Here there be spoilers. Big ones. If anyone hasn’t read Shatter the Earth and expects to, please do not read any further until after you’ve finished the book.

1. Is Jonathan really dead?

Yes. Billy destroyed body #1 by dragging it over a cliff with him, and Cassie killed body #2 in a Circle holding cell. Jonathan is very dead.

2. Can Pritkin’s incubus decide which of Cassie’s powers to draw from?

I’m not sure what this means, to be honest. When Pritkin and Cassie are in Lover’s Knot, they can borrow each other’s abilities for as long as the spell lasts. But the incubus part of Pritkin isn’t in control and can’t do that. It only magnifies power; it doesn’t decide what to do with it.

3. Was it hard killing off Billy?

Yes, it was. But ghosts don’t stay around forever. They have to transition, once they come to terms with whatever was holding them on Earth. Well, either that or stick around until they’re cannibalized by another ghost/demon/what have you. So transitioning is better!

In Billy’s case, the issue holding him up was a serious sense of outrage. He’d evaded starvation in Ireland, come to the U.S. for a new start, and had high hopes of making his fortune and going home loaded to help out the family. But what happened instead? He got into the wrong card game and died, just like that. No gold, no glory, no anything. It seriously pissed him off.

Billy had always wanted to do something with his life, something important, and dying like that was a hard pill to swallow. Too hard, as it turned out. But in taking out Jonathan, freeing Mircea, and helping Cassie to understand what was going on—well, Cassie was right. He did save them all. And thus, he was finally ready to make that transition.

It was why he didn’t sound sad when talking to Cassie. He was finally at peace. She, on the other hand, was anything but, having lost her best friend, confidant and helper with no warning. The good guys won a major victory in the war, but she paid a heavy price for it.


4. Will Cassie keep the new Vamp and Fey powers that she gained after they get rid of Lover’s Knot?

No. She was borrowing abilities in this book; she doesn’t have those herself. Once Lover’s Knot was removed, she lost them. And it had to be removed, because it placed a terrible threat on the three of them.

The spell essentially forged those inside it into one being, metaphysically speaking. That was why they could share abilities, and why Mircea’s family could act as a battery, storing all the power that Pritkin and Cassie had created until it was called for. Combining their powers allowed Cassie, Mircea and Pritkin to essentially jury-rig a god, but it also meant that, if one of them died, they all did. Staying in that kind of risk any longer than absolutely necessary would be crazy, especially with all three of them being high value targets.

However, Cassie did gain additional power from the merger, and that she still has.

5. Will we find out more about Roger Palmer in upcoming books?

Yes, Roger still has a big part to play.