Authors

Yes, we find out the Queen put members of the Seelie Court under a geas that prevented them from saying certain things about Ash to outsiders/non-Seelie Court members. We find this out from a different faerie under the geas, who tells it to Kit, and it's mentioned in relation to Nene as well. We haven't explored the concept of the geas much before, but it's an old part of Faerie folklore and would supersede the "not lying" — especially since most of what Nene says in TDA (that she doesn't know exactly how old Ash is now and wouldn't recognize him) — is true.

Yes, you'll see his POV in Last King of Faerie.

In the Anna and Ariadne story in Better in Black, we do see what Matthew and Sylvain are up to! There are also hints about them in several of the other stories, like Who The Wolf Loves (Luke/Jocelyn.)

In reply to Jim Sackman.

Yes, there’s no such thing as an off-the-shelf sigl.

And essentia is very much a limited resource. That doesn’t stop companies from selling it to their own employees, providing those sales are profitable.

In reply to Celia.

It’s roughly measurable, so yes, buyers can take manufacturers to task over it.

In reply to Jason Enberg.

Yes, the “you can’t buy sigls off the shelf” thing was discussed back in book 1.

Lead time is going to vary. The cheaper the sigl, the lower the lead time.

Okay so I guess I misunderstood when I was listening. Stephen was offered Locator sigils that were threaded for a price. My read of that was that these were off the shelf and available at will. But after reading this, he would have had to buy a threaded locator sigil made just for him. Correct?

I recognize that this became overcome by events, but it seems to me to be a waste of good essentia. That, in turn, leads me to believe that essentia is not a scarce resource. Otherwise there would be more profitable ways to employ it.

I will share a thing to think about? Ash has the power to make people love him and want to please him, so how does that go when he can't turn it off? Even if he wants to? :-)

I mean, I have adored writing Dru. She is so sharp and so funny, and I loved writing her reactions to Faerie, especially when things are ridiculous. And her annoyance that you cannot find a bra in Faerie because of course not.

I love her dynamic with Ash, too, and writing a plus-size Shadowhunter was incredibly interesting and fun. I got to draw on a lot of my own teenage experiences (not that I was ever a badass demon hunter) which is always interesting and revelatory.

Hi! I hope you've been well, too.

I am not sure where the idea comes from that Ash is not trained? He is very well trained and an excellent fighter.

In Forever Fallen we already know Ash can fight; Sebastian dropped Ash into a pit of demons with only a sword and Ash fought them off. So that is canon. At that point, he is a much better fighter than Kit.

In FF, Janus agreed to try to train him as a Shadowhunter but in TKLOF we learn that due to his nature, there is some angelic magic Janus cannot access. That doesn't mean Ash isn't trained though; he has been training for years. He just doesn't know a few Shadowhunter things. He knows, however, plenty of other fighting skills Shadowhunters do not know. He has his own training room and weapons, etc.

Kit and Ash are not in competition — not in the books or, I hope, outside it! Ash's strengths are not Kit's weaknesses nor are Kit's strengths Ash's weaknesses. They are very different characters, just as Kit is very different from Will or Jace and Ty is very different from Dru or Julian.

They know Kit and Ty had a fight and that things are weird between them. They are not dumb, and know there was a romantic aspect to Kit and Ty's relationship even if they think Kit and Ty themselves might not have known that. Without being able to answer any questions about whether they are even around to see Kit and Ty's relationship develop in TLKOF I am sort of stuck saying anything else. :) We do see how the Carstairs-Herondale family functions a bit though. They're very cute.

Manipulative.

I think you may well suspect who it is the first book.

Friday means winners! And today we have three of them for the This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me giveaway.

US Winner – This Kingdom Hardcover Copy International Winners – 2 ARC pdf copies

and

Congratulations all!

Winners will be contacted from the modr@ilona-andrews.com email. If we don’t hear back by Wednesday, March 4th, a new winner will be drawn next Friday.

A special thank you to the Horde’s creativity for keeping me snorting through the week with over 3,000 comments of the most flooftastic alter egos. The portal fantasy realms would not know what hit them if we landed.

Online safety reminder: please be vigilant for social media scammers. We will never ask you to cover postage costs or have any other money transfer related to these giveaways and will only contact you from the official Ilona Andrews accounts, with the public blog post link as proof that you are indeed the winner.

If your name was not drawn this time, do not despair. There are more prizes and surprises to come, as we’re finally heading into the release month of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me.

Squee and happy weekend!

The post Winners of This Kingdom Will Giveaway first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

It would definitely be fun to do an event in LA for the Wicked Powers, as the roots are there for so much of the story! And we do go back to Los Angeles in Wicked Powers — it's not just where Kit, Ty and Dru are from, it's the place Ash sort of lived in Thule.

Hmm, we do see a little of Clary and Jace in Better in Black, in terms of the years between TDA and TWP, and what happens in that story does reflect into LKOF. (Not in a way where you'll be lost if you haven't read it, just remember the word 'prophecy.' But it gets explained.)

I will say there's a scene in Pandemonium at the beginning of the book, with all the TMI gang there, and it was nice to go full circle back to the very beginning of TSC. Whether they stay together I cannot say. :)

In LKOF, the main focus they have is on the issues with the Cohort. Obviously that situation was never going to be stable, and Alec and the others have managed to be in touch with Zara and the Cohort in Idris, and they're desperately trying to set up some kind of peace talks. It's been years since Alec became Consul, so it's more about the issues they're having right in the moment that affect them all and less about adjustment.

Two things, one emotional and one logistical:

There are now so many characters and so much that we know about the world, all that information and all those people have to be juggled while still making sure Kit, Ty, Ash and Dru have center stage.

Secondly, it's just very hard to think about saying goodbye. Even if just visiting a location I have to think about if it's the last time I'll describe it. Very nerve-wracking!

And thank you!

You won't see him learn it so much as he already knows about it. In the first scene with him, he discusses what it means for him in terms of his work at the Scholomance, and we later see him thinking about and discussing what it is like in terms of being a neurodivergent Shadowhunter. Kit has also read a ton about it as has Ty's whole family. He does explain why he does things a certain way sometimes, but never to anyone who has no context for it. It's more a "this is me and how I do things" — he never feels bad about it, and never has to excuse any part of himself. There are ways in which it makes him a better Shadowhunter, and that's explored a bit too.

He will find out what they are. (And if they're wicked.)

Tavvy is still just a child, and so are Max and Rafe, so as of book 1, we see very little of them as the danger is such that they have to be protected. Mostly they are thought about but not seen.