Hello all my lovely bookwyrms! I hope you’ve been enjoying #TWCADReadalong! I have been having such a phenomenal time not only re-reading this book, but seeing all of your reactions to the book. What a book! Today I’ll be sharing my recap of part 3, “The Tower” as well as a few theories about what might happen in the sequel!
There Will Come A Darkness
For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations—until the day, one hundred years ago, when the Prophets disappeared.
All they left behind was one final, secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world’s salvation . . . or the cause of its destruction. As chaos takes hold, five souls are set on a collision course:
A prince exiled from his kingdom.
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.
One of them—or all of them—could break the world. Will they be savior or destroyer?
There Will Come a Darkness is the first book in the Age of Darkness trilogy by Katy Rose Pool. Discover more about series at therewillcomeadarkness.com including book two As the Shadow Rises coming out September 1, 2020, wherever books are sold.
The Tower Recap!
Just in case you missed it, make sure to check out Fierce Read’s Part One Recap as well as Nicole’s Part Two Wrap Up. Caught up now? Let’s chat about EVERYTHING that went down in Part 3. There is a lot and I NEED to talk about it with someone! LAST ALERT FOR SPOILERS!!
The last we saw Beru she was on a train to her home village, Medea, with Hector because it turns out that she’s hiding more secrets than just being the Revenant. Just when you thought the trail of destruction had ended…. she tells Hector that the cost of bringing Beru back was not only a mistake, but resulted in the deaths of her entire village. Committed to ending this trail of bodies and Ephyra’s murders, Beru will end up slowly dying without Ephyra’s actions.
Who else had no idea about Ilya’s religious convictions? Jude and Anton have been taken prisoner and are off to be delivered to the Heirophant. Considering Jude is being imprisoned with Godfire cuffs, which sounds like a whole other level of pain, he reflects on his failure to protect the Last Prophet. I guess being kidnapped and moving steadily away from his responsibility would constitute as at least a mini failure, if you wanted to call it that.
Meanwhile back with the Last Prophet, Hassan, he’s currently faced with the knowledge that his “vision” before was merely just wish fulfillment. Remind me never to tell anyone about my dreams…While he would like to tell the Order and his subjects the truth, the death of his father, The King, convinces him not to confess and to sail towards Nazirah anyway. Aboard their ships and preparing their approach to the city (with a quick make out break for Khepri and Hassan) he discovers he has been betrayed by his cousin Cirion as he is also taken prisoner. This the point where more of our beloved characters are prisoners than aren’t.
Anton’s Mysterious Past
At the same time, Anton discovers that he is being taken to Nazirah as well and he also discovers that Ilya and Lethia, Hassan’s aunt, are working together with the Heirophant to jump start The Reckoning and take back Nazirah. Believing that requiring the rulers to be Graced for succession leads to unfit leaders, Lethia has crowned herself Queen. I guess it’s pretty easy to become Queen after you kill the King and take the Prince prisoner.
Anton’s mysterious past is revealed as he is brought to the canals beneath the city. Ilya tells him that while he basically tortured Anton throughout his childhood out of jealousy and rage, he never tried to drown Anton. Instead Anton begged Ilya to let him drown because he had a vision when he fell into the lake. A vision that was so terrifying that he’s blocked out all memories, a vision as the true Last Prophet. Ilya knows the only way to unlock Anton’s vision is to drown him until he remembers. Turns out things don’t really ever change do they?
The Lighthouse
In chains, Jude meets the Heirophant who not only reunites him with the rest of the Order, also in chains, Hassan (who he believes is still the Last Prophet) and a flame of Godfire on top of the Lighthouse. Quickly it is revealed through the Heirophant and a long awaited confession from Hassan, that he is not only NOT the Last Prophet, but HE is the Deceiver (the first sign of the Age of Darkness) since he kept lying about who he was. Y’all, don’t lie to people or else you will be the first sign of the Apocalypse.
As Jude is dragged towards the Godfire, so that his Grace can be burned out of him, he feels the true Last Prophet’s Grace calling out to him for help – you know cause he’s being continuously drowned under the city – which gives him enough strength to break free from his binds. After freeing the Order, he follows his connection towards the Last Prophet to discover it is Anton – catch on Jude! He’s able to rescue Anton and they begin to run through a maze of canals beneath the city to try to escape.
All the Godfire
While Jude is getting his mind blown, Hassan and the rest of the Order are trapped on top of the Lighthouse encircled by Godfire. The only way they can escape is if they walk through the Godfire which will probably kill them – except Hassan who isn’t Graced. After walking through fire, ouch, and saving the Order he decides he wants to save everyone else trapped in the Lighthouse – the soldiers who came with him on the boats.
Hassan manages to save Khepri and the other soldiers while also confessing to them that they don’t have to follow him to try to destroy the Godfire because he’s not the Last Prophet. However they all choose to follow him, except the Order they peace out of there, and they are able to rig a flame bomb which they will use to destroy the Lighthouse.
You’re running WHERE exactly?
Around this point, Jude and Anton emerge from below only for Anton to go sprinting TOWARDS the burning Lighthouse AND Godfire. Jude is entirely surprised being as he pretty much JUST escaped from that burning mess. But Anton is convinced he has to burn his Grace out of him. Jude sprints after him since he’s find the true Last Prophet and as they emerge at the top, Hassan succeeds in using the fire bomb sending Jude and Anton flying off the Lighthouse. Unfortunately the only way to save Anton is for Jude to jump through the Godfire to protect him. What great timing Hassan…
But as Hassan is trying to escape the crumbling and burning Lighthouse, he collapses from smoke inhalation. It’s not looking good for our strange triangle of Deceivers, Last Prophets, and Keepers. However, under the water Anton’s vision of the future is unlocked and wow it is bleak. Not only is Anton standing in a ruined city, he sees the Six Prophetic Cities fall in a series of terrifying destruction (cities swallowed by sand, fire raining from the sky, and cities drowning in floods of blood) and looks down towards the ground to see Beru’s body.
Did you think we forgot about Beru?
While our favorites have been wreaking havoc and blowing up buildings, Ephyra has finally made it to Medea to save her sister. She realizes that Beru is minutes away from death, a death she choose, but that if she kills Hector she can give her sister his life. Easy choice right? Well for Ephyra it is because there is no lengths she will not go to for her sister.
Having chosen to die, Beru is pretty angry when she is saved and decides to leave Ephyra forever knowing that not only will she bring about an Age of Darkness, but that as long as they stay together, Ephyra will keep killing. To stop her from becoming a monster, she must leave her. Feeling a little lost, who else would Ephyra manage to stumble upon than Mrs. Tappan, the woman who used to give her the contracts of people to kill. She shows Ephyra a map of the Seti Desert and a clue to finding the Eleazar’s Chalice (the only thing that could possibly save Beru) in one of her father’s books. Unsure why her father would have been searching for the Chalice before Beru became a Revenant, Ephyra decides to continue her search.
The Final Moments
Luckily Khepri was too stubborn to stay behind and ends up pulling Hassan out of the Lighthouse saving his life. Unwilling to let Lethia take over, Hassan decides he needs to find a place to hide, regroup, and get ready to overthrow the Queen. Meanwhile, Anton and Jude have been recused from the water by the Order of the Last Light, but Jude was greatly injured jumping through the Godfire and they’re not sure if he will still have his Grace. Anton tells Penrose, one of the members of the Order, everything confessing that he doesn’t know how to stop the Reckoning.
Reminder that Katy Rose Pool will be doing an IG Q&A on 8/30 so make sure to submit your questions! Enter #TWCADFanArt here for a special prize!
My Reactions
Re-reading There Will Come A Darkness has been an emotional roller coaster. I adore multiple POV novels and Pool does it so well not only by balancing the perspectives, but making sure that they interweave in fabulous and complex ways. I absolutely adore the relationship between Ephyra and Beru because, yes I love sisters, but also it’s an acknowledgement that sometimes to protect someone, we have to leave. RIP Hector and Jude’s love though – not gonna lie, that one hurt me.
I love how There Will Come A Darkness examines our fights against fate. How we can do everything it takes, but how we can still end up falling into its traps.
Speculations for As the Shadow Rises…
So Beru is obviously a huge part of the next past considering she’s the only other one in Anton’s vision. At some point, since Anton knows Beru, they’ve got to find each other somehow right?
While I’m not sure how it could happen, but I’d love for Hassan to meet Ephyra. I’m not sure if it makes sense, but that would be something wouldn’t it? And I bet she’s going to discover a LOT of secrets in the desert.
Am I also the only one who doesn’t think we’ve heard the last of the Heirophant?
The preorder campaign for As the Shadow Rises ends August 31st and you can get AN ENAMEL PIN! Submit your reciepts now!