She uses a Know Your Enemy spell, prompting both boys to see things from the other's point of view, and leaves with an offhanded remark on Gavin's lack of power. A fight breaks out between his younger brother, Fergus, and one of the younger Payne boys-Gavin puts a stop to it with a class three Hold in Place, but Briony Thorburn notices the scuffle and intervenes, claiming there's no guarantee the boys wouldn't start fighting again once he took the spell away. There has never been a Grieve victor thus far, but Gavin is determined to be different. The Grieves are considered by many to be the weakest in the tournament, suffering loss after loss as each one goes by. They ask him to make the Roach's Armor, so she can use it in the tournament, and while he works, Isobel steals the instructions for a death curse.Įlsewhere in Ilvernath, Gavin Grieve attends the wedding of his sister, Callista, to Roland Payne. Later, she visits the spellmaker Reid MacTavish's shop in town with her father in tow. The funeral party don't want them there, and Isobel apologizes, but they won't hear it. The next day, Isobel is at a graveyard with her family, waiting for the chance to collect magick from the recently buried. She and Alistair each cast a curse on one another, leaving equal impressions.

There, Alistair is intercepted by Isobel Macaslan, another Champion. We learn that, though nothing is set in stone, Alistair is the projected Champion for the Lowe family, and that they have won 'two tournaments for every three' (4).

And most important, it gave them a choice: accept their fate or rewrite their legacy.Įither way, this is a story that must be penned in blood.Īfter twenty years, the blood moon has risen again, signaling two weeks until the Tournament.Īlistair Lowe and his brother, Hendry Lowe, visit the Magpie, a pub in Ilvernath. The book also granted them valuable insight previous champions never had - insight into the other families' strategies, secrets, and weaknesses.

The prize? Exclusive control over a secret wellspring of high magick, the most powerful resource in the world-one thought long depleted.īut this year a salacious tell-all book has exposed the tournament and thrust the seven new champions into the worldwide spotlight. The Tournament begins.Įvery generation, at the coming of the Blood Moon, seven families in the remote city of Ilvernath each name a champion to compete in a tournament to the death.

All of us villains amanda foody