Forbidden Revels Above an Angel's Grave
Book 1 Recap
Need a recap of book one, Scars Beneath a Serpent’s Scales? Read below. If you’re ready to jump into book two, you can skip to chapter one.
Emmeline, the Lead Fate Tie Instructor at Lyra Temple Academy, is paired to work with Roremar “the Reckless” to find the person responsible for women going missing on the Isle of Lyra.
The Master of the Academy, Aldryn Falliare, Roremar’s uncle, offers them both something they can’t refuse.
Emmeline is promised she’ll be transferred to Valyn, the Starsearcher capital on the continent, and Roremar is guaranteed financial aid and schooling for his younger siblings.
Women start turning up dead, all with the common evidence of twelve-pointed star tattoos on their chest, a winged sigil nearby, and ash around the bodies.
Roremar’s best friend and brother—Desmond and Nico—join the case, and the group suspects cult involvement, particularly from the Warders of Selene or the Realmspinners, though it is difficult to find information on either.
When Emmeline is attacked in her dormitory and a threatening message is left on the wall, she moves to the apartment above Desmond’s tattoo shop. The problem? Desmond is currently her prime suspect.
One of Emmeline’s colleagues, Myrella, joins the team, and they follow a lead to the isle of Alvan, where Desmond is originally from. They find out all the dead women are tied to Anphrosia, the Fate of Cruelty and Adoration. So is Emmeline, revealing she has a second Fate tie.
When more evidence arises, Emmeline accuses Desmond. He quickly disproves her theory. A wrench is thrown both in their friendship and in Emmeline and Roremar’s partnership.
Despite the fight, evidence leads them to a man called the Snake Charmer, and they experience opens wounds from Emmeline’s past. Afterward, she tells Roremar about her past. How she's looking for her sister who was taken by the temples on the continent when they were little, her father disappeared, and her mother was killed.
She reveals her motive to get transferred to Valyn Temple Academy is to find her sister.
Roremar takes Emmeline to meet his family. Slowly, the walls between them come down as they each let the other into these vulnerable pieces of their lives.
Together, they get closer to the killer.
When they find his den in the caves near Roremar’s family’s home, it’s only a matter of time until they complete this case and Emmeline is transferred.
With that over their heads, Emmeline and Roremar give into the tension between them.
Emmeline sets a rule: no kissing. In response, Roremar sets his own: no touching.
When Emmeline wakes in the morning, she goes to the Trade House and finds Roremar over Nico’s dead body. Roremar is arrested for the murders, and Emmeline teams up with Desmond to try to figure out why Roremar didn’t deny it was him.
Emmeline conducts a powerful reading and figures out Roremar is tied to the Fate of Chaos and Revelry, Dryvius, who everyone believed to be dead. Due to this, he's deemed a threat so isle leaders throw him in a seeing chamber that tries to rip out his Fate tie.
Emmeline follows him, knowing it will reveal her final, biggest secret: She is tied to all eleven living Fates. The seeing chamber explodes from their combined power.
Roremar is still taken away, despite the fact that Emmeline projected readings that proved his innocent future. They finally kiss as he goes, and while she watches him leave, completely shattered, Emmeline is told she is now getting what she always wanted. She is being transferred to Valyn.