'Shadow and Bone' season 2 ends in a shocking battle. Here's what it may mean for future seasons.

It seemed likely that Mal was going to bite the bullet at the end of the season.

After finding out Mal was the last amplifier, Alina attempted to find any other method to save his life. However, due to Kirigan's ambush, she was forced to use Mal's life force in order to destroy the Fold.

After the battle, Alina uses merzost, a forbidden dark magic that always has a terrible cost, to bring Mal back to life. Despite Alina saving his life, Mal seems set on finding a life away from his childhood friend.

Mal tells Alina in the finale that he feels weird after being brought back to life, having lost his previous tracking skills. He is unsure what his purpose is after completing his destiny as an amplifier. Alina agrees to let him go and gives him a role as a privateer.

Earlier in the season, Alina and Mal are tricked into boarding Ravkan prince Nikolai's pirate ship while the royal is pretending to be a privateer by the name of Sturmhond. With Nikolai (Patrick Gibson) now needed in Ravka, he allows Mal to take on his mantle and his ship.

Mal leaves Alina and the prince with Nikolai's former crewmates, the twin Grishas, Tamar (Anna Leong Brophy) and Tolya (Lewis Tan) Kir-Bataar, and Alina's friends Inej Ghafa (Amita Suhan) and Nadia Zhabin (Joanna McGibbon). Together, they seem to be taking down slave ships at the end of season two, which is where we will likely find them in season three. 

Perhaps with some time away and independence, Mal may feel able to start up his relationship with Alina again in season three.

Meanwhile, Alina stays back to help rebuild Ravka with Prince Nikolai.

In the finale, she asks her Grisha allies Zoya Nazyalenksy (Sujaya Dasgupta) and Genya Safin (Daisy Head) to help ensure Grisha are being trained and have a sanctuary.

Alina then tells them that she is on a journey to the country Shu Han to build an alliance with Ravka and return a powerful mythical sword to its owner, which Nikolai got his allies to steal in order to destroy Kirigan's unbeatable shadow monsters, Nichevo'ya.

In the final scene of the show, Nikolai's coronation is attacked by a powerful Grisha. Just as it seemed that the Grisha will kill everyone, Alina uses her powers to kill her. However, instead of using her normal sun-summoning powers, her abilities appear shadow-like, just like Kirigan's.

This is likely a result of Alina using merzost to save Mal, potentially turning her into a shadow summoner.

In the book series, during the final fight with Kirigan, Alina actually gives her abilities to every normal person around her, creating a new crew of sun summoners. She then lives out the rest of her days without her powers.

Showrunners Eric Heisserer and Daegan Fryklind told Entertainment Weekly that this new storyline is taken from the section in Leigh Bardugo's "Shadow and Bone" book trilogy where Alina and Kirigan trade abilities due to their connection. However, this time, Kirigan is dead and Alina seems stuck with the shadow abilities.

Halfway through season two, the new king of Ravka and Nikolai's brother, Vasily (Edward Davis), is killed when Kirigan invades Nikolai's base, which is called the Spinning Wheel.

This leaves Nikolai to take the throne at the end of the war with Kirigan. In the season two finale, Nikolai prepares for his coronation after the war. He starts to feel a pain in his shoulder and when he looks in the mirror, he sees Kirigan's Nichevo'ya in the reflection instead of himself.

In the final battle, Nikolai is stabbed by one of the monsters, and these wounds can never be healed. It seems likely that the injury has had a long-term effect on Nikolai.

In the books, Kirigan transforms Nikolai into a monster deliberately using merzost, forcing the prince to seek ways to get rid of the curse.

The "King of Scars" book is likely to be the main story adapted in season three. The book follows Nikolai's mission to break the curse, but the king ends up accidentally resurrecting Kirigan instead.

The subplot in both seasons of "Shadow and Bone" is following a crew of criminals, the Crows, as they pull off increasingly impossible jobs.

The team is made up of Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter), sharpshooter Jesper Fahey (Kit Young), spy Inej (Suman),  demolitions expert Wylan (Jack Wolfe), and Grisha Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan).

In season one, we see the Crows attempt to cross the Fold and kidnap Alina. In season two, they return home and have to fight for their lives against a powerful crime boss, before going to Shu Han to retrieve a mythical sword from a powerful Grisha saint. Finally, they are the last-minute reinforcements that help stop Kirigan and his army.

At the end of the season, Kaz gives Inej information about the slavers who took her from her parents and she leaves the group to pursue the slavers.

In the final moments of the season, Kaz comes to the team with a new mission. An addictive drug has been created called Jurda Parem that can incredibly amplify the powers of Grisha. According to Kaz, the chemist has been captured by the country of Fjerda, and they are currently trying to get the formula out of him.

Book fans will know that this is the main premise of the first Crows book, "Six of Crows," and know the band of rogues have a tough but vital mission ahead of them.

According to the "Shadow and Bone" showrunner Eric Heisserer, the "Six of Crows" storyline will be part of a spinoff series, but it has not been greenlit yet.

He told Entertainment Weekly that the script for the spinoff has been written and will be set at the same time as the season two finale.

"[It] would be its own little season of fun that our characters would get to be a part of," Heisserer said. "But of course, it's about how well season 2 numbers do. And if so, then Daegan and I will continue to carry the mantle of both shows, which is also helpful because we have a lot of mouths to feed."

In season one, Ravkan spy Nina Zenik falls in love with a Drüskelle, a Fjerdan Grisha hunter, called Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman) after they are forced to work together in order to survive a shipwreck.

However, in the season finale, Nina betrays her country and gets Matthias arrested by Kerch traders in order to keep him safe from the Ravkan army. 

In season two, Nina is working to get Matthias pardoned and out of the Ketterdam prison. However, because the Drüskelle thinks he was betrayed, he forms a hatred for Nina and eventually agrees to work for another prisoner, Pekka Rollins (Dean Lennox Kelly).

Pekka betrays Matthias the first chance he gets and attempts to make the Drüskelle kill his people's sacred animal, a wolf. Matthias refuses and instead tries to fight the guards that come in and is locked up again. Pekka also stops Nina from showing her pardon to the authorities, preventing Matthias from being free for good.

In "Six of Crows," the Crows have to break Matthias out of prison so they have an informant who knows about Fjerda's capital in order to kidnap the scientist within it. It seems season three may be going down this route as well.

After the final battle with Kirigan, the victors burn his body on a pyre.

As the heroes watch, there is a moment when a bee lands on Zoya and then flies away. While this moment may seem like a random addition, the "Shadow and Bone" showrunners told Entertainment Weekly that this is a nod to the Grisha saint Sankta Lizabeta of Roses, who can control swarms of bees.

"It is, for the book fans, a very pointed Easter egg that hopefully, they notice and hopefully there's a squeal moment when they see it," Fryklind said.

In the book "King of Scars," Lizabeta offers to help Nikolai and Zoya with his monstrous curse but instead tricks them into resurrecting Kirigan.

In the book, there is also a cult that worships Kirigan as a saint, which seems to be alluded to in the finale when Alina asks to burn the villain's body to avoid "heretics" from turning him into a "martyr's relic."

The ending of season two seems to be a wrap on adapting the "Shadow and Bone" book trilogy, and turning to Leigh Bardugo's other two duologies set in the Grishaverse, "Six of Crows" and "King of Scars."

The first duology, "Six of Crows," has already been partly adapted in the first two seasons with the introduction of the Crows earlier in the timeline compared to the books. Meanwhile, the "King of Scars" focuses on Nikolai and his allies after the war.

Ahead of season one, Heisserer told Insider that he was already considering plans for a fourth season.

"I have lots of ideas," Heisserer said when asked about his future season plans. "Oh boy, I've got a season two plan. I've got a season three plan. I have my eyes on season four. There are definitely lots of plans, but right now it's a lot of wishful thinking because who knows where the show's going to land with the public."

As of now, "Shadow and Bone" is yet to be renewed but it is clear that winning the war against Kirigan does not mean the story is over.

Heisserer told Entertainment Weekly that future seasons will focus on the "King of Scars" duology, and may even expand past the books.

"We did that a little bit with the prequel story for the Crows in season one," he said. "And now we get to do that with some of the 'Shadow and Bone' characters."

"Shadow and Bone" season two is available on Netflix.