Book Review: The Wrath of the Fallen

Title: The Wrath of the Fallen
Author: Amber V. Nicole
Genre: Romance, Romantasy, Monsters and Gods, Fiction

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What It’s About:

An individual shows up to work at the lake where the Moonkrests are, but his boss tells him that the Moonkrests are nowhere to be found. The man looks into the lake, and cannot see them. Once he straightens back up, he finds that his boss is missing, and he has been surrounded by creatures from the Otherworld. They take him to their leader, whom the man recognizes as Umemri, one of the leaders of the Otherworld, who has currently overthrown some of the other ones. Umemri asks him about the murrak, and the man reveals to him that the murrak had been killed by Samkiel and the woman with him. He then takes Umemri to where the villagers buried the body, in hopes that the otherworldly creature would spare him. When Umemri sees the body of the murrak, the man realizes that this creature was loved by Umemri, and unfortunately, he loses his life anyways.

Samkiel has a dream where Nismera holds Dianna close and threatens to kill her if he doesn’t give up the fight and the crown. He pulls out Oblivion, out of fear of losing Dianna for good to Nismera. Suddenly, he is wakened by Dianna and realizes that he has pulled Oblivion out in the castle as well, destroying the room. He admits to her that he doesn’t know how to control it, via their bond, and she realizes that the cause of the lack of control is the nightmares, when he shares it with her. She uses the same soothing techniques as she did back on Onuna when Samkiel had those nightmares. Once things settle down, they are interrupted by Cameron, who had woken up due to the winds and tornadoes. He thinks that it’s just them having sex, and tells them to quiet it down and clean it up. Samkiel tells Dianna not to tell Cameron anything or to tell anyone anything. The town outside of their castle is quiet, but it has grown as refugees flee planets from Nismera’s cruelty and dominion.

Samkiel and Dianna visit a planet full of water, to meet with its Lord and potentially get allies; however, the Lord that Samkiel was certain had been in charged passed several turns ago, and in his stead, his son, Lord Iver, rules. They are welcomed and have lunch with him, though Samkiel doesn’t touch his food as he and Dianna agreed that after he was poisoned, he wouldn’t eat any other food but that which is prepared by her. Dianna watches with disgust as Lord Iver quietly tells his wife off to take the child away from the table because it is making too much noise. She suspects that the toddler is not his based on her coloring, while Lord Iver makes a comment about his wife. At some point, he also makes a negative comment about Dianna, which has the whole table laughing or giggling, but Samkiel is not having any of it, so he tells the man to apologize to Dianna. Lord Iver tells them that he will not be supporting them as he has already promised himself to Nismera. So Samkiel and Dianna leave to go back to the castle.

They find Cameron there, who tells them that he has been working on the village outside of the castle with some of the other refugees because they want to make themselves useful and show that they deserve to be there. Samkiel is a bit dejected about everything that has happened—they’ve traveled to several realms, but they were either outright ignored, rejected or ultimately told that the rulers of those realms are already pledged to Nismera as the ruler. It was something Lord Iver said—that though they had been pledged to Unir and Unir’ s house, Nismera is also his child so she’s got the rights to the crown. Cameron is dejected as well as he has not been able to find Xavier, and no one knows where he might be, so he has thrown himself into helping out the town and the people. He leaves after eating, telling them that they’re free to have sex around the house, but asks them to not do it for three days straight. They do have sex, and later on, Samkiel visits Isaiah.

Isaiah has been chained up and bled out in the basement of the castle. He keeps thinking about Imogen and is not sure why but he can’t stop thinking about her. Samkiel visits him and gives Isaiah blood from an animal that he did not kill at all. Samkiel tells him that and tries to get Isaiah to tell him more about Nismera, but Isaiah refuses to tell Samkiel anything beyond the fact that Samkiel will not win because he is unable or unwilling to kill.

Nismera is at a town where over 15,000 people live, and she has given the order to kill every single one of them. She explains to her commander, whom she replaced after Vincent’s betrayal, that she is doing this in order to draw Death out, as Death will come when there is a sudden mass loss to help move those souls as his ferry men are not able to do it. He indeed shows up and they exchange words, with her demanding to know why he saved Samkiel. Death doesn’t tell her anything beyond telling her that she will be stopped. Nismera gets angry and tells him that she will find a way to kill him for all of this.

Vincent, Camilla, and Elianna had stowed away on a cargo ship as some of the crew. Camilla had been using her magic to change them into the crew members, and also to mask what they were talking about while around other crew members. It’s very obvious that Elianna is not used to hard work beyond the council work that she has done. When they’re in the quiet of the spaces that they carved out as their living quarters, Elianna reveals that her father had been part of The Order, and taught her everything about being in the council, so when Rashearim fell, and the old Council with it, it was easy for her to set up herself to be in charge of it, and to put people in place loyal to the Order. Elianna also reveals that she loved Kaden and cared about him, wanted to make sure that he was okay, but now he’s dead. She tells them that they were supposed to kill Ayla (Dianna’s given name) upon finding her but Drake had come with the sister and Kaden could not kill her because he saw himself in Dianna, as he would have done the same for Isaiah. Camilla realizes that Nismera’s request to kill Gabby was a way to test Kaden to see if he would follow orders and to see if he still had a soft spot for Isaiah. That night, Camilla dreams and is beckoned by a witch in her dreams to see what the medallion that she had stolen, does. She does, but her power goes haywire at the Witch’s touch and demand to destroy the medallion. She is awakened by Vincent, while they are floating away from the ship, and realizes that their cover is now blown.

Kaden has been lurking on planets, searching for Isaiah, while hidden because he wants to find Isaiah first before making his presence known. Death mocks him in Dianna’s body, and Kaden hides out in a caved in house, trying to get away from Death, who also changes into Samkiel. Death pushes and prods, pointing out that Kaden has always wanted family, something that he was denied as a kid when Unir locked him and Isaiah in Yejedin. Death implies that he should figure out his situation with Samkiel and have that family, but Kaden is so furious at Samkiel for what he could have done to Isaiah, that he wants to kill him. Death tells him that he needs his help to keep Isaiah alive as he needs him for what comes next. Kaden replies that he doesn’t know where Isaiah is, to which Death tells him that he does.

Dianna is asleep and once more has the same dream involving a man with orange eyes sitting on a throne made of bones. She makes her way up to a chalice and says ew, which prompts the man to tell her that she is strange as many people have been searching for this chalice to drink from it, yet she rejects it. He reveals that he is Gathrriel, and that he hasn’t been able to enter her body as something has been blocking him while she sleeps. But tonight, that thing is not blocking him at all, so he takes over her body. Dianna tries to fight, but she is locked inside, and forced to watch as he uses her body to leave the castle, changes it into a large form, and makes his way towards the village. He talks about drinking blood to seal himself in her and get revenge, which terrifies her. Suddenly Roccurem shows up and tells Gathrriel that he has no business being there. Roccurem not only delays Gathrriel’s movement, but antagonizes him by mentioning Vvivie and Dhishin, causing Gathrriel to use fire and send a beacon for Samkiel. When Samkiel shows up, Gathrriel flees from Dianna’s body.

They return to the castle, and Dianna tells Roccurem, Samkiel and Cameron what occurred, and the four of them discuss the situation. THey’re confused because it seems like the legend of Gathrriel and Vvivie is not accurate based on Gathrriel’s own words, and they wonder how it was changed and whose agenda did this change fit. Samkiel and Dianna make a decision that they will need to go to the Otherworld with Roccurrem to see if they can learn more information and they will need to train Cameron to be able to fly in his Ig’ Morruthen form and defend the city just in case. Once everyone is gone, they have sex. Some time later, Miska and Dianna are running, when they go check on Cameron’s progress. Miska had asked about defense, so Dianna, Samkiel, and Cameron teach Miska moves on how to defend themselves.

Xavier, on the other hand, is extremely grateful that he has been saved by Kyrella, Athos and their members of the Eye. He has been recovering under a different god, Blayne, who checks on him when Xavier has a nightmare. Xavier meets up with some of his new friends but worries about Cameron and wonders what is going on with him; where he might be. He gets asked by Blayne to join him, and follows Blayne out to the council meeting with the other gods, like Kyrella and Athos. He recognizes where he is when he sees the view—the original planet of the Gods, which everyone had thought decimated. Blayne explains that the city was rebuilt over time. During the council meeting, Kyrella shows Dianna in her Ig’Morruthen form fighting with Isaiah and Kaden, as they try to figure out what is happening. The Gods and Goddesses talk at once, and Xavier tells them all that Samkiel loves Dianna. One of the Goddesses dismisses him, based on Samkiel’s previous trysts, but Xavier tells them that it’s not the same. This worries the Gods and Goddesses, because Ig’ Morruthens have been their enemies for eons and if Samkiel is aligned with one, he might not be on the Eye’s side. They ultimately decide that they want to learn more about Samkiel and his connection to the Ig’ Morruthen before they decide to kill it and end it so that they have a chance to win against Nismera.

Cameron and Miska hang out together while Dianna, Samkiel and Roccurrem are out searching for Otherworldly creatures to figure out how to get to the otherworld. They go down to visit Logan and Nismera, who are in their own cell-like homes, per Dianna’s request, and Cameron tells Miska how he met Dianna. He cannot stop thinking about how Xavier saved him by jumping after him when Dianna gutted him and threw him over the balcony. He tells Miska about Dianna suffering a huge loss-Gabby—as a result of one man, and Miska worries that it’s Isaiah, but Cameron tells her that it is not, assuring her that Kaden is dead. After they finish playing the game, they head back up to the castle, but the lights do not turn on and the space is cold. Cameron lights a fire for Miska, and then checks the castle but is not able to find anything amiss. He returns to Miska and stills, when he realizes that Kaden is holding onto her. Kaden tells him that it seems that one Jade City healer is left alive, and Nismera will be happy about it. Cameron realizes that he cannot do anything to save Miska without jeopardizing her, so he needs to be strategic, but before he can do anything, Isaiah comes from out of the shadows, biting him and draining him dry of his own blood, having been starved by Samkiel.

Dianna and Samkiel have no luck in finding information on the Otherworld and how to get there, but in the process, they do kill an otherworldly creature that has been plaguing a nearby village. They return to the village with the head of the creature, and the villagers give Samkiel money, but Samkiel doesn’t accept it. Dianna sees that the villagers look like they are in dire straits, abandoned and ignored by Nismera and her soldiers. It makes her furious, but she asks them if they would have some fun, with music and food, as it seems like they need that. So Dianna and Samkiel go to the tavern as well, once Roccurrem tells Samkiel that he should know better than most how short the peace is during a war. Samkiel agrees, and they have fun at the Tavern, with Samkiel dancing with Dianna and also singing. Eventually, they make it to their room and are having sex on the ceiling of their room, using Samkiel’s magic to keep him to the ceiling, while he holds onto Dianna. Just as Dianna is about to come, she calls out Cameron’s name, which makes Samkiel fall down from the ceiling, though he protects her from being crushed by him. Cameron is leaning against the door of their room, and tells them that it’s not the worst thing that he has seen them do.

Cameron is feeding on a woman, while Dianna watches and Samkiel is furious. Dianna and Samkiel get into a mental fight about her calling out Cameron’s name while coming, and she thinks that Samkiel is ridiculous about this as Cameron was hurt. They have to fight Cameron off of the woman in order for him to not drain the woman of her blood, and Samkiel heals her before sending her through the portal to their home, where people are awaiting to help these villagers start anew with more care. Samkiel and Dianna then tell Cameron and Roccurrem that they will go hunting Kaden and Isaiah to get Miska before she gets to Nismera. They start searching across worlds, leaving their initial plan to check the other places haunted by Otherworldly creatures for summoning spells, but are not able to find the three they seek, though they offer many people refuge on their planet.

During one visit to a planet, where they find war camps, they manage to kill everyone there, but then the general reveals that the Armada is coming. One of the warships arrives with a sonic weapon that incapacitates them, but Dianna uses Gathrriel’s strength to break it, and destroy the ship. Then, Samkiel takes Dianna and Cameron out of the space at a very fast flight, before two other ships arrive, and both Cameron and Samkiel are white in the face when they see Mailani, the Queen of this planet. At another point during the search, they sleep in a cave, while Cameron paces in the cave, and Roccurrem goes to meet with Death, and they talk a bit. Death tells him that Kaden and Isaiah need to reconcile with Samkiel or else they are damned and will lose the war. Roccurrem is shocked and asks what Death had done, but Death doesn’t tell him anything else before disappearing.

Vincent, Camilla and Elianna are almost caught when the Armada shows up one night while Vincent is on watch. Camilla had come up to him with food and they talk, with Vincent telling her that he will give himself up if only to give her a chance to get away. When they see the Armada show up in the sky, they go into the room, wake Elianna and then Vincent goes out the window, while Camilla pushes Elianna out as well, knowing that they are running out of time. She barely manages to shut the window behind Elianna and cloak herself from the soldiers, when they arrive into the room, and wreck it apart looking for anything that they could have left behind. Once they leave, Camilla gets pulled out of the room by Vincent, and they make their way down into the sewers, where Elianna proposes that they ditch the medallion that Camilla had fixed. Camilla tells Elianna that while she may be a coward, Camilla will not be one, because if she will get killed regardless, she would rather die doing the right thing.

Miska had been taken to Nismera’s castle, where she gets cleaned, and placed into a dress before she gets brought to Nismera. Nismera speaks with her and Miska doesn’t trust her based on anything Dianna told her about Nismera. At first, Miska refuses to help Nismera do any of her poisons that she needs the Jade City healer for, and Nismera hits her so hard that Miska bruises up. Then Mailani comes in with information on Vincent and Camilla, telling Nismera that they had been seen in one of the cities. Nismera is extremely happy about it and as Miska watches them, she decides to do what Dianna had taught her to do: lie. She agrees to help Nismera by telling her that she had changed her mind.

Kaden keeps hearing someone crying and when he awakes, Death has come to visit in the shape of Dianna. They talk again, and then Kaden goes downstairs to figure out what the crying is about, where he finds Miska crying and in pain. He sees the swelling and asks her about it, to which she tells him that it was Nismera that did it. At first, he doesn’t believe it because Nismera has never done this to children, but he helps her regardless, giving her some of his blood that will help her heal. She thanks him for it and asks him why he would want to help her.

Days go by, and Kaden continues to be distracted during meetings. He also dreams of Zasyn in his sleep, along with Nismera telling him how Zasyn doesn’t mean what she says about Kaden and Isaiah being her children as they were made, not born. Even when Isaiah visits him to tell him where Imogen is, he is distant. After another meeting, Kaden leaves, running out of the meeting, when he sees Death in the shape of a midnight black bird. Later, Isaiah visits him, and Kaden snaps at him after watching Death in the form of an older woman in his room. Kaden points out Death but Isaiah doesn’t see it, so he finally breaks and says that he will go figure out just what Death wants. Together, the two of them follow Death to a subterranean level, where Kaden kills the guards, and they find a statue of Nydjmir, one of the Primordials. When they check the area, they find nothing, but they both think that it is weird that Nismera has a statue to the primordial as she is not particular about lovers. Kaden and Isaiah then separate into the two different hallways, and Kaden finds Nismera’s sleeping quarters. He tears it apart, and finds love letters between Nismera and Nydjmir. He also finds a decree from his father, Unir, from 47 DU, which was the date that he and Isaiah were locked into Yejedin by Unir. In the Decree, Unir leaves the ruling to Athos, a different God, and Kaden realizes that Unir wasn’t even around to lock them both in Yejedin. Nismera walks in on him holding the decree and he asks her about it. She tells him that the decree had never made it to the council.

Nismera then reveals that she is glad he found it because it means that she can stop pretending. She never cared for him or Isaiah, as they were only meant to be used as weapons, but now she is done with them. She fights with Kaden and stabs him through the midsection, at which point Isaiah enters and tries to understand what is going on. Nismera is furious because Kaden is death touched, and all she needed was his blood for the medallion, which he had refused to give to her. She tells Isaiah that she’s killing Kaden because she’s done with pretending, and that Isaiah will be next as well. She plans to hang them in front of their legions as Traitors. The two brothers fight Nismera, but she manages to escape when she calls in the guards. They run out of her rooms, turn into Ig’ Morruthens and fly in pursuit of her. They do manage to kill a lot of the Ryphors, and follow her into the forest, where Kaden crashes due to blood loss, and Isaiah follows behind.

Miska had been creating the poisons requested by Nismera, but had rendered them useless by missing or mixing other ingredients than they required. She also had been collecting samples of plants and cataloguing them in her journal. There is a big shake in the castle, and the guards come to get her to her room. As they are walking, she uses the dagger that she has hidden, to stab one through the shoes, and then another through the eyeballs. She runs to her room, grabs her samples, and then uses the cloth that she had hidden away to make a rope out of her window, to leave the castle. She makes it into the forest and to a cliff, running away from another guard who had tried to pursue her, when she sees the Ig’Morruthens crash. At first, she decides that she doesn’t want to help them because of what they had done to her, but then a midnight black bird becomes insistent on her going back to them and helping them, so she does as her mother taught her—to help and heal others no matter what side they are on.

Kaden awakens at some point and sees a woman, who he thinks is Zasyn, before he falls to sleep again. The next time he wakens, he sees Isaiah on the other side and the woman taking care of the fire. Once Isaiah’s chest moves, Kaden falls unconscious once again.

Dianna is accosted by Unir’s ghost form, while they are in a room. Samkiel comes running up, while Unir tells her that he needs to get to Gathrriel, and then tells her that his son is getting in the way. Unir gets her wedding ring off, throwing it on the floor in front of Samkiel, before taking her to a different planet, away from Samkiel. Dianna is forced to the back of her body, and Gathrriel turns into his Ig’ Morruthen form upon seeing Unir’s form. He thrashes the whole town, setting it on fire, and there are bodies that are kind of moving like shadows, which then subdue him, while he is angry that he’s not able to eat anyone. When Dianna comes to, Gathrriel is still in charge, and he manages to get out of the chains holding him, grabbing the lady that had stolen the sword while they were searching for the Murrak at that showing. Dianna recognizes her as Faye, and when Gathrriel tries to kill her, she begs him not to. Gathrriel falls to the back of her mind, and she is now in control of her body. She throws Faye in front of the man, who is her brother, and tells him to get them both out before Gathrriel comes back. Then Dianna leaves, and finds herself with Unir again, who comments that he had expected Gathrriel to be in charge of her body. She starts to feel nauseous and asks Unir what he had done to her, to which he responds that he had the siblings feed her. Dianna is furious because that means that Gathrriel is now sealed into her body, taking over her body. Unir promises her that he will get him out, but that he needs Gathrriel to kill Nismera as he is the only one. Suddenly, Gathrriel takes over Dianna’s body, pushing her out, and before he can do anything to Unir, Unir gets captured by lights underneath his feet and disappears into the ground.

Samkiel, Cameron and Roccurrem are on the world that Gathrriel had destroyed, and he tells them to go through the portal to Whitcliff, with the intention to follow behind them. Roccurrem tells him that Dianna should theoretically be able to burn Gathrriel out of her system, as she is born of light because of her mother. He tells Samkiel that her light is hotter than Gathrriel’s fire. Before Samkiel is able to follow behind Cameron and Roccurrem to Whitcliff, Gathrriel shows up. Samkiel fights with Gathrriel by avoiding his attacks, though he gets hit multiple times by Gathrriel, getting his armor dented. Samkiel realizes that Dianna is there and putting up a fight, when Gathrriel loses control of his leg or arm during the fight, and continues to do what he can to avoid getting hit by Gathrriel while giving Dianna a chance to gain a foothold. He is not willing or able to harm Dianna in any way though she is now wearing Gathrriel’s form. Ultimately, Dianna burns Gathrriel from the inside out, using her light and fire, by remembering learning about viruses with Gabby and thinking about him as a virus. Samkiel takes her to Whitcliff with him.

Kaden and Isaiah had woken up and gotten into an argument with each other about Nismera while Miska was out collecting more herbs for her healing tonics. She overhears their argument, and then helps them with the salves to heal. When they have healed up enough, they head out of their spot, with the two brothers barely talking to each other or if they do, they bicker. Miska tries to talk to them, but they ignore her until she falls down and bleeds. Both Isaiah and Kaden focus on her and Isaiah makes the move towards her to drink from her but Kaden cuts him off, and helps her recover before taking her bag. He tells Miska that they will sell her when they get to whatever destination they are going, and that they will use the money to get as far away from this place as possible, and start over again. They come up to the docks, and then Isaiah and Kaden turn into some of the dockworkers/ crew members that they had seen, and with Miska, they sneak onboard, with a destination of Whitcliff.

In Whitcliff, Samkiel and Dianna stay in bed to heal after having been fussed over by Cameron and Roccurrem. At night, Dianna dreams of Gathrriel again, but he is now dissipating—dying in full. He tells her to find his home and drink from the Chalice that she has seen in her dreams, in order to learn the truth about his relationship with Vvive and their son, Dhishin. Then he disappears, the darkness disintegrating and wafting off of him. When Dianna wakes, she shares that information with Samkiel but they choose not to pursue Gathrriel’s story until they find Miska. Samkiel then takes her to breakfast, and en route, Dianna feels a shudder, like someone is there, but she’s not able to tell who is looking at them. This puts Samkiel on high alert, and when they both arrive at the breakfast place, they see Miska, who comes running towards Dianna. They check in on her to make sure that she is fine, and when Kaden and Isaiah show up after having fed on someone, Samkiel uses his magic to kick Miska out of the breakfast place and get her to safety. A fight ensues, and Samkiel manages to stab Kaden with an Oblivion dagger. Then Isaiah staggers and turns to dust while running towards Samkiel to attack him, though Dianna had done nothing to him, and lastly Dianna herself disintegrates to dust. Samkiel is in great pain at the loss of his amata, when Death shows up. They talk, and Death tells Samkiel that he needs the three of them to work together for what is coming, in order to beat Nismera. As a result, he has now tied Kaden’s and Isaiah’s life to Dianna’s so that if Samkiel kills either one of them, he also kills Dianna. Death tells that once they complete his request, he will remove the death bond from the three, and Samkiel has no choice but to agree. Death brings back the three of them, and tells them that they need to find a witch with a medallion who is being protected and hidden by another being. He reminds them that they are connected and when one dies, so do the others. Back at their home planet, Samkiel and Dianna have sex, and later that night Dianna spends time with Miska, who wants her to stay the night with her after being so alone.

The next day, the planning begins, though Samkiel, Kaden and Isaiah are not on good terms. They know that they have to go to the Otherworld, as that is what Death told them to do. So the three brothers and Dianna leave, leaving Cameron and Roccurrem in charge while also looking over Miska. They hike quite a bit through a forest, and Dianna hears voices telling her to jump. Samkiel comes up to her and walks her forward. They spend the night camping, with the three brothers trading barbs, but what shocks them the most is that Dianna, Kaden and Isaiah also now can hear each other’s thoughts. This pisses Samkiel off, and he tells Kaden that he will wall himself off from Dianna. Later that night, Kaden and Isaiah talk, with Kaden revealing that he is not himself after being brought back to life by Death; that things that mattered before no longer do. Ultimately, he asks Isaiah to trust him about the plan they will carry out. The following morning the four of them head out, but Isaiah snaps Samkiel’s neck before he has a chance to respond, while Dianna watches though at the same time she is knocked out by Kaden.

When Dianna comes to, she finds herself listening to Kaden speak to one of the princes of the Otherworld,Eryx. Kaden apparently has a relationship with him, and Eryx is indebted to him. She speaks to Eryx with some sass, and Eryx offers her to become his fourth wife, but she declines. Eryx reveals that there are only three Princes of the Otherworld now, and that they remaining had been killed. He also tells them that Umemri is the King of the Otherworld. By this point, Samkiel is listening in through Dianna’s bond with him.

But during the same time before he joined, Samkiel had come to, only to have his next snapped again by Isaiah, and then getting into a fight with him. The two squabbled as Samkiel will do anything to save and protect Dianna, though he tells Isaiah that he will not understand since he doesn’t know what love is. Isaiah is hurt by this but he points out that if Samkiel goes to the Otherworld, where he is hated, he will start a war that he has no chance to win with just the four of them. Samkiel realizes that he’s right, and Isaiah gives Samkiel his rings back, telling him to check in with Dianna through the bond, which is exactly what Samkiel does.

Eryx takes Kaden and Dianna hostage with his skeletons, having them walk to a bigger room opened around a volcano. There they meet the remaining two princes of the Otherworld, and the King, Umemri. Umemri has Eryx bring in Isaiah and Samkiel, and Dianna realizes that though Samkiel had cleaned them up, there was a fight. Samkiel and Umemri trade barbs with each other, and Dianna realizes that the murrak that they had killed had been Umemri’s wife. They continue trading barbs, with both Isaiah and Kaden standing up with Samkiel as brothers, for he had come in calling them his brothers, which had an impact on both of them. Dianna notices that they are in the same line, protecting her too. Eventually, Umemri has them kicked out of the Otherworld, warning them not to return as they are not welcome, so Eryx takes them topside, and tells them that they are essentially looking for Camilla and Vincent, and they will be in this other city.

The four of them head to the other city, and Camilla, Vincent and Elianna are walking around it, with Elianna complaining that she needs to pee. She walks off, and when she comes back, Camilla and Vincent are kissing. Suddenly, Elianna’s heart is ripped out of her chest by Dianna, and a fight breaks out between Camilla, Vincent and Dianna, with the two protecting each other from Dianna as Dianna wants to kill Vincent for his betrayal and Camilla is unwilling to let that happen. Samkiel, Isaiah and Kaden join the fight, asking Camilla to hand over the medallion, but she refuses because they are not willing to leave Vincent alone. Suddenly, the armada arrives, and Dianna tells Kade and Isaiah to scour the outer walls for Camilla and Vincent, while they make their way through the crowd. The crowd parts for them when the beings from the ship tell them that they are looking for them, and a fight begins between them.

Kaden and Isaiah had been making their way around the city looking for Camilla and Vincent, when Isaiah realizes that Milani’s ship is there, which means that Imogen is there too, and he had been looking for her. Kaden ultimately agrees to help him get Imogen out of the ship, and the two of them make it on the ship, where Isaiah focuses on her, and finds her through his connection to her. They leave the ship, and Kaden watches as Samkiel is kidnapped by Ennis and some of his men to the ship, while Dianna goes flying after them to save Samkiel, only to get horribly hurt. He dives to save her in his Ig’morruthen form, and when they turn to their mortal forms, he would do anything to help her get back to Samkiel, disregarding Isaiah’s offer that they kidnap her and disappear. He returns them to Samkiel’s castle.

Vincent and Camilla had escaped Dianna, Samkiel, Kaden and Isaiah, only to be cut off by Milani’s soldiers. The two fight them, until Vincent is captured at knifepoint, and then Camilla throws the medallion as far away from them as possible in exchange for their life. They keep running, though they falter, when they are stopped by shadows, who are none other than Faye and her brother. She tells them that she wants them to get her close to Dianna, and offers them a safe haven.

Xavier gets called to the council, where Kyrella, Athos and some of the other gods, including Blayne show him the truth—Cameron had been lying to him all this time, and that Cameron had become an Ig’Morruthen. This breaks Xavier’s heart because he realizes that his relationship with Cameron was based on a lie. He tells that to Jaycee, who had found him crying behind a column, and took him to her room to speak with him. He has a hard time believing that Samkiel would align himself with Kaden and Isaiah for what they had done, and had told everyone that there must be a reason for it, but none of the Gods wanted to listen to him.

Dianna wakes up and remembers what has happened to her, so she goes chasing through the castle, hoping that it was just a bad dream, only to find Isaiah, Kaden, Cameron and Roccurrem talking. She wants to go after Milani’s armada, and starts pulling things out, while Kaden stops her, throwing Gabby in her face and how easy Dianna was to control because of her feelings. Ultimately, Dianna agrees to come up with a plan, and the group of them plot and plan until they come up with one that would work. Roccurrem even approves of it, and they then set it in motion. Cameron keeps calling her by her title, reminding Kaden and Isaiah of her standing, which annoys Dianna. They go to carry out their plan.

Samkiel wakes up and finds that he has been incapacitated with a collar that gives off an electric shock by Ennis. He spends a couple of days dealing with Milani, who wants him to have sex with her, and ignores the fact that he is married to Dianna. She’s unhappy with the fact that he will not do anything with her and that he keeps reminding her that he belongs to Dianna. When they are having dinner, Samkiel feels Dianna show up, and ignores Milani, who gets mad at him, so she has him escorted by guards. The third guard grabs him by the elbow and escorts him to his room, where the guard turns into Dianna. At first, she is mad because she feels Milani’s intention towards him but they talk through it and he promises her again that he always loves her. So then Dianna tells him the plan, and he agrees to do it. The next day, Milani calls for him to meet with her in order to talk about peace, and he knows something is up because she didn’t change her mind that quickly as he knows her well. At some point during their conversation, she stabs him with the dagger that Kaden had tried to use on Dianna to make her forget Samkiel. He feels the magic coursing through him to destroy the memories of her.

Dianna meets with Cameron, lays out the plan and then they head their separate ways. She turns into a mouse and goes up a vent, moving around the ship until she gets into the control room, where she pushes a few buttons and looks at videos. Samkiel shows up and she gets confused when he doesn’t look at her the same way, until Milani shows up and tells her that her boyfriend is gone. Dianna gets incapacitated and when she wakes up, she is bound to a chair with silk ties and a collar around her neck that shocks her at Ennis’s push of a button. Milani sits on Samkiel’s lap, feeding him fruits, and almost grinding against him, kissing him which he reciprocates, while Dianna seethes with the jealousy rising up in her. But she baits Milani into revealing a lot of information, and then suddenly both she and Samkiel break out of their bonds, which surprises Milani, who tries to call him back like a dog. Dianna reveals that she had sabotaged the ship, incapacitated the soldiers, and then sets both Milani and Ennis on fire.

Samkiel and Dianna later fight off the remaining soldiers in the ships while Kaden, Isaiah and Cameron kill as much of the armada as possible. They want to completely incapacitate it to the extent they can, but Dianna admits to Samkiel that she is a lot like Kaden, because she used him against his will. Samkiel rejects that notion, reminding her that he had agreed to it and there was nothing that the dagger could have done to make him forget about her because she is his soul. That heals her somewhat, but once Dianna turns into an Ig’Morruthen to help destroy the ships, Samkiel seeks out Kaden and the two of them have a fight in the middle of the battle, with Samkiel ripping Kaden’s tongue out for what Kaden had said about Gabby to Dianna. Ultimately, through the argument, they come to an understanding, as Samkiel doesn’t want to kill Kaden because he understands his fascination with Dianna. They return home.

Nismera learns that Dianna, Samkiel, Kaden and Isaiah, as well as the fourth Ig’ Morruthen had destroyed Milani’s armada, and that Milani and Ennis are in a coma. If they even come out of it, they will need time to heal anyways due to the severe nature of the burns. The council tells her that she has about 30% of the armada left, and then they tell her that if the Eye aligns itself with Dianna they will lose the remaining realms, thereby the war. This infuriates her, as Ayla (Dianna’s given name) is the one that was supposed to have been dead, and yet somehow Dianna is destroying all that Nismera has worked for. Later that evening, she’s drinking wine, throwing it on the statue of the primordial that she has, talking to him, when Blayne arrives. He apologizes to her for being late, and listens out all of her frustrations, before telling her that he hasn’t made any progress with Xavier. Blayne also tells her that she will win somehow, as it is written in the stars. He revealed that he received word from Umemri that Samkiel wields Oblivion, and Nismera realizes a way that she can beat him. Then they have sex.

Dianna, Samkiel, Roccurrem, Cameron, and Miska have a day out on the beach, having fun, while Kaden and Isaiah had convinced Samkiel and Dianna to go meet with the Queen of the Assassins. They do meet with her, asking for the Queen of the Assassins to align herself with Samkiel, but she surprises them and tells them that she already has pledged herself to none other than Dianna. The two of them return to the rest of the group and talk. Dianna is surprised, though she had tried to find a way into Nismera’s castle in order to get the medallion with the help of the Assassins, but chose to ask them to help her find Gathrriel’s home. So Dianna, Samkiel and Roccurrem travel to the planet, and they leave Roccurrem behind at a tent, while they head up together. When they find one of the stones, they have no idea what to do with it until a creature attacks it, and they spill its blood, which sinks into the stone and opens up a door to Gathrriel’s place. Dianna and Samkiel make their way through to a room that has three entrances, and Dianna tells Samkiel that in her dreams, this is where the throne would be. She tells him that maybe it’s going to keep giving them maze like options unless she goes on her own, and while Samkiel doesn’t like it, he lets her go down the path she chooses.

As soon as Dianna goes down the path, the entrances disappear, becoming a wall, which makes Samkiel nervous. He speaks to her with the bond, and tells her that he is working on opening up the passage to make his way to her. Dianna goes further down until she reaches the throne room, and finds the chalice. She drinks the blood of Gathrriel, and has flashes of his memory, showing her how Vvive came to be in his life, how she fell in love with him, how she gave her life for him, hence the mark of the amatas, and then how she was actually stolen from him while pregnant with their child. Dianna sees Gathrriel make his way to the palace of the gods, where he finds Vvive dead, after an attack on her, while protecting their unborn child. He returns to his palace and destroys it, with the intention to go after the gods who killed her. He curses the place, which puts him in that limbo where he’s neither dead nor alive, and then Dianna watches as Unir shows up in Gathrriel’s place with a baby with silver hair, that she presumes is Nismera.

When the visions stop, Dianna knows that she has to find Samkiel, and he just so happens to come around the corner. She kisses him and realizes that it’s not him, only to find Nismera wearing his form, and Nismera stabs her with a dagger. They continue to fight, and Dianna manages to get away but runs into Umemri, who grabs her with his tentacles and places her back in front of Nismera, who in turn knocks her out.

Samkiel had been working on the wall when Umemri had shown up, and a fight started during which he had cut off Umemri’s tentacle, before being thrown against the ceiling. During the fight, Umemri brings down the mountain on top of him, and when Samkiel is able to clear his vision, he sees Nismera. He gets out and realizes that Nismera has both Dianna and Roccurrem.

Dianna comes to inside Nismera’s palace, where she gets beaten, broken and cut up, but she refuses to break. Then she gets thrown into a dungeon with Roccurrem and two other fates. He sees her and tells her that he’s fine but she doesn’t seem to be, and then asks after the ring. She tells him that she has it but that she had to swallow it so it wouldn’t be stolen from her, before forcing her body to vomit it back out. Dianna puts it back on, communicates briefly with Samkiel to tell him that she is fine, and that she has a plan, but that he should not come after her, before she takes off the ring and hides it under some stone, making sure that it doesn’t look out of place. Unir shows up and tells her that it seems like the bond through the ring works all this distance anyway, and she realizes that Unir wasn’t stolen by Death, he was kidnapped by Nismera.

During this time frame, Vincent and Camilla had grown closer, and then during a conversation with Faye, she revealed that she will give them up to Dianna along with Elianna’s Journal. Xavier is on Arcelia when Nismera’s armada shows up. He is called to the council meeting to protect Blayne, and the council allows for NIsmera to speak to them, as Athos wants to hear what Nismera wants to say. She speaks to the Gods about Samkiel and the Ig’ Morruthens, confirming to Xavier that what Blayne had said about Cameron becoming one is true. She continues telling them that she wants them to come to an accord of peace, and having The Eye behind her because Samkiel is a threat to them all. Xavier realizes fairly quickly that only one God speaks out against Nismera, while the others stay silent because of all the what ifs, and that Nismera has thrown in the doubt against Samkiel, so now they will not even listen him out. What is more, he realizes that if Samkiel uses Oblivion, even to defend, he will be seen as guilty in front of all of the Gods.

Samkiel, Kaden, Isaiah, and Cameron are working on a plan when the Assassins show up, bringing Vincent and Camilla with them. He is furious with Vincent, and threatens his life along with Camillas, but ends up not killing either one of them. He has everyone bow and swear fealty to Dianna, something that he hadn’t ever done before, but they all do it anyway, so he leaves them be. Faye tells him that they now know where Nismera’s palace is because they received an invitation to see Nismera kill Dianna.

In the meantime, Dianna survives another beating by Nismera’s guards, and when they leave, she turns on Unir for how he had treated his children. Unir doesn’t like it but he admits that Nismera was created to be a weapon. Dianna pushes him about abandoning Kaden and Isaiah, but he argues that they were the ones that had abandoned him. They both realize at the same time that Kaden, Isaiah and Unir had been fooled by none other than Nismera. Nismera shows up, clapping, telling them that finally someone has stood up to Unir. She’s dressed beautifully, as if she’s up to a gala, and Unir tells her that he should have done more to make sure that she felt loved. Then, Nismera reveals that she had been poisoning Zasyn all that time in order to get rid of her because she stood in the way of Nismera getting power, but it seemed like Samkiel had been healing her from the inside out. She then tells Dianna a story about a Fate who fell in love with a babe, was protected by Unir, and who became mortal for loving the woman. Roccurrem reveals that he had indeed loved her, become mortal, like a father figure to her, and hence lost his powers as a fate.

Then the royals of the remaining realms show up to the dungeons in beautiful clothing, and Dianna realizes that it really smells bad there based on their faces of disgust. Nismera has Roccurrem’s sisters moved away from him, and then gives a speech, before cutting off his head, and turning him to ash. Dianna loses it on her, but she’s not able to do anything because of her powers being muted, so she goes inwards, and sends all the grief across the bonds to Samkiel, and Isaiah and Kaden, who unbeknownst to her are shocked by it all. She vows to do anything to avenge Roccurrem and reminds herself of what Kaden said about forsaken blades being made from Ig’Morruthen bones.

The day of the execution arrives, and Samkiel, Isaiah, Kaden, and Cameron along with the Assassins are in place. Samkiel watches as Dianna is brought up in a cart with bars, and the fact that she’s not fiery worries him. They get into place inside the Palace and wait for Nismera to do her show. Nismera has Dianna dragged into the hall, and Samkiel nearly goes feral to try to get to Dianna, but Kaden and Isaiah stop him. He tries to go again when Dianna is dragged up onto the dais, but she puts up a hand to stop him.

Dianna had felt Samkiel in the crowd but was surprised that Nismera hadn’t felt him, Kaden or Isaiah, which tells her that they are cloaking their powers. She ends up head butting Nismera and putting the forsaken blade into Nismera’s eye, at which point the whole hall descends into Chaos. Samkiel shows up and takes her outside, where he makes sure to feed her and though he tries to send her home to safety, she tells him that she is not leaving. Together, they take on Nismera, but in a moment of weakness, Dianna notices that Nismera is going to use the blade to kill Samkiel to Oblivion, so she throws herself in front of him and dies, telling him that she loves him through their bond.

Kaden and Isaiah are busy fighting off the Kings of Yejedin, when they feel pain. Cameron arrives as well just as the skies start acting out of turn, with Oblivion in them. Kaden and Isaiah know that Dianna had died based on the fact that they cannot feel her anymore, but Cameron knows it based on the weather. The two brothers look at each other and share the same sentiment that they love each other before they turn to dust.

Samkiel starts using his oblivion powers to try to obliterate Nismera, and he destroys a lot of the palace, the city and kills many innocents in his wake. But Nismera manages to escape, and Cameron tackles him, beating him out of his stupor before they go down as the land dissipates beneath them. The two fight before Samkiel tells Cameron that he wishes he could be gone too because he cannot live with Dianna. Cameron understand but tells Samkiel that he needs him too. Then, they see silver lights arching into the world and Samkiel realizes that Gathrriel had been right—the Gods are alive, and they had abandoned him. Before he’s able to do anything much, he is captured and placed against the mud, with another God also restraining Cameron. Samkiel recognizes Xavier in the group of Gods, and is happy to see him whole, but Xavier won’t look at him. He feels their bond snap, as Xavier no longer seems inclined to believe or trust him. Samkiel also recognizes that Kyrella is alive, and she looks at him with utter disgust. When she tells the group that they are taking Cameron and him to Arcelia to interrogate them, he knows it will not be good and that they have already decided that they are guilty of something even without hearing their story.

Dianna’s body reforms inside an apartment, just as the door unlocks and Gabby comes in while on the phone. She’s happy to see her sister alive and wonders if she’s in the afterlife, but when she sees Gabby’s bangs, she knows that she is in the past. Gabby asks her about the armor, and then they hear a noise, so Dianna puts Gabby behind her as Kaden and Isaiah show up also dressed in their armor, seemingly having landed in Gabby’s closet.

My Thoughts:

I love all of the perspectives in this book. I love seeing Dianna’s and Samkiel’s love for each other, and how Camilla and Vincent fall in love with each other—I do believe that they are amata but have not yet realized it or spoken it to each other. I am enjoying the redemption arc with Kaden, and the squabbling that is happening between Kaden, Isaiah and Samkiel. Now, as the truth comes out that Nismera has been manipulating Gods and her brothers all this time, I wonder if they will become closer to each other, creating a united front and be able to help Samkiel in some way in the next book. So I am looking forward to the next book to see how this develops across the two different timelines and if Dianna will find her way to Samkiel before the Gods do anything to him, and if she will find a way to show them the truth. I wonder what her being in the past means—will she be able to change some timeline or something else that will give her the opportunity to save Samkiel or her soul?

That said, I am kind of tired of the whole part of the plot where either Dianna or Samkiel get kidnapped from each other, and they have to fight some enemies to get back to each other. It feels like this pattern is the only way that the author knows to move the story forward or to get them into a convenient location within the plot to make another revelation. It’s annoying and I would like to see Dianna to actually win something, kill someone from the main Villain cast finally. Milani and Ennis survived the fire, Nismera escaped at least two times from being killed by either Samkiel, or Kaden. Like just get some of them over with already—it feels like they’re on an uphill battle against the true evil and are being attacked from all corners without a resolution. And it’s also kind of stupid…Neither Dianna nor Samkiel double checked that Milani and Ennis were dead for certain? They just assumed that because they burnt them, it was enough? And Dianna was able to kill Gathrriel, one of the most powerful beings there, but she’s not able to kill Milani and Ennis? It’s inconvenient that an overpowered power couple is unable to defeat their enemies easily, and I feel like they would be way smarter than they have been with Samkiel’s 1000 years of experience. I do feel that the author is making this convenient for a future plot point in the book.

Originally, this was supposed to be a 4 book series, based on what I had initially read about it, but now it’s been extended to 7 books, which means after this one there is three more. It makes me wonder if the author had an ending in mind or planned out, and then had to extend it out in order to make it a 7 book series, so she’s using some filler tropes and plot holes to make it possible to get to 7 books. I hope that the next book will be just as well written and thought out as the original book in the series and will not follow the same trajectory as the From Blood and Ash series, which has lost its luster after book 4, becoming a convoluted mess of characters who have a lot of power but yet seem to be incapable of killing the villains, whom they were prophesied to dispose. It’s also a bit evident in this book that the editor didn’t do their job—in at least two instances, they used “phased” instead of “fazed,” as in the sense of “something doesn’t faze the person”, then Miska was 13 in one chapter, 11 in another, and 14 in yet another, and lastly there was a couple of sentences in the that suddenly were written in the present tense rather than the past tense.

I am willing to forgive these items as it’s an interesting series thus far and an unexpected ending to the book. So I hope this series continues to explore these relationships, tightening the bonds of sibling love between Kaden, Isaiah and Samkiel, as well as exploring Dianna’s relationship with all of them along with Cameron, Xavier, Camilla and Vincent. And by Gods in this world and the next, please at least figure out a way to free Imogen, Neverra and Logan from the mind chains that they are in. It’s far too long that they’re scrambling around trying to find the answer to free them.

If you’d like to read the book and the series, you can purchase them, including the upcoming book, here. By doing so you will be helping me keep up this blog for the long run.