#ad Click here to purchase this book from Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Song I associate with this book: Suburban Legends (Taylor's version) by Taylor Swift
Once upon a time, in a world far far away, lives our MMC (main male character) who goes by a few different names. Samkiel, Liam, WorldEnder, God King, just to name a few. Samkiel is the son of Unir (nickname World Bringer), and they live on Rashearim. Unir sends his son out to fight a lot of battles, hence his wonderful nickname of World Ender. Samkiel spends his days killing and fucking. He seems pretty happy. Except for his major daddy issues, he never feels like he is good enough for his dad, part of that could be because Samkiel should be taking things way more seriously but instead, like I said, he spends his time fucking and killing. Samkiels’ mom died and took half of his dads heart (not literally, just meaning they were mates). When she died, it was close to Samkiels ascension. During the ascension you are supposed to go in with a clear mind so you can forge your own weapon. He went in full of grief and agony, and he created a blade called Oblivion, which does exactly what it sounds like - destroys everything and leaves nothing behind. Samkiel had to form his guard, which he calls The Hand, and this group consists of celestials. Celestials are created by gods and serve them. Samkiel is the son of a god and of a celestial so he is … a half-blood if you will. He is unable to make his own, so he recruits them from other gods. During a battle, where Samkiel killed a whole bunch of monsters called Ig’Morruthens, his arrogance almost got a bunch of celestials killed. This upset a whole bunch of lower level gods (demi-gods? I don’t know), and there was an argument, where Unir kinda took Samkiel’s side but also didn’t. Unir tells him that his pride and ego will be the reason the other gods will turn on him. And turn on him they did. Nismera leads the battle against him and eggs him on, telling him to summon Oblivion and be the World Ender that everyone knows him to be. Nismera and Samkiel fight and she was almost ready to take the killing shot when Unir comes out of nowhere. Unir is injured, as is Samkiel. As Unir is dying, Samkiel begs him not to go, says he will do better, he doesn’t know what he is doing without him. Unir tells him “yes you do, you always have”. Another god, Yzotl, appears out of nowhere and talks some smack, and Unir tries to kill him with the last bit of his strength but Yzotl rebounds the … spell? … and it hit Unir in the chest. He managed to look at Samkiel and say “I love you … Be better than us” before dying. Samkiel is obviously real upset and pissed off, he collapses to the ground in pain, while other gods gathered around, mocking him. When they tried to attack him, he didn’t hesitate as he summoned Oblivion and destroyed Rashearim. Samkiel then hid away on a planet he pieced together with the remains of Rashearim. He lives there alone, with the Hand settled on Onuna. Some of them are settled in the Silver City of Hadramiel while others are in Arariel (I think). Samkiel, alone with his grief and anger, doing nothing but wallowing, until he hears, “Athos, Dhihsin, Kryella, Nismera, Pharthar, Xeohr, Unir, Samkiel, grant me passage from here to the Asteraoth!”. This means one thing - someone has died. Samkiel immediately leaves his pity party and beams himself to Onuna.
What can I say about Dianna Martinez (aka our FMC)? A lot actually so let's jump right in.
Dianna Martinez cares about one thing in her life - her sister Gabby. Literally everyone else can fuck off in her eyes. Dianna and Gabby’s parents died a long, long, long time ago and left them to fend for themselves. Gabby got sick and was close to death. They were found by Drake, he said he could save Gabby if they came with him. Drake took them to Kaden and his cronies. Kaden told Dianna he could save Gabby but that Dianna would belong to Kaden. I may have some of these events in the wrong order but basically, Kaden gave Dianna his blood, then killed her and she returned as an Ig’Morruthen. Now…how exactly did he save Gabby? Honestly, no idea. She did not become an Ig’M like Dianna. She also does not appear to be a vampire, like Drake, or any other type of immortal “monster” but she is definitely immortal. Now, you may be asking yourself, what the fudge is an Ig’Morruthen? Well… they are an ancient monster … duh… Not really sure. It sounds like they are mindless dragon-like beasts however Dianna is not at all mindless (spoiler alert, we will eventually find out why this is but not until book 2). She can shapeshift into whatever animal she wants but she can also shapeshift into other people. One of her gifts is what she can do with your blood, if she tastes it she can see your memories, if she drinks enough of it, she has blood dreams of memories. She is immortal and cannot die unless you rip out her heart. If you cut off an arm, it just grows right back. She is basically an indestructible badass who has an attitude problem, but is snarky and hilarious.
Kaden likes to control Dianna by keeping her away from Gabby. Gabby gets to lead a pretty normal life but Dianna does not. Kaden likes to send her on little errands that usually results in people dying. Two of Kaden’s close lackeys are Tobias and Alistair.
Kaden is searching for the Book of Azrael but of course he isn’t doing any of the hard work. Alistair is able to mind control, think of like the Imperious Curse, lots of people at one time, and they like to infiltrate some of the celestial police people. At the beginning of the book, Dianna and Alistair are out on such an errand. Then we meet up with Kaden at his lair where he is having a big evil meeting of all the big bad monster bosses. Kaden, like most dictators, gets real butt hurt when people don’t tell him how awesome he is. At this meeting, some of the big bads don’t even bother to show up, or they send some like lower level management people, which real pisses Kaden off. The vampires have especially pissed him off so he sends Dianna to deal with them. She doesn’t want to because Drake and his brother, Ethan, are her friends. The only people she kind of likes aside from Gabby. But she goes to his nightclub and kills him. Kaden allows her to go spend some time with Gabby as an award. Two weeks later, Tobias and Alistair show up and tell her they have a lead on the Book of Azrael. They search at some old ruins and Dianna encounters a celestial, but not just any celestial, a member of The Hand, Zekiel. They fight and unfortunately Kaden shows up - he ruins everything. Kaden attempts to trap him but this dude is powerful. Zekiel manages to escape and Dianna chases after him. He pulls a dagger but doesn’t turn it to Dianna, but to himself. Dianna attempted to stop him but he kicked her away and shouts “Athos, Dhihsin, Kryella, Nismera, Pharthar, Xeohr, Unir, Samkiel, grant me passage from here to the Asteraoth!”
So Samkiel is back because Zekiel died. Before we dig into the main plot, we’ve met the bad guys and some good guys, let’s meet some more.
Logan - Samkiel’s BFF and member of The Hand.
Neverra - Logan’s mate, member of The Hand.
Vincent - Member of the Hand, formerly with Nismera. Samkiel saved him from her. He is like a political advisor, always worried about how things look to the humans.
Imogen - Member of the Hand, former lover of Samkiel, she resides in the Silver City.
Cameron - Member of the Hand, also resides in the Silver City, talented in tracking/scenting, besties with Xavier. Speaking of Xavier, he is also a member of the Hand, also lives in Silver City.
Camilla - witch, former lover of Dianna, rival of Santiago.Santiago - witch, leader of the witches. Dickhead.
Okay - now that that’s covered.
Samkiel is back, Vincent tells him that they have video evidence of some badass chick and two dudes who are searching for some ancient text. Vincent has set up a big ole meeting with celestials and humans. Samkiel hates these things fyi. People are asking questions, raising concerns, when some random dude starts talking smack from the audience. Vincent is immediately offended and is all like “do you know who you are speaking to?” but this dude gives no fucks and keeps talking shit. Then he turns his attention to Samkiel and mouths off and says something like this is what The Hand is, you guys aren’t that bad, I expected more from the World Ender. Samkiel is like who the fuck are you. And the dude transforms into Dianna. She implies she is the one who killed Zekiel and then asks Samkiel if he is fireproof before completely destroying the room. She escapes and goes to search for the Book but Samkiel chases her. She attempts to fly away as a dragon, but Samkiel is a god after all, and he drags her back and throws her to the floor where she lays unconscious. So now, she’s his prisoner.
He attempts to get information out of her in a peaceful way, but she is infuriating and mouthy as all get out, she refuses to answer and mostly just talks shit. Soooo…he tortures her. For weeks. Dianna loses track of time so we are really unsure. Alistair visits via a celestial he controls and basically says Kaden says you are not important, you got yourself into this mess, get yourself bitch. At some point, Samkiel wants her transferred to the SIlver City, so Logan takes her with some guards in one van, with two other vans following. The convoy gets attacked by Tobias and Alistair. Alistair is torturing Logan and tells Dianna they need to know if Logan is worth killing so taste his blood. When she does, she sees his relationships with Samkiel and Neverra. She sees their love and it makes her sad/mad/confused. She thinks of Gabby, and how Gabby is her only family and the person she loves the most. Logan pulls out a dagger and tries to Zekiel himself but Dianna stops him, and before she even thinks, she stabs the dagger through Alistairs throat, then spins around and puts herself between Logan and Tobias. Tobias takes off and Dianna grabs Logan and they winnow/apparate/teleport/whatever you want to call it to where Samkiel is.
She shows up with a wounded, bleeding out Logan, and everyone was like whatttttttttt is happening. She tells Samkiel that she will cooperate and help him but he has to keep her sister safe or she will finish Logan off. He agrees but says after they finish working this case, she will be punished for her crimes. She’s like whatever, just keep Gabby safe. Immediately, Gabby is in danger because Tobais ran right to Kaden and tattled. Luckily, Gabby and Dianna had a plan in case bad shit went down. Well the shit went down, so Gabby went to the safe house aka a resort on the beach. My kind of safe house. Kaden sent some supernatural creatures to get her, Samkiel locked Dianna in a cell again, and took off to save Gabby. Luckily for Samkiel, Dianna escaped because he was straight up losing that fight.
At this point, I hope you are reading this as a recap and not just so you can skip the book because I am not conveying Dianna’s personality accurately at all. She is snarky, hilarious, sarcastic, bitchy, badass. I’m not doing Samkiel justice either because he has a lot of different sides. These two together, the banter is just chefs kiss.
I am going to majorly skip over the entire “case” work because a lot of it is a wild goose chase. But here are the major points:
Gabby is now safe, in an apartment in the Silver City, with Neverra and Logan as her bodyguards.
Dianna takes Samkiel on a trip to find the Book or to kill Kaden or both. First, they make a stop at her friend’s Nym. Where they drink some coffee, get some passports, credit cards, and clothes. Then they make a stop at another “friends” house, Sophie, who is a witch, but has been kicked out of Santiago’s coven, and is in hiding. Dianna thinks Sophie can help them find the Book. Unfortunately, Dianna’s friends suck - which is a recurring theme. Nym poisoned her with the coffee and Sophie tries to kill her by shooting her with arrows that also have poison. Samkiel saves her, kills Sophie, and force feeds Dianna some of his blood. Which leads her to have lots of blood dreams where she learns about all of his extracurricular activities and gets to see his fked up relationship with his dad.
On their journey, Dianna gets to experience Samkiels night terrors that he has. She tells him she can help him with them like Gabby helped her. Which ends up in some real cute side by side lying/sleeping while she rubs his head. They also talk a lot.
Dianna makes a stop at a festival to meet with some dude to help them cross Camilla’s territory without her knowing. At the festival, she tries to get Samkiel to lighten up. They take pictures in the photo booth, eat cotton candy, talk about Samkiel’s PTSD with crowds and loud noises. He notices she is cold so he gives her his jacket, which is super cute. They finally meet this contact, and he says he can help them with a flight.
Samkiel and Dianna spend A LOT of time on this quest talking and getting to know each other.
“I didn’t remember how long we talked, but somewhere amidst her laughter and smiles. I decided I would rip the world apart for her. When she turned into me and wrapped her arms around my chest, the world had slipped away. It was a brief reprieve as I held her body curled against mine. It was a moment of peace…” page 283
Cue all the awwwwwwwwww’s and heart eye emojis.
They arrive in Zarall where Drake and Ethan reside while they ask for permission from Camilla to visit her. Drake flirts endlessly with Dianna just to piss off Samkiel which he does so extremely well. Ethan and Drake both warn Samkiel that Dianna doesn’t just give her heart away so unless he is planning on taking care of it, maybe he shouldn’t take it. Samkiel feels conflicted because he knows Dianna personally, and even though Ig’M are his mortal enemies, and even though Dianna is an Ig’M - she is not his enemy. But they are “forbidden” together. So he pulls away from Dianna, which obviously hurts her a lot. They fight, Dianna yells at him and says she is done trying to be his friend, that he acts repulsed by her and she is done. This makes Samkiel realize hes being an asshole, so he decides to go spar with her. He trains her just like he would a member of The Hand.
They finally get to go to Camilla’s house, Dianna disguised as Ethan, Samkiel disguised as some bodyguard. Camilla sees right through the disguise. She says she knows where the Book is but she wants a deal and wants it sealed with a kiss. Dianna objects but Samkiel says Dianna does not speak for him so he kisses Camilla…for awhile…with tongue. This royally pissess off Dianna. And then Camilla brings out Santiago. Santiago ends up shooting Dianna in the head… but immortal remember?
We switch to Samkiels POV and find out that while him and Camilla were swapping spit, she was actually showing him information. About the Book and about Azrael’s daughter. But guess what? Samkiel is FURIOUS that Santiago shot Dianna in the head and vows that he will kill him for that. Dianna regenerates, shifts into a panther, and attacks Camilla. Samkiel pulls her off and says “not her! We need her!” and Dianna takes off through the house on a course of mass destruction. Samkiel finds her and they apparate/teleport into the forest away from the house. They are arguing, so much banter, so many good lines, I thoroughly enjoy them together. After arguing, then they start flirting. They kind of/sort of admit they have feelings for each other and allllmmmmooooosssstttttttt kiss BUT Dianna is dragged away by a Irvikuva (a monster/beast thing that Kaden has created). Samkiel rescues her but she is very badly injured. She isn’t able to regenerate because the Irvikuva are made by Kaden, just like she is, so they can actually wound her. Samkiel teleports to some town where he feels celestials and goes to a house and asks for help. God-King remember? They all know him, they will help him.
He heals her and they make up…then they make out. (FINALLY!) They don’t have sex, because they are in a celestials house and they apparently have real good hearing but there is some finger banging going on. He calls her “My Dianna” for the first time and just awwwwwww.
Next morning, she wakes him up with a happy good morning, if you get my drift (if not, I mean she went down on him).
They head to a temple where they are supposed to meet Azrael’s daughter to get the Book. Azrael’s daughter, Ava, shows up with her celestial guard, Geraldo. They travel through these underground tunnels, catacombs if you will, for awhile until they reach a crypt. Samkiel and Dianna go inside to look, while the other two wait. They finally find The Book of Azrael in a tomb that only Samkiel could open. They return to Ava and Geraldo who question if they found it, Samkiel responds with “yes with only a seal I could open”. Ava replies with “well that explains why we couldn’t get it open the last few times we tried it”. Ava and Geraldo’s bodies both freeze, jerk, then fall to the ground dead. Dianna tried to get Samkiel out of there because she knows there is only one person who can control a dead persons body, Tobias (I think I forgot to mention that in the beginning).
Tobias shows up, gods, he also ruins everything. Unfortunately for our two main characters, they are in a crypt…what else is in a crypt? Dead people. So Tobias has a whole freaking army at his disposal. After a bit of fighting and running, Tobias captures Dianna and also has gotten the book that Samkiel had tucked away trying to hide it. Tobias goads him, saying, comon, you could kill us both right now and take the book, and you win. But of course, that’s a no deal.
Now if you recall, the only real way Dianna can die is from getting her heart ripped out. So what does good ole Tobias do? Yup, rips out her heart. Dianna helps though, she thinks she can sacrifice herself and that Samkiel won’t care cause she’s being a dummy.
Samkiel is able to save her by shoving her heart back in and giving her his blood. But resurrection is a big no no. Unir drilled that into Samkiels head as a youngin’. But Sami’s in love so he does the thing he’s not supposed to do. Tobias gets away and takes the Book with him. Samkiel has given Dianna too much blood so he passes out and she flies them to a human’s house and compels them to let them stay.
Dianna falls asleep next to Samkiel and has a blood dream where she sees Unir die, the Gods War, and Samkiel using Oblivion and destroying Rashearim. When she wakes up, Samkiel had summoned Logan and was updating him, and she freaks out and says “You really are a World Ender.” Which is just rude Dianna, you know he has issues with that, geez read the room. She asks him about it and he tells her all about Oblivion and how he forged it, and how he is basically broken because of what he did.
Samkiel now wants to sneak into his own council to search for more ancient relics. He believes that there may be someone in his circle that cannot be trusted. He has Dianna shift into Imogen so they can gain access to certain areas. Unfortunately, they are sniffed out, literally, by Cameron. Dianna is able to fake being Imogen but Cameron smells a change in her, says she smells different, like cinnamon. But Samkiel distracts him and Cameron lets it go.
They go into a library and are doing some research when Samkiel has the brilliant idea to portal to go see the last Fate, Roccurrem. That name is long, let's call him … Reggie for short shall we? :)
Reggie tells them that they know what is in the Book - a way to kill Samkiel (who is supposed to be unkillable). He also tells them that Sami’s family is full of secrets, “secrets that far outstretch this world”. He also states that the realms will open again, which means Samkiel would die since he is the Guardian that keeps the realms in between worlds closed. Reggie is honestly no help, he speaks in riddles, so they apparate/portal/teleport/winnow back to library. Samkiel tells Dianna he has been having a recurring nightmare where Dianna dies and the words “this is how the world ends” gets repeated. He is afraid that if he dies, the realms will open, another world will end, and isn’t that all he is anyways, A World Ender?
They finally admit their feelings to each other.
Samkiel “What I feel for you is overwhelming, and I cannot stop it.” “I hate that you affect me so much, that you care so much when I do not deserve it.” “I do not deserve you.” “I can’t do this without you.” Dianna “I didn’t ask for this - to feel for you as much as I do.” “Regardless of what happens or what you decide, I will stand by your side. I will fight this fight with you. You will not be alone, and I will do all I can to keep you safe.”Logan interrupts their love talk and tells them that Neverra was taken and Gabby is missing.
Not sure if you remember or not, but messing with Gabby is BIG NO NO. Even the mere mention of a threat against Gabby causes Dianna to completely lose her shit. So to find out she is missing? Better watch out homies.
They went to the apartment where Gabby was staying. The TV turned on, to a news station, where both anchors were clearly dead but being controlled by Tobias. They were broadcasting this on every channel all around the world. Kaden was being interviewed by one of the dead anchors where Kaden was telling them that every supernatural being is real and basically how shitty of a leader Samkiel is. Once he is done with Samkiel he turns his attention to Dianna. Kaden says how Samkiel is a whore and he will grow sick of Dianna. Does she really think Sami and The Hand will accept her since she is a monster? He tells Dianna that he wants her by his side and he will forgive her and let her come home, but he has to teach her a lesson first. They spin the camera around and show the audience in which you can see Camilla and Ethan. Tobias comes out with a hooded figure, who turns out to be - Gabby.
Kaden says “Is there something you want to say to big sis?” Gabby “Remember…Remember that I love you.”
And then Kaden snaps her neck.
Dianna screams. Samkiel describes it as so loud and painful it shook the building. A scream to be heard through the realms. She shifted into a dragon (or maybe a wyvern..it just says wings, scales, tail, and breathes fire) and she took off through the ceiling knocking Samkiel through the walls with her tail.
“This is how the world ends. There will be a shuddering crack, an echo of what is lost and what cannot be healed. Then, Samkiel, you will know how the world ends.”