This story begins right on a battlefield. A lost battlefield at it. With the failure of the Companions of the Realm, a Spindle is torn apart. Now, a portal is torn to another realm. This has happened for the last time a thousand years ago. Afterwards, the passages were closed, leaving the Elders and other Spindleborns locked in this realm. For a long time, Allward was a realm alone and Spindles and crossing became a bedtime story for children.

There are two Corblood Princes - twin brothers. One of them, Taristan, is supposed to be the ruin of the realm, the sword stealer. Like the Elders (which are immortal), the Corblood princes were of Spindleblood, sons of crossing, their mortal ancestors born beneath the stars of another realm.

Taristan wants to bring the Spindles back into crossing. He rejoins the realms and allows the people to return to a home they have not seen in centuries. But the Elder believe that to tear a spindle open, all realms are put in danger and the world could be destroyed.

Andry, one of the squires on the lost battlefield, and an Elder are the only ones who survive to tell the gruesome story of the spindle torn open. But soon they learn that queens and kings aren‘t willing to listen. Left to their own devices, they begin a search for the only people who can save the realm now.

I liked this book mostly due to it‘s female characters. They were real fighters and all of them had quite the character development. The group had also a very interesting pairing. But because of the four characters, we read some scenes from several perspectives. In my opinion, this made the book sometimes slow and needlessly long. Added to this were a lot of descriptions, names and places of other kingdoms- this just caused confusion and wasn‘t necessary in my eyes.

The background story about Spindles, Crossing and Spindleblood was also only explained here and there, leaving bits and pieces you have to put together yourself.