Immortals After Dark (XIII) / Dacians (1) - Shadow's Claim by Kresley Cole
Shadow’s Claim (Verlockung des Mondes) is part 13 of the Immortals after Dark and part one of the Dacians, the wonderful little people Lothaire manages – starting with Trehan. I read the 476 pages in English, originally published 2012.
Princess Bettina of the Deathly Ones, goldsmith extraordinary, the Queen of Hearts without her power and a demoness imposter is screwed. Ever since the Vrekener attack, she’s traumatized. But even worse? She let her godmother, Queen of the Sorceri, and her godfather, King of the Deathly Ones, talk her into this tournament. From all over the Lore, more than two hundred suitors will fight for the crown, with Bettina’s hand and summoning amulet as extras. Only one of them survives. Bettina wants only one of them to win. And only one of them actually wants her heart. Unfortunately, they aren’t the same person…
The Dacian society is fascinating. I love how the Royals all know they have to kill each other and frequently procrastinate, because they simply like each other too much. Especially Kosmina. That girl is a joy, by the way, a killer as ruthlessly skilled as innocent. Can’t wait for her story (because if she doesn’t have one, I’m absolutely going to… I don’t know, eat more chocolate, maybe? I suck with threats). I like how all male Dacians save Lothaire disagree on everything except for her. The more I read about them, the more I fall in love with this more unusual family… and the more I pity them for getting Lothaire as their king. God, that guy’s so insane, especially before he gets Ellie back. By the way, I loved the scene where Queen Elizabeth got active. Damn. Well. Done. If they ever get children, I pity them in advance. “You got a F in maths?! I’m going to rid your head off…” – “Go play in the garden, honey, Mommy’s going to calm Daddy down. Auntie Bett will console you, or maybe someone else… don’t care, have to get your father on the leash. Bye-bye!”. Yeeeaaaah. But she does have him under control.
Well. Trehan is my favourite, next to Kosmina. Her brother’s so charming it’s creepy (and what the hell does he have to do with Cas?!!) and the other two are… sort of colourless I think.
But seriously: What’s up with Cas? Why did he end up in Dacia, what happened there that he left so abruptly, why doesn’t he want to save Bett from this competition – even though actual monsters take part and no one cares about the princess? How can he throw her to the wolves like that, especially after beating himself up for months because he wasn’t there to protect her from the Vrekeners? Cas is a charming, capable, rough kind of guy, too proud for his own good… But he doesn’t seem that disloyal. And he and Bettina are so close that no one even blinks when he comes to a meeting about Bettina’s future with her royal godparents. Obviously, he doesn’t love her the way she initially loved him. But if I had a really close friend who ended up in that situation, who begged me to get him out of there, of course I would have done everything in my power to help. I’d have thought he’d think like this as well, so… what reason did he have for not helping Tina?
Bettina reminds me a bit of Emma from A Hunger like No Other (Nacht des Begehrens) because – like Em – she’s been sheltered her entire life, tried to get a bit independency, was hurt really badly, and is now afraid of a lot. But Emma’s been thoroughly educated compared to Bettina. While Bettina has the higher sense of self-value, isn’t just afraid but traumatized and lets herself be bullied a whole lot more. But she’s also an artist – and financially independent, which Emma can’t say about herself (she can however brag about some really impressive stuff she did growing up :D). As you can see, they aren’t the same person. But they are similar in a few ways. I’m sorry for what happened to Bettina, but also about how she has to fight everyone in her life, how no one save Trehan believes in her. Granted, she didn’t do anything impressive, and, as my godmother loved to point out to me “there’s always two: The one who pushes and the one who lets himself be pushed”. But the situation still sucks. How could Morgana and the King actually do that to Tina? What in gold’s name did they want to accomplish? I seriously don’t get it, the king could settle down and, I don’t know, play golf with the heads of his enemies or something. Maybe he was tired of his job and looking for a way out of his job. But Morgana? What did she have to win? I don’t get it, I really don’t.
The competition itself was… interesting, to say the least. The tasks were nicely done. But I don’t understand why Bettina didn’t simply use Trehan’s gift in the end to end it altogether. She agreed to it on two terms, that one her godmother would get her her power back and that two the King would kill the Vrekeners who hurt her. Now, since Morgana hasn’t found her power and the King obviously didn’t fulfil his end of the bargain, she doesn’t have to fulfil her end, either. That’s the beauty of a deal: If one side doesn’t deliver, the other side doesn’t have to, either. As soon as she understood Trehan’s gift, she could have bailed right then and there, without even making the decision about who lives and who dies. Instead, the best she can come up with to save the men she loves is… basically doing exactly what Trehan told her. For someone as creative as her, that’s amazingly… uncreative. Sorry, I’m not creative with formulations, either.
Creativity brings me to her work. Bettina’s “little hobby” is amazing, and I love to learn a bit more about the world of the Sorceri – they are amazingly interesting, funny and… well, throat-cutting. I had wondered if the Queen of Illusions was in fact her patroness. Another thing I wondered about was if Bettina’s bathroom-companion (he’s awesome, by the way) and Morgana will end up together, eventually. And what he did that he lost his body. He’s interesting, I’d like to learn more about him.
Now. I haven’t taken the time to introduce you to the second main character. Trehan is a duty ridden do-it-yourself kind of guy who actually first asked questions like “what’s your favourite colour” after being blooded. I literally whooped. And then shook my head, because it’s kinda disturbing that the only stuff men have to do to keep me deliriously happy is to ask about my favourite colour, not force their will on me and not ask for promises in bed. The levelling board’s pretty low in recent times. Whatever. Trehan is grounded and quiet, usually the kind of person who’s in the background because he doesn’t see the need to express himself to others – the broad masses simply don’t matter enough. He only pretty much needs himself, and is fine with being alone. This however changes through Bettina. Trehan is still more reserved, but he actually… well, comes alive after meeting her. He sees that there is a world beyond his work and that there’s literally beauty in everything. I adore this change. Especially how he’s absolutely transfixed by the way Bettina sees the world (literally), from the first second. It’s beautiful.
The relationship between Trehan and Bett is very, very nicely done, for IAD standards. I love how he helps her overcome her fears, and how he unthinkingly followed her when he saw she went out of the castle – not really to spy on her, but to protect her, because he thought it was dangerous. I like that he more or less lets her make her own decisions, and that he tries to understand her. That he fights for her – as the only guy in the competition – and makes sure she knows that. And she doesn’t have to do major convincing about leaving Cas alive. Which is, for IAD standards, really romantic (and again we’re at how low my standards have gotten, sigh).
But the ending could have been better. I think there was too much time wasted on showing how impossible it was for them to be together – and too few on the actual, happy ending. It seems unbelievable.
In brief:
Stars for style, ideas and characters, plus a star for content, minus a star for the ending.
Prequel:
(Lothaire Konstantin Daciano, The Enemy of Old
& Saroya, sacred protectress of vampires, goddess of divine death
& Elizabeth “Ellie” Peirce, Expert in boys, reverse psychology and law-enforcement evasion)
Sequel:
(Uilleam Andriu MacRieve, chieftain of the Nova Scotia Settlement of Clan MacRieve
& Chloe Todd a.k.a. Olympic hopeful, unwitting immortal)