Children of Blood and Bone

Tzain scrambles to come up with a new plan. Zélie panics, believing that she cannot control enough spirits to help them win, but Tzain comforts her and assures her of her capabilities. Zélie jumps into the water and casts from beneath the surface to hide her magic. She summons a spirit and attacks one of the boats, successfully destroying it. She continues summoning with Tzain’s encouragement.

Amari is overwhelmed by the chaos and blood of the battle. Another ship’s crew begins to board their boat, and Tzain calls for her help, but she is frozen with fear. Someone attacks her and Tzain is injured protecting her. Cannonballs hit their ship and it starts sinking.

Zélie’s power is running out. She uses blood magic to heighten her abilities and successfully sends spirits to lift the boat. However, the blood magic overwhelms her. She loses control and starts to drown.

Tzain and Amari realize something is wrong when Zélie disappears under water. Tzain jumps in after his sister and brings her to the surface, where she is hauled up onto the ship. A competing vessel crashes into theirs and hand-to-hand combat starts. Their crew is successful in repelling the combatants, but then the captain of the other boat rushes forward and targets the unconscious Zélie. Amari acts on instinct, killing him before he can hurt Zélie. This also causes them to win the competition.

Zélie struggles in the aftermath of the violence. The teenagers are publicly presented with the sunstone which, as Zélie touches it, glows with powerful light. Zélie sees an image of the Sky Mother and cleanses the souls from the arena, granting them peace in the afterlife. The crowd cheers, thinking that Zélie has been granted immortality, but she is filled with awe and love for her magic. Zélie, Amari, and Tzain are renewed with hope and faith.

Amari is disgusted by the celebrating crowd and their cheers for the three teenagers. They reach their rented hut and try to wash away the blood that covers them. They give their gold winnings to the enslaved divîners to buy their freedom. Zélie falls asleep while Amari bandages Tzain’s wounds. He tells her that she can go to the guard post and pretend that she was kidnapped. If she does not, she may have to kill again. Although tempted, she decides to stay, and Tzain and Amari tease each other, flirting, before she leaves to get water. 

Inan travels the desert alone on a panthenaire, another type of giant cat. He sent the other soldiers to King Saran with a message notifying him of Kaea’s death, but hiding his culpability. He arrives at Ibeji during the celebration following the arena competition. His magic allows him to track Zélie through the streets, because her magic smells like the ocean. He rides his panthenaire to a series of huts, breaking into each of them. He finds the hut that Zélie, Amari, and Tzain stayed in, but they are gone.

The trio reaches the forests of the Gombe River Valley, where the trees and river give them a reprieve from the desert. For the first time in a long while, Zélie feels safe. Zélie teases Tzain and Amari about their obvious feelings for each other. When they reach the river, Zélie shoves Tzain into the water, starting a fake fight that results in all three teenagers in the river. This is interrupted as Inan briefly pulls Zélie into a dreamscape. Before they can flee in reality, they hear Inan approaching on his panthenaire. Zélie realizes that he is alone and decides that she can defeat him in combat. Amari approaches him first and tries to talk to him, insisting that he won’t hurt her. There is a moment in which it seems like she has succeeded in changing Inan’s mind, but then he attacks Zélie.

Amari tries to break up the fight. Before she can, she feels she is being watched and soon nets shoot over Nailah, trapping her. Tzain is knocked down and dragged into the forest by masked people. Amari is knocked unconscious by something on a wet cloth.

Zélie and Inan stop their fighting when they see Amari being kidnapped by a masked man and realize Tzain and Nailah have been taken as well. Zélie chases after them but is ensnared by a net. Inan attacks the men who have captured her, wounding one so badly he cannot flee with his companions. Zélie watches Inan approach with his sword raised.

Inan prepares to kill Zélie while she is captured in the net but becomes overwhelmed as his magic shows him her memories of the night her mother was killed. He is awed by her pain and no longer sees her as an enemy, but rather as a scared girl who has experienced tragedy. He cuts the ropes binding her.

Zélie lies in the dirt, feeling guilty because she was the one who insisted the trio take a break, enabling their capture. She sees Inan and wonders at his motives, but questions the masked man who attacked her. She cuts him to try to get answers, but Inan stops her from killing him.

Zélie’s rage targets Inan until he calls her “Zel,” Tzain’s nickname for her. While looking at Zélie and knowing her memories, Inan has lost the urge to kill her and decides he cannot be like his father. Inan convinces Zélie that they must work together to rescue their siblings, and they interrogate the masked man.

Amari wakes up in pain and disoriented with a bag over her head. Someone notices that she is conscious and removes the bag, revealing two divîners and a tent constructed around the base of a tree. Amari sees Tzain tied to a tree root. The male divîner, Kwame, removes the gag from Amari’s mouth and questions her about the scroll. Amari confesses that she stole it and that they are tasked with bringing the magic back, but Kwame believes she is lying and threatens Tzain. Before the situation can escalate, a young diviner girl named Zu enters the tent. Zu picks up the scroll and studies Amari before Kwame tells him that another of their group, Jailin, has not returned. Zu issues orders to clean Tzain’s wounds and gather the others.

Inan carries the masked attacker through the woods, following Zélie and struggling to suppress his magic. When he slips, he absorbs some of Zélie’s memories. He removes his helmet for the first time in a long while to reveal that his hair is streaked with white. They find the settlement the masked boy described during interrogation, which is heavily guarded. Zélie and Inan debate their next steps, and Zélie threatens to reveal Inan’s secret if he brings in royal guards to help their attack. Zélie summons some of her spirit animations, but they resolve to wait until the next night to fight their way into the compound.

Zélie and her spirit animations spar with Inan, who keeps insisting that she must be more powerful before they attempt to take the compound. Zélie watches Inan suppress his magic and suggests he use it to help their fight, but he refuses and insists on going to get royal guards. Zélie storms away and he follows her, starting an argument in which Inan claims that magic is the cause of the continent’s problems and Zélie insists the King is to blame. As their fight intensifies, Zélie admits that “I am always afraid!” before breaking down into tears (312).

Inan’s magical empathy allows him to feel Zélie’s terror. Zélie collects herself and insists that the guards are the same as criminals, stating she will never forgive the King for everything he has done.

Amari remembers one day accidentally seeing her father in the palace prisons, engaging in torture. She thinks of this as she tries to escape the restraints holding her in place. Zu enters the tent and heals Tzain’s wound magically. Zu starts questioning Amari, calling her a liar when she claims to have visited the sacred temple and met Lekan. Zu calls in Kwame to continue his interrogation, this time with violence.

Inan searches for Zélie and reflects on how much she has challenged his worldview. A sharp pain in his stomach opens his magic and he receives another of Zélie’s memories before she steps into view. Zélie claims that he is in pain because he is suppressing his abilities. When he asks about her animations and whether they can fight their way into the compound, she reveals the sunstone. He confesses to her that he hates his magic and how it makes him hate itself, and Zélie tells him that the toy he has been carrying around from his father is made of majacite and has been hurting him whenever he touches it for comfort. He drops the majacite and promises that he won’t stand in Zélie’s way when she restores magic.