City of Souls and Sinners

The second installment in the House of Devils series picks up three weeks after the catastrophic events of City of Gods and Monsters, in which the explosion of a replica of the Arcanum Well, a legendary life-granting magical artifact, leveled the city of Angelthene, only to be reversed by a wish from the god Tempus the Liar. Loren Calla, a human who secretly possesses the Well's powers, and her boyfriend Darien Cassel, the leader of a Darkslayer bounty-hunting circle called the Seven Devils, are the only people with full memory of the disaster. Loren is adjusting to the revelation that Erasmus Sophronia, the immortal creator of the Well, is her biological father.

At Angelthene Academy for Magic, Loren endures routine bullying as one of the few human students but shows new assertiveness. Her relationship with Darien deepens, though he is soon summoned to the Magical Protections Unit (MPU), where Detective Finn Solace proposes a deal: if Darien helps dismantle the illegal Blood Stave weapons trade his deceased father Randal Slade ran, the Devils will be spared prosecution. Darien would need to assume Randal's position as leader of all Darkslaying houses. The Devils vote on the proposition, but because the vote requires unanimity, Darien's twin sister Ivyana's lone dissent kills the motion, leaving them vulnerable.

Meanwhile, three Devils discover a mysterious young woman on the road who speaks only Ilevyn, an ancient dead language. She has blue-tinted nailbeds and lips and cuts a tracking device from her own arm. They bring her to Hell's Gate, the Devils' mansion, where she is given the name Blue and claims she was brought to Angelthene by people searching for a "colored bird." Events escalate when Gaven Payne, one of Randal's former arms-dealing partners, threatens to kill Darien, his Devils, and Loren unless Darien takes over Randal's role in the weapons operation. Gaven's intimate knowledge of their home and Loren's movements reverses Ivy's vote, and Darien accepts Finn's deal.

Darien visits the House of Souls, Malakai Delaney's base, to reconcile with the rival leader of the Reapers, another Darkslaying circle. He offers Malakai the position of Right Hand, his second-in-command, and reveals his desire to leave Darkslaying entirely. Loren steps between the two men mid-fight, earning Malakai's grudging respect, and the Reaper accepts the alliance.

Loren's troubles compound when a mysterious student reveals himself as Klay Lucent, son of Quinton Lucent, the Terran Imperator and the most powerful political figure in the world. Klay takes Loren to tunnels beneath Angelthene Boulevard, where the Well replica's explosion tore open a shimmering barrier called the Veil, the divide between the living world and Spirit Terra, the realm of the dead. The imperator orders Loren to find the real Arcanum Well in Spirit Terra, threatening to kill everyone she loves if she refuses. He places a spell on her that physically prevents her from speaking about any of it.

Trapped and unable to communicate, Loren pushes Darien away, using the shock of having witnessed a violent interrogation as justification. The separation devastates Darien, a hellseher, a type of magic-wielding immortal, who spirals into increasingly severe Surges, episodes of uncontrollable rage tied to his magic. He fights at underground rings through the night, unable to rest.

During their time apart, Loren secretly begins magic lessons with Agatha, a hedgewitch who previously treated Darien for his Surges, and purchases Venom, an illegal drug that amplifies magic, to awaken her dormant powers. Focusing on her love for Darien, she summons her rainbow aura for the first time since the disaster. She also learns from the Widow, a giant spider dwelling in a Crossroads between worlds, that her mother was a goddess who cast the original Veil to protect mortals, and that Loren inherited the ability to manipulate the barrier. The imperator forces her into Spirit Terra multiple times, where she deliberately misleads his group while stealing Life Clock syringes, injections that keep living beings alive in the realm of the dead.

Darien runs Gaven's weapons routes while feeding intelligence to Finn. He and Malakai infiltrate Gaven's warehouse and discover that instead of Blood Staves, the briefcases contain glass cylinders filled with aura magic in seven colors, with blue conspicuously absent. Blue identifies the contents by their ancient names, corresponding to realms within Spirit Terra. Arthur J. Kind, a former Lucent Enterprises weapons technician and ally of the Devils, translates one half of the Dominus Volumen, an ancient scroll, confirming that Spirit Terra is divided into realms of Astral Magic, each associated with a color. Darien also begins seeing shadowy, skull-headed creatures no one else can perceive, though an optometrist finds nothing wrong with his vision. Separately, Tanner Atlas, one of the Devils, discovers that Detective Nolan, the MPU head who authorized the deal, does not exist; Finn fabricated the scenario to avenge his own son, who died in a Blood Stave attack.

The crisis peaks when Darien visits the Widow and purchases a potion to break the spell on Loren's tongue, paying with a taste of his aura. He breaks into the academy at night, and Loren leads him through a weak spot in the Veil into Spirit Terra, showing him the truth she could not speak. The next day, he gives her the potion, and she tells the Devils everything: the imperator's blackmail, the spell, and that Erasmus and his assistant Cyra are being held hostage.

On the night of a school dance, a Blood Moon rises and the city's forcefield fails. A massive skull-headed demon attacks a carnival on Angelthene Boulevard, drawn to Loren's activated magic. Darien kills it but collapses. Someone disguised as Erasmus, actually Johnathon Kyle of Lucent Enterprises, lures Loren from school. The imperator's men drug her and force her to weaken the Veil in Spirit Terra. She sends Singer, her bonded spirit-animal Familiar, to steal the imperator's taser trigger, freezes everyone with a burst of her magic, and escapes.

Loren climbs the Control Tower and pours her aura into its power crystal, restoring the city's forcefield as a dome of rainbow light. In the tunnels below, Darien, his cousin Travis Devlin, and Malakai discover they share visible shadow magic capable of killing the otherwise impenetrable demons. They hold the line until Loren arrives to find Darien dying from a poisoned wound. She heals him by absorbing his injuries, then pours her remaining magic into the pillars flanking the Veil, sealing the gate. Her heart stops.

Two of Malakai's Reapers draw guns, demanding Loren be handed over to cure Malakai's sister Jewels of the Tricking, a fatal magical disease. Malakai shoots them dead, choosing his alliance with Darien. Darien injects Loren with a Life Clock syringe, restarting her heart, but she falls into a coma.

While Loren lies unconscious, Darien learns that Blackbird 88 Above, his late mother's restaurant, has been destroyed by raw magic. Overwhelmed by grief and a Surge, he is arrested and kills everyone in the holding cell during his episode. In the wreckage, he finds an emerald ring identifying who ordered the arson. He then visits the Pale Man at the Chalk Door, the creature's Crossroads domain, who delivers a prophecy: "You must die, Devil of Hell's Gate. You must die, so that she can live."

An epilogue introduces Roman Devlin, Travis's older brother and head of a Darkslaying organization called the Shadowmasters in the city of Yveswich, managing his own Surges in a Caliginous Chamber, a zero-gravity containment space. The novel ends with Loren still comatose, Darien keeping vigil, and the threats from the imperator, Gaven, and the weakened Veil remaining unresolved.