Not that Eliana cares about these legends: she’s a bounty hunter/assassin who, following in her mother’s footsteps, works for the oppressive and world-spanning Undying Empire, hunting down people who try to get away to the Empire’s rebels. Rielle is remembered as the woman who destroyed everything, killing her husband Audric Lightbringer, and siding with vicious angels against humanity. There are stories about Rielle’s time, but it’s been a thousand years, so those stories are legends to her. Eliana lives in a very different society to Rielle, a society without elemental magic. Rielle’s story is told in alternating chapters with the story of Eliana Ferracora.

She has enemies who want her to fail, and if she fails, if the test itself doesn’t kill her, she’ll be executed as the Queen of Blood and a harbinger of destruction.

In order to prove that she’s the Sun Queen, Rielle has to undergo a series of trials to test her control and her magic. The other will be the Queen of Blood, a bringer of death and destruction. One queen will be the Sun Queen, a queen of light who brings protection and salvation. According to the powers-that-be in her country, the only people who should have these powers are two prophesied queens. When Rielle and Audric secretly enter a famous horse-race in a fit of youthful hijinks, though, assassins target Audric and Rielle is forced to reveal her powers to save him, resulting in no few deaths and some rearranging of the landscape. Rielle’s deeply attracted to Audric – an attraction he reciprocates – but he’s engaged to be married to the Lady Ludivine, also one of Rielle’s friends and a young woman from an important family. Due to her father’s high rank, she’s been raised in close proximity to the royal family, and her best friend is Audric, the crown prince. She possesses all seven kinds of elemental magic, an unprecedented number, and her lack of control caused her mother’s death when Rielle was still a child. Rielle has been raised by a distant father and a male teacher to keep her powers hidden. Her most recent novel is Furyborn, aimed at the YA market but with plenty that would appeal to adult readers of SFF.įuryborn follows two young women, Rielle Dardenne and Eliana Ferracora, whose worlds are separated by a full millennium, but whose lives and perhaps destinies are intertwined. Furyborn, Claire Legrand ( Sourcebooks Fire 978-1492656623, $18.99, 512pp, hc) May 2018.Ĭlaire Legrand is the author of several novels for children and young adults.

Furyborn by Claire Legrand