Between Tides & Thunder by Leena Kazak: Chapter-by-Chapter Book Summary

This Between Tides & Thunder book summary covers Leena Kazak’s Between Tides & Thunder Book 1. Whether you need a full recap before picking up Between Sky & Sea or just want a refresher on what happened, this chapter-by-chapter breakdown of Between Tides & Thunder has you covered. The summary of Between Tides & Thunder below includes full spoilers.

BETWEEN TIDES & THUNDER TROPES: Arranged Marriage | Enemies to Lovers | Forced Proximity | He Falls First | Slow Burn

Jump to Chapter Recap of Between Tides & Thunder: Chapters 13–28 | 29–41 | 42–56 | 57–70 | 71–E

Between Tides & Thunder Book Summary

This Leena Kazak Between Tides & Thunder book summary contains full spoilers for all 82 chapters, plus a prologue and an epilogue.

Between Tides & Thunder Prologue

Nineteen years ago, a six-year-old girl hides in a closet during a bad storm. Her mother tells her to stay put no matter what she hears, so the girl waits. Then she hears unfamiliar, heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. Strangers move through her room, knocking things over. The closet door bursts open, and the girl screams. 

Between Tides & Thunder Part 1: The Journey

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 1

Princess Mayah is in the middle of a sparring session with Daak, the captain of her father’s guard, when a servant pulls her away to the Healing Chambers. She arrives to find the room packed with badly wounded soldiers, all nonwielders, who Arbinj forces attacked despite a recently agreed ceasefire. Prince Zevayr, the infamous Dark Commander of Arbinj, led the assault. Mayah throws herself into healing the injured, working until she’s nearly spent.

Then three waterwielders walk in with minor injuries from a sparring match and expect to jump the line. Mayah resists, but Tundrayni law gives wielders priority in all things, and she must comply. Once Mayah finishes with them, the head healer Jennah steps in and sends her to rest before she does herself serious harm.

Back in Mayah’s chambers, Daak is waiting. They talk about Sura and Tumaas, two friends they lost to the war, and the mood softens into something more tender. Mayah kisses Daak, but he pulls away as he always does, wary of her father, King Tormik, who has already arranged her marriage to Faramir, the crown prince of Arbinj.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 2

Mayah arrives late to a council meeting run by her father, the king of Tundrayn. The council reviews a ceasefire with the rival kingdom of Arbinj, which includes a food exchange as part of the truce terms. They also discuss the Rebellion, a growing movement demanding rights for nonwielders, people who lack wielding abilities. 

Before the meeting ends, guards bring in two young palace workers for illegally sharing their powers, and the council condemns them to fight at the border despite Sorka’s attempt to intervene.

Then the king delivers the news that Crown Prince Faramir is arriving the following day rather than two weeks out, and the betrothal ceremony will proceed at once.

After the others leave, Mayah tries to speak with her father. She tells him she’s frightened, and he offers a rare but awkward moment of tenderness before pulling away. When Mayah brings up the mistreatment of nonwielders, her father dismisses her concerns and leaves.

That evening, a servant helps Mayah into her ceremonial gown and advises her to comply when Faramir comes to her bed. Mayah says nothing.

Later, Daak slips into Mayah’s room and holds her through the night. He tells her he loves her and promises to find her again. A thunderstorm rolls in and unsettles Mayah, since she’s about to move to Arbinj, a kingdom of stormwielders. Daak stays until she falls asleep.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 3

Mayah wakes up and prepares for her betrothal ceremony. Before it begins, she visits the Hall of Ancestors and pauses at her grandmother Turmah’s statue. Mayah reflects on how Turmah was once sent to Arbinj as a peace offering, was abused by her Arbinji husband, and returned home permanently maimed.

In the Great Hall, Mayah and her father wait on ice thrones for the Arbinji delegation. Crown Prince Faramir never arrives. Instead, Prince Zevayr, the feared Dark Commander, walks in with a regiment of soldiers. Mayah’s father makes no effort to hide his contempt for the proxy arrangement.

Mayah directly challenges Zevayr over Arbinji soldiers who attacked Tundrayni warriors after a ceasefire was already in place. Zevayr says he had no knowledge of the ceasefire at the time and offers an apology.

When Zevayr removes his helmet, Mayah is caught off guard by how handsome he is, a fact she resents. To test Mayah’s healing ability, Zevayr slashes his own palm. She heals him, and Zevayr is visibly impressed.

As Zevayr starts to pledge to bring Mayah safely to his brother in Arbinj, Mayah’s father falsely insists that Tundrayni tradition requires the man to kneel before his intended. After a tense standoff, Zevayr gives in. He then slides a ring set with a dark stone onto Mayah’s finger. 

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 4

Zevayr presents Mayah to the hall as the new princess of Arbinj. Mayah’s father tries to welcome the party with a planned feast, but Zevayr announces they’re leaving within the hour. King Tormik is furious, and Daak resists. Zevayr settles the tension by reminding the room that he’s brought food stores for the people.

Mayah steps in and tells her father she’s ready to go. On the way to her chambers, Mayah insists that both Tundrayni and Arbinji guards escort her, and Zevayr agrees. While her handmaids pack, Mayah takes one thing she won’t leave behind: her late mother’s necklace. She pulls out a box of old letters too, but leaves it.

Outside, Mayah says a stiff goodbye to her father. He tells her not to disappoint him and adds that he’ll see her at the Equinox Festival. Mayah quietly asks him to share the feast food with all the people, but he doesn’t respond. She and Daak share a wordless farewell. Then Mayah gets into the carriage, and she and Zevayr leave for Arbinj.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 5

Mayah and Zevayr are thirty minutes into their journey when the procession suddenly halts. Zevayr explains that they need to switch carriages as a precaution, since any attackers would expect them in the royal one. The replacement is a cramped prisoner transport, and Mayah resists before reluctantly climbing in.

The ride continues in tense silence until Mayah and Zevayr begin talking. Mayah asks why Zevayr lost control of his power at the betrothal ceremony, and Zevayr admits he was angry. He turns the questioning around and asks why she wants to marry his brother. Mayah tells him she doesn’t, but she’d do anything to protect her people.

Suddenly, an explosion tips the carriage onto its side. Zevayr orders Mayah to stay put and goes out to fight. Mayah hears the battle outside, then picks up a faint sizzling near her head. She realizes it’s a bomb and throws herself out just before it blows apart.

Outside, chaos takes over. Zevayr drives a storm, calling lightning down on the rebels as he fights through them. The thunder undoes Mayah. She drops to her knees in the snow, caught somewhere between the battle and a childhood memory. The last thing Mayah hears before blacking out is someone shouting that she’s the princess and shouldn’t be harmed.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 6

Mayah wakes up bound and thrown over Zevayr’s shoulder. Zevayr drops her into the snow without warning and immediately demands to know whether she had any prior knowledge of the attack that wiped out his entire command. Mayah denies it and tells him to untie her, but Zevayr refuses.

When Zevayr gets too close, Mayah headbutts him and tries to run. Zevayr hauls her back and pins her to the ground, and Mayah realizes just how alone and vulnerable she is out there with him. That fear is enough to make her agree to answer his questions. Mayah tells him the Rebellion was likely behind the attack but says she genuinely doesn’t know why they protected her when she lost consciousness. Zevayr keeps pressing her on that, and she eventually admits she’s afraid of thunderstorms.

Zevayr backs off, cuts Mayah free, and moves straight into figuring out what they should do next. Suddenly, a loud crack comes from the forest behind Zevayr. Before anything else can happen, Mayah slaps him across the face and warns him never to touch her again. Zevayr steps back without argument, and together they check out the source of the sound.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 7

Mayah and Zevayr make their way through a snow-covered forest in the aftermath of a battle. Zevayr pauses to show her a tree cracked apart from the inside by ice, the unmistakable work of a waterwielder, and suggests Daak may have trailed them. Mayah denies it.

At a clearing, Zevayr hands back Mayah’s bag and tells her to change out of her soaked clothes. She does so reluctantly. 

Once Mayah is dry, she and Zevayr argue over what to do next. Mayah wants to head back to the Tundrayni palace, but Zevayr refuses. He broke the ceasefire, and he knows that showing up at the capital without soldiers is practically a death sentence. When Mayah says she’ll just go alone, Zevayr shuts that down too, pointing out the rebel threat and the political mess it would create if something happened to her.

Zevayr’s solution is for them to travel together to Arbinj, where Mayah is set to marry his brother. She’s horrified since the journey on foot will take well over a month, but she’s out of options. Mayah agrees, and they head out with plans to walk until dark and eventually reach an Arbinji base near the border.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 8

Zevayr calls a halt once it gets too dark to keep moving safely. He puts together a rough camp, and he and Mayah eat. Mayah notices Zevayr repeatedly looking at the bruises on her wrists, and after healing herself, she offers to do the same for him in exchange for a truce. Zevayr agrees.

Mayah heals Zevayr’s face, then pushes her power through his entire body to treat a bad injury on his leg, which leaves her noticeably drained. Zevayr thanks her and tells her to eat and rest while he keeps watch.

Later, Mayah wakes up shivering badly, and when she refuses to move closer to him, Zevayr pulls her over himself and covers them both with his cloak. She’s too exhausted to argue, and she falls asleep against his chest.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 9

Mayah wakes up outside, groggy and disoriented, only to find Zevayr has been up for hours with food already set out for her. She slips into the woods briefly, and when she returns, Zevayr scolds her for being gone so long, citing the danger of rebels in the area.

The two of them push through a snowy forest, and Zevayr eventually notices that Mayah’s hands are raw from the cold. He offers her his gloves, but Mayah refuses, and he makes clear she doesn’t really have a choice. Reluctantly, she takes them. 

That evening, Mayah asks why Zevayr’s brother didn’t come for her himself. Zevayr says it was too risky for the crown prince to travel into hostile territory, then shuts the conversation down and tells her to rest, waving off her offer to take first watch.

Zevayr gives Mayah his cloak to sleep under. She assumes she’ll have it to herself, but he eventually lies down beside her beneath it. The closeness makes Mayah uneasy, and she brings up how his brother might react. Zevayr deflects with a joke, then pulls back and apologizes, reassuring her that nobody will know and that the arrangement is purely practical. Mayah doesn’t sleep for a long time after.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 10

Mayah and Zevayr have been traveling through Tundrayn for several days in near silence while Zevayr erases any sign of their passage to avoid being tracked.

One evening at camp, Mayah makes a cutting remark about Zevayr’s lightning being cruel. Zevayr fires back with a raw account of what waterwielders have done to soldiers on his side and the stark contrast between the resources each army has. The exchange rattles Mayah, and she admits to herself that he has a point.

Later that night, lying beside Zevayr for warmth as they’ve done every night, Mayah asks who he lost in the war. Zevayr tells her about Levaint, his childhood best friend and fellow soldier, who died a prolonged and agonizing death at a waterwielder’s hands. Midway through, Mayah takes his hand, and Zevayr finds the strength to finish the story.

Mayah then opens up about her own loss. Her two closest friends, the twins Sura and Tumaas, were nonwielders sent to the front lines despite her pleas. They survived one of the worst battles of the war, and Sura even wrote to say they might be coming home soon. But the twins were killed before they ever made it back. Mayah and Zevayr sit in shared grief that neither can heal.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 11

Mayah wakes to find Zevayr still asleep beside her, something that has never happened before. She checks him with her healing power but discovers nothing wrong. When Zevayr stirs, the moment feels briefly awkward before they move on.

The hostility between Mayah and Zevayr has started to ease as they travel. Zevayr tells Mayah they’ll reach streams where she can bathe. That night, Mayah quietly heals Zevayr’s sore muscles while he seems to sleep.

The next day, Mayah and Zevayr talk more openly. Zevayr admits that if he weren’t a prince, he’d leave the continent to help people and live without war or responsibility. Mayah shares her dream of ruling Tundrayn and making it safer for wielders and nonwielders alike.

That evening, Zevayr gives Mayah a larger food portion. When Mayah refuses, Zevayr admits he knew she’d been healing them both each night. Mayah apologizes for using her power without permission, and Zevayr tells her she was doing him a kindness. Then they share a rare moment of laughter.

When Zevayr asks whether Mayah is worried about the purity test before her marriage to Faramir, Mayah says she isn’t worried about passing it, only about marrying a man who holds her to a standard he hasn’t kept himself. Zevayr calls the tradition archaic but confirms his brother will still insist on it. The moment between them grows charged before Mayah pulls away, reaffirms her intention to marry Faramir, and retreats to sleep.

Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 12

Mayah and Zevayr are making their way through Arbinj after weeks in the frozen north. Over a camp breakfast, Mayah brings back some wild berries, and Zevayr identifies them as lingonberries. They talk briefly about the foods they miss, but the mood shifts when Zevayr mentions what his brother will want Mayah to eat once they arrive. Zevayr falls silent after the remark.

Later on the road, Mayah trips on a root, and both she and Zevayr fall together. The tumble leaves them tangled up and face to face, and for a moment, neither of them moves. Zevayr snaps them out of it with a joke that lands somewhere between teasing and flirtatious. Mayah pulls away, embarrassed, and they keep moving.

Toward evening, Mayah and Zevayr spot a small cottage through the trees. Zevayr decides they should go around rather than risk it, since Tundraynis aren’t welcome in those parts and Mayah’s distinctive eyes would betray her origins immediately. They turn back the way they came and walk straight into a black bear blocking the path.