Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Here is a summary with spoilers of Born of Blood and Ash

• Ash and Sera continue to heal and enjoy finally being in love. However one night, those in the manor are put into a deep sleep, and Sera is taken by three beings, War, Pestilence, and Hunger - who can only be summoned by the Primal of Life. They took Sera to test and prove herself. Her stepbrother, Tavius. She starts to beat him up, and right before ending his life, she steps back and realizes that the monster is in herself, not Tavius. The three beings accept this answer and she is sent back home. 

• The two continue to enjoy being back but are also thrown back into their daily lives and have to prepare for Kolis to get out of his deep sleep. The most pressing matters are farming. Now that the rot is gone, the grass has returned, but no water. They also need to make alliances and prepare an army. They also need to talk to their people, including all the gods who have come to their city to seek refuge. 

• Sera is restless one evening, she decides she can bring the water back. So Ash and her go out, she uses her power, and the water is returned to the land. Ash is in awe, but the next day Kolis has awakened, at least Sera believes so. She believes that her power from the water awoke him. 

• Also, Sera and Ash address their people, it goes well. The people all accept her as their queen and the Ture Primal of Life. While Sera is happy with how things are going, internally she is battling with the events that happened to her while she was with Kolis. Ash can tell something is wrong, but Sera won’t open up to him. She also has been experiencing physical symptoms like not wanting to eat and being nauseous. 

• A fate arrives in the middle of their day, The True Primal of Life has even been summoned by the True Primal of Death. Sera is forced to go back to Kolis and talk with him, without Nykatos there. It a a mutual meeting, and neither can harm the other. During their meeting, Kolis makes a deal; she gives him the star stone with Sotoria’s soul in it, and he would let Ash and Sera live, he wouldn’t seek vengeance and there would be no war. Sera countered his offer with one of her own. He could live out his life, but he would renounce his throne, and seek no vengeance. 

• Wanting some questions answered, Sera demands a meeting with Holland, her old trainer who happened to be a fate. He does not answer the summons but sends the fate to Penelope. She tells Sera several things; that she has seen the future and that the Queen and King in the future will be the ones to end this war (Poppy and Cas). She has also seen the two sisters (Poppy and Meli) and they will be just as instrumental. She also mentions that Sera and many of the other Primals will need to go into deep sleep and wait for this to happen. 

• Weeks pass by, and here is a summary of things that happen: Sera’s powers continue to grow. Nykatos is losing some of his primal of death powers because now Kolis is the true primal of death. Kyn and Vessa come to visit and taunt Nykatos and Sera (and they always bring up Sera’s past with Kolis). Sera goes to the mortal land to warn her sister/queen of things that may be coming. While she is there, she finds that Callum is there. Ash takes Callum back to interrogate him, but because they are in their time of peace, they have to release Callum. Attes and Sera talk about Sortia, and we find out that the second time she died, it was because she asked for it; she did not want to be with Kolis. Sera is still holding back her feelings about what happened while she was caged by Kolis, but one evening Nykatos lets slip that he knows of some things; this causes an anxiety attack for Sera and she ends up shifting into a cave cat. Sera also finds out that Nykatos has not been feeding from her, because he feels like it will traumatize Sera and bring back memories of Kolis. 

• After finding out about shifting, the next day Nykatos is forced to go to the pillars to help usher in the dead, and Sera ends up hearing thousands of screams in her head. It’s her people, Lasania. She arrives there by herself, and all she sees is death; including her mother, sister, and sister-in-law. Kyn arrives and tells Sera that this is Kolis’s answer to her deal. Sera erupts, goes to Delos, destroys Kolis’s city (because he is not there), and then proceeds to kill the primal of Lothos. She then goes back to her home to try to bring everyone back to life; Holland, her old guard, has to come and stop her. 

• Attes comes to the rescue and gets Sera, and tells her she needs to ascend someone to become the primal of Lothos or more destruction and death will happen. They go to the goddess Penelope, and Sera ascends to her. Kolis expected all of this to happen and bated Sera into this. So he arrives immediately after she ascends and the fight starts. Sera has been weakened, so Kolis has the upper hand. He claims he will take both Sera and Nykatos, separate them, and torture them, they will both feel each other’s pain before Kolis will finally kill them both. As he is beating up Sera and telling her all of this, Ward (the first viktor) decapitates Kolis. 

• Sera returns home and breaks down, she shifts to her car form, and she is comforted by Nekatas because Ash is still at the pillars controlling the dead (thanks to all of the deaths from both Sera and Kolis). Ash finally makes it back, and everything bubbles out of Sera, what she did, her time in Delos with Kolis. In the end, Sera makes Ash promise that he will stop her if she becomes vengeful and full of rage again. Nykatos is not happy about it, but he promises and tells her that it may cause her pain, and may put her in stasis. 

• Sera finally puts two and two together. All of her symptoms throughout the whole book have made her realize, she might be pregnant. Amos confirms it, Sera is 3 months along with twins. Both Sera and Ash are thrilled. This also leads to the fight; Ash wants Sera to stay back during any fights, and Sera doesn’t want to do that. They meet in the middle, and Sera is allowed to fight unless she is injured. 

• Their first stop is to take Vessas court. With minimal deaths, they manage to do it, and Sera ends Vessas life. Soon after, Kolis awakens again, having healed from hai decapitation. 

• The second step is to fight Kyn and have a new god ready to ascend. Attes kills his brother, and Sera ascends to Lilah to take his place. This battle has many deaths. 

• Then they summon a fate to set up a meeting with Kolis. Ash and Sera want to meet in the Bonelands, without a fate (meaning violence can happen), they would like to make a truce. 

• Kolis shows up armed with an army for the truce, Ash and Sera expect this and have their own. Fighting begins, and it ends with Sera stabbing Kolis, just enough that they can trap and ensnare him. They chain him up, and they are content with how he is being held; he won’t escape. 

• Sera then wants to go take care of Sortias soul in the star. Attes takes them to the star, and it is not there. The Fates have taken it. They say it must happen this way. They say that Sortia is part of Sera’s bloodline, and that’s why she was chosen. However, Sera is the first-born daughter, the embers of Sortia should have gone to the second daughter. So the fates have her soul, and they promise that they will release the soul once another of Sera’s bloodline has two daughters. The second daughter is who will help finish this war, and have Sortias soul. 

• The book ends with Sera still pregnant, but both she and Ash are preparing. They also agree (much to the dismay of Ash), that Sera’s name and identity will be hidden. Because they don’t want her name to bring power until the right time. So Nykatos gets all the credit for everything Sera has done and has the credit for being the Primal of Life and Death.