downsides of this book: i really don't understand how this two so-called powerful, famous, busy, wealthy guy had so many free-time to be the sisters' bodyguard (i'm sure in the next series, nix's boyfriend too). and i don't appreciate the fact that when they said planning, they didn't actually plan, just hope for the best and impulsively act. but of course they managed to do everything with minor injuries, they're the main characters after all. some parts are too good to be true, the conflicts were too convenient and easily solved and sometimes it was just ridiculous. the characters all lack of any distinct personality, you could easily separated them as 'the hot-powerful dude' and 'the powerful dragon chicks'
those flaws aside, i enjoyed this book. it could be fun and thrilling if only the conflicts were more intense. but it was fun for a quick read.
Recap:
del and nix was adventuring/tomb-riding in a middle of forest in honduras. they fought giant snakes, del got something like seizures thanks to blue flash, feeding a jaguar, crossing an acid moat with exploding rocks, and brought back an ancient artifact and its temple with del's newfound power. they easily transferred the artifact's magic but because she restored the place, it means all the magical traps were restored too. they were chased around by giant statue and kidnapped by flying rocks but they easily escaped it all.
they returned to ancient magic, cleaned up, and went to P&P to celebrate Emile's birthday. Del got a dream about Draka later that night. apparently, when she and her sisters were jailed by victor, Draka tried to rescue her but she wouldn't leave without her sisters and the guards came to chase her out. the next day, roarke came to visit when del got another 'fit' of blue flash but this time, she was sure it was Draka sending her message. she followed it to a redwood forest, got attacked by angry little tree, captured by giant roots, and found a portal that teleported them to the Arcadian forest, home to the league of firesouls. the didn't find Draka and the tug in del's dragon sense stopped but there must be a reason why Draka told her to go here.
Corin found them and took her to Flora to talk. Flora told them that Draka met her herself and gave her a warning for Del. Draka forbid Del to find Draka because it was too dangerous for the last 2 dragon phantom, especially the fact that Del was also the triumvirate, the Guardian and the descendant of Hell and Snowdia, she needed to survive and saved the world. but Del was being stubborn, insisted that she had to save her friend and was about to leave when Flora, with her unexpected powerful magic trapped them, immobilized them and hid them away. it was nightfalls before Del summoned Pondflower for help. the hellhound brought her friends along and with their magic rescued them. they barely escaped with Flora on their tail but they managed.
turned out, Snowdia was a place name, somewhere in Northern Welsh and the next day, they teleported there with cass, nix, and aidan. they found an unfrozen lake in the middle of snowy mountain, and it was strange which means it was magic and her dragon sense tugged her towards somewhere beyond waterfall. so roarke destroyed the protective charm around it, which froze the lake but they hurriedly made a swim for it. after almost drowning, they made it thanks to cass and aidan in polar bear form. they warmed themselves up then continue.
suddenly, thick fog came and Del lost everyone and she fell down the mountainside and broke her leg. to make things more exciting, two wolves who could touched her in phantom form attacked her but when they got a whiff of who she was, they became tame. even better, they healed her broken leg. using her ice power, she found the others and they proceed until they found a massive gate that surrounded a fortress.
Del opened the gate using her touched and when they entered, they felt powerful but decayed magic and everyone who lived there was dead. it was also full of phantoms. cass, nix, and aidan ran to safety while roarke stubbornly stayed with del. they easily eliminated all of them (of course roarke could touch them. and i'm curious, what happened to the dead phantom?) and they entered the mansion/fortress. the passed through several doors, descent a lots of stairs, passed more doors until eventually they arrived in a throne room with Draka chained on a throne. Draka shouted for her to run but Del impulsively ran for her then trapped inside with demons attacking from all side.
Del turned into a phantom but this weird demons could harm her when she was in phantom form and their fire harmed her. roarke managed to make a hole in the barrier but the others couldn't pass. they fought but the demons didn't stop coming so they made a run for it (like the others, the demons couldn't pass through the barrier) and roarke made an underpath portal there and took everyone safely to his house.
the next day, after some healing, eating, and sleeping, del and roarke planned to sneak out back to the fortress and leave the others behind (cliche heroic characters). they went to p&p first to pick up some invisibility potion from connor and then underpathed themselves to the fortress. apparently, some of the demons from the throne room escaped but they were invisible so it was fine. they went to the tower and Del was hit by a surged of a very bad memory. turned out, her own parents sold her out to victor.
they explored the fortress more after that. they came to the library, saw her family tree. here, her memories got triggered. her mom said that they were world walker, that's why she could went to underworld and back. her dad said behind the throne, there was an escape tunnel that led to the outer wall, that's how they would freed Draka.
they came to Draka and immediately, a cage fell upon them, trapping them in, classic idiots. draka said she couldn't escape because they held her core egg, hence she couldn't shift into dragons. demons surrounded them but couldn't see them and del brought back the past, her mom's birthday specifically, and the reveler attacked the demon, giving them chance to escape. but their invisibility spell wore off and they were captured again.
del woke up in a dungeon and a demon came to give her to the master as a plaything when she lunged and attacked him. she squeezed his balls (badass) and threaten to yank it (super badass) if the demon didn't melt her shackles. he did and she immediately grab her sword from the ether and killed him and stole his power.
using her dragon sense, she found roarke in torture chamber, being tortured by 2 demons. she threw ice spear to them and released rorke but he was too weak after a torture. fortunately, she found healing potion and he could at least managed to escape. she sensed draka's core egg was somewhere in the castle but decided to wait for reinforcements before taking it (at least now she was smart). they met little demons guard on the way and managed to go out from the river.
after cass ran some errands and retrieved some potions from connor, they tried to infiltrate the castle again. they couldn't go in from the same gate that they went out so their brilliant idea was to be bait. they drunk a potion that made them immune to other potions (courtesy from Connor) and they pretended to be knocked out so the demons sneaked them in, along with invisible cass, nix, and aidan. when they were inside, they killed the demons and followed the dragon's sense to the egg. it was inside a labyrinth covered with thorny vines.
after some attacked by mega-wasp, stabbed by those thorny vines, almost ran into the demons, and got separated thanks to the black fog, del found the door that held the egg. it was surrounded by white light that slowed everything down. when Del came, the Shadow appeared. they fought for a few moments and the Shadow said that she would be their queen after they destroyed the world, classic crazy bad guy speech. when it was clear she couldn't defeat him (he was faster), she made a run to the light, where the Shadow's whip couldn't reach her, and rescued the egg but she was trapped and immobilized.
the demons and Roarke's brother came in with Del's friends in tow and the Shadow told the demons to kill them but no need to worry because Draka came in to the rescue. Draka released her from the light prison and Del immediately grabbed her sword and stabbed the shadow. It disappeared but clearly, he didn't die (he said he was many, a legion). the others also easily killed the demons while Roarke's brother ran away.
they returned and rested in Roarke's house after that, along with Emile, Claire, and Connor. Del chatted with Draka and she confirmed some of Del's fears. Draka said that her parents sold her to Victor because they thought Victor could helped her with her power but the Shadow thought they sold her because they wanted to betray it so the Shadow killed them all. Lovely. Also, Del still didn't know what power that made her so special but there was a storm coming and she needed to steal more demons power to survive it. the end.