The time has finally come for Lindon's duel with Jai Long, and despite all Lindon's training and advancement in the path of the Blackflame, it is still not even close to being a fair fight. Not even the fact that Lindon healed Jai Long's sister from her crippling affliction turned out to be enough to spare him from his fate, which has been orchestrated from the start by Eithan Aurelius. This is all part of Eithan's plan to elevate the Aurelius family above the Jai family and this duel is merely a single move in a much larger game. None of that matters to Lindon because it is very likely he won't be alive to find out if Eithan's plan actually works. Knowing this, Lindon has has no plans to fight fair, but unfortunately for him, Jai Long also has some tricks of his own prepared.

While it was nice to finally get the duel out of the way, it also became the trigger for a series of events that raised the stakes to something much more impactful than two families vying for power within the empire. All I will say here is that the outcome of the duel is impactful to the story, but it is also well in the rear view mirror by the time this book is over. None of the three main characters, Lindon, Yerin, and Eithan are the same at the end of this book, and the main character stories finally start to be tangibly tied back to the Abidan before it's over. These last two books have really elevated my enjoyment of the series, with my biggest gripe being that the books are too damn short. I'd feel much better about this long series if the books were twice the size they are.

Travis Baldree's range of voices comes to the forefront in this book and his narration is well done, even if I still need to listen to him at .95x speed.