Welcome to another romantasy book refresher course! When I recapped and reviewed The Songbird and the Heart of Stone (book 3 in Crowns of Nyaxia), it ended up being one of my most popular posts here on the blog. Since y’all seem to like my book posts and in-depth recaps (I had one comment say my recaps were like a study guide lmao), and honestly, it helps me to recap them for when I read the next book in a series, I figured I would do one for the newest book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk.
The Crowns of Nyaxia series seems to be following a duet pattern with every 2 books following a new character/couple. Books 1 & 2 followed Oraya and Raihn, books 3 & 4 followed Mische and Asar. Book 5 has already been announced for August 2026 and will be called The Lion & the Deathless Dark. It will also be a duet and will follow Septimus and Kyrene (the latter being a character we have not yet been introduced to yet). So while I will give a complete recap, I will try to add details that I think will be pertinent to book 5 given that we know it will be about Septimus!
Now I will be honest and tell y’all that I struggled understanding a few parts of this book regarding the magic and how Asar and Mische were doing their inter-dimensional travel (lol). Sometimes reading this book felt like a homework assignment because I was trying to conceptualize everything. I think I do a good job overall explaining this book, but don’t ask me any specifics on the spira or that magic mirror thing because I was lost there 🙂 🙂 🙂
And truthfully, I think I enjoyed it more before I wrote this recap. Reading it the first time took me a long time, because I was trying to take notes for the recap. However, this recap took me MONTHS to write because I essentially re-read the book to make sure I got details right. Re-reading it made me think I was finding plot holes and made me more aware of the repetition in the book– specifically with the Sentinel/Saescha. I was really sick of that plot point by the end. So overall, from a review standpoint, this wasn’t my favorite book in the series. The details were not always explained super clearly and I found myself exhausted and confused often while reading. I still really like Mische’s character, but I did not enjoy Asar’s character as much as I did in book 3.
If you need a recap of what happened in book 3, you can find my full recap here:
The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk Full Summary
The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk picks up where we left off in book 3. After Shiket, the goddess of justice, killed Mische and took Asar prisoner, Mishe finds herself dead and in the underworld being greeted by Vincent (Oraya’s dead father/former Nightborn king [throwback to book 1]). Vincent is not enthused to help Mische given that she helped bring his daughter and his killer (Raihn) together, but a god (he won’t name whom, but not Nyaxia) made him a messenger for Mische. He tells her that because Mische was the one who conducted the necromancy spell, that she is technically the one who gave Asar his power and he will need Mische’s help to gain enough of it to fix the underworld that is collapsing.When Asar and Mische caused an incomplete resurrection of Alarus, it destroyed the relics that Alarus used to construct the underworld. This put stress on on the underworld that will eventually result in it’s collapse if Asar doesn’t fix it. And because all the planes are interconnected in some way (land of the gods, mortal world, and land of the dead) the collapse of the underworld will eventually affect the mortal world.
Asar is being held in complete darkness and solitary confinement by the White Pantheon. If you recall from book 3, when Mische killed Atroxus, it shattered the sun, which is good for the vampires of the world (because they cannot exist in the sun), but bad for humans who need it for crops. The lack of sunlight also allows vampires an advantage to wage war on the humans. The gods pull Asar out of confinement to use him in a failed attempt to repair the sun. He eventually is able to escape and has an encounter with Acaeja (the goddess of fate) who tells him what he needs to do to save the crumbling underworld. She creates a line of fate between Mische and Asar. She also guides Asar to use the “spira” which is a web that connects the world to allow the gods to travel and move throughout it. Mische is chased by this Sentinel (they are like undead warriors that serve the goddess Shiket)– and this Sentinel chases Mische throughout the whole book. Mische and Asar find each other and reunite and end up in Morthryn. Mische is still a wraith but in the world of the living. Because Asar is living, it hurts him to touch Mische and it makes Mische fade even more. Asar and Mische have to find 3 relics of Alarus— his mask, his eye, and his heart.
If you recall from book 3, Asar has an heir mark; however, his sister, Egrette does as well. Asar has no interest in being king and needs Egrette’s approval to go to the archives, called Ryvenhaal, to gather information in order to search for the mask during the night of Melume. On the night of Melume the House of Shadow is able to draw upon Alarus’ ancient magic and ancient relics will make themselves more visible— like the mask of Vathysia. Asar pledges his allegiance to Egrette and doesn’t tell her about the mask but instead tells her that he is hoping to visit the archives to access spells for Melume to strengthen their armies for the war that House of Shadow and blood is to planning against the human lands. With the earth shattered and no longer threatened by daylight, Nyaxia approached Egrette and the House of Blood about attacking the human lands to conquer the world.
Because Mische is in a state close to death, and because of the torn veil/collapsing underworld, Vincent often checks in with Mische while she is in the land of living.
“You carry a piece of the god of death in you. And your lover has more power than he has even begun to understand. Use it.” He [Vincent] leaned closer. “Stop thinking like an acolyte and start thinking like a vampire.”
The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk, page 128
Asar and Mische arrive at Ryvenhaal. This is where Asar had grown up when his father Raoul had wanted to make Asar into a tool that could perform complex magics that were outside of the realm of acceptable (like necromancy).
While there, they encounter Gideon— Asar’s former mentor. They learn that the mask was baked into the bones of the shadowborn castle when it used to be the the House of Death and the Palace of Vathysia. Because the House of Shadow is built on what used to be the House of Death and the palace of Vathysia, they study maps and documents of the old palace. They additionally learn that Alarus’ eye was forged into an axe and that the axe may be at the site of his murder in the deadlands— a realm between the mortal and divine worlds and only accessible through the House of Blood.
Gideon mentored Asar as a young boy but also tortured him, so when Asar asks for the glyphs to let them into the masks tomb, Gideon tries to make a deal to let him study Mische. Instead Asar pins him down and pries into his mind and etches glyphs on his skin to get the information he needs. Additionally, Vincent tells Mische that she needs to go to the House of Night because he had cultivated Alarus’ blood during his time as king. They could use Alarus’ blood to find his heart. However, Mische tells him that the House of Night does not have it anymore because Oraya had given it to Nyaxia to save Raihn (throwback!), but Vincent feels certain that Oraya still has some. But Mische really doesn’t want to go to the House of Night and endanger Oraya and Raihn by involving them.
When they get back to the House of Shadow, Asar and Egrette plan together to perform the spell to usher the beginning of the Melume ceremony to the castle. The window in which the veil is thinnest for them to access the mask only lasts a few minutes, so Asar and Mische plan for Mische to sneak away from the party to get the mask during that window. And because the mask is protected by complex magic, they know that Egrette will feel them taking the mask, so they will need to leave as soon as they get it. At the Melume party, Septimus shows up and says that the House of Blood was called upon by Nyaxia despite the fact that she hated them for the past thousand years. He also tells Mische that he knows that she needs to get to the deadlands and that he may have someone who can help get her there. She does not trust him based on their history, but she feels out of other options.
Asar and Egrette perform the ritual on the Dusk Window which, at Melume, gives people a glimpse into the same palace, but in the past when it was Vathysia, the House of Death. After they perform it, as Asar runs down the hallway to catch up to Mische, he runs into Elias (the guard from book 3 who traveled through the Descent with them and betrayed Asar). He tells Asar that they found Gideon clearly hurt by Asar. He and his soldiers attack Asar, and Asar fights them all off and kills Elias (who is actually Egrette’s lover, so that burns a bridge) by wielding his shadow magic and summoning the dead to fight for him. Asar and Mische make it into a room within the palace where there is a veil to the underworld and the mask. Asar and Mische work together using the glyphs that Asar stole from Gideon’s mind in order to retrieve the mask. The glyphs open a door to retrieve the mask, but when they open the door, a souleater comes out and grabs Mische as she throws the mask to Asar. Like other god-infused objects, they kind of possess the user and speak to them, however, Asar puts on the mask anyway and commands one of the guardians to retrieve Mische.
They run to escape while leaving the veil to the underworld broken. A Sentinel (warrior of Shiket) is chasing down Mische and they have an encounter with other sentinels while they are trying to escape the palace. Mische uses magic to open the dusk window and let out the dead who attack the sentinels and give Asar and Mische a window to escape. Raihn shows up, thinking he is there to rescue Mische from the Shadowborn, but instead of explaining everything to him, Mische uses compulsion to send him back home to keep him away from everything and keep him safe. Septimus meets them at the docks with someone to take them to the deadlands.
“For whatever of your mistakes, Mische Iliae,” he said, quietly, firmly, “for whatever of your faults, for whatever unintended pains you may bring this world, I will love you anyway.” … “And I will never stop tell you that you were incredible, because you were, and you are, and don’t you dare ever be ashamed of it,” he went on. “Now stop arguing with me and drink, so I can keep watching you bring the wold to its knees.”
Page 280-281
Septimus’ cousin, Atrius and a woman named Sylina accompany them to the deadlands. She is an Arachessen, a human acolyte of the goddess Acaeja who have their eyesight destroyed so that they can see the threads of fate. Her country of Glaea was conquered by the House of Blood, and now her and Atrius rule it together. They make it to the maze of arches, guarded by the Keeper. Once they make it through the maze and to the Keeper, they find him dead. Without him to open the gate, they cannot enter the deadlands. Asar and Mische use necromancy to bring the Keeper back to life. He tells them that the gods are planning war and that he doesn’t want to live through it, then kills himself and lets them into the deadlands. They make it to Alarus’ death site in the deadlands and the goddess Srana appears. Upon Alarus’ death-site, Srana had forged a blade to be able to cut up a god and now used the power of what had happened at that site (as well as the axe that the gods are unable to take or wield) to create more weapons for their holy war. The Sentinel from earlier shows up again to fight Mische while Asar squares off with Srana. While the Sentinel is kicking Mische’s butt, she sees the axe with the eye of Alarus in it. When she grabs it, because it has the all-seeing eye of Alarus, she is able to see the spira and basically walks back into life (??). She walks out of the forge and gives the axe to Asar who fights Srana and takes her arm. They know the gods are watching and will be there soon, plus Mische is losing blood, so he puts on the mask again to walk the spira with Mische to bring her to the House of Night to keep her safe. He also uses the power of the mask and the eye to heal Mische. Raihn and Oraya don’t know Asar and don’t trust him and have him locked up. Raihn is also heartbroken as to why Mische has been seemingly avoiding him and why she compulsed him to leave.
“I don’t regret it,” I said. “I would do it a thousand times over. A thousand times, if it means I get to hear you berate me for it here rather than imagine those words over your corpse. You are the sacrifice I will not make, Mische. You. Don’t ask me to apologize for that.”
Asar, Page 393
They realize that Mische is suddenly solid and able to touch Asar and they learn that although she still belongs to the dead, the eye of Alarus was able to bring her close enough to living. They talk to Oraya and Raihn and confirm what Vincent had told Mische, that they are refining the blood of Alarus. With it, they hope that they can open a door into the spira and use the blood to find and direct them to the heart of Alarus so they can keep the underworld from collapsing and keep the House of night and much of the mortal realm from being destroyed. They send for Vale to retrieve the Alarus blood that they had safeguarded away. Asar and Mische work together to build a ritual circle to open a door through the spira (at this point why cant they just use the mask again?). While they are working, there is a large crack formed in the veil and they realize that the collapse of the underworld is in action. They repair things best they can, and when “Vale” finally arrives, they realize it is actually Gideon using illusion to disguise himself as Vale. They realize it is a trap and that Vale has used an anchor spell to track down Asar when Asar carved the spells out of this mind. Sentinels break in and the one who has been tracking Mische takes her away to Vostis to the citadel where she once served Atroxus. Shiket has a lot of former Atroxus followers and they are going to sacrifice Mische. Mische pieces together that the attack with Vale was a distraction from Nyaxia and that the vampires were about to attack the mortal lands (honestly I still don’t understand her trail of reasoning of how this was a distraction but I’ll take her word for it). Vampires are attacking Vostis as an act of war but also as a claim of resources from the human lands. Mische escapes her shackles in the fighting but then has ANOTHER encounter with the same sentinel, whose mask is now cracked and Mische can see is her sister Saescha.
As the house of night is under attack, Asar leaves on the spira to find Mische. Egrette attacks Asar with a spear that have the petals that Elias stole from Asar in the Descent (book 3 reference)– because it is a “god-touched” object, it has the ability to take down a demi-god. Nyaxia shows up and Egrette basically presents him as an offering to her. Asar realizes that his ritual circle DID bring him both to the heart of Alarus and Mische, because Nyaxia had the heart of Alarus all along. He knew that his siblings were planning to kill him, so he gave Nyaxia his heart. After he died, Nyaxia was able to use his heart to rise to divinity (why giving it up to Asar doesn’t give up her divinity, I also don’t understand). Asar offers her himself as an ally– he tells her that if he ascends Asar to a god, then they can take on the white pantheon together if she spares the House of Night and spares the humans (for now– in order to make them suffer long-term). He offers his heart and it is traded out for Alarus’ heart which ascends him into a god. With his new heart, he essentially does not recognize Mische or his past life as a vampire.
All the other stared at Nyaxia. Not this woman. She was looking only at him.
She crawled toward him, calling a name he did not recognize.
“Remember why you are doing this,” she begged. “Please. Remember your promise.”
But the god did not remember. He did not care to. He had no connection to mortality. The suffering of mortals slipped by as inconsequential as grains of sand.
Page 507
Asar’s ascension had stopped the imminent destruction of the underworld and House of Night. Mische ends up in the Sanctum of Soul and encounters Vincent who reveals that it was the goddess of fate who sent him to Mische because the love of Vincent’s life (Alana [Oraya’s mother]) had served her. He also tells her that because she holds a piece of Alarus’ power, she was the one who wielded the eye of Alarus and climbed out of the forge and remade herself, bringing herself closer to life. And he tells her that the underworld is not the territory of the gods, it is the kingdom of the dead, and that the dead have chosen Mische. Mische gets an heir mark and is given a sword by the dead. As she moves through the Descent, repairing and helping, Asar is also going through the Descent leaving pieces of himself: a poppy that he brings back to life and a crown made from one of the fallen guardians.
Mische has her final encounter with the Sentinel/Saescha and realizes that mortals become Sentinels because of a desire for justice, and while Mische thought Saescha was after justice for her own death at Mische’s hands and justice for the death of Atroxus; Saescha had really been seeking justice for Mische and her mortality being taken from her to become a vampire. Mische is able to guide Saescha to the afterlife to give her soul peace.
Mische goes to Morthryn and enters a room that is Ryvenhaal and there is a young 8-year old Asar. She talks with him and he gives her the heart of Asar that had been discarded when Asar rose to divinity. Meanwhile, Nyaxia tells Asar that as the god of death, it is time for him to raise up the dead as an army for their war. Asar tries but is met with resistance and realizes there is someone challenging his ability to summon the dead. He goes the Morthryn to fight whoever is challenging him, and he and Mische battle. In their fighting, some remaining piece of him has a moment of recognition for Mische and tells her to cut out his heart. The pieces of Asar’s power that he had left within the Descent (without fully understanding why he was doing it) was what gave Mische the power to confront Asar and cut out Alarus’ heart. She removes half of it, still giving him divinity and then puts his mortal heart back in (I think Mische also took the other half of Alarus’ heart?). The divinity of Alarus’ heart is a bit too much for Mische and she collapses as the White Pantheon arrives. Acaeja claims the House of Night and House of Death as hers because, with her ability to see fates, says this is the way to avoid the destruction of all. Acaeja heals Mische and tells them to rebuild and prepare their armies for what is to come.
“She was no one,” Acaeja said dismissively. “But perhaps that is what makes her remarkable. Such is the glory of fate. It is forged, not born.”
Page 585
The book ends with Asar and Mische rebuilding the underworld and Vincent passing Mische a note meant for Oraya. There are newly carved borders between the House of Death and the House of Shadow, so there are vampire cities (along with the dead) that fall under Mische and Asar’s rule. Oraya and Raihn come to visit to strategize for the upcoming war. They also bring Vale who they learn had been captured by the shadowborn when Gideon posed as him earlier. Asar and Mische walk through the Descent and Mische encounters Saescha whose soul finally seems at peace. Then they conduct a Vathysian wedding ceremony– similar to a necromancy spell in order to link their souls.
Here’s what we know about Bloodborn and Septimus:
In order to prepare for The Lion & the Deathless Dark, here’s some things from the Epilogue of the Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk as well as the previous books that I remember that I think will probably be important. I have a feeling that this won’t be the last time we see Septimus’ cousin, Atrius and Sylina, too! I’m sure they will make a cameo in book 5.
So here’s what we know: the Bloodborn are cursed by Nyaxia. Symptoms of the Bloodborn curse are varied, but often seen: red eyes, black-scarlet veins covering their skin, and insanity at the very end. The Bloodborn turn into little more than animals, like demons, stuck in a perpetual state of frenzied bloodlust, incapable of thought of emotion.
Blood magic is a type of magic wielded exclusively by vampires of the House of Blood, which allows them to manipulate the blood of living beings. Humans are especially susceptible to blood magic. The other clans are quick to dismiss the Bloodborn, but they (especially Septimus) seem very calculated.
“In some ways, the Bloodborn have more in common with humans than we do with other vampires. We understand impermanence.” He [Atrius] knelt and stroked his dead horse’s neck, lashes lowered in respect. “The curse that the Dark Mother place upon us takes much from us. We’re born knowing that we will die too young, and with little dignity. That is why the Bloodborn see no shame in death. The greatest gift we can offer is a life that serves those who come after us, and the greatest gift we can be given in return is a death with dignity. There is no sadness in that.”
Atrius, Page 342, The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk
We know that the Bloodborn were called by Nyaxia for the holy war that is brewing, despite her dislike for them. So if the House of Death and the House of Night are on the side of Acaeja, the house of Shadow and Blood are seemingly on the side of Nyaxia. However, Septimus brought Asar and Mische to the deadlands, which begs the question of why? What was he getting out of it? Was he planning for his cousin to betray them and HOPING for Asar and Mische to die there? However, Atrius and Sylina (a human acolyte of the goddess Acaej) being the ones to take them there makes you wonder if Septimus is not loyal to Nyaxia. The epilogue is completely from Septimus’ POV which seems to confirm this and give us insight for the next book
Septimus gave his goddess- the goddess who had cursed his kingdom, who had murdered his brother, who had been responsible for the untold suffering of his people– a silken smile and pressed his forehead to the floor.
“It will be my greatest honor, Dark Mother,” he said.
It felt good to be needed.
It was just a few step away from being trusted, and being trusted was just a few steps away from one’s throat.
Page 625 (Epilogue), The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk
It gives us a 10 years later time jump and tells us that the war seems to have gone on for 10 years still with no sun restored.
Somewhere here, in the shit pile that remained of the human nations, was an answer. A sword gifted by a goddess of justice, and a wielder who perhaps might be desperate enough to let him aim the strike.
Septimus very much liked to be the solution to a problem.
Page 626
What did you think of The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk? Share thoughts and theories in the comments!!
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