Sei had been trained to be the perfect grail, a living power source for a mage, almost from birth. Being betrothed to Prince Marek as part of a treaty is finally his chance to actual do that. Except the dragonrider prince has absolutely no interested in either Sei or using his power. Marek wasn’t supposed to be the one getting betrothed. That was his brother Vana who has disappeared. He’s terrified of using Sei and burning him out; dragonriders don’t use grails for a reason. He figures he’ll do his best to protect Sei until he can figure out how to break their betrothal. Which means he’ll also have to keep resisting his betrothed who Marek finds he likes far more than expected.
I really liked both of the main characters in this one. While they have very different perspectives on the situation, they do both want a good outcome. Marek has done his best to stay out of the politics of the court and focus on the military, but that’s not an option at the moment. And while he clearly wants to protect Sei, including from himself, he doesn’t always go about it in a helpful way. Sei, on the other hand, has been trained to conform to what others want of him at all times, and many of the Draskorans find that a little off putting.
I appreciated the seeing Sei figure out how to be a person, rather than a possession which is how he’s been trained to act. I also appreciated that Marek does his best to give Sei the autonomy and agency that he can in their situation. One of the big things for this couple is them figuring out how to effectively communicate with one another, and that was handled well here. The miscommunication tropes are not a favorite of mine, but in this circumstances they worked well the way they were used. I also love the realization of “oh, I’m in love with my betrothed” that happens. This was a great outing in this series, though things are left on a bit of a cliffhanger with the political situation, which really makes me want the next book. Four out of five stars.