By the end of the first book, High Prince Regent Caspian had declared the decade-old war between the houses over and forced the different houses to try and come together in peace. After a strange series of events, most of the heads of houses were all together and ready to anoint Darling Seabreak (a war orphan raised by House Kraken) as the new Regent to House Sphinx. An ill-timed attack by the Krakens in an attempt to free their own Regent leads to Caspian and Darling getting separated from the group and Caspian putting the final pieces of his prophesied plan together. Using various artifacts from the different houses, as well as an ancient blood magic ritual, Caspian re-awakens the Phoenix in Darling and gives a kick-start to the long dormant magic system of Pyrlanum. The result is that Darling, along with the heads of the different houses, transform into Imperials, the magical beasts that are the namesake of each house.
Caspian becomes the Dragon, Vivian Cronicum takes the form of the Gryphon, and the young Darvey Brynson becomes the dog-like beast, Barghest (much to the surprise of his uncle who thought he was becoming Regent). As for the Kraken, it seems that the death of Darling's adoptive father at the hands of Aurora, Caspian's aunt, means that the mantle of House Kraken falls on his eldest daughter, Adelaide. Also, given that House Sphinx appears to be truly extinct with Darling becoming the Phoenix and House Cocatrice having left Pyrlanum, no one really knows what will become of those two creatures.
When Blood & Fury: Chaos & Flame - Book 2 starts off, Talon (Caspian's younger brother and Darling's love interest), is trying to hold the kingdom together. He knows his brother wished for peace and tries to work out exactly how to achieve that, but his heart isn't in it. Instead he looks for word of the Dragon and Phoenix. When he last saw them, they were fighting each other as they flew away. Talon's worries start to come to a head when the Imperials start to make their presence known. At first, Talon's men find Darvey, but they are unable to get him out of the dog-like body. Soon, he learns that both the Gryphon and the Phoenix have been spotted and apparently Darling and Vivian have found a way to shift back into their human forms.
Talon becomes even more determined to track down his brother. Thankfully, he has a tracking boon and it seems to be stronger than ever since Caspian performed the ritual he did to revive the Phoenix. But, while Talon wants to find his brother, he must also keep an eye on his imprisoned aunt. It seems that her own charm boom is stronger than ever and she is using it to manipulate her guards. Talon is intent on keeping her alive so that house Kraken can impart justice for the death of their former Regent, but when he learns that she has been delving into blood magic, he is having a hard time keeping her in check.
Meanwhile, Darling did, in fact, find a way back to her human form and also helped Vivian leave the Gryphon form as well. Darling finds herself compelled by the Phoenix within her to not only help the Imperials, but also cleanse Pyrlanum of strange altars found across the land that seem to be causing Chaos to be stifled. With each altar she destroys, more and more people start to gain boons the likes of which haven't been seen in a century.
Blood & Fury is a race with Darling on one side and Talon on the other. While they aren't enemies, per se, or even working at cross purposes, Darling doesn't trust Talon anymore and she isn't sure of his motives. Talon will have to do a lot of work in order to get back in her good graces, but even if he does, that might not be the best thing for Pyrlanum.
In general, I felt like Blood & Fury: Chaos & Flame - Book 2 was a stronger entry than the first one. Had I read Chaos & Flame when it first came out, I don't know that I would have chosen to pick up Blood & Fury, but as a complete work, the pair of books make a strong story that generally works well.
Where the magic in Chaos & Flame was in the backseat to the court politics, in Blood & Fury it is in the forefront and the driving factor in the story. As a result, this book felt like it had a lot more action and fantasy to it than its predecessor. I did enjoy this book more, though I feel like the final confrontation was a bit fast and anti-climatic. All that being said, I would recommend these books as a pair to be read back-to-back. The ending of the first book gives the overall story enough momentum to make you want to keep reading, and the second book does a decent job of pushing the characters to complete their arcs and get some payoffs before it's all over.
