Scarred

Written by Emily McIntire, Scarred (2021) is a dark romance and fractured fairy tale that is based on The Lion King. It marks the second installment in the Never After series and delves into the dark and intricate universe of Gloria Terra using dual narrators. Prince Tristan intends to kill his older brother, King Michael, and take the throne, while Sara comes to the capital to get engaged to King Michael and then murder him to avenge her father. As Sara navigates the castle, she discovers an existing rebel plot to overthrow the king and develops a dangerous attraction to Tristan. The novel explores themes of desire, power, and the darker sides of human nature, blending romance and suspense to create a world in which moral boundaries blur amid life-and-death stakes. 

McIntire is a USA Today and Publishers Weekly best-selling author who is known for her expertise in crafting dark romance storylines. In addition to her Never After series, which focuses on creative retellings of dark fairy tales and includes six installments to date, she has also penned the Sugarlake series and coauthored a standalone novel titled Be Still My Heart (2021). 

This guide refers to the 2021 Kindle edition published by Bloom Books.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, sexual violence, physical abuse, pregnancy termination, death by suicide, sexual content, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Scarred is a fractured fairy tale that retells The Lion King, focusing on Prince Tristan, McIntire’s version of Scar (the conniving younger brother who seeks to usurp his older brother’s throne). This retelling alternates between the perspectives of Prince Tristan Faasa and Sara Beatreaux. Prince Tristan is the younger brother of King Michael, and the story opens two years before the primary storyline—just after Tristan and Michael’s father died under suspicious circumstances. Tristan has always hated his older brother, who bullied him relentlessly. Now, Tristan suspects that Michael; their mother, Gertrude; and other loyal followers colluded to kill his father.

Meanwhile, Sara receives word that she must go to the capital to marry King Michael. Her uncle Raf and her cousin Xander arranged the marriage so that Sara can get close to Michael and then murder him and the other Faasas. (This plot is part of the family’s attempt to get revenge on King Michael; Raf claims that Michael hanged Sara’s father for pleading for help on behalf of his suffering city.)

Sara arrives at the capital with her maid and friend, Sheina, and Xander introduces her to King Michael. Sara sees a shadowy figure in the distance: the “scarred prince,” Tristan. When Tristan meets Sara, he perceives a darker side to her, which intrigues him. Suddenly, a poor woman interrupts the gathering and tosses the severed head of a murdered lord named Reginald at King Michael’s feet, telling him that the “rebel king” is coming for him.

Sara had not been expecting a rebellion, and she wonders how this development will affect her own plans to kill Michael. Later, Sara sneaks around the castle and finds Tristan in the servants’ quarters, speaking to a servant. He tells her not to come back to that part of the castle. Tristan finds Sara compelling but does not trust her. He goes to the Elephant Bones Tavern: the place where he foments rebellion as the “rebel king,” although this fact is not yet generally known.

Sara attempts to learn more about the rebels, but Marisol, one of Sara’s ladies-in-waiting, says that speaking of the rebels is forbidden. When Sara explores the kitchen, she meets a cook named Paul. Suddenly, Tristan interrupts, and Sara hears a sound indicating that someone is behind the walls. She then encounters a young boy named Simon, who is in one of the castle’s hidden tunnels. (Simon is later revealed to be Tristan’s nephew and Michael’s son born out of wedlock.)

Later, when Tristan and Sara have an intense conversation in a hallway, a guard sees their intimate stance and grows suspicious. Sara and Tristan share a look, and although Sara knows that Tristan plans to kill the guard to prevent him from spreading rumors, she tacitly gives her approval for this plan by leaving the scene. Privately, she justifies the guard’s death as being for the greater good. Tristan tricks the guard into coming down into the dungeons and kills him.

Tristan has become obsessed with Sara. When Tristan tells his followers at the Elephant Bones Tavern that King Michael will soon be married, the crowd threatens violence, but Tristan orders them never to harm Sara. Meanwhile, King Michael takes Sara into the city of Saxum and proposes marriage publicly. Later, Tristan overhears a conversation between Xander and Michael in which Michael admits to having seen the ghost of his father. Tristan decides to spread the rumor that the king is mentally unstable.

At the Elephant Bones Tavern, Tristan walks in on Edward (a general in King Michael’s military) in bed with Sara’s maid, Sheina. Furious at the intrusion, he threatens Sheina, who promises to help his cause. Later, Tristan and Sara run into each other in the castle’s secret tunnels. 

After Sara has been in the castle for a month, Uncle Raf comes to the castle. Tristan’s mother, Queen Gertrude, summons Sara to her rooms, and Tristan is there. Queen Gertrude is rude to Sara, but when Tristan sees how adeptly Sara deals with his mother, he knows that she would make an ideal queen for him.

At the engagement banquet, Sara sits next to Tristan’s cousin Lord Takan, who is a few steps down the line of succession for the throne. Suddenly, Lord Takan collapses and dies, and Tristan intuits that Sara poisoned him. He admires her cunning. When the banquet begins, Sara dances with several men, and a drunken man named Claudius later follows her to the bathroom and tries to rape her. Tristan sees Sara’s plight, but just as he is about to intervene, she pulls a dagger and puts it to Claudius’s throat. Tristan captures Claudius and tortures him for assaulting Sara.

Xander infuriates Sara when he accuses her of having sex with Claudius. Tristan then dances with her and makes sure that Sara feels protected. He tells her to meet him in the garden later, and once there, he reveals that Michael gave him the scar on his face. Tristan kisses Sara, and he realizes that he will never let her go. The two have an intimate interlude.

Later, Sara is abruptly woken and taken to Michael’s office, where she learns that Xander has been kidnapped. In an open box is Xander’s severed hand. In a private conversation with Sara, Uncle Raf claims that her father was killed by the “rebel king,” not by King Michael.

During an official event, Sara is attacked by rebels, and her guard and friend, Timothy, is killed. Tristan comes to her room to comfort her, and they have sex. He leaves the next morning, and Ophelia, one of her ladies-in-waiting, sees the blood on her sheets but helps Sara hide it. Later that night, Sara secretly follows Sheina and Paul as they head to the Elephant Bones Tavern. There, she sees Tristan addressing the crowd and realizes that he is the rebel king and has kidnapped Xander. Sara feels like a fool who has betrayed her own father.

Tristan sees Sara hiding there but focuses on Xander, who admits that he and Michael killed Tristan’s father with the help of Queen Gertrude. Xander also reveals that Sara was sent to kill both Tristan and Michael. Furious, Tristan burns Xander alive. When Sara and Tristan later meet, Tristan suddenly realizes that he would give up the throne in order to keep Sara in his life. The two have another intimate interlude, and Tristan tells her that he did not kill her father and would never allow anyone to hurt her. He points out that her uncle is manipulating her for his own gain.

Sara continues to pretend to be Michael’s fiancé, and she and Tristan make plans to kill Michael. While Sara drugs Michael, Tristan will rally the rebels and take over the castle. When Sara later tries to drug Michael with laudanum, he forces her to drink it and reveals that Ophelia, his illicit lover, has been spying on her. He binds Sara’s hands and leads her to Tristan, who is being restrained and tortured in the courtyard. Sara succumbs to the laudanum and wakes later in the dungeons, where Marisol—who is revealed to be a rebel spy—frees her. Sara rallies the rebels to storm the castle to rescue Tristan. After meeting with Sara, Tristan rushes away to save Simon, who is in the secret tunnels. Sara gives herself up to Michael and Uncle Raf. 

Three days later, Tristan and the rebels set the city on fire and storm the castle, setting it alight as well. He rescues Sara, who interrogates Raf and learns that he killed her father. Sara kills her uncle. Tristan chases Michael to a cliff. When Michael attempts to strangle Tristan, Sara stabs Michael, killing him. 

Seven years later, King Tristan has a celebration and officially passes the crown to Simon, Michael’s son. Tristan does not need the crown because he has Sara.