Untitled

The Iron Covenant #2

by Ilona Andrews

The story of Elara Harper.
Second book in the Iron Covenant trilogy.

DELAYED
Hugh’s second book, IRON COVENANT #2, has been delayed because it’s grim and right now the world is grim enough.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Paranormal Romance, Magic, Vampires

About the author

Ilona Andrews is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.)

Gordon and Ilona currently reside in Oregon with their two children, three dogs and a cat. They have co-authored two series, the bestselling urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and romantic urban fantasy of The Edge.

Reviews

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans)]

January 2025:

A full prologue? Chapter 1?







March 2024:

It's finally coming!!!!!

In 2025.

Second or third quarter.







Jan. 25, 2021: it's happening. Not super very soon, but it IS bloody shrimping happening. FINALLY.





September 19, 2019: shock! Dismay! Dispair! Utter flabbergastation! The book probably won't be released until 2020!





April 10, 2019: release has been pushed back to December 2019!!! Woe is me, sob sob sob and stuff!!!





February 11, 2019: we have a release date!!!!!!!!!!!!!! October 15, 2019 it is!!!!!!!!!!





The story of Elara Harper.

THE. STORY. OF. ELARA. HARPER.





· Book 1: Iron and Magic ★★★★★

[Geri Reads]

Three questions that still need answers:

Who is Elara?

What is Elara?

Why is Elara?



I CAN'T WAIT!!

[Aisling Zena]

18/11/21

Tea with Hugh and Roman!

https://www.ilona-andrews.com/2021/do...



6/4/21

Mystery snippet! I believe it's either here or Aurelia 2.

https://www.ilona-andrews.com/2021/we...



26/4/20

All Ryder/Julie snippets moved to it's proper book placement on GR:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

But kept here also in the spoiler just in case it all gets deleted. It's happened before..

Update! 25/4/2020

Snippet! Ryder Part 6:

https://ilona-andrews.com/ryder-part-...


Update! 19/4/2020

Snippet! Ryder Part 5 :

https://ilona-andrews.com/ryder-part-...

Update! 10/4/2020

Snippet! Ryder Part 4 :

https://ilona-andrews.com/ryder-part-...

Update! 7/4/2020

Another snippet with Julie!!!! Part 3 :

https://ilona-andrews.com/home-sweet-...


Update! 30/3/2020

Snippets with Julie!!!! Part 1&2 :

On here as this isn't part of a book where I can add it as updates. And as we have no fixed date for this one yet.

"Today we bring you a fan service snippet. Hopefully it will give you a break from current events for a few minutes. This isn’t part of any ongoing work. It’s just a fun scene, written because so many of you wanted to see the old favorites."

Part 1 :
https://ilona-andrews.com/the-bridge-...

Part 2:
https://ilona-andrews.com/the-bridge-...









Update! 3/3/2020

On here just as a place holder, will move it when the book is created on GR officially but we have a snippet for ROMAN!! And what a snippet it is! YAY!

https://ilona-andrews.com/a-bit-more-...



Update! 20/4/2019

So I just found out that we are not getting a Julie/Erra/Derek spinoff (at this point in time) because of the amount of hate mail Ilona Andrews receives over Julie.

Some of us love all the characters because the writing/world building/authors are so good and we would have loved a Julie spinoff. I can't wrap my head around this and I had actually written a rather long rant over it..

I just want to say that it's a damn shame that some people have made the authors feel this bad over a character. And to the Authorlords, I'm so so sorry they made you feel this way..

Direct quote from their website: http://www.ilona-andrews.com/braining...
[..] Long story short, we get Julie hatemail. Half want bad things to happen to Julie. They literally hate her and want her to die. The other variation of the hatemail is, “I am just not interested in Julie as a character and I don’t think she could carry a book.” Right, because despite writing 12 books set in this world, all of which succeeded in being entertaining, we will lose all of ability to tell a compelling story just because Julie is the main character.

It actually resulted in Brandi having second thoughts about publishing her own work. She isn’t sure she would be willing to put up with all the venom.

We had definite plans for a continuation of the storyline, picking it up with Julie as the main character roughly 8 years after the events of Magic Triumphs. The world is even more warped by magic, Conlan is 10, Jim is ready to retire, and the battle for the Pack is about to start. We have chunks of the first book plotted. We spared some characters in Magic Triumphs so they could return in the sequel. However, I’m not going to do it.

Writing comes from the same place as play. Right now if we sit down and write Julie, she won’t be true to the original vision of the character. There is a lot more depth and layers there than in Ascanio, for example, who is at the core a simple character. I don’t feel like working with her until I’m sure we can do her justice. So that trilogy and any other work in KD world, except for Iron Covenant, is indefinitely on hold. That might change tomorrow, but probably not. 🙂



31/12/18

My look of anticipation after reading the first one.

[Sophia Triad]

Title to be determined , DELAYED

BRING MORE COWS!
Hehehehe (...evil laugh)

[Ina]

The story of Elara Harper? I'm sorry, who is Ms. Elara Harper? You must surely mean Mrs. Elara d'Ambray.

Just kidding. Can't wait to read this.

[Camila (previously the opinionated Catruler)]

How do I get a copy of a book that hasn't been written yet? To which God do I make the human sacrifice?

[Corina]

NEED, NEED, NEED this book right now!!!!

[Luckylovesbooks]

July 2, 2018
YASSSSSSSS YAS YASSSSSSS
YASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

April 15, 2019
Is been pushed to December now 😭😭

January 28, 2020
No idea when it’s coming out 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

December 4, 2020
“Published 2022”
If you listen very closely, you can hear the sound of my despair echoing in the wind.

[Kay reads too much]

I want to know who Rook is.

[Allons-y]

Elara's book!!
I mean.........

Do you understand how excited I am?

I am freaking the hell out and it doesn't even have a title yet....
This is not going to go well for me.


.
.
.
.
.

This is an actual clip of me waiting for this book to be released.



I mean......



Please?



(Update- 03-2020)

[Maria Dimitrova]

Elara's story? Yes! Yes! YES! I can't bloody wait!!!

[İlkim]

Bekleyişin 5. yılına doğru editi: Beklerken yaşlandığım birkaç seri var cidden, bu da o listenin başlarında...

[Lola]

Two years later, I’m still thinking about this book! It hasn't had a release date for a while now. From the IA website: Hugh’s second book, IRON COVENANT #2, has been delayed because it’s grim and right now the world is grim enough.

Is it totally weird that I’m even more excited now?



I get it though, times are strange and scary and that probably isn’t conducive to sinking deep into the black hole that is necessary to write a grim book. We don’t want IA depressed or burned out. I'm not sure if the grimness mentioned referred to COVID though, seeing as how IA wrote this on the blog back in november 2019:

The release page is up to date. We haven’t started IRON COVENANT #2, because we are busy writing sequel to SAPPHIRE FLAMES. It was delayed because of the medical emergency in the family. When we have some concrete dates, we will list them on the release page. Thank you.

Well, the world hasn't exactly gotten less grim since the fall of 2019.

EDIT: Yes, they meant the corona crisis. Here's what IA wrote in May 2020: We were scheduled to start IRON COVENANT #2, but it was a very dark book by necessity. A major character dies, and it’s a heavy story. I don’t know about you, but I’m not dealing with the pandemic that well. Thinking about writing it was just too depressing. We wrote the first chapter of RYDER as a present to KD fans, because we were getting a lot of emails about how tough things were and how nice it would be to revisit KD. The plan was to stop at that one chapter and then we got an email from a nurse who works in ICU in New York. So we did another chapter. Long story short, RYDER is now on schedule with the prospective release date in the first quarter of 2021 because too much work has gone into it to just walk away.

Aw, this is so nice! I hope the pandemic gets fixed soon (me and everyone on the planet). IA are in Texas and the pandemic raged pretty badly over there. I read somewhere that even one of their daughters got COVID. This was on top of Ilona writing about feeling burned out in February, so shortly before the pandemic reached America. I have a feeling this book could take a while, but you know, a delayed book isn't the weirdest thing right now. Hopefully, IA will be able to write IC#2 at some point. I’ll be patient. And excited. And patient. :)



Signed, happy member of the Book Devouring Horde.

[Mariya]

Excuse me? What? Did they just fucking say Elara Harper's Story?!

[Ash]

ITS BEEN TWO YEARS AND I STILL THINK ABOUT HUGH AND ELARA. When will we get number 2? 😭🙏🏼🙏🏼 please Illona Andrews please

[Mari]

Story line in Triumphs about Hugh and Elara helping with final battle. Bookmark in chapter 14 for his entry into book. Read from there, plus 15, 16.

After end battle: "H & Elara survived and returned to their castle. H didn't heal Dali (to get pregnant). Jim asked her to delay 6 months."

In Erra's part of epilogue, she and Julie talk about bringing H to Mishmar to visit his grandmother. (As if he really was Roland's son). Erra, "The boy would need to meet his grandmother at some point. But right now, he had his hands full and I doubted his wife would appreciate us dragging him off on family business."

[Sae · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still no title, cover or release date. Read the snippet months ago but still no release date. Pretty disappointing.

[Ade]

2024 and still no book in sight...for fuck's sake

[Tyekanik · Rating 1 out of 5]

Am i realy writing a review for a book that isn't even out yet? Hell, i don't even know if the first draft is finished. Stil, i will write this thing, more an opinion piece than anything else.

First: Why do i write this? Two reasons: 1) Other people have given this 5 stars and i want to even the scales bc i don't like artifical hype; 2) I'm pissed by the Andrews handling of the non existent second book of the Iron Covenant.

Back in the day i would grab a new book by Ilona Andrews without questions asked, know i'm doubting if i should give them another shot. The last books they wrote were just uninspired garbage, with the exception of Sanctuary. They seem to have lost their mojo somewhere between "Magic Triumphs" and the middle of the Pandemic That Shall Not Be Named. But instead of taking there time to find their Mojo again they just write three other spinoffs to the Kate Daniels series without continuing the first one. Yes i read their statement when Blood Heir came out: "times are to dark for Iron Covenant right now". Are you fucking kidding me? We had many crises going on before The Dark Virus (climate change, world hunger, stand-up comedy). Why is a lockdown (while annoying as shit) the point were you say "times are to dark"? Times were always dark. And Blood Heir wasn't any less dark and violent than other books from this authors.
Note: back in the day i wasn't mad or disappointed, i just shrugged it of. They would come back to it. And they cam back to it, with the Willmington Years, the third spin-off. Kate and Curran had been the main focus for ten books. Let them rest in peace. Please i beg you... well seems Willmington years will have three installments. The last one isn't here yet, but i am not sad about it.
Than came Sanctuary and i kinda liked it. But something was missing. Something important... a yes the motherfucking conclusion. So now we have five Series in the same Universe: one is finished, four are unfinished. Well, i wasn't going to go on a rant online, bc authors are people too and have the right to strucure their workdays as they seem fit, but Ilona Andrews did one stupid move that pulled my trigger: they posted the first few chapters of Iron Covenant 2 this year only to say "sorry, to much work right know". You can't start teasing us with stuff some of us wait since almost seven years and than decide your not going through with it. You are a published author for almost 20 years, you should know better so: fuck you.

[Antigoni]

I can't freaking wait for this!

[Erika ♥OwlwaysReading♥]

"DELAYED
Hugh’s second book, IRON COVENANT #2, has been delayed because it’s grim and right now the world is grim enough."


Darn IT!

It doesn't look like it's going to get any better anytime soon though!!!



🤞 this isn't THAT "grim" and has a HEA or HFN ending 😬

[James D. Hines · Rating 1 out of 5]

how is it 5 star when the book isnt out? Thats wrong. And the author isnt giving any updates or it seems, working on the book. During these times there is no reason to not keep people up dated.

[Rubal]

"What’s next, what’s next?

I’m going to kick myself for this. Iron and Magic 2 is next."

it's been 84 years!!!!!!! no, literally!!!!1

[Galateea]

Is this a snippet from this upcoming book?

Maybe, maybe not. But it is an official snippet of SOMETHING, so I will bet on it being from this one.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

Hugh stood on the side passage on the first floor of Bailey. Elara was next to him. Three of the centurions, Stoyan, Lamar, and Sharif, waited a few feet away. Bale and his century were on duty today.

This spot gave him an excellent view of the great hall. The last time they’d used it, they’d hosted Rufus Fortner, the head of Lexington’s Red Guard.

The tables were gone. Most of the chairs were gone too, except for the single row against the two side walls for those who had trouble standing. Fall garlands draped the walls, with wreaths of wheat and oak branches encircling the decorative weapons he’d ordered hung on the walls for the Fortner’s visit. Young maples grew from big barrels, spreading red and orange leaves.

A long red carpet stretched from the doors all the way to the back of the room, where two long banners streamed from the high ceiling, one the black and silver banner depicting a dog bearing his fangs and the other the green and white banner with a cauldron filled with herbs, the symbol of the Departed. Beneath the banners, on a raised platform, stood two thrones carved from wood in painstaking detail. Apples, pumpkins, gourds, bunches of wheat and herbs, and baskets of fall flowers decorated the platform around the thrones, spilling to the main floor.

On the side, just below the right throne, a huge wooden barrel waited with a stack of paper cups by it. He remembered the barrel. They had filled it with beer for Fortner’s visit. He didn’t recall a white table on the side, bristling with skewers. Hugh squinted at it. Fruit dipped in chocolate.

Elara’s people flittered through it all, making last minute adjustments.

He had no problem with the maples, the pumpkins, or the wreaths. Even the barrel. That was fine. Nobody said anything about the thrones. Or the cornucopia that threw up around them.

“Walk me through this again,” he said.

“We are going to go and sit on the thrones,” Elara said. “The doors will open. People will enter, mostly families with small children. They will greet us with a small gift. Something the children picked themselves. We will wish them a happy Harvest Day and then they will get a cup of spiced Harvest cider. They will think of a wish, drink their cider, and then Nadia and Rue will give them a skewer with chocolate dipped fruit.”

“You want me to play Harvest Fest Santa Claus?”

She nodded.

He stared at her.

“You agreed to it,” Elara reminded him.

He had agreed to it. The night after he came back from Aberdine, she’d spent an hour trying to deal with Amelia’s curse. Finally, she touched her fingers to the young woman’s forehead, and he felt a pulse of magic from her. It washed over him, soothing and cool, and Amelia’s rigid body relaxed. The curse was still there, Elara told him. She had only slowed it to a crawl, but it was alive and growing, and if they didn’t find a cure soon, it would consume Amelia. His wife had just bought them time.

He was already grateful, and then she invited him back to her suite. They sat at a table on a secluded balcony off her bedroom and she’d served him the chicken she made.

Elara’s chicken tasted like childhood.

Hugh couldn’t recall eating it frequently when he was a child, but something about the combination of flavors and savory herbs threw him right back to that blissfully happy decade before he turned seventeen and began killing in Roland’s name. It tasted like summers in Occitanie, where winds had names, and the long sandy beaches flirted with the turquoise sea. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine sitting at the scarred table on the veranda of the old bastide that used to be his home. He would’ve spent the morning in sword practice, studied after that, then ridden a horse to the beach and swam until his body could no longer move. The house with its stone façade and pale blue shutters would be to his left, the pool and the view of the sea nestled between green hills to his right, and when he finished eating, his father would come to quiz him on things he’d learned that day.

It was bittersweet, and he savored every bite, while she promised that she would get her witches to look into the curse and talked about the Harvest Day preparations. If she had asked him to jump over the balcony rail at that moment, he might have done it. She’d asked him to be the Harvest King instead. The fool that he was, he said yes.

Now he was standing in the middle of the main hall, wearing an embroidered white tunic, brown pants, and a red Celtic cape cloak. And Elara was standing next to him. She wore a light green gown with ridiculous trumpet sleeves. It clung to her chest, flowing over her waist to her hips, where it flared into a wide skirt. Her hair was down and streamed down her back like a white waterfall. A flower crown made with purple asters, bright yellow goldenrod, and red maple leaves rode on her hair. She looked like she had walked out of Edmund Leighton’s Accolade. All she needed was a sword and some fool to kneel before her.

Nadia, one of the women close to Elara, approached, carrying a wooden box.

“I’m afraid to ask,” he said.

Elara opened the box and took out a flower crown twisted together from golden oak branches, red maple leaves, and clusters of small purple berries.

“No.”

“You promised.”

She was looking at him with her beautiful brown eyes. He looked at her face for a moment too long and surrendered to his fate. How bad could becoming a king for one day be?

He bowed his head, and she put the crown on his hair.

“You look lovely, Preceptor,” Lamar offered.

Hugh looked at him for a minute.

Lamar grinned back. Stoyan’s face was perfectly neutral. Sharif cracked a razor-thin smile.

“Hugh?” Elara asked.

He sighed.

She smiled at him. The magic was thick today and that smile was regal and witchy. His eldritch queen, the Ice Harpy, asking him for a favor.

Oh what the hell, why not? “Let’s get this over with.”

#

A three-year-old boy with round cheeks and dark hair clutched a yellow astra flower to his chest.

“Go ahead, Bao,” his mother murmured.

Bao looked at Hugh, looked at the sword by the throne, and made a beeline for Elara. She gave him a smile, and Bao offered her his flower.

“What a pretty astra!” Elara cooed.

They had seen at least two hundred people in the last couple of hours. Most of the ones under 5 went to her. He got older kids and a surprising number of adults. The Departed believed in Elara with all their heart. They brought flowers, fruit, and walnuts, deposited their gifts on the cornucopia pile, made their wishes, and drank their cider. And then they lingered, watching others do the same. The grand hall was full. People talked and mulled about, and he’d spotted more than a couple of his Iron Dogs in the crowd.

The pile of gifts by his side of the throne was growing unwieldy. Fruit, mushrooms, weird rocks from the children. One kid brought a grasshopper. A little girl brought a “pretty worm” which turned out to be a scarlet snake and caused a bit of commotion until Sharif grabbed it. The snake was safely released outside, and the culprit was rewarded with a chocolate strawberry.

He didn’t mind. He understood now why Elara wanted this. The smiling faces, the content conversation, the abundance of food, it swirled together into communal happiness, and it wrapped around them all like a warm blanket. They were together, secure, and happy. The Departed needed it, but Elara herself needed it more. He could see it on her face. In this moment, his wife was truly happy.

A hush fell onto the hall. He raised his head.

Vanessa stood on the red carpet.

She looked exactly the same: arrogant face framed by dark hair, a body that was almost too ripe, with big boobs, long legs, and tight ass wrapped in a red sweater dress. Back before the wedding, he’d used her as a distraction. He’d made the terms clear from the start, but it had gone to her head anyway, and eventually she tried to use it against Elara. They had words, as Bale would put it. To call it a fight would be giving Vanessa too much credit. Elara sliced her to pieces with ten sentences. Going back to her job as a paralegal after she imagined wielding power as his mistress proved too much for Vanessa. She fled in the morning.

She stood on the carpet now, and there was something not quite right about her face.

The two families behind her turned and walked off the carpet to the walls. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Bao’s mother pick him up and scurry to the side. The hall was silent now.

An ice-cold power flared to his left.

He glanced at Elara.

Her face was rigid with rage. Her magic burned around her, a glacial invisible flame, a seed of a hurricane threatening to burst. The edge of it seared him, and only his willpower kept him from recoiling. She was Death.

The Departed stood frozen.

“Take it off,” Elara ground out.

Vanessa grinned.

“Off!”

Vanessa’s scalp split. The skin sloughed off her, like a biohazard suit, curving to the sides.

A slender middle-aged woman bared her teeth at them. Thin, her features sharp, her light skin coated in a grease streaked with blood, she stared at Elara with triumphant disgust. Magic wrapped around her, a dark, violent miasma.

The last of Vanessa’s skin peeled off, falling to the ground in shreds. How the fuck…

Elara’s magic convulsed like a furious colossal viper.

In the hall, the faces that were happy just a moment ago turned into cold, grim masks. The Departed stared as one, and he felt it again, that collective power binding them. The cheer, the happiness, and warmth were gone, snatched away by the Departed. Everything Elara treasured, everything she looked forward to, ruined. It was the wedding all over again.

He felt something stir inside him and realized it was rage.

“Brooklyn.” Elara spat the name like it was poison.

The woman raised a bony hand and stabbed her finger at Elara. “The reckoning is here, niece—”

“Aarh sapawur eseran.”

The blinding flash of agony tore through him. He’d sank so much power into the words, the grand hall quaked.

Brooklyn froze like a statue. Unable to move, unable to speak.

The entire hall stared at him, shocked.

“Elara,” he said into the silence, keeping his voice casual. “Why don’t you ever bake me anything from those shows you like to watch.”

Elara’s eyes were big as saucers.

He gave her a pointed look.

She cleared her throat. “What would you like me to bake you?”

“I think I would like some rough puff pastry.” That was the only thing he could remember from his trip to the ledge.

“What?”

“I’m a rough man. I should have some rough puff pastry.” What the hell was coming out of his mouth…

The spell’s hold shattered. Brooklyn stumbled forward.

“Aarh sapawur eseran.”

The pain slashed through his gut like a sword. It took everything in his power not to wince.

“I’m having a conversation with my wife.” He hammered each word out like he was carving it into stone. “Will nobody rid me of this annoying thing?”

A dozen Iron Dogs congealed from the crowd. They swarmed the petrified woman. In seconds she was gagged and tied. They tipped her like a tree and carried her out of the hall.

Hugh turned to Elara. “When am I getting my desert?”

“I will make it tomorrow,” she said softly.

“Thank you, love.” He turned to the hall. “Now, who is next?”

For a moment nothing happened. And then a family with two children shouldered their way out of the crowd and approached, carrying some pears and a bundle of wheat.

Hugh smiled at them and waved for Irina to start pouring the cider.

[Vivian]

3/28/25: Lmao now this book won't be written until IA have fulfilled contractual obligations for a completely different, new series. I estimate 2027 as the earliest possible release date, and that's me being generous. George R.R. Martin who?

3/25/24: Omfg IA just posted on their blog that, best-case scenario, this book won't be out until mid-to-late 2025 😭😭😭 I absolutely adore them, but I'm beyond sad and frustrated right now. It's absolutely ridiculous that it'll be 7+ years between installments! Especially since they've kept promising this book is next and even released snippets, only to continually push it back in favor of random, newer projects. It's such a poor business decision too, since it looks like, based on these reviews, more and more readers are forgetting about this series and losing hope. I just want Hugh and Elara to come home to me...

[Theis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep checking to see if this book is out yet 😭

[Julia]

It seems we have to wait for this book indefinitely. Since I’ve just reread the first one for the third time, I am starting to get just a very little impatient (read: very very very impatient and frustrated).

Might use the waiting time sensibly though and reread every other book IA has ever written. Desperate times and all…

[T00zday]

(Grabby Hands). Gimme!!

[Lais]

i would give my life for this book

[Alana]

Coming middle of 2025!!
PLSSSSS