This is a review of a later book in a series. Spoilers for earlier books will follow.

After publisher drama and publication dates that are, as Dayton put it, kind of like the Pirate's Code, the last book of the One Rose Trilogy is finally here. In it, Kallista, now the Renine of Adara for the past six years, and her ilian receive word that their lost ilias Merinda and her son may be in Obed's homeland. When the ilian goes to retrieve him, one of the Godmarked is killed. Not only is Kallista devestated to lose an ilias, moreover one connected to her by magic, but her powers are weakened by having one less Godmarked to draw on. On top of there still being a child to recover, it turns out that Adarans are being held in slavery and demons have been corrupting the working of the country.

This is the best of the books in the trilogy, and it is primarily about grief and love. The fact that one of the Godmarked dies is given away in the cover blurb, and I will not spoil which one, but I will say that it is not Leyja or Keldrey, who married the others only at the end of The Barbed Rose. Their deaths would still have been hard on their iliasti, but they might have been easier on the readers, who did not get to know them like the others. Dayton does not go easy on us. There are several scenes in this book to make readers uncomfortable, but they are handled well, and they are what makes the book great.

I am also glad to finally see Obed's home country. I have been wanting to learn more about it since the first book.

A heroine given powers by God to destroy demons can be difficult, primarily because if she keeps being given enough power for the job, the ending of the story can never be in doubt, and Kallista does sprout new powers about as often as Superman. What makes this series work in spite of that is that Kallista's powers, though varied enough to supply anything she needs, do not always work, and she and her ilian are not invulnerable. We know that her magic is capable of destroying any demon, if it answers properly. What we don't know is if her magic will always answer, or if she and her whole family will survive. ( )