“It was high enough that no one could see in, that my safety could never be breached. Or so I thought.”

Nyra expresses her thoughts about her time in the palace and her imprisonment in the tower. When she was young, she thought that her confinement was her father’s way of keeping her safe. In reality, however, King Roan took this drastic measure to keep her hidden and preserve his own political power. As a despotic leader, King Roan values power above all else, and he therefore sees Nyra’s lack of magical power as a threat to his reign.

“You only got to be that close to the king if you had something to offer him. If your magic was something he might need.”

The issue of trust is prominent throughout the entirety of the novel, and the characters’ reactions to magic or the lack thereof is also paired with their ability—or inability—to trust. In this passage, it is clear that the king only lets those with magic power close to him, while rejecting those who lack magic. This dynamic explains his rejection and torture of the young Nyra. Ultimately, the king only favors those who have power that he can utilize for his own ends; all others are discarded.

“There was so much weight to his concern and the reasons that compelled him to worry for me. Micah had become my anchor since leaving the palace, my confidant and closest friend. But the way he was studying my face was… more.”

Although Micah only appears briefly in the narrative, his presence in Nyra’s life and his kind attention to her needs render him a potential romantic rival for