Duncan - The third Edge brother - he has no desire to break the curse (lifemates will die before their time, no happiness as an ancestor chose duty over love) because he will not allow himself to fall in love, and risk losing his wizard powers. He is T-FLAC - and consumed with defending the world... with his eye on High Wizard.
Serena - wizard - has known Duncan since grade school - and the two of them have been competitors ... though Duncan causes her to loose kinetic control with his teasing, she bested him in most classes... at 16 they shared a kiss... he told her of the Nairne's curse - though she already knew of it, because she was a descendant of Nairne - and knows how to break it, and that if she is party to it she will loose her powers. At age 30 she married the elder head of a philonthropic organization, and was happy for the 3 years they were together... and his will named her head of his 50 million dollars for the foundation... and she has spent the last year using the money wisely, personally overseeing water, education, improving basic living conditions, etc projects around the world... (shimmering in and out from one location to the next)... and their baby is an experimental thermal blanket/fertilizer system that they are working on in the country of Schpotistan, tip of Siberia - because if it works there, it can work anywhere... most of the kinks are worked out, but they need the right energy source...
Trey Culver - grew up with Serena and Duncan - rich, goodlooking, entitled, competitive - especially with Duncan... to get at Trey, he 'glamored' Serena (though she didn't figure it out until this book) to date her - in HS, and later...
Henry - their mentor at school, and Serena's godparent - raising her after her parents died in a storm that Serena's uncontrolled powers had whipped up when she was angry with them... he is in a coma, and telepathically calling to Duncan - to 'stop her... to help her'... the only 'her' Duncan can think of is Serena. Henry has been High Wizard for 4 terms...
Trey, Serena, and Duncan are thrown together to compete for High Wizard... Serena wins the first 2 tests - one of fire and one of water - her calm head and a nursery rhyme helped her to brave the fire cave to retrieve the scroll - while Trey and Duncan battled fire demons - she wanted to end the test to save Duncan's life... and the second one of water had her overcoming her fear of the water to submerge in the cave and retrieve the scroll - again motivated because Duncan & Trey might be hurt and she wanted the test to end. So Serena will be given the Wizard's medallion 2 days hence - and her powers will include all wizard's powers. After the 2nd test, Duncan whisks her away and makes mad, passionate love with her - while both are chiding themselves that this cannot last... stupid, stupid people ...
on Serena's staff, Johanna is project manager - a brilliant scientist with a son in boarding school... and we know that she is being glamored (yes, by Trey, though we don't know who until the end) to gain access to the thermal blanket (he wants to get to the oil in Siberia) and he is pushing her by having her son kidnapped, pretending to be the inbetweener, to figure out how to activate the blanket... and they do - from a satellite... so satellites are converging on Russia, the blanket has been unrolled... and Duncan and Serena figure it out in time to use their power over fire & water to create a high atmospheric storm to push the satellites away... and Johanna's son is rescued by Duncan's crew...
and for the 3 books, high level wizards are being killed - and their powers absorbed by the murderer... and Duncan (along with his brothers) are trying to figure out who and why... They finally put the clues together and figure out Trey is the wizard behind it all... and Duncan knows he must face him... and Serena knows he will likely die as Trey has absorbed the powers of other wizards, making him the stronger one... so Serena goes to the council, retrieves the medallion - the 3rd piece of Nairna's jewelry, and gives it and the position to Duncan - so that he can draw on it's super powers - and she does this knowing that she will loose her powers... The Curse is broken (though the brothers haven't figured it out quite yet)...
at the castle, Duncan faces Trey - and his brothers join him - and they realize the curse is broken because they can fight (3 work as 1) together for the first time without canceling out each other's powers... Trey believed that he could kill them and take their powers and be the ultimate power ... but... yeah... right wins over evil - and they defeat (kill) him...
And Duncan goes to Serena - knowing his love for her is the strongest thing in his life, even if it means loosing his powers - but it doesn't - for an engagment present he is able to gift Serena back her powers...
and the castle butler - MacBain, is in fact the Magnus of the curse - and Lark (of the council - who has been administering the tests) is in fact Nairne - and with the curse finally broken - and the two of them older and wiser, they too can finally be together... ahhhhh