Benji watches Brother Hutch shoot and kill his father as they attempt to escape New Nazareth together.

Brother Hutch and the Angels recapture Benji on the corpse-covered bridge leading out of New Nazareth.

Snipers shoot the Angels surrounding Benji, and he meets Nick, a teenage boy armed with a rifle.

Nick and Erin offer Benji a choice: leave on his own or stay at the ALC and help fight the Angels.

Benji joins Nick, Cormac, and Salvador on a trip to meet the Vanguard for the first supply exchange.

The ALC holds a funeral for Trevor, the first funeral Benji has ever been permitted to attend.

Nick watches Benji successfully command a Grace to stop attacking him and invites Benji to join the Watch.

The Watch infiltrates the church and kills fourteen Angels in a carefully planned ambush attack.

Benji encounters Theo inside the church during the attack, kisses him, and promises to come back for him.

The ALC is set on fire by Angels, and Benji commands Graces to attack the intruders and defend his friends.

While bandaging Benji's wounds after the fire, Nick removes his shirt and reveals Angel wings tattooed on his back.

Benji returns to the church pretending to want to come home, allowing Theo to escort him to New Nazareth.

Benji is taken to the river and cut the same ways Jesus was in a cult cleansing ritual, and his wings grow in.

Benji refuses the surprise forced wedding to Theo, and the Watch arrives and begins shooting the Angels.

Benji stabs Theo in a final confrontation and Nick shoots Theo dead, ending the battle for the ALC.

Benji escapes New Nazareth after watching his father shot dead, only to be recaptured by the Angels before snipers intervene and Nick brings him to the ALC. He chooses to stay and fight alongside the Watch, joining an ambush at a cult church where he unexpectedly reunites with his former love Theo. The ALC is burned down in retaliation, exposing Nick's hidden past as a former cult member and pushing Benji to devise a plan to infiltrate New Nazareth from within. Pretending to return willingly, Benji is taken back and subjected to a brutal cleansing ritual that completes his transformation into Seraph and leaves him too weak to fight back. On the morning of a surprise forced wedding, Benji refuses and the Watch launches a devastating attack on the Angels. Benji and Nick kill Theo in a final confrontation, and Benji discovers for the first time what it feels like to truly have a home and family.

The essential plot from escape to final battle.

Benji encounters a Grace on the bridge and chooses not to weaponize it against the Angels hunting him.

Benji wakes up at the ALC and meets Salvador, the first trans person he has ever encountered in his life.

Benji volunteers for cleaning duty at the ALC and tries coffee for the first time, finding it horrid.

Benji corrects a Vanguard member who misgenders him and makes the final decision to stay with the ALC.

Benji and Trevor's partner Alex get into a violent fight at the funeral, and Benji nearly suffocates Alex.

A chapter from Nick's point of view reveals he privately calls Benji 'it' and plans to sacrifice him to the Vanguard if needed.

Nick and Benji share a meal of deer together the night before the Watch's church attack.

The Watch discovers two of the Angels killed at the church were young children, sparking a fierce moral argument between Erin and Nick.

A Seraph canine tooth grows into Benji's gums and he unsuccessfully attempts to pull it out with pliers.

Feeling guilty, Benji steals food and supplies from the ALC to secretly bring to Theo at the church.

An infected girl appears at the second Vanguard supply exchange and melts and explodes all over Benji.

Benji rushes back into the burning ALC and rescues Cormac, pulling him safely out of the flames.

Benji confesses to Nick and Erin that he secretly visited Theo twice and believes Theo is responsible for the fire.

The Angels keep Benji in a sealed chamber at New Nazareth and run tests on his ability to control Graces.

After the battle ends, the Watch reunites with Benji and celebrates their newfound freedom from the Vanguard's control.

From the moment Benji reaches the bridge outside New Nazareth, encountering the Graces and the full devastation the cult has unleashed, smaller discoveries begin reshaping his understanding of the world. At the ALC, Benji experiences a series of firsts — meeting other trans people, attending a funeral, correcting someone who misgenders him — as he slowly adjusts to a life without the cult's rules. A rare chapter from Nick's perspective exposes a colder manipulation behind his welcoming face, as he privately plans to use Benji as a sacrificial offering to the Vanguard. The Watch's church attack carries a hidden moral cost in the deaths of two young children, and Benji's body continues transforming in painful and uncontrollable ways. A chaotic second Vanguard exchange and the fiery destruction of the ALC force Benji into acts of courage that begin to earn him real belonging among the Watch. After the climactic battle, the group emerges victorious and finally free from the Vanguard's exploitative hold.

The details and discoveries that shaped the story.

Benji sneaks out of the ALC alone at night to find a Grace and prove to himself that he can stay in control.

Benji confesses to Salvador that his true reason for joining the Watch is revenge for his father's murder.

Benji has a vivid vision of his future self as Seraph with six wings while positioned on the church balcony during the attack.

Benji wills himself into a waking vision and chases the image of Seraph across the fields of New Nazareth.

Cormac reveals to Benji in anger that Nick has been calling him 'it' behind his back.

Benji confronts Nick directly about calling him 'it,' and Nick silently hands Benji a piece of paper that reads 'I'm sorry.'

Benji visits Theo a second time and escapes Theo's possessive grip, becoming certain he wants nothing more to do with him.

Nick admits to Benji that he called him 'it' because seeing Benji as a person made watching his transformation unbearable.

Benji realizes while sheltering in the bank after the fire that Theo must have told the Angels where the ALC was.

Nick gifts Benji a bead lizard made with trans flag colors, and the two share a quiet intimate moment together.

Benji removes his mask and rolls up his sleeves to reveal his full Seraph transformation to the ALC members, who accept him.

Benji's mother calls him by his dead name and forces him to wear a dress before the cult's church service.

Sister Kipling admits she was wrong to create Seraph and declares she believes every Angel is going to Hell.

Benji places the trans bead lizard in a Grace's mouth and uses a map to send it to Nick as a signal to attack.

Nick and Benji share a quiet moment alone after the battle, and Benji feels for the first time that he has found home and family.

Beneath the main action lies a chain of revelations and decisions that force Benji to confront who he is, who he trusts, and what he is becoming at every stage of the story. His solo attempt to tame a Grace, his admission to Salvador about wanting revenge, and a haunting vision of his future self as Seraph all mark early internal turning points that push him further from his cult identity. Cormac's revelation that Nick privately called him 'it' shatters Benji's fragile sense of safety, and a second visit to Theo confirms that Theo's love has always been possessive and hollow. After the ALC fire, Nick finally admits his reasoning and Benji connects the dots to realize Theo betrayed them all. Nick's gift of a trans-flag bead lizard and Benji's decision to reveal his transformation openly to the ALC represent back-to-back acts of acceptance and trust on both sides. Benji's final signal to Nick from within New Nazareth and their quiet moment together after the battle mark the story's emotional resolution, as Benji accepts both Seraph and himself fully for the first time.