A ​sky Beyond the Storm

The fourth and final installment of the An Ember in the Ashes quartet takes place in a fantasy world inspired by ancient Rome and the Middle East. The Martial Empire, a militaristic regime, has long oppressed the Scholars, an intellectual people whose ancestors once wielded great power. Alongside them live the desert-dwelling Tribes, the seafaring Mariners of the kingdom of Marinn, and supernatural beings called jinn, creatures of fire and shadow. At the center of the conflict is the Nightbringer, the immortal jinn king who has spent a thousand years seeking vengeance after Scholar kings imprisoned his people. In the previous book, the Nightbringer freed the jinn from the Waiting Place, a supernatural forest that serves as a waystation for the dead, governed by Mauth, the personification of Death.

As the novel opens, the Nightbringer commands his freed jinn and an allied Martial army led by Keris Veturia in a campaign of destruction across Marinn. Laia of Serra, a young Scholar woman, has allied with her brother Darin, the spy Musa of Adisa, and the Blood Shrike, Helene Aquilla, the Empire's highest military officer, after fleeing the fallen Martial capital of Antium. In Adisa, they seek military support from Princess Nikla for Emperor Zacharias, the infant nephew the Shrike protects. Laia infiltrates the palace using her invisibility magic but discovers Keris already negotiating a treaty that would re-enslave the Scholars. When Laia's assassination attempt fails, a dark power erupts from within her. The Jaduna, magic-wielding women, rescue Laia and reveal that an ancient entity called Rehmat has been dormant within their bloodlines for a thousand years. Rehmat emerges and amplifies Laia's powers. Fleeing Adisa by boat, Laia discovers she can extend her invisibility to cloak her companions, allowing them to escape.

Deep in the Waiting Place, Elias Veturius serves as the Soul Catcher, Mauth's human servant who passes ghosts to the other side. Mauth's magic has suppressed his emotions and memories. The Augur Cain, last survivor of the ancient order that stole jinn magic, enters the forest and restores the Soul Catcher's memories of Laia, Helene, and Keris, burning their names into his mind. Overwhelmed, the Soul Catcher kills Cain with a burst of Mauth's magic. Dying, Cain speaks prophecy: The Shrike, Laia, and the Soul Catcher form a triad, and if one fails, all fail.

When Keris's soldiers pursue Laia's group to the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher shelters them and shares Cain's prophecy. Laia heads south alone to seek information from the Kehannis, Tribal storytellers. The Blood Shrike returns to Delphinium, where assassins target the Emperor, supply lines are attacked by Karkaun barbarians led by the warlock Grímarr, and the Paters, senior Martial political leaders, waver in their support.

The Soul Catcher discovers rot in the Waiting Place: dead trees, lifeless soil, vanishing ghosts. A Fakira, or Tribal spiritual guide, tells him of the Sea of Suffering, a repository of human pain guarded by Mauth. Meanwhile, the jinn Khuri captures Laia and inadvertently reveals that no mortal-forged blade can kill a jinn. Laia deduces that the Nightbringer's scythe, made from the same glittering black metal as her chains, can kill jinn. During the battle of Aish, Laia escapes and seizes the scythe from the Nightbringer's back. The blade kills Khuri, and Elias carries Laia to safety by windwalking, a magic that allows him to transport people on the wind.

In the Sher Jinnaat, the jinn city within the Waiting Place, a jinn named Talis reveals the Nightbringer's true plan: He is feeding stolen ghosts to the Sea of Suffering, weakening Mauth's barrier to breach the wall between dimensions and destroy all life. When a flash flood nearly kills Laia, Rehmat saves her, but the Nightbringer discovers them. Rehmat identifies herself as the Nightbringer's queen, the jinn woman believed to have died a thousand years ago. She used blood magic to nest her soul within human bloodlines. Laia is furious but gradually accepts Rehmat's constraints. The Soul Catcher takes up his scims, or curved swords, and heads south.

The Blood Shrike leads a failed assassination attempt on Grímarr in occupied Antium; her friend Faris dies covering her escape. Equipped with shadow armor, the Shrike assaults Antium, distributes weapons to its residents, and kills Grímarr in single combat. Avitas Harper, the Shrike's second-in-command and love interest, nearly dies in the battle. Keris then assassinates the Shrike's sister, Empress Regent Livia, in the palace.

Laia and the Soul Catcher lead guerrilla raids against Keris's army in the Tribal desert, and during the battle of Nur, Laia steals the scythe again while Rehmat distracts the Nightbringer. The Nightbringer and Keris then conquer Marinn, killing Princess Nikla and King Irmand. The Soul Catcher proposes marching to the Sher Jinnaat to force the Nightbringer onto their ground, and the combined army enters the Waiting Place. On the eve of battle, Mamie Rila, the Kehanni of Tribe Saif, tells Laia the full Tale of the Nightbringer: his creation, love, betrayal, and vengeance. That night, Elias and Laia share their first night of intimacy. He completes words he once whispered to her in Sadhese, an ancient language: "You are my temple. You are my priest. You are my prayer. You are my release."

The battle begins at the jinn grove. Laia waits with the scythe. When the Nightbringer arrives, Darin charges in to protect Laia, and the Nightbringer breaks his neck. Consumed by grief, Laia kills the Nightbringer with the scythe, which is exactly what he wanted: His death releases his thousand years of pain into the Sea, breaching Mauth's barrier. His body dissolves into a vast cyclone that devours everything in its path. Elias shoves Laia toward the trees, but the maelstrom drags him in.

On the battlefield, the Shrike duels Keris. Harper throws the Shrike a blade, but Keris catches and hurls one back, piercing his heart. As Keris moves for the kill, the Shrike calls Keris "lovey," invoking Keris's dead mother. Keris freezes, and Mirra of Serra, Laia's mother, alive and in hiding since before the battle of Antium, slits Keris's throat.

Inside the Sea of Suffering, the Soul Catcher encounters the spirit of his father, Arius Harper, who asks whether the good Elias has done or the suffering will define him. Elias remembers his name and the meaning his grandfather, the Martial elder Quin Veturius, gave it: "always victorious." He fights his way back to the living.

Laia casts herself into the cyclone to reach the Nightbringer's shattered spirit. She calls him Nirbara (Forsaken), a name that captures his deepest truth, and holds him as he weeps. She calls Rehmat, who wraps the Nightbringer in binding ropes of golden light, draining his suffering and returning it to Mauth's dimension. The maelstrom dissolves. Rehmat whispers the meaning of her own name, "Mercy," and disappears.

Mirra volunteers to replace Elias as Soul Catcher, and Mauth accepts, freeing him. Laia, Elias, and the Shrike plead with the jinn for peace, and the Shrike vows no Martial shall cross the Waiting Place without jinn permission. Helene is crowned Empress, pledging equality for Scholars and Tribespeople and naming Zacharias as her sole heir. At the Moon Festival in the rebuilt city of Nur, Laia delivers her first story as a Kehanni-in-training: the full Tale of the Nightbringer. Elias presents Laia with an armlet bearing her family's names and asks her to share his life. She says yes.