The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Adeyemi, Tomi. Legacy of Orisha Series, Children of Virtue and Vengeance. Henry Holt and Company, 2019. Kindle.

Tomi Adeyemi’s second novel in the Legacy of Orisha series, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, is told from the perspective of three different characters: Zelie, Amari, and Inan, who all narrate the events of their lives in the first-person present. The novel begins right where the last one left off. Zelie and her brother Tzain bury their father, while Princess Amari grieves for her family. Her father, King Saran, supposedly killed her brother, Inan, and Amari killed her father in return. On top of all the grief, the girls are also reeling from the realization that the ritual they performed at the end of the last book brought magic back to the maji, and also gifted the nobles with new powers, turning them into titans. The monarchy has a long historical record of persecuting the maji. When Zelie was just a child, King Saran killed all the maji and eliminated magic from the world in an event called the Raid. Amari believed her father was in the wrong, so she snuck out of the palace with instructions on how to return magic to the realm in order to right the wrongs of her family. Now, Amari has become a titan, and despite all that she has done for the maji, Zelie resents Amari for infringing on an identity that is not rightfully hers.

Amari, Tzain, and Zelie hire Roen to take them to Lagos so Amari can claim the throne and restore the realm to peace and equity. Just as Amari is about to win over the people, the queen appears and accuses her of killing her father and brother, then uses her new titan magic to try and kill the girls, but they escape. When they get to safety, Zelie is so upset by the situation that she runs off and crashes her lionaire into a tree. She blacks out and enters a dreamscape created by Inan’s magic. Zelie had been in love with Inan until he betrayed her by attempting to get rid of magic and accidentally getting her father killed. Zelie had thought he was dead, and when she sees that he is alive, she promises him she will kill him herself.

Inan wakes up from a coma he has been in ever since his father stabbed him. Rebels are attacking his city. Roen escorts Zelie and Amari to the rebels, who are led by Zelie’s old teacher, Mama Agba. The rebels take the girls to a magical sanctuary in the middle of nowhere, and the maji welcome Zelie as a hero. Inan decides to attempt peace and offers the rebels food and shelter for compliance, and Zelie sends maji to burn Inan’s food. Zelie is invited to become the elder of the Reaper clan. During the ritual of her ascension, she is gifted with a vision of rainbow lights intertwining. She teaches Amari how to use her magic, and then Amari uses her magic to challenge the elder of the Connectors to a physical fight, which will decide who the elder is. Amar wants to be an elder so she can convince the maji to accept peace. Shei wins the fight and becomes an elder, but she hurts the Connector badly and the maji resent her for infringing on their community. Instead of listening to her pleas for peace, they decide to go to a temple and find incantations that will give them more power against the titans.

Tzain uncovers the rebel plan and meets them at the temple with his army. The two factions clash, and Tzain ends up letting Zelie escape because he is in love with her, even though she does her best to kill him. The rebels return to the sanctuary and Amari contacts Inan through a dreamscape. They plan to meet up so he can offer the rebels a treaty. Though he intends to come alone, his cousin Ojore finds out about his plan and brings the army and the queen. During the fight, Zelie’s youngest Reaper is killed, and she is devastated. Roen tells her that Inan has left Lagos to hide out in Ibadan, so the rebels concoct a plan to send their army to Lagos while the elders sneak into Ibadan to assassinate Inan and the queen. In Ibadan, the queen reveals to Inan that she conspired to turn King Saran to perform the Raid against the maji by hiring Burners to kill his whole family. When Ojore overhears them speaking, he tries to kill Inan because the queen killed his parents. Inan escapes Ojore’s attacks, and then the queen kills Ojore.

Zelie and Roen walk through the underwater caves of Ibadan with the magical help of Nao, a Tider. An explosion goes off and nearly kills them. Zelie escapes and comes back to save Roen, but she must cut his arm off in order to save him. He dies, but she uses her magic to tie his heart to hers. Amari panics because the plan has gone wrong, so she devises to use a Winder and a Cancer to create a toxic cloud that she sends into the village of Ibadan in order to kill Inan and the queen despite the innocent villagers who will also die. Zelie uses her magic to fly into the village with Roen and save as many people as she can. Amari comes into town afterwards and is upset when she realizes that Inan and the queen have escaped and captured their army in Lagos. Zelie nearly dies from the strain of carrying Roen’s heart with hers, so she uses her magic to bind them to a few of the elders. Their powers strengthen exponentially and Zelie finds she now has the ability to raise the dead. She brings back all the villagers Amari killed.

Zelie learns from Mama Agba that the only way she can cement the magical tie between her and all the elders is by sacrificing someone she loves. Zelie initially plans to sacrifice Amari, but instead Mama Agba insists that she should be the one who is sacrificed. They perform the ritual and it works. Zelie and the elders go to Lagos to end the war once and for all. Meanwhile, Inan decides the monarchy is at the core of the kingdoms problems, so he sedates his mother and announces he is dismantling the monarchy.

Zelie and the elders infiltrate the castle and free the maji who are locked in the dungeons. Zelie finds Inan and attempts to kill him, but before she can finish the job a white cloud of smoke engulfs her and she blacks out. When she wakes up, she is locked in a cabin on a ship with Amari.