The Serpent and the Wings of Night Book Summary
Check out this summary of the main points in Carissa Broadbent’s first book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, The Serpent and the Wings of Night. Oraya, the human daughter of the vampire king of the House of Night enters the high stakes, brutal magical tournament to obtain her own power. This is her only chance to no longer live as prey in the world of vampires.
If you haven’t read the entire book, I highly recommend you do to get the full effect of the world building, forbidden love, and vampire lore. This summary is meant to just refresh your memory and better understand my full book review.
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Prologue
The Nightborn king, Vincent, finds a little human girl in the rubble of a city while killing the Rishan rebels in a bloody civil war. Vincent calls her little serpent his little serpent and takes her back to his palace.
Part One: Dusk
Chapter 1
Oraya, the adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, is killing rogue vampires (breaking the law of attacking humans) in the human district of the city of Obitraes. Back at the palace, she visits her only friend, Ilana, an older human servant who’s also a blood vender, a human who lets vampires pay her to drink her blood for money and safety. Ilana gives Oraya a purple and gold scarf that reminded Ilana of her as Ilana tries to convince Oraya to leave the city for the upcoming deadly but legendary tournament, the Kejari trials.
Chapter 2
Oraya goes to train with her father Vincent, who’s a cold and ruthless vampire, but has been teaching her how to fight vampires and win the Kejari her entire life. The Kejari is a series of deadly trials, put on by the goddess of death, Nyaxia, and the winner gets one wish from the goddess herself. Vincent on the Kejari 200 years ago when he took over as king of the House of the Night, taking the throne back from the Rishan vampires and reigniting the civil war between the Rishan and Hiaj vampires.
Chapter 3
At the opening ball, Vincent takes Oraya around the ballroom, pointing out who her competitors and telling her their weaknesses. Among others, he points out Ibrihim Cain, whose been permanently disabled by his parents (common amongst immortal vampires who fear their children will overthrow them one day). As Oraya’s leaving, she notices a tall, broad vampire with dark red/black hair who turns and looks straight at her.
Chapter 4
Afterwards, Vincent tells her she doesn’t have to enter the tournament, but she wants to win and wish to be Vincent’s Coriatis, a magical connection that will give her Vincent’s power as well. Then Vincent cuts her hand, leading the blood dripping to a bowl as an offering to the goddess Nyaxia to join the Kejari. When Oraya wakes, she’s not in her room, but on the floor of an unknown room inside the Kejari.
Part Two: Full Moon
When Oraya first came to the palace with Vincent, she was terrified of everything and spent all her time hiding in her room. Vincent would sit in her room reading, but not acknowledge her at all. He tells her that he’ll never hurt her, but she’s right to be afraid because she’ll always be prey in the vampire world.
Chapter 5
Oraya realizes she’s in the moon palace, which was built and used only for the Kejari, but it’s so dark she can’t see anything. As she slowly moves through the hallways, she hears ice cream that she knows and realizes it was Ilana.
As she starts running towards the screaming, someone strong grabs her and holds her back because he says it’s too dangerous. But she stabs him in the thigh, runs off, and finds herself in a greenhouse never finding Ilana.
Chapter 6
Oraya stays in the greenhouse until the morning when the vampires can’t come in because of the sunlight, then goes back to the hallways lead her to Ilana’s body. Suddenly, she sees a vampire nearby passed out from eating too much blood, and Oraya stabs him in the heart because she’s so mad. Then, Oraya finds the purple and gold scarf on Ilana which she takes before burning Ilana’s body.
Chapter 7
After Oraya returns to the greenhouse, a shadowy trail leads her through the halls into a great room with about 50 other vampires, and on a balcony overlooking them stands the head priest of the church of Nyaxia and Vincent to announce the beginning of the deadly tournament. At the following feast, Oraya recognizes the vampire Raihn as the man at the ball looking at her, and his voice is the one that grabbed her last night telling her it was too dangerous.
Chapter 8
During the night, the contestants are allowed to leave the Moon palace, so that night Oraya leaves to meet Vincent. He uses a serum to heal the cuts on her hand. He also gives her two swords he had made specifically for her which hold poison inside them.
Back at the moon palace, she’s trying to find her way to the greenhouse when she runs right into Raihn who confronts her about stabbing him when he was just trying to save her. They banter for awhile, but he eventually lets her pass.
Chapter 9
Later, the contestants are magically transported to a colosseum with cheering spectators, and demon beasts start attacking. Near Oraya is Raihn who flies over the demons with his feathered wings (a sign he’s a Rishan vampire) and stabs one of the demons in the chest. The demon attacking Oraya flinches, and she realizes the pack are all tied to the one leader.
Chapter 10
Together, Raihn and Oraya kill the head demon, and the rest die, too. Their enclosure opens to a door out of the coliseum, but, before leaving, Raihn tells a woman in the next enclosure about killing the leader. Then, Raihn and Oraya leave through the door and find themselves back in the moon palace but still wounded.
Chapter 11
Back in the greenhouse, Oraya uses the last of the serum Vincent gave her to heal a deep gash on her side from a demon claw, but an arrow wound is still bleeding. Then, Raihn shows up with a bottle of healing serum, but Oraya keeps telling him to leave. Finally, he asks her to partner with him and his friend Mische for the coming challenges and says she can meet him at the top of the east tower if she agrees.
Chapter 12
Smelling her wounds, a vampire attacks, and Oraya pushes him into the greenhouse where the sun starts burning his skin. Her wounds are bleeding even more, and she decides the only way she can survive in the palace is with Raihn’s help. At the top of the stairs to the east tower, she collapses, and Raihn comes and lifts her into a room.
Part 3 waning moon
Five years after arriving in the castle, Oraya figured out that Vincent had taken her from Rishan territory. She asks Vincent if her family is still out there, but he says no. So, she finally asks him to turn her into a vampire, but he refuses to gamble with her life like that because two thirds of attempted turnings end in death instead.
Chapter 13
Oraya wakes up in an apartment with Mische and Raihn who have brought tons of food from the dining room back to the apartment. When Raihn answer the knocking at the door, it’s the leader of the Blood born vampires, the tall woman, who Raihn calls Angelika. She confronts him about the dead blood born vampire who attacked Oraya, and it turns into a physical fight that ultimately ends in a draw.
Chapter 14
Oraya goes out to meet Vincent again, and he gives her more healing potion and again warns her about her allies. When she returns to the apartment, Raihn is standing in front of an open window just before sunrise. When Oraya asks if it’s painful, he says not too much yet, but she ponders why he’d do that when Raihn suddenly says they’re starting training in the morning.
Chapter 15
For the next two weeks, they train together as a team. Raihn keeps coming closer trying to force her to admit she’s afraid of him, and Oraya keeps backing away because she won’t get close to any vampire. He pushes further, getting closer and closer until there’s a bang of bright light that pushes Oraya backwards as Raihn is pushed out the window.
Chapter 16
After Mische asks her about it, Oraya realizes she used magic for the first time to create the light. As Raihn comes flying back in the window, he’s mad she never told him about the magic and yells about her being entitled as the night born princess. In a shouting fight, they both storm out of the apartment.
Outside, Oraya runs into a vampire man smoking, and, the smell reminds her of Ilana, so she asks for one. The stranger agrees and says he recognizes her. He tells her that he won a lot of money betting on her to make it through the first trial.
Chapter 17
Back at the apartment with Mische, Oraya somewhat admits that she didn’t know how she used magic, and Mische offers to help work on it with her. As Oraya’s getting ready to go to sleep, she hears Raihn crash back in. She sneaks down the hall to eavesdrop and hears Mische admonishing him for the fight who admits it was all his fault.
Chapter 18
When they wake up that evening, Oraya, Raihn, and Mische follow the shadow trail to the great room with the other contestants when suddenly they’re back in the arena. Oraya is by herself in a maze that she realizes is supposed to symbolize Nyaxias journey to the underworld. Then Oraya ends up stabbing Ibrihim on her way through the maze.
Chapter 19
Moving through more of the maze and poppy fields while fighting off vampires, Oraya finds a little child next alive next to a dead human, so she carries her with to the next door. As another vampire attacks Oraya, Raihn fights off the vampire. As they see the final doorway, Angelika attacks, but Raihn defeats her as Oraya passes out into Raihn’s arms.
Chapter 20
Oraya wakes up back at the apartment, healed with Mische sitting over her who tells her only 29 contestants were left, and Ibrihim and Angelika survived. Later, Oraya goes to the human district and kills three rogue vampires. On a rooftop, Raihn surprises Oraya by flying up behind her, and Raihn tells her she’s doing a public service by killing these types of vampires.
Chapter 21
Raihn takes Oraya to part of the human districts to show her that he brought the little girl from trial to a house for human children. Oraya can’t help but show her disbelief because she thinks all vampires hate or at least disdain humans. Raihn tells Oraya he was a human before being turned into a vampire, something very rare in this city. Then, he suggests they train here in the human districts to learn how to actually fight together as a team.
Chapter 22
Oraya goes to visit Vincent and tells him about her burst of magic before the trial without telling her all the details. Vincent encourages her to lean into the magic and use it. Back at the Moon palace, Oraya runs into Raihn who’s standing in the light just before sunrise again, and he tells her they’re going to start their training in the human district tomorrow.
Part 4 Half Moon
At sixteen, Oraya noticed how beautiful vampires were. She met a young vampire man who she thought was flawless. He was a human who had been turned, and, eventually, she thought she might be in love with this boy.
Chapter 23
At first, fighting together in the human districts killing rogue vampire is awkward together, but she still follows him each night to the human district where their fighting gets better. Oraya also tries to practice her magic with Mische, but doesn’t make much progress.
Chapter 24
Raihn and Oraya go back to the human district to a human pub where Raihn goes to get them some beer and effortlessly blends into the crowd. When she asks, Raihn says it’s been a few hundred years since he was human, but he still comes to these places often.
Then, Oraya ask why he entered the Kejari. Raihn says there’s a lot of people counting on him, this was his last option, and Mische is actually the one who forced him to enter. Suddenly, there’s an explosion that rocks the pub.
Chapter 25
They run outside to see part of the moon palace has crumbled and is now on fire. As a fly back to the moon palace together, Oraya notices the fire is blue meaning it’s from the night born vampires and assumes it has to be the Rishan. Raihn flys them into their apartment where multiple demons created by Nightborn magic are around Mische’s body.
Then, Raihn uses magic to kill them, and Oraya convinces him to fly Mische down and come back for her. She uses her magic to kill the demons and blast back the night fire just before Raihn is there to fly her out.
Chapter 26
When Vincent and his guards finally stop the fire, the contestants go back to the moon palace, and Mische is still unconscious. Then, Jasmine shows up at their door to take Raihn for questioning with Vincent even though Oraya tries to stop her. Oraya gives Mische the last of the medicine from Vincent because Mische still has to compete in the next trial.
Chapter 27
At their meeting, Oraya and Vincent discuss the possibility of a new Rishan heir, someone with the power to overthrow Vincent. Two hundred years ago, Vincent used his gifted power from Nyaxia to kill everyone in the Rishan heir line. But eventually, Nyaxia always bestows the power on another Rishan to continue the squabbles between her children.
After the meeting, Oraya goes to Nyaxia’s temple to visit the minister. She asks him if there’s anything she can give in exchange for Mische not competing in the trial. The minister suggests an offering of blood, so Oraya lets him drink her blood from her wrist.
Chapter 28
Back at their apartment in the moon palace, Oraya stitches up the wounds on Raihn’s back from his interrogation with Jasmine. Raihn is telling Oraya that Mische used to be a human priestess for the sun goddess Atroxis and that’s why she could wield his magic. The next night, Raihn and Oraya are summoned to the Great Room for the trial.
Chapter 29
Oraya wakes to realize she can hear Raihn in her mind and feel everything he’s feeling. Stuck in separate stone cells, Oraya finds a latch at the top of the cell, and her door opens to the colosseum that’s full of monsters already ripping each other apart. On the other side of the monsters is a raised golden door Oraya knows is the goal. Then, she sees through Raihn’s eyes that he came out on the other side of the arena.
They both start fighting their way to the doors and each other. She realizes that partners are all linked, so she comes after the partner of the vampire attacking Raihn. They’re almost to the doors when Angelika attacks Raihn. Oraya goes after her partner Ivan, but after a fight, Ivan throws Oraya into the middle of the monsters.
Chapter 30
Oraya can’t get out from under the monsters attacking her when she sees from Raihn’s point of view that he’s running for her. Then, she is commanding nightfire all around her which consumes all the monsters and contestants around her. Oraya is able to make it up the path to the door, and everything around Oraya fades away as she hugs Raihn as they step through the door back into the night palace.
Part 5 Crescent Moon
At sixteen after a few months of dating, Oraya and the vampire boy decide to get intimate, but the boy losses control and falls into bloodlust. Oraya tries to escape as he’s sucking her blood, but he’s too strong. Finally, through the pain, she’s able to smash a candler from the bedside table over his head, and Oraya is able to run away and get to Vincent’s room.
Chapter 31
Eleven contestants made it through the trial, including Ibrihim, Ivan, and Angelika. They’re back in the Great Room of the moon palace where the minister tells them that there will be a grand feast in their honor. Back in their room, Raihn and Oraya both know that going forward they’re no longer allies, so Raihn leaves to find another room. Then, the only piece of clothing Oraya can find in her room is a beautiful but revealing violet dress for the ball.
Chapter 32
At the ball, Vincent finds Oraya to ask her to dance, and Vincent tells Oraya he was proud of her during the trial. When the dance is over, she goes outside to find Angelika and Ivan talking to the mysterious vampire that Oraya met and shared a cigarette with by the river who’s a Bloodborne vampire. He introduces himself as Septimus just as Raihn comes up behind her.
As Raihn guides her away, he says Septimus may be trying to form alliances because it’s so hard for a Bloodborne vampire to win the Kejari. Nyaxia cursed the House of Blood over a thousand years ago because they tried to turn against her. Now she didn’t even like them and eventually they all lost their minds instead of being immortal like the other vampires.
Chapter 33
Oraya and Raihn end up in the human district drinking beer on a rooftop for awhile before walking back towards the Moon Palace. Raihn exposes his neck to Oraya, and she realizes he’s giving her a chance to kill him with her dagger. She tells him she’s not afraid, and she’s not going to kill him tonight.
Chapter 34
When they get back to the moon palace, they go to the same apartment. One day, Raihn is cooking in the apartment to Orayas surprise. But when Oraya tastes the food, she has to admit he’s a great cook.
Chapter 35
When Raihn flies Oraya to a farmhouse outside the city, they’re (not very kindly) greeted by a couple named Cairis and Ketura. After talking with Mische for awhile who’s improving, Raihn flies Oraya back to the city. When asking who the couple was, Raihn says they’re old colleagues.
Chapter 36
The next night when the doors are locked and the food is gone, they figure the Moon Palace is trying to starve the vampires until the next trial. After two weeks, Raihn is visibly agitated, and Oraya realizes he’s hungry without blood. Suddenly, Oraya says she should go to another room, but Raihn volunteers to leave and goes to find another room.
Chapter 37
When Oraya wakes up in a forest, right away a vampire in bloodlust attacks her, but Oraya stabs him in the heart.Oraya finds Riahn in bloodlust who attacks her at first, but she pins him to the ground. As Oraya shouts at him, he comes back to himself, but they only make it a few steps before Oraya realizes Raihn is so starving and injured he won’t get far.
Chapter 38
They find a nearby cave as the sun is starting to come up, but Raihn doesn’t think he’ll survive much longer. Suddenly, Oraya decides to let Raihn drink her blood even though he keeps refusing. Raihn pulls Oraya onto his lap and puts her danger in her hands pointed at his chest as he bites her. Eventually, Raihn pulls away from the bite, and when he does Oraya kisses him.
Chapter 39
After the kiss and resting from blood loss, Raihn and Oraya know they need to find their way out of this forest. Raihn uses his great eyesight to see what looks like a gold arch across the forest, but the forest has acidic smoke that burns their skin. Oraya figures out the smoke come out of the ground every 90 seconds, so Raihn steals a protective clock from another vampire before they set out.
Chapter 40
Raihn flies them as fast as he can for close to 90 seconds, and then they stop to shelter under the cloak. After a few more times of this, wolves attack them and injure Raihn before they both kill the wolves. Looking back they see the forest, Raihn tells Oraya this is the ruined city of Salinae (where Vincent originally found her), and Vincent must have recently destroyed it.
Chapter 41
Raihn and Oraya get into a fight with Angelika and Ivan, and Raihn throws Ivan down the rocks into the rising smoke. Raihn and Oraya hurtle through the arch that brings them into the colosseum in front of the minister who tells them that the next trial, normally three weeks away, will now happen tomorrow. When asked why, the minister tells that Nyaxia recognizes that the city may not be standing in three weeks because of the war between the Rishan and Hiaj.
Part 6 New Moon
Two days after her supposed lover attacked her, Vincent comes to Oraya’s room saying he has a present for her. He brings her to his throne room when her lover is tied up and kneeling on the floor. Then, Oraya stabs him through the heart, the first time she’s killed anybody.
Chapter 42
As they’re walking back to their apartment in the moon palace, Raihn and Oraya see that Angelika and Ibrihim are the last contestants that made it. Oraya and Raihn get into an argument about Vincent and the city of Salinae. She storms out of the apartment and keeps walking until she gets to Vincent’s castle.
Chapter 43
Oraya immediately confronts Vincent about the destroyed city, but he says he had to for the war. They argue over the destruction, and finally Oraya storms out to the human districts where she starts killing rogue vampires again. When Raihn finds her there, she’s so angry and confused that she stops thinking and grabs Raihn’s shoulders to kiss him.
Chapter 44
Then, Raihn flies them back to the Moon Palace, and Oraya admits that all she wants before one or both of them most likely dies in the final trial is to sleep with Raihn. Raihn carries her into his room and into his bed. They finally do sleep together, multiple times, before falling asleep in each others arms.
Chapter 45
During their night together, Raihn tells Oraya that as a human he was a guard on a ship that got shipwrecked when he washed up on the shores of the House of Night, and a powerful vampire found him. Raihn agreed to be turned because he had a wife and baby on the way he wanted to live for, but, then, the vampire abused him for years. Eventually he ran away but felt guilty about those left behind, so Mische forced him to enter the Kejari by trying to follow her.
Chapter 46
The next day, Oraya finds herself in the arena again and has to fight three magical corpses. She has a hard time beating them because they’re already dead, so they have to be completely dismantled. As she defeats them and moves to the next enclosure, she has to dodge an arrow from Ibrihim, and, eventually during the fight, Oraya stabs him in the heart.
Chapter 47
When Oraya, Raihn, and Angelika make it to the last enclosure together, Angelika viciously attacks Oraya and deflects all of Raihn’s attacks. After looking into the crowd, Angelika hesitates enough for Oraya to kill her. Then, Oraya looks at Raihn who gives her a small nod encouraging her to attack.
Chapter 48
After hesitating at first, both Raihn and Oraya come at each other as hard as they can, and eventually Oraya pins him to the ground. But Oraya suddenly realizes the Raihn had been baiting her to fight harder by fighting harder himself. Oraya isn’t sure if she pushes the blade in or Raihn pulls it into his chest, but she feels the blade pierce his heart as he slackens beneath her and dies.
Chapter 49
As she hears the crowd roar, Oraya is sure that Raihn pulled the blade because she couldn’t have done that. She distantly hears the Minister say the Kejari is over, but Oraya just grabs Raihn and starts crying. She looks up to see the stars brighten and smoke coming down.
Chapter 50
Nyaxia asks Oraya what her wish is, and Nyaxia looks to Raihn’s body and tells Oraya she knows what it’s like to grieve for half your soul. And as she looks at Vincent, Oraya says that her wish is that she wishes Raihn would have won. Vincent’s face goes white, and Nyaxia just laughs.
Chapter 51
When Raihn wakes up, Oraya could cry with relief that it was definitely worth it until Raihn looks at her with apology. When Nyaxia asks Raihn for his wish, he says he wishes to undo Vincent’s wish and restore the power to the Rishan heir, to himself. Soldiers pour in, but all Oraya sees is Raihn use his magic to kill Vincent.
Chapter 52
As Oraya makes it to Vincent’s body, he’s barely alive as he whispers an apology to Oraya as well as that he loves her. Suddenly, Oraya feels a burning sensation on her chest and neck. Raihn looks at her in horror as she looks down to see a red mark forming on her skin, the mark of the Hiaj heir who inherits all her father’s power.
Part 7 Night
Chapter 53
Oraya’s in disbelief that she could be an heir because she’s a human and not even Vincent’s actual blood. Raihn tells the soldiers that he’s going to keep Oraya alive so they don’t have to find the next heir and, then, marry her to keep her as a slave. As Oraya struggles against him, Raihn keeps apologizing and, eventually, uses magic to put her to sleep.
Chapter 54
When Oraya wakes up in her old bedroom in the castle, Raihn apologizes for what he said in the arena, but it was the only way to save her life from the other Rishan who want her dead. Raihn tells her that the man who changed him was the old Rishan king that Vincent usurped. When the king was killed and the Rishan heir mark appeared on his skin, he tried to burn it off.
Then, Raihn explains that Septimus approached him with the promise of soldiers to help defeat Vincent’s soldiers in exchange for one favor which Raihn refused until during the last trial. Raihn made the deal because he would ensure Oraya won, became Vincent’s coriatis with her wish, and they wouldn’t need have the rebellion anyways. Then, Raihn tells her that the only way to keep her alive is to get married because no one will kill his queen. Oraya knows he’s right, but still tries to refuse because she’s so mad.
Chapter 55
Raihn brings a priestess to Oraya’s room who performs the ceremony, but after Oraya kicks him out and tells him that she wants to be alone because she’s too confused. In the middle of the night when she’s laying on her bed, Jesmine, Vincent’s general, appears at her window and tells Oraya that her and whats left of the Hiaj are ready to fight for her. Oraya has them retreat until they have a better plan.
Chapter 56
The next morning, Raihn comes to get Oraya from her room and tells her they’re going to work. When she asks what they’re going to do now, Raihn jokingly says build a new kingdom. For the first time since the end of the Kejari, Oraya is a little glad to be with Raihn.
Read the Full Book Review
Now that you’re reminded of the main points of the book, read my full book review including recommendations of what to read next. If you did like this book, move on the to the second book, Ashes and The Star-Cursed King. The next book continues the story of Oraya and Raihn as try to unite the vampire factions and fight off their new greatest competition.
Read my summary of the next book here and the book review here.
There will be future books in the series exploring more of the vampire kingdoms as well, but they’re still in the works. You can find the book here.
