Synopsis:
Some blood tastes like vengeance. Some blood tastes like grief. Some blood tastes like nothing at all.
Under an eternal night, the world has been ravaged by ten years of war between humans and vampires. Kyrene scrapes by as a bounty hunter, bearing a blessed sword from the goddess of justice. But in the wake of a devastating loss, Kyrene commits a crime that makes her a target for mortals and gods alike – and she is still desperate for vengeance.
Her only chance at survival – and revenge – is making a deal with her enemy, the silver-tongue vampire prince, Septimus, who offers her one final job: to slay the gods themselves.
Together, Kyrene and Septimus must hunt the ultimate marks, all while navigating a web of prophecies and curses. Septimus is calculating and mysterious, masking secrets bloodthirsty enough to consume them both. Yet, most dangerous of all, Kyrene finds an unexpected kinship in him.
But their growing attraction is deadly in a world where the only currency is blood. And Kyrene will stop at nothing to fulfill her ultimate goal: to kill the goddess of vampires, even if it means sacrificing love for revenge.
Review:
This was DARK as heck. By far Carissa’s darkest. And that ending? Diabolical.
This takes place within the Nyaxia world, but follows a new (depraved) couple set 10 years after the last duology. The gods have been at war with each other for a decade, leaving the mortal lands ravaged and devastated: an apocalypse.
Kyrene is the Goddess of Justice’s chosen, a glorified personal bounty hunter wielding a divine blade (that talks and is highly judgemental).
She is given a job by Septimus, Prince of the House of Blood, previous villain in Nyaxia.
“Vampires and cats have so much in common,” I said. “You both like to play with your prey. But do you piss on the carpet, too?”
A barely there glint of delight in his eyes. He replied smoothly, “Only occasionally. But I only lick others, never myself.”
Both of these characters are unhinged. Fuelled by revenge. Both anti-heroes and very aware of their villainy. Kyrene recognises Septimus as humanity’s intrinsic predator, but maybe also, potentially, suicidally, a playmate. A partner.
Both characters are totally broken. Disillusioned by the world.
Oh, I was hungry. I was fucking starving. I felt a sudden wave of something akin to sympathy for vampires. Because now I understood what it was to be so desperate for blood that the starvation pain sank into every nerve.
This book was longer than it needed to be. A LOT goes down, but it also got bogged down by repetitive internal dialogue. Kyrene is a hard character to follow because she’s so raw and angry all of the time. She’s unafraid, but in a suicidal sense rather than courageous.
The romance itself was based on lust. The forced proximity meant there was no chance for begrudging trust. It was nothing and then everything.
“My chest is wide open, and all I want to do is lick the blood from your fingers and offer you more.”
We don’t get many glimpses of the previous leads. I am eager to see how everything comes together in the finale.
This is the penultimate book of the entire Nyaxia series. It’s probably the most ambitious and the most heart-wrenching.
Leave a Reply