Rebecca Ross

The epic conclusion to the intensely romantic and beautifully written story that started in Divine Rivals.

Two weeks have passed since Iris Winnow returned home bruised and heartbroken from the front, but the war is far from over. Roman is missing, and the city of Oath continues to dwell in a state of disbelief and ignorance. When Iris and Attie are given another chance to report on Dacre’s movements, they both take the opportunity and head westward once more despite the danger, knowing it’s only a matter of time before the conflict reaches a city that’s unprepared and fracturing beneath the chancellor’s reign.

Since waking below in Dacre’s realm, Roman cannot remember his past. But given the reassurance that his memories will return in time, Roman begins to write articles for Dacre, uncertain of his place in the greater scheme of the war. When a strange letter arrives by wardrobe door, Roman is first suspicious, then intrigued. As he strikes up a correspondence with his mysterious pen pal, Roman will soon have to make a decision: to stand with Dacre or betray the god who healed him. And as the days grow darker, inevitably drawing Roman and Iris closer together…the two of them will risk their very hearts and futures to change the tides of the war.

Ruthless Vows

ꕀ *🫖

Let our breaths twine and our blood become one, until our bones return to dust.

Even then, may I find your soul still sworn to mine.

Zimal.Q

See me kicking my feet and squealing over this man

Sarah

He kept seeing Iris Winnow, smiling up at him. Why did the gravity seem to gather around her, even hours after he had dreamt of her?

There is no magic above or below that will ever steal this from me again.

Syrina

She had strummed the lullaby for the entire turning of a year, from spring to summer, when gray storms turned the world green and soft. And then from summer to autumn, when the trees turned umber and gold, and rime cast a cloak over the dying grass. From autumn to winter, when mountains grew fangs of ice and the air was brittle, and then to spring once again.

The sun was rising like a bloody yolk on the horizon

Blue lightning flickered through the stone overhead, lighting the way. Roman could taste it, a weird medley of ozone and damp rock, and he briefly wondered if it was magic crackling on his tongue.

P.S. A typo? No, Winnow. I simply forgot to add a foot should have read as:

You remember how you said that word to me in the infirmar post-trenches? You believed I had come to the Bluff to outshine And I would speak this word back to you now, but only because I would love to see you burn with splendor. you. 

I would love to see your words catch fire with mine.

The air felt heavy and thick, almost reverent, and soon carried hints of sulfur and rotting flesh. 

Roman reached out to steady himself on the wall and felt briars growing  along the stone. He swallowed his gorge and wondered if Dacre’s permission had all been a ruse, and Val was taking Roman levels below to dispatch him.

 Was it sweeter to kill someone after you had given them hone? 

Roman shivered as the thorny passage at last opened to a wide, vast landscape. Yellow, gurgling pools emitted light Hrom the stone floor, as well releasing wisps of steam, and the ceiling was so high it was impossible to see. It almost felt as if Roman was standing beneath the night sky culled of stars. he stared upward into those shadows, feeling small and homesick.

Emily McMeans

“He could wake in the deepest region of Dacre's realm, as far from the moon and sun as divinity could shackle him. He could wake and not know his name, forgetting every word he had ever written. But he would never forget the scent of Iris's skin, the sound of her voice. The way she had looked at him. The confidence of her hands.”

Nina May

I shouldn’t be drawing air—inhale, exhale, inhale—and staring at the stars, feeling how immense beautiful cold the world is now that I’ve evaded death, like a house guest who has overstayed their welcome. 

Ruthless Vows quotes

Join the club