King of Battle and Blood

King of Battle and Blood (2021) is a romantasy novel that marks the beginning of Scarlett St. Clair’s Adrian x Isolde series. The story is told from Isolde’s first-person perspective as she navigates a political marriage with the invading vampiric Blood King Adrian in order to save her kingdom. As their romantic connection grows despite her early distrust, Isolde learns about Adrian’s world and experiences flashes of hidden memory that compel her to redefine her identity. Her journey toward full self-realization encompasses themes such as The Effects of Political Power on Personal Relationships, The Evolution of Identity Within Constraining Circumstances, and The Moral Complexities of Wartime Leadership.

In addition to King of Battle and Blood and its sequel, Queen of Myth and Monsters (2022), St. Clair has also published a seven-book series that reimagines the mythological figures of Hades and Persephone. The third installment in the Adrian x Isolde series is tentatively projected for release in 2026.

This guide refers to the 2021 Sourcebooks Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, death by suicide, physical abuse, sexual harassment, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

Isolde de Lara, the daughter of King Henri and the princess of the kingdom of Lara, watches as the vampire forces arrive at the borders of the High City. They have come from Revekka, the kingdom with a blood-red sky that is ruled by the vampiric Blood King Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and gather at the borders of the High City. Henri has invited Adrian in an attempt to avoid war with Adrian’s forces. Adrian and his vampires have already conquered several of the Nine Houses of the continent of Cordova. Isolde is interrupted by the head of her father’s guard, Alec Killian, a manipulative and controlling ex-lover. Isolde avoids him and ventures into the woods, where she fights off a monstrous strzyga and encounters a handsome vampire who heals her wounds.

Isolde returns to the palace amidst feelings of lust for the vampire she just met. Her motherly maid, Nadia, helps her get dressed for Adrian’s arrival, and she meets her father and Killian in the throne room. When Adrian arrives, Isolde realizes that he is the vampire she met in the forest. Adrian agrees to take over Lara peacefully in exchange for Isolde’s hand in marriage. Killian and Henri object, but Isolde agrees to save her kingdom. 

Later, after a hostile encounter with Killian, in which he roughly grabs her, Isolde sneaks out to the vampire encampment and meets Adrian’s friends—Sorin, Miha, and Isac. Adrian takes her to his tent and promises not to harm Killian or retaliate against her kingdom. Adrian escorts Isolde back to the palace, chastising Killian for mistreating Isolde.

The next morning, Isolde sits in her mother’s garden. Her mother was from the Atoll of Nalani but died when Isolde was born. Nadia readies her for the wedding, and Nadia urges her to kill Adrian for the sake of her country. Isolde and Adrian marry and have a passionate wedding night despite her single, abortive attempt to kill him in accordance with her people’s wishes. The next day, Isolde says goodbye to her father, who tells her to try to find Adrian’s weakness so that she can destroy the magic that created him. Adrian’s general, Daroc, finds a horse for Isolde, and they begin their trip to Revekka.

During the journey, Adrian and Isolde’s retinue is attacked by villagers from Lara who view Isolde’s marriage as a betrayal. They try to harm Isolde, but she fights them off and kills some in self-defense, which fills her with guilt. As Adrian tries to ameliorate her guilt, the couple grows closer. The next day, Isolde explores the village and finds a house with skinned bodies. Killian arrives from the palace to investigate with Adrian, and they determine that magic killed the villagers. Isolde is shaken, but they continue their journey to Revekka.

During their travels, Isolde learns that the vampires feed consensually from mortal vassals who exchange their blood for protection. Adrian’s vassal, Safira, is jealous of his relationship with Isolde, so Isolde asks him to find a new vassal, and he agrees. When they cross the border into Revekka, they find another village ravaged by dark magic. The group investigates, and Isolde thinks she sees a ginger-haired woman but cannot find her. She then finds a young girl and attempts to rescue her, but the girl turns monstrous and tries to kill Isolde. Daroc kills the girl and takes her body to the Red Palace for an autopsy.

The group reaches the Red Palace in Cel Ceredi. Isolde meets Adrian’s viceroy (Tanaka) and cousin (Ana Maria). Isolde also meets Violeta, her human lady-in-waiting. At the welcome ball, Isolde dances with a mortal librarian named Lothian to make Adrian jealous. A vampire noblesse (nobleman) tries to force her to dance with him, so she stabs him, and Adrian then decapitates him to demonstrate that no one can touch his wife. The noblesse’s father, Gesalac, is offended, but Adrian does not care. Afterward, Adrian and Isolde have sex.

Adrian and Isolde hold court together, and Adrian encourages Isolde to render her own judgments as queen. One supplicant asks to be turned into a vampire in exchange for offering his 16-year-old daughter, Vesna, as a concubine for Adrian. Adrian and Isolde are offended. Isolde agrees to keep Vesna as a companion and then kills Vesna’s abusive father. 

Isolde attends a council meeting with Adrian, where Ana reveals that the girl who attacked Isolde was corrupted by a magic spell called crimson mist. The council believes that Ravena, the witch who served Dragos, the previous king of Revekka (whom Adrian deposed), is behind the attacks. They decide to search for her.

The Burning Rites begin. This is a series of festive days celebrating the end of the Dark Era, in which Dragos burned all the witches, including the High Coven. Adrian and Violeta educate Isolde about the High Coven, a group of 13 witches who used magic to maintain peace in Cordova. Isolde also learns about Yesenia of Aroth, one of the High Coven witches who foresaw Dragos’s demise. Dragos punished Yesenia for this prophecy by forcing her to watch her sister witches burn before she herself was burned. 

During the Burning Rites, Isolde returns to the library and touches a book later revealed to belong to Yesenia. She has a vision of Dragos threatening her, and she also sees the ginger-haired woman again. Later, when she goes on a hunt with Adrian, Ravena attacks them. Sorin helps save Isolde and returns her to the castle, where she has a vision of being imprisoned in a cell with a badly beaten Adrian.

Lothian informs Isolde that her mother’s people have been enslaved by King Gheroghe. In anger, she confronts Adrian, who knows about the plight of her mother’s people, but he implores Isolde to think strategically to free them instead of acting on emotion. Adrian and Isolde become intimate again. They then learn of another attack on the city of Cel Cera. Adrian sends soldiers to investigate.

Henri arrives for Isolde’s coronation as Queen of Revekka. She is conflicted about her growing feelings for Adrian and her loyalty to her father. Later, Isolde reads the book that gave her the vision of Dragos and discovers that it is Yesenia’s diary. Yesenia writes about being in love with Adrian. After the welcome ball for Henri, Isolde has a vision of watching the High Coven burn; she sees everything through Yesenia’s eyes. 

She wakes up in Adrian’s room and confronts him about Yesenia, and they confess their love for each other. They have sex, and Isolde lets Adrian drink her blood. This act unlocks hidden memories, and she realizes that she is Yesenia reincarnated. Adrian was Dragos’s guard and fell in love with Yesenia, and Dragos then punished him by beating him and forcing him to watch Yesenia burn. Adrian made a bargain with the goddess Dis, who had created the High Coven. He wanted to take revenge on those who ruined his life and to reunite with Yesenia. She made him a vampire and reincarnated Yesenia in Isolde’s body, but Isolde would have to choose to love Adrian again in order to regain her memories. However, the bloodletting ritual makes Adrian vulnerable; now, if Isolde is killed, he will be killed as well. Isolde tells her father about this before the coronation. the only others who know are Tanaka, Sorin, Daroc, and Ana.

Isolde is crowned Queen of Revekka, but the coronation is interrupted when Ravena and Gesalac attack. Isolde kills Gesalac and moves to stop Ravena. However, Henri blocks her path and tries to kill her in order to destroy Adrian by proxy. She kills Henri in self-defense and then finds Ravena stealing The Book of Dis, a book that Isolde wrote when she was Yesenia. The tome contains instructions on how to raise the dead. Ravena escapes with the book, but Isolde banishes her and the crimson mist from the castle. Ravena reveals that she knows about Adrian’s weakness, implying that one of Adrian’s friends has betrayed them. Isolde burns her father’s body, and she and Adrian plan to stop Ravena and free the people of Isolde’s mother from enslavement while continuing their conquest of Cordova.