Battle Ground Cover Art

[Yuillegan]

If the picture attached is the square you are referring to - I think it is just an ember with an effect on it (like lens flare). Wouldn't over think it.

The staff glow could also be artistic licence, but earlier I did speculate in my OP that it could be that Harry gets access to Hellfire again by learning to "flip" the coin (that is Soulfire/Hellfire). But it could be as mundane as just regular old fire magic.

[Mira]

If the picture attached is the square you are referring to - I think it is just an ember with an effect on it (like lens flare). Wouldn't over think it.

The staff glow could also be artistic licence, but earlier I did speculate in my OP that it could be that Harry gets access to Hellfire again by learning to "flip" the coin (that is Soulfire/Hellfire). But it could be as mundane as just regular old fire magic.

Lens flare, perhaps, but would be a perfect rectangle?  It looks like possibly a patch of some sort, a crude mending of a favorite tee shirt perhaps?  Just a joke, but it could be a new form of a shield since is he up against a more powerful enemy than even he is used to.   He was badly wounded and the patch keeps his insides from falling out while he does battle. 

As to the color of the runes on the staff, they are near the spear blade, I think the glow comes from the power of the spear head as opposed to the power of the staff and is separate from Harry and his power.

[morriswalters]

A book, possibly a diary. 

Artists for hire should be kept on a leash, particularly illustrators. Artistic license isn't an excuse for changing  a story element.

Editors should also earn their money. In their quest to get out covers they have gotten careless. There has never been a overt plot reveal on the cover.  Thank you editors, I remind you though, to take your stupid pills after working hours. When producing two covers at once, remember that while a plot device is revealed in one book, it should not be revealed on the second cover  before the first book hits the shops.

[AClone]

My money is on an ember, but that rectangle is weird.

As to the red glow in the staff, I was reading SG, and the staff glowed green and whatever depending on the magic Harry used. I think it was green and white for force and green and blue for light. Maybe it would be green and red for fire.

I think that the green glow simply has to do with where the staff originated. Harry mentions that the blank was taken from the oldest oak on the island, and before that he comments that the oldest trees on the island are older than Chicago. The intrinsic color of Alfred and the Well are green, so if wood has been marinating in the island’s magic for the better part of two hundred years, I’m pretty sure the green is now the default setting. Just a signature of the island.

When Harry uses some other type of magic, it takes precedence over green.

Just thought of this. If Harry ever had to walk through that big circle again, he could take that staff with him—because it’s “of the island”. Guessing that’s part of the reason he used that one instead of the blank Ebenezar was supposed to send him. Guess he’s smarter than I am!