Sinopsis
Elara Giann-Vail is the Saintess of Embers. Frost is eating High King Caspian from the inside. Her fire is the only thing that holds it back. She gives him years of it, and never once says no.  Her cousin Liora puts a Phantom Kiss on him, so in his head the woman who pulled him out of the Frozen Sea is Liora. With the debt owed to Liora, the Court has no reason left to protect her clan — and it sets its sights on the fire veins. Her clan burns. Her father dies in the fire. Her brother is executed for a crime he didn't commit. Her mother's mind breaks. And Caspian stands there and never once steps in. In the end, he kills her himself. Then she wakes up. The morning of the sacrifice. She's back at the beginning. He's asleep beside her, pulling the heat out of her arm the way he always does. This time she doesn't stay. She pays the illusionist Violetta to block Liora at the temple. The temple is where Liora stole the credit the first time. She tears up the Soul Covenant in front of the whole court, so the Court has no claim on her clan anymore. She calls the Fire Vein Council and reads out the elder Vespera's stolen ledger, line by line, because Vespera's the one who bled her house dry. The last battle is on the border altar. Liora tries to wake the Shadow Lord by feeding it the whole north. Elara breaks her with a fire phoenix. Dying, Liora crushes a scroll in her hand. Purple smoke pours into Caspian's head, and he sees it: the woman who pulled him out of the Frozen Sea was Elara. In that same breath, the frost inside him tears loose. He's on his knees. He begs her to save him. She tells him there's nothing between them anymore. She doesn't save him. He freezes where he kneels.