Blurb
Airk Azdajah, the rightful King of the White Clan of dragon shifters, spent half a millennium being tortured by the false High King Pytheios. The only reason hes alive is a the man who kills Airk will be consumed in his own fire. So Airk was kept alive—barely—and unable to shift in his prison cage, driving the creature half of him into madness. Airk escaped, but he’ll never be truly free. Because what good is a king who can never let his feral dragon loose, never fly, and never lead his people?
Angelika Amon is the last unmated phoenix. The problem? She has no powers. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Angelika hates being dormant, especially now that her three sisters are blissfully mated to powerful dragon shifter kings and are very much part of the fight to take down the rotting king Pytheios. What good is a completely powerless phoenix in a battle to save the dragon kingdom?
Desperate to find some way to help, she offers herself to Airk as a mate—just for political leverage. Now a dormant phoenix is mated to a dragon who can’t shift. But the balance of power is about to change when Pytheios decides to claim Angelika for himself…
Review
In the book four of the Inferno Rising series, Angelika Amon is one of four phoenix shifters who are destined to marry dragon kings, but her powers have remained dormant. Shes tired of being sidelined in the war with the no-longer rotting Red High King of the six dragon clans, so she does what she can to convince the dragons of the White Clan, who sides with her enemies, to join her and the good guys.
After five long centuries of captivity and abuse, Airk Azdajah has learned self-control the hard way and has locked down both his emotions and dragon in the deepest parts of his mind. Even though hes finally physically free from the High King, the war within himself still wages on. Hes never shifted into his dragon form, so the poor animal has become feral. He does his best to stay away from Angelika since he fears his dragon will hurt her, but her kindness and light are a balm to both his man and dragon halves. When she joins him on a dangerous mission for the other dragon kings (her sisters mates), he has to put aside his need for vengeance and protect her, but what happens next is something he never expected.
Wow. So much happened in this book. Its the culmination of four books in this spin-off series, so everything comes full circle. The main story and series arc as well as the romance part was tied up wonderfully, but there were some unanswered questions, for example: why didnt the three hellhounds try to help and avenge their loved ones centuries earlier? There are more questions, but those align more with the main series, Fires Edge, so I hope theyll be answered there.
As for the characters, Angelika and Airk were made for each other. Her goodness and understanding was exactly what Airk needed to help him heal, and his quiet strength helped Angelika become who she was destined to be. That said, Airks constant inner turmoil and his accepting Angelika as his mate then pushing her away grew tiresome after a while. I understood his reasons, but as a reader, Id rather the couple be happy together.
Angelikas sisters and their mates—Kasia/Brand, Skylar/Ladon, and Meira/Samael—all played major roles, as they should. The wolf shifters—Bleidd, Jedd, and Madrigan—were awesome, as were the demon, Delilah, and her warlock husband, Alasdair, from yet another of Ms. Owens series thats loosely intertwined with this one.
The pacing was a little slow at times, but Ive learned to accept that when it comes to super long books; this one was about 6000% on my Kindle.
Im sad to see the Inferno Rising series and the main series, Fires Edge, have come to an end, but I cant recommend them enough for dragon shifter lovers.
4 Stars
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