Inked in Onyx (Inkbound #2)

Recap of Book 1

As for Molly, she’s got her own plans on that front.

When she takes one last, forbidden trip over the golden wall that separates The Hollow from the opulence of Alabaster City in pursuit of a wealthy husband, disaster strikes.

An evening in the arms of the Crown Prince turns violent, and the stiletto heel of Molly’s glass slipper winds up buried in his chest. Stuck on the wrong side of the wall with a maniacal king who should be dead, an evil sorcerer, and his pack of undead soldiers called “jackals” on the hunt for the woman who fits the glass shoe, Harmony will have to rely on her wits to keep her and Molly hidden until they can plot their escape.

And sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight…

After creating disguises for them both and landing a position as the palace falconer, Harmony is forced to rely on an unlikely group of allies, including charming but secretive second-prince Duncan and The O’Donnellys —a family of smugglers who’d just as soon sell her for parts as help her escape.

But danger lurks around every corner. Whispers — those who possess some measure of magic – still exist in Alabaster, and they aren’t afraid to use their powers to ferret out the woman with the missing stiletto.

As the walls start closing in, Harmony uncovers the monarchy’s darkest secrets: The should-be-dead Crown Prince is actually being kept “alive” through black magic, and the people of both The Hollow and Alabaster City are puppets under the control of a sadistic sorcerer with a plan that has served him well for nearly a century…

Strip the poor of magic, leaving them too weak to resist.

Keep the rich too comfortable to bother.

Revolutionary spirit ignited, Harm realizes she can’t just save her and Molly. She has to figure out how to tear the whole power structure down. And to do so, she’ll need an army. When Prince Duncan offers his help, she wants to trust him, but there is no question he’s hiding something.

Something big.

As the two grow closer and the Prince professes his love, Harmony’s dreams about the dark, handsome stranger only grow more intimate.

But, she needs to keep her head in the game if she has any chance of protecting her and Moll.

After a series of missteps almost get them caught, Harmony realizes they are on borrowed time.

She and the O’Donnelly’s stage a rescue of those falsely imprisoned for Moll’s “crime”, and they finally make a run for it.

But the sorcerer’s jackals are hot on their trail.

Prince Duncan comes to their aid, and we learn his secret.

He is a Whisper himself with the amazing yet terrible ability to turn into a mindless fighting machine much like a Viking berserker at the cost of both his physical well-being and his sanity.

He defeats the jackals, and they escape to join forces with famed revolutionary, The Speaker.

Not quite a Shout, but far more powerful than a Whisper, The Speaker’s abilities are second only to the sorcerer’s himself.

And, he’s willing to give his life to tear down the gilded wall that separates the rich from the poor and bring magic back to the people.

Their group travels to a village The Speaker has built in the treetops far away, where there are hundreds of Whispers who have been waiting for Harmony’s prophesied arrival to stage their coup.

The Speaker gives her a magical jeweler’s loupe to help her develop the true strength of her magic as a Tinker, who can see the inner workings of things and patterns that others don’t.

But when she’s unable to figure out how to truly connect with her Tinker magic, and a pissed off witch from the outside world starts trying to destroy the very fabric of their universe, it seems like a long shot.

Things only get more bleak when they meet up with the sorcerer and his jackals for the battle royale.

As fighting reaches a fever pitch, The Speaker insists that Harmony leave so he can finish the job, and he finally reveals the whole truth.

His destiny is to die here and take the evil Sorcerer down with him.

Hers is to collect three magical items and learn valuable lessons on her journey that will help her defeat the enemy bent on destroying her.

She has both gained some knowledge of her circumstances as well as a magical jeweler’s loupe, which allows her to see and manipulate the filaments of magic that make up the world to create even more complex inventions.

She has done all she can in Alabaster, and in order to complete her destiny, she needs to “turn the page” and move on.

Harmony, Molly and Fetch approach The Shadow Abyss and she knows she has to make the leap.

But to do so, she must leave both this world and Duncan behind, and turn the page…

literally. As The Speaker gleefully gives his life in a blaze of glory, Duncan encourages her to leap for the dog-eared edge of their flat “world” and turn the page, carrying her, Moll, and Fetch to the next tale in their adventure, leaving Duncan behind to rebuild his fractured kingdom…