Godkiller (fallen Gods, #1)

The first book in a trilogy, the story is set in a world where gods are real beings sustained by worship and shrines. In the kingdom of Middren, gods once thrived alongside humans until a devastating conflict called the God War erupted in the coastal city of Blenraden. King Arren then banned all worship and empowered the veiga, professional godkillers, to destroy any deity that arises.

The novel opens fifteen years earlier in a coastal Talician village. Eleven-year-old Kissenna lives with her family under the protection of Osidisen, a sea god. When a fire god named Hseth rises to power across Talicia, the family's neighbors drug them, bind them in a cage at the hearth, and set the house ablaze as a sacrifice. Kissen gnaws through her ropes, but when Hseth manifests and collapses the roof, warped metal traps her right leg. Her father, Bern, severs the leg with hot metal, offers his own life to Osidisen in exchange for hers, and throws her into the sea. Kissen survives with burn scars, a missing leg, and a boon from Osidisen inscribed on her chest: a promise she has never used.

In the present day, Kissen is a veiga in her mid-twenties, equipped with a longsword made of briddite, a rare material capable of cutting gods' flesh, and a prosthetic leg. After killing a river god in the town of Ennerton, she meets twelve-year-old Inara Craier, daughter of the noblewoman Lady Lessa Craier. Inara carries Skediceth, called Skedi, a squirrel-sized god of white lies with antlers and feathered wings. Skedi appeared in Inara's cot five years earlier with no shrine and no memories, and the two are physically bound, unable to separate by more than twenty paces. Their connection gives Inara the ability to see emotions as shifting colors. Inara begs Kissen to help separate them without killing Skedi. After fighting off attackers, Kissen agrees to escort Inara home.

Meanwhile, Elogast, called Elo, a former knight commander living as a baker, receives a visit from King Arren, his closest friend since childhood. Elo left the king's service three years earlier over disagreements about the ban on gods. When Arren collapses, Elo discovers the truth: where the king's heart should be sits a nest of twigs cradling a dwindling flame, a gift from Hestra, the god of hearths, who saved Arren during the final battle against the god of war, Mertagh. The flame is fading. Arren wants Elo to travel to Blenraden, where shrines to powerful gods might still stand. Elo insists on going alone.

As Kissen rides Inara home, they discover the Craier manor engulfed in flames with no survivors. Armed riders boast of killing everyone in House Craier. Skedi hides Kissen and Inara with a whispered lie. Unable to abandon the orphaned girl, Kissen leads Inara to Lesscia, where her adopted family lives: Yatho, a wheelchair-using smith, and Telle, a deaf archivist. Telle discovers that a god might survive without its own shrine by entangling with a more powerful god's shrine, and the only place harboring such gods is Blenraden. Kissen wants to leave Inara safely behind, but the girl refuses. Telle makes Kissen promise never to abandon Inara.

They join a pilgrim train to Blenraden. Elo, traveling separately, has joined the same train. The train's organizer, an innkeeper named Canovan, secretly places a death curse on Elo during their negotiations, using the symbol of Lethen, a god of the ways. On the first night, a shadow demon kills a young bard before Kissen and Elo destroy it with briddite swords. Both realize the other carries a god-killing blade, silently acknowledging each other as veiga and knight. Over the following days, Skedi secretly manipulates the pilgrims' emotions, growing larger each time. A second demon attack on the fifth night scatters the group; the remaining pilgrims escape by riverboat, leaving Kissen, Elo, and Inara to travel on alone.

Skedi, terrified of Kissen, takes control of Inara's will and manipulates her and Elo into fleeing without the veiga. Kissen anticipates the move and confronts them. She and Elo fight until Inara breaks free of Skedi's hold with an unprecedented burst of force, demonstrating a latent ability to overpower a god's will. Ashamed, Skedi submits. The three renew their pact.

Kissen then spots curse-script, a form of magical writing, spreading from a symbol on Elo's shoulder. She identifies it as the death curse Canovan placed, which has been summoning the demons that double in number every four days. Inara recognizes the symbol from secret letters her mother kept, and Elo deduces that Lady Craier was working for the king against a noble rebellion and was killed for it. Their bond deepens on the descent toward Blenraden: Kissen and Elo grow closer, and Inara forgives Skedi after he risks his life to protect her in battle. Skedi tells Inara, "I choose you" (261).

They enter Blenraden through a secret tunnel and encounter wraith gods, faded beings clinging to fragments of their shrines. At the hot springs, Kissen summons Aan, a powerful river god, who explains that a covenant made by someone of Inara's blood bound Skedi to the girl, making her heart his home. Aan recognizes a unique power in Inara, calling her an unraveller, one capable of breaking a god's will. Privately, Elo learns that saving Arren requires a god's heart at the cost of one life for another. Kissen collects blessed water from the baths. Skedi overhears and warns Kissen, who confronts Elo. The confrontation forces both to reveal their deepest wounds: Elo confesses that Arren once died saving him before Hestra intervened, and Kissen reveals she was burned as a sacrifice to Hseth. Their conflict gives way to understanding, and they spend the night together.

Before dawn, Elo slips away to the cliffs above the city, where the only intact shrine belongs to Hseth. He bleeds onto the altar and rings the bell. The fire god manifests, and Arren appears in a body of twigs and flame. Arren reveals his true plan: He orchestrated everything to lure Elo to Blenraden, intending to merge with Hseth's power by sacrificing Elo's heart and becoming the first human to become a god. He confesses he burned the Craier manor because Lady Craier threatened to expose him. Hseth plunges her hand into Elo's chest.

Inara and Kissen reach the summit. Inara's shout and a burst of her unravelling power throw Hseth backward, freeing Elo. A chaotic battle erupts. Kissen pours the blessed water on Elo's wound, gives Inara her cloak of godkilling tools, and orders them to run. She stays to fight Hseth, calling it vengeance for her family, not sacrifice. Battling the fire god across the cliffs, Kissen names her family and their village of Senkørsa. When Hseth shatters her sword, Kissen seizes the god with briddite-plated gloves and leaps off the cliff, dragging Hseth into the sea.

Elo and Inara flee with help from Berrick and Batseder, fellow pilgrims who reached Blenraden independently. At camp, Elo collapses. As five shadow demons emerge, Inara focuses on the curse mark and pulls it from Elo's skin using her unravelling power. Skedi carries the extracted curse away, and the demons destroy each other fighting over it. Inara commits to traveling with Elo to find the rebellion and stop Arren.

In a final scene, Kissen sinks in the sea. Osidisen arrives and crushes Hseth. The sea god offers to save Kissen, but she refuses to surrender her father's promise, the last remnant of her family. Then, in what seems a miraculous moment, she hears Inara's voice urging her to keep her promise. Kissen relents, calls on Osidisen's boon, and the god saves her life.