Throughout the course of the novel, everyone struggles with their own goals and the various moral, ethical, and personal obstacles to obtaining them. Jude is maintaining a delicate balancing act of running the kingdom from behind Cardan’s throne, but this causes her to keep secrets from her family and push them away. Her constant juggling of court politics also begins to erode her morals as a mortal in Faerie, causing her to think and act more like them. For instance, she treats mortal laborers as cargo, taking them from their homes to work on new rooms for the Court of Shadows. She also deflects responsibility for the actions she has taken in the name of ambition and self-preservation, such as the murder of Valerian.

Taryn also has great aspirations, but she goes about them another way. Instead of fighting her way to respect, Taryn seeks to marry her way into acceptance and secure her place in Madoc’s family. However, this often puts her at odds with Jude, who can’t understand that they use methods to achieve the same thing: belonging. At the opening of the novel, Jude is still processing a betrayal that Taryn committed in the first book of the series: Taryn turned away and allowed

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