Despite their pleas, I remained skeptical. I'd set the tales in the period between the first and second novels. It was a time when Irene knew virtually nothing about dragon kingdoms. She'd only learned midway through the first novel that her apprentice Kai was a dragon. Readers of the novels know where their relationship eventually goes, but if I were to remain true to canon, I couldn't let those romantic sparks catch fire. Would I be able to maintain all those suppressed feelings without their potential romance going stale? But Kai was sneaky. He slipped me some new possibilities when Irene wasn't looking. He also pointed out how much fun I'd had in creating a backstory for the dragon kingdoms. Then Irene sat me down, also arguing for new adventures. Peregrine Vale, London's greatest detective, pointed out in his usual mocking way that he'd been underutilized. Finally Lord Silver took matters into his own hands. First he finagled a starring role in a story I wrote last year for the Yuletide exchange—On the Outside. That story can be read as a prologue to the series but it hints at adventures that are yet to come. And, honestly, how could I resist spending more time with such engaging characters?
Warning for spoilers to previous stories
When last we left Irene and Kai, they'd captured Count Lecerf. Lord Silver hauled him away to meet his fate with Fae authorities. The punishment was swift and terminal. Irene now appreciates that Lecerf was only one of the tentacles of the monster confronting them. Her chief canon foe Alberich had guided Lecerf's actions. Although Alberich for the moment can't enter Vale's alternate Victorian world, no one is sure how long that will last. Equally troubling is the uncertainty about his other allies. One of them, Jian Yu, was exposed in Merlin's Cave. Jian Yu had pretended to befriend his young cousin Kai when he was a youngster, but he'd long held a secret agenda. Jian Yu is a member of the Ring of Fire, an extremist cult advocating racial purity. Perversely, Jian Yu overcame his antipathy toward Fae in order to work with Lecerf. He believes that by injecting more chaos into worlds, humans will become so desperate they'll plead for dragons to take over their worlds and restore order.
Jian Yu escaped at the end of Merlin's Cave. Also missing is a dragon grimoire called the Mo Dian. Presumably Jian Yu stole it, and now Alberich is using it to create the magical illustration portals. The grimoire was the property of an order of dragon wizards of which Master Wu, Kai's former martial arts instructor, is a member. Wu has enlisted Kai's help to recover the grimoire. The Iron Brotherhood begins shortly after the events in Merlin's Cave. As some issues are resolved, new questions emerge.
- The Iron Brotherhood on Archive of Our Own
- The Iron Brotherhood on FanFiction
- The Iron Brotherhood on Wattpad
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