Summary of The Last Triumvirate

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Twenty-two years after a stranger leaves her with a vineyard owner and his family, Cyra still lives and works on that vineyard near Fernweh. Unlike her mortal brothers, Cyra is perimortal, a human with magical powers that can live for hundreds of years. 

Cyra hides her minor elemental magic from the people of the village, who dislike perimortals, but when she’s attacked by a bear one morning, she accidentally uses a powerful magic to turn the bear to earth. Days later, a very large warrior named Samhail appears and tells Cyra she must come with him to the Citadel in Callanus to meet the Triumvirate lords who rule Thasia together: Bressen, feared lord of the Hiraeth territory; Ursan, lord of the Polaris territory; and Jerram, lord of the Derridan territory.

Cyra and Samhail get off to a rocky start, but he ingratiates himself to her by making her former lover Eddin wet himself when the man threatens to make trouble.

Cyra and Samhail discover an attraction while they travel to Callanus. The journey is eventful. They’re attacked by highwaymen that Samhail kills. Cyra begins to panic the closer they get to Callanus and tries to bargain with Samhail to let her go home. He refuses and ends up kissing her before they’re interrupted by a deadly fog and are forced to flee. They jump off a cliff to escape, and Samhail reveals he has giant bat-like wings.

They arrive at the Citadel where Cyra discovers that Bressen is actually a devastatingly beautiful man who isn’t as evil and cruel as she was led to believe. He is, however, a powerful mind wraith, which is a type of perimortal with mind reading and mind control powers.

Cyra also learns a seer has predicted that she’ll cause the downfall of the Triumvirate, so the lords insist that she needs to stay with them until they figure out how she’s involved.

Jerram and Ursan bring Cyra to the Priory to meet the seer who had the vision about her. The Priory is a house of worship for the Trinity, the three gods of Thasia: the Creator, the Protector, and the Nemesis. While there, Ursan and Jerram try to test Cyra by sending three tigers after her, but Cyra is injured and Samhail stops the test. She returns to the Citadel and learns more about the lords from Glenora, Ursan’s wife.

Cyra spends the next few weeks at the Citadel where she tries to stay out of the way of the lords and befriends her lady’s maid Raina. 

She also struggles with her attraction to both Samhail and Bressen, who have been friends for about a century. They fought together in the war twenty-five years earlier when King Sandrian of Rowe attacked Thasia. Sandrian had a mind wraith named Morland who took over Samhail’s mind so that he nearly killed Bressen, but Samhail managed to free himself in time.

Cyra eventually begins an affair with Bressen, who she learns is an angelus, a being with feathered wings. While Cyra continues to fall for Bressen, she gets to have both him and Samhail one night on a holiday called the Harmilan.

Cyra has learned that Samhail is a gargoyle, and he’s been training her to fight since she was drugged one night by Jerram during a ball at the Citadel. When Samhail taunts her one day at training, Cyra pushes him into a wall, prompting him to question where she got such power. Samhail does some research, tests Cyra, and concludes that she’s a syphon, a powerful type of perimortal that hasn’t been seen for hundreds of years. Syphons are feared and hunted because they can draw on the power of others.

As the mystery around Cyra unravels, she learns that her birth father – who left her at the vineyard – is still alive and has been in prison for her supposed murder. Bressen releases him and reunites him with Cyra. 

The next day they learn that the seer who made the prediction about Cyra is dead. Cyra pushes Jerram too far about it, and he confines her to her room. Bressen comes to see her, but they’re discovered by Lord Ursan, who assumes a conspiracy. Ursan flees and Bressen follows, but Ursan returns and attacks Cyra. Cyra is saved by Raina who, it turns out, is Ursan’s illegitimate daughter.

The next morning, Ursan is dead and Cyra can’t contact Bressen. She sneaks out of her room to look for him and finds Glenora, who drugs her again and confesses that she killed Ursan.

Cyra wakes to find that Glenora and Jerram have captured Bressen and staged a coup. Using Cyra’s brothers and father as leverage, they tell Cyra she must kill Bressen. Cyra is able to use her powers to free Bressen from Jerram’s control and call Samhail. Samhail arrives in his gargoyle form to destroy Jerram and Glenora’s army while Bressen calls the demoni of Revenmyer to overwhelm Glenora. Bressen surrenders to his darkness, and Cyra risks herself to bring him back from the edge.

After the battle, Samhail rips Jerram’s head off, and the work of getting the country back under control begins.

Now that the seer’s vision has come to pass, Cyra prepares to go home, but Bressen proposes to her and offers to buy her a vineyard if she stays. She accepts, and Bressen announces their engagement to the city.

The epilogue reveals that Morland is still alive and that Sandrian has escaped from Revenmyer. The two reunite and plan their revenge on Bressen and Samhail, a plan that also includes a use for the newly discovered syphon.