The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King

Oraya wakes in a home where Alya—who introduces herself as Oraya’s biological aunt and sister to Oraya’s mother, Alana—has been healing her. Raihn informs her their forces have fallen back to a nearby city to recuperate, but Simon will likely soon follow. Alya tells Oraya more about her mother. Like Alya, Alana served Acaeja, a goddess for healers and seers, but was much more gifted. Alana gave her seer services to Vincent, who was hoping to learn how to harness the god’s blood he found, and they fell in love. When she became pregnant with Oraya, Vincent allowed her to stay with Alya in Vartana. She eventually fell in love with a man named Alcolm and moved to join his family in Salinae, where they lived for years until Vincent demolished the region and stole Oraya away. Alya gifts Oraya an onyx bracelet that matches the ring and necklace Oraya wears.

When Oraya puts on the bracelet, completing the jewelry set that once belonged to Alana, a map forms on her skin. They suspect it will lead her to where Vincent and Alana stored the god’s blood. Humans from Vartana come to pay Oraya and Raihn their respects and offer their additional forces against Simon and Septimus. They join Ketura and Vale’s armies and decide to follow Oraya’s map, hoping the god’s blood will be enough to defeat Simon.

The Taker of Hearts was shattered in Simon’s attack on Oraya. Human blacksmiths weld the sword pieces into two new blades for Oraya.

Raihn and Oraya have sex the day before the big battle. Instead of sleeping, Raihn watches the woman he loves doze until nightfall.

The armies travel to the stretch of desert the map points to. Raihn and Oraya find the hidden temple. Only her blood can break the seals. Simon’s armies converge on them.

Raihn decides to fight off Simon to buy Oraya the time she needs to find the god’s blood.

Oraya descends into darkness, where she finds a circular room with a stone pillar at its center. She cuts her hand and presses her blood to the pillar.

Simon and Raihn fly at each other and collide in the air. Raihn grips the god’s teeth and the crescent pendant melded into Simon’s flesh and pulls, unleashing a devastating blast of power that throws them to the ground.

Oraya is pulled into Vincent’s memories, which he has poured into the stone over the years. One memory showcases Alana instructing Vincent to give something powerful of himself to forge the lock encasing the god’s blood in the stone. He does not give it memories of his ambition for power or bloodlust but of his love for Alana. Another memory depicts Vincent being angry with his inability to stomach killing the pregnant Alana. He knows that she and Oraya will become weaknesses to use against him and that Oraya might become a strong enough Heir one day to usurp him, but his love is too great and he let her go.

Raihn is severely injured by the blast but struggles to his feet, determined to keep Simon from reaching Oraya.

The last memory the stone shows is Vincent flying over the ruins of Salinae after burning the city and killing everyone in it, including Oraya’s mother, stepfather, and human siblings. Though Vincent plans to kill Oraya too, he loves her at first sight and cannot follow through. Even knowing it will be his ruination, he brings her home with him. Oraya surfaces from the memories. An apparition of Vincent appears as the pillar opens up to reveal the blood of the god Alarus. Oraya is horrified at what she has learned about the man Vincent was, but she tells him she loves him—finally saying the words she never got to say before his death—and leaves the temple.

Raihn is losing to Simon as Oraya emerges from the temple with the god’s blood. Raihn puts all his strength behind one last attack, stabbing Simon with a blade imbued with his Asteris power. The attack leaves him open to Simon’s fatal retaliating blows.

Oraya races to Raihn’s body as he dies, ignoring Simon, whose body is impossibly knitting itself back together. Instead of ingesting the blood of Alarus and using it to permanently kill Simon, Oraya prays to Nyaxia, offering the blood of her husband in return for Raihn’s life.

Nyaxia descends and is offended by Simon’s use of her husband’s remains. She rips the pendant and teeth from Simon’s chest, killing him swiftly. Oraya begs the goddess for a Coriatis bond, which will link her soul to Raihn’s and bring him back to life. Though she takes Alarus’s blood, Nyaxia denies Oraya’s request. As the creator of the Hiaj and Rishan lines—fated to be enemies in a perpetual power struggle—it would go against everything Nyaxia has created to unite the clans through a Coriatis bond.

Oraya desperately prays to her mother’s goddess, Acaeja, and requests the bond again. Acaeja grants the request if they devote their rule to “using the power [she is] granting [them] to fight for what is Right in this world and the next, even against great opposition” (567). Acaeja issues one last warning before sealing the bond: Nyaxia will be unhappy and will someday bring a great reckoning to the House of Night.

Oraya and Raihn wake inside the Nightborn castle, their souls and hearts irrevocably linked through the Coriatis bond. Instead of having their individual Heir Marks, they each have both trailing up their necks and backs.

A meeting with their advisors reveals that Septimus and his Bloodborn escaped the House of Night in the chaos of the battle, but Ketura and Vale have captured Cairis. Raihn visits Cairis and sends him to Tazrak Prison instead of executing him for treason.

Raihn and Oraya attend a major festival to commemorate the end of one lunar year and the beginning of the next. They are also celebrating the unification of Hiaj, Rishan, and human citizens. They are required to give Nyaxia three blessings, the last an offering of their blood to symbolize their loyalty and devotion, which Nyaxia is supposed to call up to the stars. There is a long hesitation before Nyaxia finally levitates the blood from Raihn’s and Oraya’s hands. They are relieved not to have lost her favor yet.

Mische tells Raihn she plans to leave the House of Night to find who she is without living in Raihn’s shadow. While saddened, Raihn offers her a home in Sivrinaj whenever she returns.

Oraya and Raihn leave the festivities to grab a beer at a pub in the human districts. The patrons no longer regard Raihn with fear but with admiration. As the sun rises, they admit their love for one another and look forward to facing the future together.