Mare, her brother Shade, prince Cal, best friend Kilorn and Captain Farley make their way to the island of Tuck, where The Corporal is leading an army of Red Guard and northern Lakelanders.  Mare’s family is there as well, and they are reunited.   The Corporal (who happens to be Farley’s father) does not trust Cal and has him locked up, along with Mare, but Kilorn breaks them out.

The rest of the book is spent with Mare and her crew traveling around the kingdom looking for the other “newbloods” on the list created by Mare’s instructor, Julian, who she thinks is dead. King Maven is also hunting these people; Mare etc find many bodies and empty houses as they are searching.  The newbloods, including some children, are taken to The Notch to train and perfect their skills. Some of the people they pick up:

Nix: impetetrable to bullets and many other weapons

Nanny:  shapeshifter

Ada:  photographic perfect memory, can become an expert on anything by reading about it once

Gareth: can manipulate gravity, and can fly

Cameron: can shut off the abilities of others

??  : who can generate illusionary objects out of nothing

Kesha (?):  can destroy objects with her mind

 

Towards the end of the book, they stage a massive prison break, freeing many newbloods as well as Silvers who were imprisoned by Maven.  Among the prisoners are Julian and his wife, Sara, who is a healer.  Shade is killed during the break, and some of the other team members go missing.  The mind-manipulate Queen Elara (Maven’s mother) is also killed.

After a brief rest back on  Tuck, Mare takes some of the team to attempt to break through Maven’s lines.  However, Maven traps them, and captures Mare, after she begs him to let the others go. The book ends with Mare imprisoned by Maven.