Two Twisted Crowns is the second and final installment of the Shepherd King duology written by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Rachel Gillig. The narrative picks up where One Dark Window left off, mixing elements of the fantasy and romance genres as it dramatizes the final battle for control of the fictional kingdom of Blunder. The text explores themes of Justice as Balance, The Impact of Sacrifice, and Breaking the Cycle of History.

Published on October 17, 2023, by Orbit Books, Two Twisted Crowns is Gillig’s second published work. Her debut, One Dark Window, was published in 2022 and quickly established Gillig as a rising star in the fantasy genre. She lives in Central California and is at work on a third novel, separate from the Shepherd King duology, titled The Knight and the Moth. It is set to be published with Orbit Books in 2025.

This guide refers to the Two Twisted Crowns Orbit e-book edition distributed by Google Play Books and published on October 17, 2023.

Plot Summary

Elspeth drifts in a sea of darkness, unable to remember anything and uncertain of who she is. Her body and mind are possessed by the Nightmare—the name given to the disembodied soul of the dead Shepherd King. As she drifts to shore, an old man in gold armor named Taxus (the Shepherd King when he was a young man) waits for her.

In the kingdom of Blunder, Ravyn digs up the Shepherd King’s grave, looking for answers. Instead, he finds the old king’s shepherd sword and the remnant soul of his daughter, who, along with her other family members, still waits for her father to move beyond the veil of existence. Meanwhile, Elm is out on an expedition to retrieve all the Providence Cards left at Hawthorn House before Tyrn Hawthorn’s inquest. At the house, he finds Ione Hawthorn, Elspeth’s favorite cousin, who was betrothed to Hauth Rowan, heir to the Rowan throne, before he became infected by the magical mist that roams the kingdom. Since Elm had previously commanded all Hawthorns to leave the kingdom on suspicion of treason, he is forced to arrest her. On the forest road back to the Rowan stronghold of Stone, he and Ione are attacked by highwaymen. Deftly stealing Elm’s Scythe Card, Ione kills their attackers and bargains with Elm: At their return to Stone, he must ensure that she be given the freedom to roam the castle, despite being branded a traitor.

Quercus, the Rowan King is out for blood, wants to execute Tyrn, Erik Spindle, and Ione as traitors. Out of fear of court gossip, however, Quercus allows them to live and instead focuses his rage on Ravyn, blaming him for every ill the Rowans face. After striking a bargain with the Nightmare, Quercus releases Emory, Ravyn’s younger brother, back to the Yews, on the condition that Ravyn and the Nightmare retrieve the Twin Alders Card. Elm, however, must be left behind. With no other choice, Ravyn, the Nightmare, and Jespyr, Ravyn’s sister, set out for Castle Yew before beginning their journey.

Elm’s father wishes to name him the heir in Hauth’s stead and marry him off by the end of a week of feasts. Elm refuses. Instead, he decides to help Ione, who is losing her sense of self because of Hauth’s magical trickery. Elm begins to develop romantic feelings for Ione, and he reveals his true, vulnerable self to someone outside the Yew family for the first time.

At Castle Yew, Ravyn gathers his team, comprising himself, the Nightmare, Jespyr, the Ivy brothers, and Gorse, a Destrier (a member of the royal police) Quercus had ordered to accompany them. Ravyn tries to find Elspeth in the mind she shares with the Nightmare, but he does not succeed. Elspeth, however, has gained her memories again, and as she sits on the shore, she is visited by the memories of Taxus’s children. Meanwhile, the Nightmare guides them deep into the forest to their first obstacle: swimming across a lake that would seduce them with their deepest desires. Though all make it across, one of the Ivy twins, Petyr, is severely injured. The Nightmare, however, reveals that the Maiden Card’s real magic is not to beautify a person but to heal wounds. While everyone is distracted, Gorse discovers Ravyn’s Cards—Cards whose ownership was never disclosed to Quercus—and sets off to report back to the King. Ravyn allows him to escape, concentrating instead on the mission ahead, but in the scuffle, he’s tapped his Nightmare Card and heard Elspeth’s voice in her mind for the first time.

At Stone, Elm plots to use Ione and Hauth’s existing marriage contract to overcome his father’s scheme to have him married off by the end of the week. Finding that the wording of the contract only mentions a marriage between Ione and the ‘heir’ to the throne, Elm stashes the original contract with the Yews and accepts his father’s proposal to become heir at the next feast. He then finds Ione, and together they go to the royal Providence Card vault to retrieve the Prophet Card, hoping its fortune-telling magic will tell them where Ione’s Maiden Card is. What it reveals, however, is that Ione will one day give the Twin Alders Card to the Nightmare.

The group is ambushed and imprisoned in an unknown fortress by a league of infected people who’ve been driven out of Stone by the King and his Destriers. Eventually a brawl ensues wherein Ravyn, under the influence of a magical smoke, kills the king’s spy Gorse. As the smoke dissipates, the rest of their group escapes, and they come up against their next challenge: entering the Spirit of the Wood’s personal forest, the alderwood. Elspeth, meanwhile, keeps observing Taxus the Shepherd King’s past, how he innocently wished for an abundant kingdom for his people, how he began to barter with the Spirit of the Forest for the Providence Cards, seeking to create a safe kind of magic, and how his relationship with the people he loved—including Brutus Rowan, the eventual first Rowan king—degenerated as a result.

At another feast, Elm and Ione escape to the castle gardens, where they try to use the Scythe Card to compel Ione to find the Maiden Card that Hauth has hidden from her. When it doesn’t work, they search every statue in the garden where she remembered being the night she lost her Card, but Elm only manages to lose the charm that protects him from the mist. Caught up in the mist’s power, Elm manages to retain his sanity thanks to Ione’s quick thinking. When they return to the castle, they’re informed that Hauth has awakened. They visit him, but Hauth is only responsive when Ione enters the room. He stares at her but promptly loses consciousness afterwards.

In the alderwood, Elspeth is beset with more of Taxus’s memories, wherein his commitment to making stable magic quickly turns into an obsession that isolates him from the world. He is made to travel to the alderwood with his sister, Ayris, where she is sacrificed to the woods. History repeats itself, and much to Ravyn’s agony and rage, Jespyr volunteers to submit herself to the mist and become the guide they need to enter the alderwood. As she runs, Ravyn and the Nightmare follow. They find two alder trees, one white and the other black, with Jespyr lying between them.

At the fourth feast, Elm has stolen his father’s Nightmare Card, and under the cover of music, he and Ione use it, allowing Elm to dig into her mind and sift through her memories. As he relives Ione’s betrothal to Hauth, he discovers where her Maiden Card is hidden. Ione, however, insists that he continue to look through her memories so that he can witness when Hauth tried to kill her by pushing her out of Spindle House’s tower. Elm watches and sees as Ione wishes for death while the Maiden Card heals her. Devastated, Elm brings her to the secret hiding place where her Maiden Card is hidden along with weapons Hauth had used against him as a child. Upon the throne, he formally proposes to her, not out of obligation but out of his growing love for her.

Back in the alderwood, the two alder trees capture Ravyn and push him through a portal to meet the Spirit of the Wood. As they claim Jespyr for their own nourishment, the Nightmare refuses to allow her to die as Ayris had. He manages to retrieve her from the trees and escapes to the portal with Ravyn. There upon a seashore, the Spirit emerges and slices her own stomach to offer the Twin Alders Card to Ravyn should he fulfill a barter. As he activates the Card, the Spirit transports them to timeless space, where she offers him three options: He can leave the Card with her and have her save the ones he loves, leave the Card and be made king of Blunder, or he can keep the Card if he can tell her his real name. To help him, she tells him that the Shepherd King’s last name is not Rowan, and she shows him a flashback of how Brutus Rowan killed the Shepherd King and his family—all, that is, but his oldest son. Understanding dawns on Ravyn, and he offers his true last name, Taxus, to the Spirit, knowing now that he is himself a descendant of the Shepherd King and, extendedly, the Nightmare.

At Stone, meanwhile, Elm and Ione finally disengage the Maiden Card. They rejoice over the return of her feelings and true appearance by escaping the castle for a day, but when they return, Hauth is there, waiting for them and fully healed. Under compulsion, Elm is made to watch him test the extent of the Maiden Card’s healing power by stabbing Ione through the heart. When she does not die, however, Hauth thinks himself invincible, and at the feast later that day, he poisons Quercus to take the throne. Elm and Ione manage to escape, but knowing the Destriers will soon catch them, Elm compels Ione to run to the Yews without him and turns back to face his brother. For weeks onwards, he, along with Erik Spindle and Tyrn Hawthorn, is tortured in the dungeons by Hauth and his Destriers.

In the alderwood, Ravyn, the Nightmare, and Jespyr return to the valley, only to find that a month has passed and they are mere hours away from the end of Solstice. They rush back through the woods and encounter Ione, who had been waiting for them for weeks. When they make it back to Castle Yew, a pyre is lit, and Hauth is ordering the Destriers about while terrorizing the Yew family and keeping Elm, Erik, and Tyrn bound in ropes. The Nightmare tells Ravyn and the others his final plan for revenge, and together they free Elm and the others and draw the Destriers to the forest, where the Nightmare uses his magic over trees to kill them. Ravyn fights with Hauth, and just as he believes he has the upper hand, Hauth stabs him in the side, leaving him for dead. As Ravyn holds on, the Nightmare collects all the Cards for the Deck and hands over his sword to Elm, who completes the Deck with the missing component—the blood of an infected. As Elm and Ione face off against Hauth, they manage to remove his mist charm, exposing him to the mist and infecting him. They stab him, then use his blood to complete the Deck. As the mist retreats, it takes Hauth with it. Through Jespyr’s newly acquired healing powers, Ravyn manages to survive. Days after the final encounter, Ravyn speaks with the Nightmare, and after he and Elspeth say their goodbyes, Ravyn destroys the Nightmare Card she’d once touched as a child, releasing the Shepherd King’s soul back to his waiting family. With the kingdom of Blunder finally at peace, Elm and Ione marry, and Elspeth and Ravyn are left to wander the forest road together once again.