night the Weepers appeared in London, they attacked Emmy while she was walking home from work. Drew (the Secundus, leader of the Solis Invicti) saved her. While doing so, he ‘silvered’ for her, creating an unbreakable bond between them that meant if she died, he would die too. But Emmy had no idea this was what the silver in his irises meant. She didn’t trust Drew. When he tried to take her to the Silver safe house to protect her from the Weepers, she escaped and ran back to her friends at the club she used to work at. Together, they planned an escape, but their plans were thwarted by Benedict (one of the Solis Invicti). He’d worked out that Drew had silvered for Emmy and intended to kill him by killing her. But first, he planned to drive a wedge between them by killing all of Emmy’s friends and blaming it on Drew. His plan worked perfectly, which is how Emmy ended up in the arms of Solomon, the Primus. Sol was intrigued by Drew’s attachment to her, which provoked his own interest. Emmy found him difficult to resist and soon enough they tumbled into bed together, much to Drew’s anguish. While Sol’s emotions were opaque, Emmy was confused by Drew’s feelings and her own. She tried to hide herself away in her work, but trouble found her there. Whilst replacing a barrel in the taproom, she was cornered by Charles, a creepy Silver customer, who bit her and began to drain her blood. She was rescued by Benedict just in time, only to realise that Benedict wasn’t intending to rescue her at all. Instead, he meant to let her die. In the nick of time, she was found by Sol, and healed by Drew through their bond. He finally admitted that he loved her, and explained the dangers of the bond. They couldn’t even punish Benedict, because if anyone found out that the Secundus had silvered for a human, the tentative society they had built would dissolve into chaos. Back at the club where Emmy worked (which had been renamed ‘Sol’s’), things had already begun to fall apart. Sol had announced that they would be turning four humans a year Silver (in a ceremony called the Casting), and the humans in Emmy’s dorm were divided. Half of them were excited, including Emmy’s co-worker Alice, and half were livid, including a man in Emmy’s dorm named Oliver. As far as he was concerned, Emmy was a traitor for fraternising with the Silver. Alice was desperate to be one of the candidates for the Casting and asked Emmy to help her find a Silver sponsor, but Emmy was reluctant. Meanwhile, Drew had decided that the best way to hide the bond was Tommy tries to warn Emmy about getting involved with Sol, telling her that though he would demand absolute loyalty, she couldn't expect the same from him, but Sol interrupts and sends Tommy away. He tells Emmy that though he has had many conquests in the past, he is no longer like that. Emmy confronts him about knowing that Drew loved her but still pursuing her; he is unapologetic, but says he will allow Drew to talk to her so she can decide how she feels about him. In the meantime, Viv will pretend to be the person Drew has silvered for. Sol explains the process of turning humans Silver, and that it is more likely to be successful if performed by a Silver who has bonded with the human or otherwise loves them; it is unlikely that any of the first year's Candidates will be successfully turned, but Sol's plan is to acclimatise the Silver to the idea of humans being turned, and Silver-human relationships. Emmy suggests it might be more useful to give the humans more chance to socialise with the Silver. In the early hours of the next morning, Emmy is woken by male voices on the fire escape outside the dorm; she overhears two humans discussing whether to escape or volunteer for the Casting. A Silver man arrives and tells them to be ready for tomorrow. Cam joins Emmy for breakfast; he too apologises for not protecting her from Benedict, and asks about her relationships with Drew and Sol, but she refuses to talk about it. He tells Emmy that Sol has decided to allow humans into the club and wants Emmy to run it instead of Laila. Viv arrives and Emmy can smell Drew's scent mark on her, which upsets her. Emmy goes into the office, where she bumps into Sol; he shows her that he has created a living space for her above the club, to which only the two of them have a key. He reveals that the manager position and the living space are only temporary, until another Silver can be found to take them over. Emmy trips and Sol catches her, which makes the silver brand on Emmy's chest (which has not faded as she expected) burn painfully. She explains that Sol's scent is affecting it, and that she has been able to smell Silver scents; Sol says that the bond is asserting itself, probably due to the severity of the injuries she was healed from. Emmy asks how to stop it; the only way is to break the bond by killing Drew (which would not kill Emmy as she has not silvered for him). However, Sol says that Drew may be able to mitigate it, but he will not explain how, and leaves. Later, there is an announcement that all humans must go to their designated meeting points. Oliver insults Emmy again. Sol announces that a new rota of blood donations will begin; humans will be split into four groups, which will take weekly turns to donate, and once someone has donated, they will be given supplies at the market, and allowed to use the facilities. As Emmy's blood has not been tested due to Sol's intervention, Tamsin tells her that she is not subject to the usual rules; she needs to wear the choker, but does not need to donate or attend the market to get supplies. Emmy sees Viv and Drew kissing, which makes her very jealous. Cam brings new bar staff to Sol's to help with the increased traffic now the club is open to humans, and tells Emmy that there will be twelve Solis Invicti acting as security, and that the ex-leaders of the safe houses will be in the club that night, including Charles. Cam reveals that he overheard Emmy's conversation with Sol about the bond, and shows her that his presence does not make the bond burn, as he is not a threat to it. Emmy gets ready for work and finds Drew in her apartment; he explains that they need to touch to mitigate the bond's effects. When he touches the brand, it creates an intense connection between them and they almost kiss, but cannot as it will leave a scent mark which will make it obvious to all Silver that Drew has silvered for Emmy, not Viv. Drew rips off Sol's choker in the heat of the moment. He tells her he loves her, and will be there when she gets back from work. During Emmy's shift, Sol pops in to check if Emmy is okay; he says he will give Drew a new choker for her, which Emmy takes as a sign that Sol has given up on pursuing her. Emmy overhears Oliver and his friends planning a revolution; she confronts them and tells them to leave. Another customer tries to grope Emmy, but he is stopped by a member of the Solis Invicti, who threatens to throw him "outside" (meaning outside of the safe zone) if he touches any of Sol's girls. After her shift, Emmy chats to Pru and Ella, two of her new staff who also wear Sol's chokers. Pru explains that Sol used to be known as Sol Invictus, the god of the sun, and though she thinks it was just a title, he is millennia old and extremely powerful. The rest of the staff join them and Emmy learns the extent of the destruction outside the safe zone; there is a thriving farm, which has a cleared road to it, but the rest of the city is covered in Weepers, and a Silver escort is needed even to get to the farm. She realises that the farm being so strongly established means that the Silver takeover was planned well in advance. Emmy meets Josh, who was bitten by a Weeper but survived without being turned into one; apparently he has been tested and is not infected. Sol comes to collect the night's takings, and tells Emmy it is nearly time for her to choose whether she is staying in the safe zone or leaving. She tells him she will stay, but that Oliver and some others are planning to escape; he asks why, and she realises it is Sol who changed her mind, but he assumes it is because of Drew. Emmy decides to test whether the brand's painful reaction to Sol has changed; they get close and have an intimate moment which does not trigger the pain, but Sol tells Emmy to return to Drew. She asks him why he keeps pulling away, and he tells her that their relationship can be nothing more than a distraction, which hurts her. Sol leaves, and Viv escorts Emmy back to her flat, telling her that Drew now has Sol's keys. Drew and Emmy chat and he tells her that he wants to try to make her happy; he tells her he is staying over to protect her, but she makes him stay in the spare room. They discuss what Sol said about breaking the bond, which angers Drew, who thinks Sol wants him out of the way to have Emmy for himself; Emmy informs him that things between her and Sol are over. The next morning Emmy is woken by Ed, who tells her that Drew had to leave, and that there has been an incident. Emmy, followed by Ed, runs to the square, which is covered in blood and silver paint, and a message that reads "What about Cara?". They bump into Alice, and hear gunshots; they follow the noise and discover a protest by the outer wall of the safe zone, with about a hundred humans being barred in by about fifty Silver. Drew is distracted by Emmy's arrival and is shot by one of the protestors, and Viv takes him to the Solis Invicti headquarters to heal. Benedict offers to take her to see him, and Ed and Cam aren't able to contradict him. Sol intervenes and takes her (and Alice) back to the flat; Emmy's brand begins to hurt again when she gets near to Sol. Sol reprimands Emmy for putting herself and Drew in danger again. Emmy explains the situation as best she can to Alice without mentioning the bond, which makes Alice more resolute that they should both enter the Casting. Sol takes Emmy and Alice to a broadcast; while the Silver set up, Oliver tells Emmy that he has seen the handprint on her chest, and offers her the chance to escape with him and his friends. He reveals that Benedict is helping the rebels, and Emmy tries to warn him about Benedict, but he will not listen. Sol's broadcast states that the protestors have been imprisoned for 24 hours, and if any more rebellion happens, any perpetrators will be permanently imprisoned or killed. He confines all humans to their dormitories for the night. During the broadcast, Oliver tells Alice that the rebels have Jane and Mia, two of the girls from the dormitory at Sol's; she begs Emmy not to tell Sol, but Emmy insists and Sol says he will think about what to do. Sol gives Alice a choker to protect her; Emmy is upset by the easy conversation between the two of them, and, imagining them to be having sex, gets drunk in her room. Sol comes to find Emmy, and reassures her that he does not sleep with his donors. He tells her he admires her stubbornness, and she tries to seduce him, but he gently refuses, partly because she is drunk and partly because of the bond. She convinces him to stay until morning just holding her. In the morning, Emmy hangs out with Alice, who reveals that Laila is Sol's consort. She notices that Emmy's wounds have healed and Emmy is forced to tell her about the handprint, though she does not give details of the bond or who healed her. Alice goes to the cafe for news, and Ed brings Nix to the flat. Drew arrives, now healed; they head upstairs to bed, but Emmy accidentally calls Drew by Sol's name, which angers him. Emmy reiterates that it's over between her and Sol, and Drew touches the brand, which arouses them both. He bites her, and afterwards she reflects that she still feels safe with him; she puts this down to the effects of the bond, but Drew tells her their connection is real. They discuss whether Emmy would be willing to become Silver and give their relationship a chance. Drew tells Emmy that Sol has silvered for Laila, which crushes Emmy. Emmy says she is willing to consider letting Drew turn her Silver if Tommy will sponsor Alice, even though without a love connection, Alice won't get through the first round of the Casting. Oliver offers Emmy one last chance to join the rebellion, saying he knows a way to break the bond without killing Drew; he gives her a day to decide. Emmy confronts Sol about silvering for Laila, which he confirms; he demands to drink from her. While he drinks from her wrist, Emmy tries to kiss him, but he refuses, seeming regretful; Drew interrupts and challenges Sol, which makes Emmy realise that this was Sol trying to prove to Drew that he is still in control. Late that night, Viv tells Emmy a body has been found bearing a mark of Silver violence; it is Oliver's younger brother, Graham. Drew comes to talk to Emmy and ask if things with Sol are really over. He notices that Sol's bite mark in Emmy's wrist has healed silver, but puts it down to the brand keeping his healing power circulating through Emmy's body. Emmy tries to get Drew to keep her more informed about the rebellion, but he insists it is safer if she does not know, which frustrates her. Drew spends the night in the flat; when she wakes from a nightmare she find him watching her sleep, and he says it is painful to be apart from her. She lets him sleep in her bed for comfort. Emmy agrees to go ahead with the Casting and give her relationship with Drew a chance. At work that night, one of Oliver's co-rebels asks Emmy for her decision; she says she is not picking a side, which the rebel takes to mean that she is on the side of the Silver. After the shift, Sol appears; Emmy asks Cam to stay so she isn't alone with him, but Sol orders him to leave. Emmy asks Sol to leave her alone so she can get over him, saying that she feels like she is torn in two, and he reluctantly agrees. Upstairs, she speaks to Drew, and they kiss; this leaves the scent mark they were trying to avoid. Drew tells her that she can just stay hidden for a day until it fades, but Emmy is worried about leaving the bar unmanaged; Drew dismissed this worry, which makes Emmy feel like he doesn't respect her. She asks him for a single reason why he loves her, apart from the bond, but he is unable to answer, upsetting Emmy. She asks Cam to take her outside the walls, to visit her old flat and look for signs of her flatmate, Cassie; he agrees, as does Sol. While she is waiting for Cam to arrive, Emmy is attacked by the rebels, who drag her up to the dormitory and attempt to hang her. She manages to get the chain off her neck just before they throw her out of the window, but her hand gets broken. When she hits the ground, she sees that the rebels have already hanged two women, Ella and Alice. Benedict arrives to taunt Emmy, but she is rescued by Cam, who takes her to Drew for healing, and then takes her out of the safe zone to hide. They have to walk through a sea of Weepers; they will not attack while Cam is present. He distracts her by telling her about a pub he used to run with Ed in the area in the 17th century. He tells her that things are fraught among the Silver, with them all being packed so closely; they tended to be fairly solitary. Emmy trips and injures herself, but it does not heal, which surprises her, since her bite from Sol healed without Drew touching it. When they arrive at her old flat, it is clear Weepers have been in the building, and that Cass had not made it back to the flat after the Revelation. Emmy breaks down from guilt over Alice's death, and Cam tries to distract her so that she can sleep by asking about Drew and Sol. He tells her that he's rooting for Drew, but that he's surprised how much she has affected Sol. He tells her what he has heard of Sol's "godhood" in the late Roman Empire, emphasising Sol's brutality and possessiveness; he points out that the friend he heard this from was the only Silver Sol is known to have turned. The next morning, Emmy finds her parents' wedding rings, and she and Cam play board games. Emmy tells Cam that she is resisting Drew because she feels like the bond is forcing her to feel things she wouldn't otherwise feel, and she feels violated by it. Cam tells Emmy Benedict's history; he was a German prince who fell in love with a girl he didn't realise was Silver; she turned him Silver but betrayed him, so he killed her. They decide to stay outside the walls one more night, but are woken by Sol knocking on the door, concerned that they have not returned. When they return to the city, Drew reluctantly tells Emmy what is going on after the attacks. Oliver was not involved, having apparently stepped away from the rebellion after Graham's death. Ed has been put in charge of Sol's, and Emmy demoted to working on the bar; humans have been banned from the club again. Drew spends the night in Emmy's bed again. In the morning, Drew needs to renew the scent mark from Viv to cover his relationship with Emmy. Ed moves into the apartment and takes over the club. While Emmy is on the bar that night, Oliver arrives and Emmy agrees to talk to him when Tamsin tells her she will keep an eye on them. Oliver tells Emmy he is trying to stop the rebellion, as they are only getting humans killed; something will happen that night. He takes Emmy outside and into the tunnels under the city to rescue Mary, Jane and Mia, and tells her that the Silver create the Weepers when they try to make more Silver and fail. They see that there are explosives rigged under the club. They rescue Jane and Mia and return to the tunnels to try to find Mary, but the explosives are detonated. Emmy is fatally injured and falls unconscious, but she wakes up sometime later without any pain; the handprint on her chest has vanished. Emmy digs Oliver out from under the rubble; his shoulder is badly injured, but they make it above ground. The Palace and the club have both been destroyed, and the perimeter wall has also been breached. Weepers start to attack Emmy and Oliver, but Drew finds them and protects them, then takes Oliver to get medical attention. Viv and Emmy follow, and Viv tells Emmy that they found the rebels who were responsible. Drew tells Emmy he thought she was dead, and that he felt the bond snap; they think that it must have burned itself out healing Emmy. Drew is bereft without his love for Emmy, but she is adamant his feelings weren't real anyway; he tells her they were, but there is nothing to be done. She is concerned that now she is committed to the Casting, and will become a Weeper. Oliver wakes up and apologises for his part in the rebellion, saying that he only wanted to escape, which Emmy sympathises with. She begins to be attracted to him. Cam tells them that Tamsin is close to Laila, who is close to Benedict, so she didn't inform the rest of the Invicti when Emmy left with Oliver, and has lied to Sol that Emmy was part of the rebellion. Sol summons Oliver and Emmy and accuses them of colluding with the rebels to bring about the attack; he will not listen to their defence. He says he will sentence them with the rest of the rebels. They are escorted to the gate, where Sol banishes the rebels from the city; they are immediately attacked by Weepers. He offers a softer sentence to Emmy and Oliver, knowing that Tamsin has lied, but unable to pardon Emmy without jeopardising his rule. He exiles them to Silver Farm. Cam tells Emmy he will try to visit, but Emmy tells him not to worry, that it's all over. The truck leaves the city. Read on to find out what happens next…

BOUND IN SILVER (BOOK III)

Here's what happened in Bound in Silver (Solis Invicti book 3) The prologue is a flash-forward to Emmy just before the Casting where Drew will try to make her Silver, trying to prepare for her imminent death. Emmy and Oliver are in a truck, leaving the safe zone for Silver Farm, where they have been exiled for their alleged part in the rebel attacks at the end of The Price of Silver. Although Emmy is worried about what exile will be like, the Casting is due to take place in six days, so her time on the farm will be short. They see a large amount of Weepers, and though they do not approach the truck, Emmy notices that they are bolder than they have been before. Oliver asks Emmy to fill him in on what he might need to know about her; she tells him about Benedict's attempts to kill her in order to take control of the Silver. She tells him that the bond she had with Drew is broken; Oliver suggests that maybe she died in the explosion, but the bond's healing power brought her back quickly enough that Drew did not also die. Emmy realises that without the bond, the Casting will fail and she will become a Weeper. Weepers swarm the truck as it drives through a wooded area, but are repelled by the sunlight when the truck leaves the tree cover. Emmy and Oliver arrive at the farm and are placed into quarantine due to the Weeper contact. They are warned that their life will be hard, and they will be isolated from the other humans on the farm, but that Drew, as Emmy's sponsor, will visit daily. They are put through decontamination, and the Silver take Emmy's parents' wedding rings for safekeeping; Dr Tanner checks them to see if they are carriers for the Weeper infection, but neither is. Oliver is given crutches as his leg is still injured from the explosion. Dr Tanner gets Emmy registered and tells her she will now have to make regular donations, which she had avoided this far by being under Sol's protection. Oliver and Emmy meet Ada, the director of the farm, and are escorted by Martha, a member of the Solis Invicti, to their cell building; it is heavily protected, with three rings of electrified fences forming a dome around the building. Mark and Tessa, their guards, explain that the fence gates are on timers so that only one can be open at a time, and door requires both a remote timer and direct code entry. Inside the cell is a single bed, a toilet, and a sink. Emmy and Oliver talk about their pre-Revelation history and Oliver comforts Emmy about the hopelessness of their situation. The next morning, they hear a Weeper at the window, inside the fences, which they later find out was placed there by Mark. Oliver panics, and Emmy realises he has seen someone he loved turn into a Weeper. Emmy tells him everything about what has happened to her since the Revelation; Oliver reciprocates, telling her that he saw his sister turn into a Weeper and eat their father. Dr Tanner and the guards arrive to take Emmy's blood, but there is a problem with Emmy's record, so Dr Tanner phones Sol, who tells them that Emmy's donations are to be separated and sent directly to him; Emmy is confused about Sol's reasons for wanting her blood. Later, Oliver tries to reassure Emmy that he doesn't want to sleep with her, which makes her uncomfortable. Drew arrives for his daily visit. He confirms to Emmy that the Casting will fail and she will become a Weeper; he had been hoping that he would silver for her again when he saw her. Emmy tells him that the feelings caused by the bond weren't real, which upsets Drew; scared, she asks him to leave. Oliver comforts Emmy. Mark brings two more Weepers inside the fence; they find them dying in the morning. The next day, Emmy and Oliver start their duties on the farm; they are assigned to walk the perimeter for 15 miles and alert the Silver with a whistle if they spot any Weepers in the cleared zone outside the fence, but are told to walk in opposite directions to cover more ground, despite Oliver still being on crutches. They are not given any sun protection, and Emmy is badly sunburned and dehydrated, and also badly damages her feet. She finds a Weeper, who attempts to cross the fence to attack her, but is electrocuted; an unseen Silver removes the body. She comes across a part of the fence that has fallen into a river where a Weeper tried to cross; and then a heap of Weeper corpses piled up against the fence. When Emmy completes her patrol, Oliver is still only part of the way through. Mark has put another Weeper inside the fence and forces Emmy to run through the timed gates to get to the cell; he does not give her the door code until it is almost too late, but she makes it inside. Oliver returns and Dr Tanner treats their wounds, which Tessa tells them not to let Mark know about. That night, instead of Drew, Cam visits; he tells her that there are a series of tests prior to the Casting to select the four humans who will be turned, and Emmy resolves to try to fail the one she can control, the aptitude test. Cam reports that tensions are high among the Silver, with more of them supporting Benedict's desire to treat the humans as cattle. In the morning, Ada tells Oliver and Emmy that Sol will be touring the facilities. He and Tommy arrive, and Tommy brings Emmy a care package of useful items Cam had requested for them (including hats and sun cream), though Sol does not come in. Tommy also gives Emmy a walkie-talkie to contact him or Cam if she is in danger, since she will be alone with Drew for the tests over the next few days. Alyssa arrives to administer the aptitude test, which Emmy does her best to fail; Drew does not speak to Emmy at all during the process. After the test, Emmy and Oliver are sent out on patrol again, but this time, they start 30 miles apart, and can meet anywhere in the middle, so Emmy tries to cover as much ground as possible, to save Oliver from walking far on his crutches. While Emmy walks, she is joined by Ada, who makes it clear that she views Sol as her god, and that she despises Emmy for betraying him; she breaks Emmy's fingers. When they return from the patrol, Emmy begs Tessa to bring Dr Tanner; while they wait for the doctor, Emmy and Oliver argue, then kiss. Dr Tanner splints Emmy's fingers, and when he leaves, Emmy and Oliver continue where they left off, showering together and having sex. The next day, Mark and Tessa discover Oliver and Emmy naked in bed together; Mark mocks them and Tessa seems to disapprove On the patrol, Emmy sees hundreds of Weepers pressed up against the fence, piled up until they are nearly at the top; she blows her whistle to alert the Silver but this makes the Weepers throw themselves against the fence. Ollie, too, saw a lot of Weepers that tried to attack him. They realise that the Weepers are getting more intelligent. Emmy becomes scared that the Silver will not be able to protect humanity from the Weepers after all. She tells Oliver that she doesn't want to start a relationship with him as she feels she needs love, not just pleasure. Drew arrives with a scientist for the second test, a series of blood tests; the scientist is Sean, Emmy's ex-boyfriend from before the Revelation, who disappeared without a trace; he reveals that he had been unknowingly working for the Silver when they were together, and had a breakdown when he learned of their existence, so the Silver took him away and wouldn't let him return. Now he works for them on blood testing and developing a cure for the Weeper infection. He seems to expect Emmy to welcome him back, but she shuts him down. Sean tries to convince Drew not to go through with the Casting as Emmy will die, but they have no option. Afterwards, Emmy and Oliver talk about Sol, and Emmy reveals some of the extent of her feelings for Sol. The next day, Tessa tells Emmy and Oliver that there will be no more patrolling. Their new duty is to answer letters from humans asking if their friends and family are still alive, consulting the list of registered humans the Silver are keeping. The task is emotionally gruelling, as there is no sign of most of the people, and they write heartfelt responses. Drew and Sean return for the final test, a mental test involving showing Emmy images and sounds and monitoring her brain's responses. One of the stimuli is Sol reading the Song of Solomon; Emmy hallucinates that he is there, kissing her, and she passes out. When she wakes up, Drew is still there, and he asks her if she loves Sol, which she denies. Drew apologises to Emmy for complicating her life, and for dealing badly with the bond breaking; he explains that he had expected them to fall in love like his parents, who also silvered for each other. Drew tells Emmy that Laila has been meddling with the tests and has convinced Alyssa that Drew and Emmy love each other, so that Emmy won't be able to avoid being selected at the Casting. He explains the ceremony: the selection takes place at midnight, and the actual turning at dawn. On the day of the Casting, Emmy is depressed, but Oliver makes her work on the letters to distract her; they find one from Alice, asking about her dad, but he is not on the list, and her entry has been removed since she was killed by the rebels. Oliver tries to comfort Emmy. Ada arrives and tells Emmy that she has decided to take Emmy's blood as a gift for Sol, in case she doesn't make it through the Casting alive. She makes Dr Tanner take three bags of blood from Emmy, which almost kills her. Ollie tries to help Emmy recuperate, feeding her and keeping her warm; Tessa arrives to take her to the city for the ceremony and the two of them gently get Emmy dressed and ready. Tessa returns Emmy's parents' rings. Drew carries Emmy to a waiting room where she meets the other seven Candidates; he kisses her cheek, but Emmy feels this is out of pity rather than affection. Benedict escorts the Candidates to the ceremony. Only one Candidate apart from Emmy is approved. When Drew's turn to claim a Candidate comes, Sol seems confused and shocked that Drew is sponsoring Emmy. In private, he berates Drew for allowing Emmy to be put forward to die, and Emmy realises that Sol has not silvered for Laila, but for her. He tells her that he loves her, and only pushed her away to allow her to be happy with Drew, since his brand would override any feelings she might have for Sol. Drew realises that Sol was the one who broke Drew's bond, by healing Emmy after the explosion; Drew is angry, but Sol points out that if Emmy had died, they both would have died. Sol says he did not acknowledge his silvering in order to keep Emmy safe, but she confronts him about the abuse she has suffered at the Farm. He offers to heal her after the ceremony. Drew tries to escape with Emmy, but is stopped by Tessa, who reveals that she is one of the Solis Invicti, whom Sol assigned to protect Emmy from Benedict and Laila while she was at the farm. Sol arrives and insists he is left alone with Emmy. He heals her and they kiss. Emmy is worried that the bond will force her into false feelings for Sol as it did for Emmy, but he assures her that the bond is the result of his love for her, not the cause of it; he had already fallen for her before he silvered. He tells her that he is willing to leave her human, though it would be safer for both of them if he turned her; he gives her until dawn to decide, and arranges for her to go back to the Farm until then to speak to Oliver. Tessa drives Emmy back to the Farm, but as they arrive they are caught in a sea of Weepers, who have brought down the two outermost perimeter fences and are working on the third. Emmy makes it back to the cell, and calls Tommy on the walkie-talkie; he is unable to come and help immediately, as the Weepers are also attacking the city, but says he and Cam will be there soon. Benedict arrives, destroying the fences around the cell. He tells Emmy that Laila has silvered, but that her eyes did not turn gold, signalling a sealed bond between her and Sol; Benedict has worked out that Sol has not silvered for Laila, but for Emmy. He destroys the cell, and watches as Emmy and Oliver run from the Weepers. Read on to find out what happens next…

THE SILVER BULLET (BOOK IV)

Here's what happened in The Silver Bullet (Solis Invicti book 4) Recap coming soon!

The SOVEREIGN series

Sovereign Recap

THE GILDED KING (BOOK I)

Here's what happened in The Gilded King (Sovereign book 1) Julia is a Server, a human who works for the Nobles (aka the Silver) in a city called the Blue. Outside the city is the Red, a forested land which is filled with contamination. Julia was working in the city when she and her friend Claudia see a procession of Candidates, humans who have been selected to become Nobles (though the process has a high risk of death). Claudia idolises the Nobles and has recently been selected to become an Attendant, serving a particular Noble rather than doing general work, but Julia is disillusioned with life in the Blue. Having been abandoned as a baby by parents who walked out into the Red, she longs for something more than servitude and wishes she could also escape to the Red, regardless of the unknown danger. Claudia goes to meet Rufus, the noble she is to serve, but when she returns, she is scared and badly injured; Julia has to stitch up her neck where Rufus has bitten her. The next day, Claudia pretends that nothing is wrong. Livia, the Noble who runs the kitchen where they work, tells Julia that due to a shortage, she must become an Attendant for Lucas, a young Noble. Julia attempts to leave the Blue in secret, but sees a figure in the forest moving too quickly to see clearly; she becomes scared and decides to stay. Cam has been searching the Red for Emmy, who has been lost for centuries, but has not been successful. He blames himself for her being missing and is extremely frustrated that he cannot find her. He returns to the Blue after a long search, and reunites with Viv and Tommy, other members of the Solis Invicti. They tell him that Viv is pregnant, a rare occurrence for the Silver, but the Silver population in general is in decline due to the Weeper vaccine contaminating the blood of the humans - if a Silver drinks from a vaccinated human, they become human. The Blue is the only place left where the humans are unvaccinated. They also hint that they think Cam should give up on his search for Emmy. Cam goes to see Laila, the Empress of the Blue, and she gives him directions to a settlement that Emmy may be in, though Cam points out that if he succeeds in finding Emmy, Laila will lose her role as Empress. Cam talks to Lorelei, who wants to find a way to reverse the vaccine and rebuild the Silver population, but Cam would rather become human, as he does not agree with hiding in the Blue. He leaves to follow up the lead, taking a bad-tempered horse called Hades. Julia meets Lucas, who unlike Rufus, is kind and gentle. He takes Julia to his rooftop garden and makes her dinner; he refuses to stand on ceremony and asks her to call him Lucas, not "Master". He tells her he is something of a pariah among the Nobles and that he understands if she is disappointed to be assigned to him; she responds that she never wanted to be an Attendant at all. Lucas loses his temper at the unfairness and asks her to leave, without tasting her blood or completing the ritual to accept her as Attendant. Julia and Claudia compare experiences, with Claudia saying that Rufus drinks her blood briefly and the rest of the time she waits silently, which makes Julia even more confused about Lucas' kind behaviour. Julia finds out that a human boy, Quintus, is missing. Cam begins to travel to the settlement. He recalls how he and Emmy had tried to stop a Silver from setting himself up as a god at Delphi to take advantage of a community of uncontaminated humans, but they had failed, leading to Emmy being missing. He comes across the remains of a fire filled with human bones and the ground around soaked in blood, plus signs of a caravan of travellers. As he travels, he finds more caravan tracks and camps, but no more blood. He arrives at a settlement of contaminated humans he has visited before, and stays the night with Ana and Vasile, the elderly leaders of the setttlement whom he has watched grow up. Vasile is sick and preparing to die. The humans have forgotten about the vaccine, but are contaminated by it through the meat they eat - during the Fall they used their contaminated blood to forcibly turn Silver human, but now they only know that they are safe. Julia is nervously waiting for Lucas to summon her again, but after ten days she begins to feel like she has escaped becoming an attendant. Quintus is found dead in the Red, and a man named Marcus was found by his body; he is exiled to the Red as he is now contaminated. That evening, Julia is accosted by Rufus, who insults her and attempts to touch her, but Lucas arrives and claims her as his Attendant. He tells her he has been waiting for her to come back, and that he will have to mark her to claim her as his own and protect her from Rufus. Julia prepares to be bitten as Claudia was, but Lucas kisses her, explaining that kissing also leaves a scent mark that Nobles can perceive. She is now officially his Attendant. She asks if they will need to renew the mark, but he says that once is enough, making Julia feel like he doesn't want to kiss her. Later that night, Julia and Claudia see Marcus being thrown out of the city by the Solis Invicti, denying that he was ever in the Red. Cam wakes up to find that Hades has been stolen by bandits; he recovers him quickly due to Hades' difficult behaviour. Thinking him human, the bandits warn him that there are vampires in the direction he is heading, and that they have been attacking in a caravan and leaving blood and bones behind. Cam comes across another camp, with the remains of six bone fires, though less blood. He finds an old, injured human hiding in a tree, who tells him that this is the result of what happens when these Silver find contaminated humans; he recognises Cam from years ago and says that Cam used to know these Silver. Cam can also smell someone else, who smells like nutmeg, but they are gone before he can find them. That night, he is woken up by a hand on his shoulder, which turns out to be the man from the tree, but Cam instinctively kills him before he realises; this causes him guilt for the rest of the book. The man had been bitten, but Cam does not know if this means he was uncontaminated or if there is a newly-human Silver nearby. He searches the man's bags and realises that he must have come from a settlement. He smells nutmeg again, and finds signs that another human has been watching him. He leaves quickly, taking the old man's horse. As Cam travels he occasionally hears other Silver running alongside them, but as he only has a limited supply of blood he cannot confront them. He comes across a human camp, who recognise the horse and identify the man Cam killed. They confirm he was contaminated, and tell Cam that twenty years ago a group of Silver started riding through and taking all their sons, and that now they own the forest, leaving the humans to travel and camp. Cam leaves and while searching for firewood for the night, falls into a pit. Julia has been spending time with Lucas, but he has not drunk her blood and he does not ask her to stay for dinner. She eventually tells him he shouldn't have accepted her as Attendant if he didn't want to, but he says he thought she didn't want it and only did it to protect her from Rufus, so was giving her time to adjust. She offers him her blood and he accepts, using a knife to make a small cut in her wrist; Julia is surprised to find it pleasurable and gets a little faint. Concerned for her, Lucas makes her dinner again. She tells him that Claudia is assigned to Rufus, and angrily says that Claudia believes in fairy tales if she expects Rufus to be kind. Lucas takes Julia to the temple, where they meet Alba, who raised him. He tells Julia that he is twenty years old, incredibly young for a Silver. He shows Julia Sol's body in the temple, which appears to be a gilded statue, telling her a fairy tale, which is a mythologised version of Sol and Emmy's history: the old King, who fell in love with a Server and silvered for her, creating a bond that tied their lifespans together. The Server was kidnapped and the King turned into a statue, sleeping until she returns. Julia says that as the Server was human, and this was hundreds of years ago, the King must be dead, but admits that the story is nice to believe in. Cam wakes up in a treehouse and speaks to his captor, the human who smells like nutmeg, who introduces himself as Felix. Felix gives Cam a bottle of blood from Cam's pack to heal his injuries and explains he has set traps for hogs for food; he says that the Silver are always moving faster than humanly possible, which makes Cam realise they must have a ready supply of uncontaminated blood. Felix knows the settlement Cam is looking for, and says that the Silver keep uncontaminated humans in the jail there. He decides to travel with Cam; Cam wants to refuse as there are inconsistencies in his story, but lets him so that he can find out the truth about Felix. Felix reveals he has been following Cam for days and that he is also looking for someone dear to him, Otho; he wants Cam's help to rescue him. Cam is surprised by how much he enjoys Felix's company. They hear Weepers in the distance as they travel, and eventually find a clearing filled with corpses, where a vaccinated human has been tied to a stake by Silver to attract and cure Weepers; he is still alive, but so badly injured that Cam kills him out of mercy. Julia and Lucas are making dinner together; they have grown closer and have been flirting, but he has not drunk her blood again. They overhear Carmen and Rufus fighting, but not the subject matter. When Julia returns home, Marcella is waiting to ask her and Claudia about Rufus and Lucas, as she tries to find a sponsor to nominate her to become Noble; it is clear to Marcella that Rufus is not a good master, but that Lucas is. Afterwards, Claudia demands Julia tell her about her developing relationship with Lucas, but Julia asks her about Rufus' violence to deflect the issue. Claudia downplays it and makes the excuse that Rufus has been injured, so needs more blood than usual. Julia confides in Claudia about the kiss and her feelings for Lucas. Claudia says that Lorelei visited Rufus, telling him there was a problem in the Red and he might be needed to sort it out. Lorelei also told Rufus there was a traitor and that the Invicti would realise soon, and mentioned something about humans in the Red that Claudia didn't hear. Julia asks Claudia to listen out for more, because if humans can survive in the Red, she wants to leave the Blue and take Claudia with her to get her away from Rufus. Cam is thinking over the implications of the Weepers they found: there must have been a population of uncontaminated humans in order for them to have become Weepers, and also, there must be someone trying to make more Silver, as that is how the Weepers came to be originally. Cam also noticed that Felix was very careful to clean off all the Weeper blood, even though he couldn't know that it was dangerous to Cam, which seems suspicious to him. Cam asks if Felix has seen any Silver trying to turn humans, but he says they only bite to drink in the caravans, though they may be turning them in the settlement. They come across a village that Cam had visited before, which has been recently destroyed; Cam realises that the bones and blood he has found so far have been left to attract and neutralise Weepers. Felix asks Cam to tell him about the Fall; Cam is surprised he knows the term, but when he queries it, Felix changes the subject. The two have a charged moment of attraction. They confirm they will help each other with their rescue missions and clasp wrists; Cam is unsettled that Felix knows the Silver gesture. They find a hot spring and bathe, again having a charged moment. The next morning, they find a group of Weepers and Felix's horse spooks, throwing him. Cam uses the blood from Felix's head injury to neutralise the Weepers, and Felix identifies one of them as Otho. Julia arrives at Lucas's garden and finds Marcella, who is trying to convince him to sponsor her. When she leaves, Lucas is confused and disappointed that Julia has set Marcella's sights on him. He does not drink from her for several days, so Julia decides to confront him, but on the way to his place, she overhears Rufus and Lorelei discussing something; Lorelei says that Carmen remains loyal and won't join them, and that she has given Rufus a month for something but he has not produced results. He mentions someone named Priscilla, and Lorelei tells him to stay away from the Invicti. Rufus says that Lucas had asked him about Marcus. It becomes clear that Lorelei has promised her body when Rufus achieves her goal. Lucas comes to find Julia, ending her eavesdropping, and she offers him her blood; they almost kiss before he bites her earlobe and gives her one of his earrings as a sign of his protection. The next day Marcella reveals that Lucas has agreed to sponsor her; Marcella and Julia spend the day together, and they see a Noble baby undergoing its naming ceremony, which involves cutting its palm. Marcella reveals she is frightened of dying during the Nomination. Cam and Felix bury Otho, and Felix is consumed by guilt. Cam asks him how he met Otho, and he says it was in Charlestown, where Felix was assigned to hunt for food. Cam realises Charlestown is run by Charles, the Silver who took Emmy. He tells Felix that now they've found Otho, he doesn't need to stay with him, but Felix now wants revenge on Charles. They try to shelter in the mountains but find a cave full of corpses and signs Weepers have been there. They flee, both riding Hades due to the terrain; they discuss Emmy and Felix once again seems to know too much about Silver life. They reach Charlestown but Cam is too exhausted to fight his way in, so they watch for a way to sneak in. They see the caravan arrive, and among the Silver and uncontaminated humans is Carmen, who has turned traitor. On the day of the Nomination, Julia and Claudia discuss Julia's plan to escape the Blue, and Claudia expresses concern that it is unrealistic. They have an awkward conversation with Lucas, who makes it clear things will change once he is sponsoring Marcella. Later, they overhear Lorelei telling an unidentified male Silver to "keep him secure in the Red until it's time", but before they can work out what this means, they are escorted by Rufus to the Nomination ceremony. Rufus insists Julia sit with him in his box and questions her about Lucas' searring. The Silver begin to claim their chosen Candidates, but when Lucas claims Marcella, Rufus makes a counter-claim, saying that Lucas has already chosen Julia by marking her with silver via the earring. Rufus's claim is granted. Before the ceremony can be completed, there is a commotion caused by a Silver moving too fast to see; when the crowd calms, Julia sees that there are six bodies left on the dais and a message reading 'Make no more Silver". Cam now knows that the Silver in Charlestown are trying to turn humans Silver, and making Weepers instead. They are keeping uncontaminated humans in a cellar, which is where Felix thinks they will be keeping Emmy incapacitated. Both Cam and Felix will be recognised if they try to enter the town openly, so they decide to sneak into the cellar to find Cam some blood to get stronger; the town is empty and there is a Weeper in the streets. In the cellar, Cam finds some bottled blood, but a small boy tells him that his mother says not to drink it, and that the 'sleepy lady' isn't there. The boy points him to some blood that is safe to drink; Cam can smell the difference. Cam and Felix are discovered by Silver whom Cam sprays with the contaminated blood, turning them human. In the cells in the cellar, Cam finds Chloe, a Silver he knew before the Fall, who is now human; she is the mother of the little boy, Alex, who is still Silver. There are several ex-Silver women in her cell. They free everyone and Chloe lets the uncontaminated humans drink from her to protect them from Silver and Weepers alike. Felix disappears without any sign of a struggle. In the Blue, all the humans are feeling confused and scared. Julia does not know what will happen now that Lucas has claimed her. He comes to find her in the kitchen she works in and they go to his place. He reveals that Rufus is Laila's son, and Julia tells him what she overheard between Rufus and Lorelei. They discuss Lucas's claim on Julia, and he says he is not unhappy that things worked out this way; they kiss and spend the night together in the garden. Lucas offers to try to find a way out of the Blue for Julia, but she refuses to leave the other humans. Lucas reveals that like Julia, he was abandoned by his parents, which is unusual as Silver babies are rare and cherished. Later that night, Julia wakes up and sees someone talking to Rufus and then dragging a large sack away from Rufus's flat. Cam hunts for Felix, and overhears him talking to two Silver, who are beating him up. He accuses them of turning Otho into a Weeper, and they say that it is Felix's fault for leaving him behind. Cam attacks the Silver, one of whom is Richard, one of Charles's cronies; Felix wipes blood on him, turning him human so he cannot recover from the injuries Cam inflicted. Cam and Felix leave the town to find Chloe, but Felix passes out from his injuries. Weepers attack, and both Cam and Felix are badly bitten; Alex is turned human while defending Chloe. Chloe tells Cam that Charles had been trying to create new Silver to set up a society like the Blue, but made a lot of Weepers, who followed them to their new settlement. Charles, now human, left, taking Emmy, because she has the Primus' blood in her veins; he had initially kidnapped her to take down Sol, but when tried to make Emmy human, contaminated blood had no effect on her. He is now trying to make Emmy silver for him so that she can turn him back Silver. Felix finally wakes up. Lucas has tracked the person with the sack, and reports to Julia that it contained the body of a man he didn't recognise, dumped in the Red. Rufus claims this was Paulus, an old Server of his family. Marcella tells Julia to be more careful with how she deals with the Nobles. Julia spies on Rufus talking to someone; he gives Rufus a set of vials, telling him to keep enough for all his humans as a matter of life or death, but not to drink from his Attendant if he gives it to her. They discuss that something will happen that night. Julia returns to the kitchen but finds it empty; Alba arrives and takes her up to Livia's apartment, telling Julia that Laila has called all her previous personal Attendants to the palace for protection, and Livia has taken the kitchen girls with her. Julia tells Alba about the vials. Claudia arrives back at the kitchen and confirms Rufus has not given her anything. The three of them bundle up supplies for the evening. Alba explains that there had previously been a rebellion among the Nobles and the humans had had to hide for a month. They head to Lucas's apartment to hide, but are attacked by a Weeper - Marcus. Felix is weak but insists on coming with Cam to track Charles and find Emmy; Cam will have to carry him. Cam gives Hades to Alex and directs Chloe to Ana and Vasile's town. Cam and Felix find a deliberate trail of Silver blood and follow it to a cave; inside Cam finds Emmy's scent, but also the scents of more Silver than he can fight alone, possibly hundreds. He overhears two Silver boys chatting, and hears them say that this time next month, they expect to be in the Blue. Cam decides to leave Emmy for now and head back to the Blue to warn them; he worries that he does not have enough blood to make it back in time. Felix points out that the caravans function as supply stations so that the Charlestown Silver can refuel on their journey, so they travel back via that route. At the first caravan, they see several Silver and while looking for blood, see Tiberius, a member of the Solis Invicti who tells the Silver that Laila is annoyed that Cam is still alive, and that they should have done a better job of stopping him; Cam is horrified at the thought that the Solis Invicti have betrayed him. There is no bottled blood to be found so Cam snatches one of the humans from the camp, but struggles to drink from him; Felix uses a needle to fill a bottle from the human, then contaminates him to protect him, and they send him on to Ana and Vasile's town. They arrive back at the Blue, but Felix waits in the forest because he is a contaminated human; he kisses Cam goodbye. Julia and Claudia run from the Weepers, and take shelter in Lucas's rooftop garden. Lucas drinks Julia's blood so he can fight the Weepers, which are swarming the garden. Cam finds the city full of Weepers as none of the humans in the Blue were vaccinated. He reunites with Lorelei and her team of Invicti, who are incapacitating Weepers, but have no contaminated blood to cure them; Cam returns to Felix to get blood to use. Julia and Claudia are trying to help Lucas fight off the Weepers in the garden; Lorelei and four Invicti arrive to help. They all watch as Cam uses Felix's blood to cure the Weepers in a chain reaction of contamination. Cam confronts Laila. She reveals that she has known all along where Emmy was, before Charles took her away from Charlestown. She saw Emmy be contaminated with vaccinated blood at Delphi, but that Emmy didn't turn human; she wants to try to pass this immunity on to other Silver so that they can drink from contaminated humans. Laila tells Cam about the vials that Rufus had, which contained contaminated blood to vaccinate some of the humans; she did not notice her Attendants had been vaccinated and drank from them, becoming human. Cam returns to the Solis Invicti headquarters, where he confronts Tommy about Tiberius and Carmen turning traitor and Laila using the Invicti to try to kill Cam; Tommy did not know, and kicks out anyone who did. Cam tells Tommy he has found Emmy, and they begin to plan to get her back. Tommy promotes Lorelei to Tertius to look after the Blue while he travels with Cam. Julia, Claudia and Lucas return to the kitchen to wait while they work out what to do next. Rufus visits Claudia to check she is safe; Julia is still sceptical that he didn't have anything to do with the Weepers. Claudia goes to bed and Julia and Lucas share an intimate moment; Julia notices that Lucas is able to hide the silver in his eyes for the first time. He is now planning to go into the Red. Cam visits Sol's body in the temple and leaves a piece of material with Emmy's scent on Sol's chest. Lorelei visits Felix in the forest and tells him off for letting Cam find Emmy. She warns him that he'd better not let Cam rescue her. Felix refuses to help Lorelei, until she tells him that they are close to being able to make him Silver again. Charles discusses Emmy with a doctor, who tells him that Emmy's blood is too weak from being kept asleep. The doctor says they need 'the child'. Charles orders him to wake Emmy up. In the Temple, the gilding covering Sol's body disappears. Sol opens his eyes. Read on to find out what happens next…

THE SILVER QUEEN (BOOK II)

Here's what happened in The Silver Queen (Sovereign book 2) In the prologue, Charles attempts to threaten an awakening Emmy into revealing why she is immune to the contaminated blood which turns Silver into humans. She refuses to tell him anything, and headbutts him. Lucas has left for the Red, leaving Julia in the Blue to deal with the aftermath of the Weeper attack on the city and the subsequent fighting between Nobles (which they refer to as the Contamination). As their kitchen has been destroyed in the fighting, she and Claudia search for a place to hide until the city has calmed down; they find every place they try covered in blood and corpses, including the home of the Candidates, who have all been killed. Eventually, Julia and Claudia find a cellar on the outskirts of the city that will be defensible. Claudia explains that the Silver behind the previous attack at the Nomination ceremony (where the words 'Make no more Silver' were daubed across the temple) were angry at the diminishing population of humans to provide blood for them; she thinks Rufus was involved. After the Weeper attack, the uncontaminated blood supply is even more limited, and the surviving humans will be in danger. After a few hours of hiding, Julia is snatched from the cellar by Rufus, who takes her to the temple roof to show her that Lucas's garden is on fire and taunt her that Lucas will not return. He hints that he will be claiming her as his Attendant soon, and rips Lucas's earring from her ear. When Julia returns to the cellar, she finds Claudia unconscious; Rufus has drunk her blood and dropped her down the cellar steps. Cam and Tommy and several other members of the Solis Invicti (including Viv, who is pregnant, and Alistair and Adewale) who are old enough to remember Emmy are riding out to rescue her from Charles; the younger members have been left behind under Lorelei's charge to manage the fighting in the Blue and prepare for the invasion from Charles's people. Lucas arrives at their camp, sent by Lorelei to join the rescue mission; he is greeted with suspicion by all but Viv and Cam. Cam saw Lucas fighting in the Blue, and knows he is extremely strong, but he is worried that Lucas has no training and no knowledge of the truth about the Weepers and the vaccine, let alone Emmy. He questions Lucas as they travel and realises that he has not had a normal Silver upbringing. They reach the lake where Cam left Felix, but Felix does not appear; Cam goes to track his scent. Julia and Claudia head back to the main square to find a new hiding place and get Claudia's wounds seen to. They realise they are being tracked by Priscilla, a young Noble, who attacks Julia; Julia stabs her and flees with Claudia. They break into an abandoned house, and Claudia stitches up Julia's ear. Julia asks her to put Lucas's earring back in. Having cleaned herself of blood, Julia goes to Livia's house to find medicine for Claudia, and overhears Nobles discussing the contaminated blood and the possibility of being 'cured', which confuses her; they talk about needing to drink from the Servers now, not just their personal Attendants. While climbing over rooftops, she slips and reopens some of her wounds, making herself more conspicuous to the Silver. At Livia's, she find evidence that Livia was hiding people in the upper rooms; she realises that this was a hospital. She is attacked by a Silver who has tracked her scent, and she runs away, ending up in the square, where she becomes surrounded by Silver who attack her, and is thrown to the floor. Suddenly, the fighting stops and all the Silver kneel; Sol has appeared, and asks what has happened to his city. Cam finds Felix, who offers to guide the rescue mission through the mountains. Things between them are awkward after their kiss. When Felix joins the group, Naia immediately expresses attraction to him. Alistair begins training Lucas. Six of the group, led by Cam, break off to scout ahead at Silver speed, with plans to reunite with the others at Ana and Vasile's lake settlement; Cam has to carry Felix as he is human. When they arrive they find that Vasile has died, and Chloe and Alex (who Cam sent to the town) have not yet arrived. Ana offers to let Cameron stay permanently, which prompts Cam and Felix to discuss Cam's conflicted emotions about remaining Silver. He resolves not to become human until Emmy has been found, though afterwards he would be content to. That night, Felix kisses Cam and makes it clear that he is interested in a relationship. A week after Sol's return, Julia and Claudia are returning the kitchen to normal with the other girls who worked there, who had been sheltering in the palace with Livia and the Empress; the other girls are hostile to them, believing them to be contaminated. They go to the temple to collect food and Sol makes an announcement about how the city will function, including testing each human for contamination, and reallocating Attendants to the remaining Nobles. Claudia is assigned to the palace, but Lorelei makes sure Julia is reassigned to a particular Noble, though she does not reveal who, telling Julia she will find out the next day. When they return to the kitchen, many girls are missing, and Julia presumes they were contaminated and have been removed from the city. The next day, Julia reports to the temple and discovers her assigned Noble is Rufus. She meets Marcella, whom Rufus has kept safe during the chaos, but she is subdued, and Julia realises that they are both trapped. Julia is allowed to collect her belongings from the kitchen, and while there she speaks to Livia, who reveals that the hospital on the upper floor is for people who left the Blue (like Julia's parents) and occasionally return from the Red for healing; Julia realises that the Red is not necessarily a death sentence for humans, and her parents may still be alive. Cam's rescue party is on the trail of Chloe and Alex, who they realise have been captured by one of the rogue Silver caravans from Charlestown. Eveline leaves to follow a scent she has picked up, which Cam finds suspicious. When the Solis Invicti catch up to the caravan, they take control of it easily and the Silver manning it run away; the Solis Invicti free the captive humans and ask for volunteers to donate blood as their stocks are running low, but the humans are understandably unwilling to begin with, though four eventually donate. Chloe reveals to Cam that Alex is the son of Darius, one of the rescue party; he had visited Charlestown six years ago, and therefore cannot be trusted to be loyal to Cam. Most of the humans, including Chloe and Alex, leave for Ana's lake town, and Cam tells them how to contaminate themselves to be safe from Weepers and Silver alike. Tommy is upset by this, and dislikes Cam's thoughts that maybe it is time for the Silver to die out. The Solis Invicti take over two more caravans, again freeing the humans and receiving blood donations, though Tommy makes Cam promise not to inform the humans to contaminate themselves. The fourth caravan they find has been destroyed and has no inhabitants; it does not look like Weepers attacked, unless they are gaining sentience. The Solis Invicti are unnerved that they have not yet come across the army which is meant to be on its way to invade the Blue; Cam is concerned there is a traitor in his party feeding information back to Charles. Unseen by Cam, Felix releases a bird with a note tied to its leg. Julia has been with Rufus for a fortnight; he makes Marcella take Julia's blood with a needle and bring it to him. Claudia is allowed to visit, against Rufus's wishes, and is shocked at Julia's state. Claudia informs Julia that in the palace, the Attendants are well-treated and not bled often, as if the Nobles are waiting for them to recover. The girls discuss Livia's hospital and that there seem to be no outward differences between contaminated and uncontaminated humans; Julia brings up the idea of escape to the Red again, but Claudia does not want to go, as her life at the palace is good. Later that day, Julia is napping when an angry and possessive Rufus accosts her and bites her; it is extremely painful, unlike when Lucas drank from her. Julia flits in and out of consciousness for the rest of the day and night until Marcella arrives and stitches Julia's neck up. Julia remains extremely weak for several days, and Marcella stays by her side, taking care of her. As she recovers, she plans to escape in four days' time, when she is allowed out of Rufus's house to visit Claudia at the palace. Cam and Felix see the invading army leaving its mountain stronghold, about four weeks later than expected. They overhear a rider inform the army that there are Weepers ahead, and though they tried to bait them with a contaminated human, the Weepers avoided it (again showing more intelligence than suspected). The army is enormous, with hundreds of SIlver, but they are badly trained and young. Emmy is not among the soldiers, so Cam and Felix press on to the stronghold to look for her; they find an entrance Cam had not spotted before, and he leaves a blood trail so the rest of the rescue party can catch up. Felix and Cam set up camp, finally alone and able to act on their attraction, but are interrupted by the noise of someone nearby. They agree to take watches overnight. The next morning, they are interrupted again by the arrival of the rest of their party, minus Eveline, who has split off again. Tommy arranges pairs of scouts to look for other entrances, leaving Aaron, Lucas, Cam and Felix at the camp. Cam and Lucas discuss the reality of the Red compared to what the residents of the Blue have been told, and Lucas resolves to contaminate Julia to keep her safe, though Cam points out that finding Emmy may mean that the contamination becomes irrelevant. When the scouts return they discuss how to warn the Blue about the approaching army; Alistair suggests just telling Lorelei to abandon the city, if there is a good supply of uncontaminated humans in the stronghold. Julia heads to the palace to say goodbye to Claudia before escaping; she offers to let Marcella come with her but Marcella refuses, saying Rufus would chase her harder. Claudia gives Julia supplies, including knives and food, but neither girl can think of where to get shoes, as all humans are kept barefoot. Sol, who has been eavesdropping, tells Julia she can find shoes at the guardhouse, saying that he has a fondness for rebels; he expresses dislike of the way the Blue has been run without him. He offers to distract the guards while Julia makes a break for the boundary. At the guardhouse, Julia overhears Santos tell Lorelei that all the guards are needed by Sol for a drill; when they have gone, she steals practical clothes, shoes, and a crossbow. She crosses into the Red and is surprised at how anti-climactic it is. She comes across huts housing the missing contaminated Servers, who are harvesting food; one of them tells her to run. Cam sees Felix talking to an unknown Silver, but Felix seems unconcerned when Cam confronts him. He sys that the Silver was someone he knew from Charlestown who happened to run across his scent, and that he had lied and said he was looking to trade meat he'd hunted. He swears he would never betray Cam, and they kiss, which Cam feels seals a pact between them. The Solis Invicti try to enter the stronghold, but although it had seemed deserted, there are Silver waiting for them. Tommy orders four of the group to fight them while the others move in to search for Emmy. Inside the stronghold, there are more Silver waiting to ambush them, including the man Felix was speaking to earlier, who seems surprised to see Felix again. Alistair points out that the defenders are all young and weak, and Tommy realises that the leaders of the stronghold must be buying time, probably in order to prepare contaminated blood to turn the Solis Invicti human. Felix takes the lead as contaminated blood will have no effect on him; as he approaches the leaders, he signals them and shakes the hand of one, before killing him. A fight ensues, until a scream is heard from further down the corridor, and the defenders run towards it, leaving the battle.The Solis Invicti follow, and find that Emmy has taken out all the defenders; she deliberately kills Charles, even though he is already human. She is emaciated and feral-seeming, and does not appear to recognise Cam. Lucas leaves to take word to the Blue. Julia travels through the Red, heading East; she comes to a beach and decides to camp in a tree for the night before attempting to cross the lake to the other coast, which is visible, as she can hear howling on the other side. The next day she overhears two Nobles who have been sent by Rufus to look for her; they are not trying very hard and agree she is either dead, a Weeper, or still hiding out in the Blue. She builds a poor raft to keep her pack dry and has to propel it across the water by swimming behind it. When she reaches the other side, she is greeted by Galatea, a human girl about her age, who tells her Livia warned them to look out for her. Emmy is recovering slowly as they travel back to the Blue, but Cam thinks she is hiding something. Felix tries to talk to Cam about his relationship to the Silver at the stronghold, but Cam tells him to tell the whole truth or leave. Cam talks to a distraught Emmy, who is horrified at how the world has changed, though she has been trying not to break down in front of the Solis Invicti; she asks after Drew and Sol, and Cam tells her Sol is alive but Drew is dead. In the night, Alistair goes missing, taking his kit and his horse, as well as Viv's notebook, which has information about the army; his trail leads towards Charlestown. Adewale reveals that though Alistair had promised he was not part of Laila's plans, he used to disappear into the Red and come back smelling of blood. Cam confronts Darius about how he fathered Alex, but Darius says that he has never been to Charlestown and he and Chloe met elsewhere. They travel on and find Alistair has overtaken them, meaning he is heading for the Blue, presumably to warn Laila about Emmy's return. Felix and Cam argue again about the truth, and Felix says it isn't safe to tell Cam the truth but that he doesn't want to lose him; they are interrupted before it can be resolved. Julia follows Galatea back to the human camp, which is mostly women, and mostly runaways from the Blue. The leader of the camp is Sabina, who used to be a Candidate, but Julia's parents are not there. Galatea reveals that her people are "immune" to the Weepers, but that Julia isn't; they are willing to make her immune if she wishes. Julia likes life in the camp, but wants to travel to another settlement she hears about, to check if her parents are there. Galatea makes her immune by sharing her blood, but Julia does not realise this is the same as contamination until Sabina tells here. Julia realises she will never be able to see Lucas again. Two days later, she encounters Lucas while travelling; he is returning to the Blue from the Solis Invicti. He apologises for leaving her, and they fill each other in on what has been happening; they both realise they have changed immeasurably. Julia is shocked that Lucas wants to return to the Blue now that they have both escaped safely. They spend the night together. Things are fraught among the Solis Invicti. Emmy reveals that she had previously seen Cam inside the stronghold, decades ago. Cam realises Felix used to be Silver, and used to work with Charles. He confronts Felix, who tells him that he had been spying for Charles to save Otho, but things had changed when he started falling for Cam; he tells Cam he loves him, and they kiss. Viv interrupts them and takes over the questioning, finding out that Felix had given the army false information to delay them. Viv and Cam realise that it wasn't Felix who alerted the stronghold to their arrival, but Eveline, who has turned traitor, and has been working with Lorelei. As Tommy left Lorelei in charge of the Blue (and they do not yet know Sol is awake), the Solis Invicti think she will just let the army in without resistance. Emmy confirms that Charles was experimenting with her blood to pass on her immunity to the vaccine, but she refuses to tell Cam the full extent of the abuse she suffered. When Julia and Lucas wake up, he tells her he saw Lorelei with the approaching army, and explains that she had lied that Cam had requested Lucas join the rescue party; they realise that Lorelei orchestrated the Contamination. Julia decides to return to the Blue with Lucas, but they decide to wait to warn the Solis Invicti that the city is in enemy hands already. They argue, with Julia pointing out Lucas's privilege. A few days later, they are attacked by a Tacitum, a Silver whose mouth has been sewn shut; in order to defeat the Tacitum, Lucas asks for Julia's blood to heal, but she tells him she is contaminated. Lucas attempts to fight, but struggles; Julia shoots the Tacitum with her crossbow. The Solis Invicti are about to overtake the army when they also encounter a Tacitum, but they defeat it easily. Emmy is growing very weak, but Cam realises that as she is immune to the vaccine, she could drink from Felix; Cam worries about pressuring him, but when he goes to ask, Felix has overheard and volunteers. Cam and Felix discuss their histories; Felix was born in Charlestown a few hundred years ago and was tricked into drinking contaminated blood by Richard. Cam worries about the future; he plans to take Emmy and run if Sol doesn't wake up or the remaining Silver try to experiment on Emmy, but Felix tells him it would be up to Emmy to decide. The group comes across Lucas's scent and the signs of his fight with the Tacitum; they start to track him. Lucas is unconscious after the fight with the Tacitum, and Julia has built a hidden den for them. Eventually he gains semi-consciousness and bites her out of instinct, despite her being contaminated. They are discovered by the Solis Invicti just before he can drain Julia dry. When Julia wakes up, she overhears Viv explaining to Lucas that Julia must have been mistaken, or lied, about being contaminated; she realises that Galatea's contamination didn't work and she wasn't as safe in the forest as she had thought. Julia assumes Viv is the Queen until Lucas corrects her. Lucas apologises for biting Julia, and explains that contaminated blood with turn the Silver human. He tries to urge her to stay safely in the Red, but she decides to come back to the Blue to rescue Claudia. Before crossing the water back to the Blue, the Invicti camp for the night, but they are attacked by dozens of Tacitum sent by Lorelei using information from Eveline. While the group is defending Emmy, several Tacitum snatch Felix. Cam gives chase, and catches up to them; Felix has turned most of them human. The Solis Invicti discover the army is only fifty miles behind them, and preparing to load up on blood to beat them to the Blue; they cross the lake immediately and decide to send Lucas back to the city to warn Sol. Apart from Cam, Tommy, and Viv, the Invicti are unhappy with the plan of fighting such a huge battle without blood, but Cam convinces them to carry on. As they prepare to move out, they are attacked by soldiers from the army. Julia and Lucas arrive at the palace but cannot convince the guards to let them in. They try to sneak in, but are discovered by Rufus, who taunts them; Julia shoots him in the eye with her crossbow. Inside the palace they find Claudia, who informs them that a curfew has been instituted, so they must wait to find the King. Cam and Tommy steal the blood vials from the belts of their attackers during the fight and pass them out to the Solis Invicti; however, some of them are contaminated, in a trick by Lorelei. Gul and Aaron are turned human; Gul dies but Aaron is merely wounded. The attackers flee at the sound of a whistle from the forest. At the temple in the Blue, Julia and Lucas find that Sol has fallen back unconscious and has begun to be covered in gilding again. Viv arrives and realises that this means all their effort has been in vain. She tells Lucas and Julia to flee with Claudia before the city falls. In the Red, Emmy, too, is weakening, and needs to be carried into the city. Cam asks Felix to stay behind with Aaron to stay safe. As Cam carries Emmy into the city, Sol awakens; they meet in the square, growing stronger by the step. Emmy covers herself in Felix's blood and taunts the soldiers, who are so hungry they start to drink it from her; half of Lorelei's army is contaminated and becomes human. Julia, Lucas and Claudia have set themselves up with crossbows on a rooftop overlooking the square. They and the Invicti attack the remainder of the army. Eveline attacks Cam, and tells him that this is all because she resents Emmy for having been human before she was Queen; he uses contaminated blood to turn Eveline human. Emmy kills Lorelei. The battle ends, and the remaining Invicti, including Lucas, swear fealty to Sol, but Cam is concerned that Sol and Emmy have been permanently changed by her ordeal, and that there is still much to do to secure their future. Julia wants to leave the city again, as she cannot tolerate Silver rule any more, but Lucas asks her to stay as his equal. He reveals that he has silvered for her. She agrees to stay, for now. Cam is conflicted as to whether to stay, as he wants to be with Felix but does not know if he will be welcome in the city, as a contaminated human; he decides to return to Felix. In the Red, two men are watching Felix and Aaron, and make a comment about blue eyes. They retreat until it is time to make their move. Sol and Emmy are finally alone. Emmy demands to know where their son is, but Sol is confused. Emmy says a woman took her son to deliver him to Sol, but it is clear Sol knows nothing of this. In the Red, Alistair asks a messenger to tell whoever is now in charge of Charlestown that he has found the boy. Read on to find out what happens next…

THE BLOOD PRINCE (BOOK III)

Here's what happened in The Blood Prince (Sovereign book 3) Recap coming soon!

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