The Serpent and the Wings of Night

Back in the present moment, Angelika stumbles into the Moon Palace as the fourth and final remaining contestant. Oraya reels at the realization of what Vincent has done to her people, even as his voice in her head convinces her that he did what he had to do. When Raihn calls Vincent a monster and attempts to convince Oraya of her father’s unforgivable brutality, she still defends him, “like every attack against his character struck [her], too” (373). Oraya leaves to confront Vincent.

Oraya storms into Vincent’s castle and confronts him about Salinae. Her anger boils over when she learns that Vincent had planned to keep the destruction a secret from her. She uses the fact that she’s human as a reason for her anger. Furious with her, Vincent shows her where he keeps humans for feeding, referring to them as “livestock.” Oraya finally realizes that while her father may feel some warped version of love for her, it was only “in spite of what [she] was,” for in truth, he only “[l]oved the parts of [her] that he could make like him” (380). Realizing this, she tells him that she’s ashamed of him.

Oraya goes to the human slums and kills four vampires before Raihn interrupts her. He has come to make sure she returns to the Moon Palace before dawn, which is rapidly approaching. If she doesn’t return, she’ll be disqualified. When she asks why he cares, he repeats it incredulously, as if the answer should be obvious—how much he cares for her. She kisses him in response.

Raihn eagerly reciprocates, submitting to their mutual heated attraction. He flies her back to the Moon Palace just as the dawn comes, and when they’re safely inside their apartment, they give in fully to their sexual desires.

Raihn and Oraya spend their last night together in a combination of emotional intimacy and sex, and she learns the details of his human past. As a human, he had been married with a child on the way—before the Rishan King Turned him and enslaved him. While enslaved, he fell in love with the king’s wife, Nessanyn, but she died when Vincent stole the throne, unwilling to leave the Rishan King to flee with Raihn. Together, they make a promise to both fight to the end of the Kejari, no matter whose blood they have to spill. When night comes, they’re summoned to the great hall for the last trial, where a doorway awaits.

In the arena, Oraya finds herself trapped in a room with three figures impersonating three of the gods—Atroxus, the fire god; Ix with her arrows, the goddess of sex and fertility; and Kajmar, the god of seduction, art, beauty, and music. She battles them, felling them one by one. After the last one falls, a door opens to the colosseum. She and Ibrihim are the first to enter and duel to the death. Oraya admires how hard he has fought and realizes that “[m]aybe [they] were the same. Both of [them] had been raised in a world that had hobbled [them]. […] Both of [them] had everything to hate” (424). He fights valiantly before succumbing to Oraya’s blade.

As Ibrahim dies, Raihn and Angelika enter the colosseum. Angelika attacks Oraya relentlessly, deflecting Raihn’s attempts at distraction with ease. As Angelika readies for the killing blow, Oraya’s gaze slides to Raihn. He’s staring into the crowd “as if pleading with someone and hating every second of it” (428), before nodding in acquiescence. It’s revealed in Chapter 54 that Raihn has just pleaded with the House of Blood prince for Oraya’s life. Septimus silently conveys an order for Angelika to relent, giving Oraya the opportunity to stab her in the chest. With Oraya and Raihn as the only two left standing, Oraya keeps their promise not to stop fighting and braces herself as Raihn makes the first move.

Raihn and Oraya battle each other, but at first they hold back, unable to brave landing a killing blow. Oraya gains the advantage, pinning Raihn beneath her with her blade to his chest. When he smirks at her, she realizes that “he had been baiting [her] […] He had been fighting [her] so hard to make [her] fight back with just as much strength” (434). She tries to convince herself to kill him—for the power she needs to become more than human, to help people. Just as she begins to pull away, unable to end him, his hand tightens over hers, forcing the blade into his own chest.

Oraya mourns Raihn’s death. She has “gotten everything [she’d] ever wanted. All [her] greatest dreams fulfilled” (436), yet she’s not willing to pay the price. Though she never cried over Ilana’s death, or when she killed her first love, she cries now as Nyaxia appears in the arena.

Oraya releases Raihn’s lifeless body as Nyaxia asks for her wish. Oraya’s mind whirls at the grief of what she’s done to get to this point. Despite her success, she finds herself wondering if power, strength, and the potential absence of fear she’s been seeking since childhood is worth losing Raihn. Vincent and Nyaxia had done the same thing when the time came—had understood that “[l]ove was a sacrifice at the altar of power” (442). Oraya feels human as she weighs her desires—which sway in the way of her heart—and ultimately wishes that Raihn had won.

Nyaxia grants her wish, bringing Raihn back to life. Instead of relief, his expression transforms into one of anguish as he regards Oraya and Nyaxia. With an apologetic glance toward Oraya, Raihn approaches Nyaxia and wishes for the power of the Rishan Nightborn King to be restored to him, as the Heir to the Rishan line. Oraya fights against those who hold her back and can only watch as Raihn uses his power to kill her father.

Oraya rushes to Vincent’s fallen body, and in his last moments, he finally professes his love for her out loud. She doesn’t reciprocate the words fast enough, and he dies never hearing them. Her grief transforms into anger, and she lashes out with Nightfire even as Raihn drags her away. He attempts to comfort her, but “[she] hated him. [She] was ready to die for him and he killed [her] father, and he lied to [her]” (451). Rishan warriors flood the area as a burning begins on her chest. Red ink spreads over it, revealing an Heir mark.

Oraya is unable to fathom how having the Heir Mark is possible. When Rishan soldiers throughout the crowd demand her blood, Raihn turns vicious and cold. He explains that he’ll take her as his queen and torture her, as a way to spurn Vincent long after his death. Oraya is horrified by his performance, not knowing which version of Raihn is the real one. The vampires relent because they collectively love “sex and bloodshed […] pain and power” (456). Oraya fights Raihn as he drags her away from the arena; all around them are the sounds of Rishan warriors slaughtering Hiaj spectators who resist. Out of earshot from the others, Raihn apologizes to her profusely, but Oraya only responds with hatred as he uses his magic to render her unconscious.

Oraya awakens in her old room, and when Raihn enters, she puts space between them. Raihn reveals that he was Turned by Neculai Vasarus—the Rishan king who preceded Vincent. When Vincent murdered Neculai, the Heir mark appeared on Raihn. He tried to burn it away but eventually realized that he could use that power to remake the House of Night into something better. He admits that he entered the Kejari to steal the crown, but instead of using her for information on Vincent as he intended, he found himself falling in love with her.

Raihn reveals that Septimus offered him the House of Blood’s forces for his pursuits, and while he initially declined, he accepted Septimus’s help at the end of the Kejari to prevent Angelika from killing Oraya. He was willing to give up his pursuit of the crown and die for Oraya, believing that she would enact change on her own if she won the Kejari. But when she saved him, he had to honor his deal and seize the crown. Oraya learns that the Heir Mark appeared because she is Vincent’s part human biological daughter. Raihn promises that they’ll find more answers after the wedding, but Oraya refuses to marry him. He insists that marriage is the only way to save her from being executed.

Raihn recites his marriage vows before the priestess, giving Oraya his blood, his soul, and his heart, yet Oraya can’t bring herself to promise her heart to him. Raihn allows the priestess to marry them without her promise. Oraya is thankful for this small reprieve, because even though she “had lost [her] autonomy, [her] name, [her] blood […] at least [she] had kept [her] heart” (472).

Vincent’s Head of War, Jesmine, sneaks up to Oraya’s window and swears her loyalty to Oraya as the Nightborn Hiaj Heir. She has gathered their military outside the city, waiting for Oraya’s orders, but Oraya plans to gain more intel before issuing an attack. Jesmine warns Oraya that she and Raihn have many enemies. Not many are willing to accept a human Heir, but they’re also not willing to follow Raihn, who was once enslaved to the former Rishan king.

Oraya and Raihn meet with Rishan nobility in the throne room. They regard her with disdain, an attitude with which she is intimately familiar, except this time, she is keenly aware that “[t]hese people wanted to kill [her] not because [she] was weak, but because [she] was powerful” (479). While Raihn is occupied, Septimus approaches Oraya with an offer of friendship. He indicates that he knows about her vampire hunting and implies that his goals are similar to hers and claims that the House of Blood vampires have been taken advantage of just as the humans have. Raihn reappears at her side, and she flinches at his touch, but when they both realize they’re afraid of what comes next—of the enemies that now surround them at every turn—she lets him take her hand. She is angry at his betrayal, but she hates him and loves him simultaneously.