A Recap of Fount and Fortune

Ready to dive into Fathom and Fury, the sequel to Fount and Fortune, but don’t remember all the details in the first book? This recap is for you.

PLEASE NOTE: This recap includes DETAILED SPOILERS for Fount and Fortune. Don’t read if you don’t want the story to be spoiled for your reading pleasure. I hope you enjoy reading Fathom and Fury after refreshing your memory. Now, go…read your heart out. ❤️

•  Nothing matters more to Evangeline Lovette than taking care of her seven-year-old sister, Juniper. Evan blames herself for the tragedy that took their mother’s life, so it’s the least she can do. She helps her father raise Juni at El Jardín, the farm he manages for the Conquistador, Florida’s brutal ruler of more than five hundred years, while avoiding Dominic, a fellow farm worker. She’s yielded to her father’s wishes to marry the man, despite having little connection with Dominic.

• In the Conquistador’s Empire of Florida, those with money and status are afforded every manner of luxury, while the ruler and his military, the Guardia, punish or execute anyone who dares challenge them. The elite live in communities walled off from the Wildlands, the untamed wilderness plagued by Ferals—wild men and women who’ve lost all sense of humanity and who rob, torture, or kill anyone they capture.

• After Juni falls ill with headaches and breathing problems, the Conquistador’s doctor visits to determine whether the Lovette family can stay on the property—any risk of contagious illness would force them out into the dangerous Wildlands. The doctor pronounces a heartbreaking diagnosis: Juni has terminal cancer, and nothing will cure her short of a miracle. The family can remain on the farm, but the news devastates Evan. She refuses to bury another person she loves. Later, she overhears Guardia soldiers discussing an upcoming Obligor Expo, where desperate people can indenture themselves to earn money. She realizes this may be her only chance to secure Juni an Immersion in the Fount, a magical spring known to pause aging and cure the impossible. It’s the one way to save the little girl’s life.

• Meanwhile, con man Rafe Roldan works out of his home and workshop in the Citadel, Florida’s capital city, supplying fake identities to the realm’s downtrodden and offering them a foot into elite society. Haunted by atrocities he suffered as a youth under the Conq’s regime, Rafe will do anything to subvert the tyrant’s reign. As part of their fake-identity business, Rafe and his friends, Twain Hedrick and Simone Solano García, provide a new identity to Jerome Blackwell, which Rafe immediately regrets when the problematic client mentions his intention to pick up a female obligor at the Obligor Expo. Twain hacks into the Imperial Bank but is unable to siphon funds for their enterprise or to support their clients. Rafe and Twain decide to attend the Obligor Expo and see if they can find a new way to sabotage the Empire.

• Rafe receives a note to meet with a member of the rebel group the Scythe of Thorns and is tasked with making a device called a Wreckus to knock out power to areas of the Citadel. The job requires ordering expensive parts from an illegal marketplace known as the Sink.

• When Juni takes a turn for the worse, this solidifies Evan’s decision to offer herself at the Obligor Expo to earn money to buy her sister an Immersion in the Fount. Despite having never left the farm before, Evan sneaks out of the walled property in the middle of the night without her father’s knowledge or permission. To reach the Citadel, she hikes through the Wildlands, wary of Ferals who roam the wilderness untamed and unchecked. She witnesses a transitorio caravan capture three Ferals—and kill one. Later, she encounters a Feral and barely escapes with a knife wound to her arm. She eventually arrives at the Expo Arena.

• Rafe and Twain, in disguise, attend the Obligor Expo and see Evan on stage as the Expo host auctions her indenture contract. Rafe enters a bidding war with Blackwell and wins Evan’s contract, draining his and Twain’s finances and putting them at risk with the Sink for the parts they ordered for the Wreckus. At the end of the Expo, they witness the brutal execution of a rebel at the hands of the Conquistador and Commander Bane, leader of the Guardia.

• Following the auction, a Guardia officer injects Evan with a tracker and syncs it with a bracelet that tethers her to Rafe, who never wanted to indenture another human being. Rattled by his own actions, Rafe tries to leave Evan at the arena, but she refuses to leave without her money. Twain convinces Rafe to bring her to home so they can figure out what to do. Evan does not know that Rafe is the Conquistador’s banished son.

• Desperate to earn the money she needs, Evan tries to prove her worth to Rafe by cooking breakfast but collapses. Rafe discovers she has sepsis from the knife wound she got in the Wildlands and worries over what having Evan thrown into the mix will do for their plans, despite starting to develop feelings for her. He decides to erase their Obligor contract and their identities from the Imperial networks.

• Carlton Shires, a client of Rafe’s who works for the Imperial Hospital, treats Evan at Rafe’s home and later erases scars she received after being flogged by Commander Bane nearly two years before at El Jardín. Twain escorts her to the Obligor routine inspection, where she is tattooed with the Conquistador’s mark, which she hides from the others.

• Evan and Rafe continually bicker and struggle to trust each other since neither is willing to reveal much information about themselves. Rafe struggles to build the Wreckus and grows increasingly worried when he receives a threat from the Scythe of Thorns about what will happen if he fails. Evan eventually reveals her plan to save her sister, but Rafe tells her she lacks enough money and social status to access the Fount. He suggests there might still be a way.

• Rafe, Evan, and Twain dress as servants to attend Blythe Damling’s Garden of Eden hedonistic soiree to steal jewels, which they’ll use to pay for Juni’s Immersion in the Fount and the parts for Rafe to build the Wreckus. Everything is going to plan, with Twain in the vault connected to Blythe’s room, when Commander Bane arrives at the party. He and Blythe retreat to her bedroom, trapping Twain in the vault. To help him escape, Rafe and Evan create a diversion in the adjacent pool room—which, of course, requires some steamy kissing. The intimacy flames the confusing feelings developing between Rafe and Evan. After evading the Guardia, the trio escapes with stolen jewelry to sell for the money they need.

• Rafe returns to the Barrio, where the Citadel’s laborers live, looking for help from Mac, his former mentor and a father figure who gave him and Twain shelter as teens. Mac provides him with a UTV, an all-terrain vehicle, to transport him and Evan through the Wildlands to collect Juni, but there’s a catch—the UTV is intended for Luther, one of Los Reyes, the gangster bosses of the Sink. They have to bring it back or risk the wrath of the bosses.

• Using Mac’s UTV, Rafe and Evan take off into the Wildlands, bound for El Jardín, where they’ll need to convince Evan’s father to let them take Juni for an Immersion. While en route, they crash into a tree felled by Ferals, who kidnap Evan and force Rafe on a mission to murder and rob a transitorio leader named Ambrosio Brego. Rafe loses communications with Twain and Simone but is able to tag Evan with a tracker so he can find her again.

• After hiding the UTV in the bushes, Rafe has a run-in with a Guardia patrol led by Tresick, a colonel in the Guardia—and to his surprise, his Scythe contact. Tresick warns him to get back to the Citadel and finish building the Wreckus. Once the Guardia leave, Rafe sneaks inside the transitorio camp. He tells Brego someone wants him dead.

• Held captive in a Feral camp, Evan is bound to a tree and forced to drink liquor. The lead Feral, Jude, tells no one to touch her because he plans to sell her. Meanwhile, Rafe convinces the transitorios to help him rescue Evan. During the rescue, a Feral attacks Rafe, and Evan saves him by stabbing the Feral. She kisses Rafe, who realizes she’s drunk. The transitorios also fight the Ferals, but Jude gets away. Evan and Rafe take refuge with the transitorios to heal from their injuries and repair the damaged UTV. Though Evan feels embarrassed over drunkenly kissing Rafe, they grow closer during their time together, eventually kissing for real during a transitorio celebration.

• After they’ve healed enough and have helped the transitorios fight off more Feral attacks, Evan and Rafe finally make it to El Jardín, where they have a confrontation with Evan’s angry father. She reunites with her sister, who asks if Evan is going to marry Rafe. She doesn’t know what the future holds, but she knows she doesn’t want her time with him to end.

• Evan’s father reveals that he told the Guardia Evan died when they came for a routine farm inspection, because he had no other way to explain her disappearance. Evan is devastated to learn she can never return home again because of this, but eventually she and her father reconcile.

• While hiding out at El Jardín, Evan reveals to Rafe that she had a role in her mother’s death, something she’s never been able to forgive herself for. She’s stung when Rafe begins distancing himself, but when Dominic confronts her and tries to force himself on her, Rafe and Evan’s father step in. Dominic insists Rafe must marry Evan because they have been intimate and their community rules demand it. Rafe flees the farmhouse and a marriage ultimatum he never wanted, but before anyone can go after him, the Guardia arrive. As Evan hides, she realizes the Guardia never account for Juni when they conduct a routine inspection, which means her sister won’t be missed if she leaves the farm. They could still pull off an Immersion.

• Rafe hides out while the Guardia are at the farm. He eventually returns to the transitorio camp, where Brego gives him advice on what he really wants in life, and Brego agrees to help him. Rafe returns to El Jardín with Brego, who actually knows Evan’s father and offers to protect her and Juni while in the Wildlands, which finally convinces him to go along with this plan.

• As they travel to the Citadel with Brego’s clan, the Guardia and Bane show up. Bane warns the transitorios against conspiring against the Empire before confiscating the UTV. Rafe, Evan, and Juni must walk to the Sink, where they are intercepted by Luther, who’s pissed that Rafe stole—and lost—his vehicle. Eventually Juni’s presence is enough to calm him and end a physical confrontation, though he says Rafe owes him a favor in the future.

• Twain and Simone welcome Rafe, Evan, and Juni home, and it’s clear they’ve fallen in love. Tresick had already been by twice to make threats if the Wreckus isn’t completed, but Twain made some progress on it while Rafe was gone. Simone gifts ballgowns to Evan and Juni, and Evan shocks everyone by revealing the Conquistador’s mark on her shoulder.

• Rafe delivers the finished Wreckus to Tresick, and they part ways making a tentative pact to not out each other—even as both agree things in Florida must change. Carlton is able to mask Evan’s tattoo but not remove it; unfortunately, the mark is embedded all the data on their Obligor transaction. Rafe is forced to confess to Evan that he’s the Conquistador’s son. Evan freaks out and almost bails on their plan, but he redirects her by having her shave his head as part of his new disguise.

• Evan, Rafe, and Juni travel to the Citadel using fake identities, portraying a wealthy family from the United States. Rafe reveals he and Twain were banished to the Wildlands for stealing Fount water, which they were trying to provide to people in need. As part of the Immersion experience, they attend a ball, and Rafe realizes he doesn’t want to lose Evan when this is over. They confess their love to each other.

• As they prepare for the Immersion, they run into Jerome Blackwell. They enter the Fount Garden, where Blackwell is seen talking to Bane and pointing at them. Bane confronts them with the accusation that Evan is an Obligor, but when he tries to scan her shoulder tattoo, she jumps into the Fount with Juni, and they both experience the magic of the Fount. Juni has been healed, and in the chaos of the guards trying to control everyone, Evan sends Juni away with Rafe while she causes a distraction. After Evan is captured by the Guardia, Bane scans her shoulder and finds nothing—the Fount has erased her Obligor brand, which doesn’t look good for Blackwell. The Guardia soldiers take Evan into custody.

• Rafe flees with Juni into the woods, where they run into Tresick, who buys them time to escape. Rafe sneaks into the Conquistador’s house, located in the Fount Garden, to steal his transpod—the one vehicle that never gets tracked in the Citadel—and escape. He vows to rescue Evan.

• Meanwhile, Evan is dragged before the Conquistador. When the ruler asks who she is and what she was doing with his son, she smiles. She knows Rafe and Juni have escaped.

What happens next? Find out in Fathom and Fury, coming September 2026!