Starside

The first installment of a new fantasy series, the novel is set in a world divided by enormous gates into two halves: Stormside, a barren mortal land drained of magic, and Starside, a lush but dangerous realm of immortals, magical creatures, and gods. Every fifty years, the gates open for the Questral, a deadly quest in which fifty mortal challengers cross into Starside to journey to the Land of the Gods and claim a goblet of magic capable of healing the sick, restoring barren land, granting wealth, or conferring immortality.

Aris, a blacksmith's apprentice, fights her way onto the qualifying platform in the village of Nightfell, concealing a dagger forged from paladian, a rare sparkling metal found only in Starside. The dagger was made by her guardian, Stellan, a blacksmith who survived the previous Questral but returned with an empty chalice and only the metal to show for it. On the platform, Aris encounters Harlan Raker, the infamous head of the king's guard whose ancient paladian sword makes him the most feared warrior on Stormside, and befriends Kira, a spirited young woman who needs magic to save her terminally ill younger sister, Anise.

Aris's true purpose is not magic. When she was ten, a goddess with silver-red eyes burned her village of Silverside to the ground, killing her entire family. Aris survived because a childhood lightning strike left silver markings across her skin and rendered her immune to heat. Since silver is the color of the gods and forbidden for mortals, she has spent her life hiding the marks. She intends to kill the gods responsible.

That night, Aris returns home to find Stellan dying on the floorboards, his paladian dagger stolen. With his last breaths, Stellan tells Aris to find an immortal named Vander Evren, then dies. The Culling, a brutal competition to reduce challengers to fifty, begins with a deadly race through a forest. Aris saves Kira and allies with Zane Sterling, a quiet Great House heir. At the king's castle, the king offers silver swords in exchange for oaths to surrender half of any magic returned, confirming he hoards magic to extend his own life. The final stage sends challengers through a labyrinth of living thorns, a graveyard of ancient swords, and a bridge swarming with eyeless beasts. In the graveyard, Cadoc Bolter, the heir of House Bolter, one of Stormside's Great Houses, corners Aris and reveals he possesses Stellan's stolen dagger, leading Aris to conclude Cadoc killed her guardian. When Cadoc prepares to execute her, a paladian sword cuts up from the grave into her palm, shattering his blade. Both Aris and Zane walk through the gates among the final fifty.

On Starside, Aris, Kira, and Zane form a pact to travel together. Aris steals a crucial map from an immortal scholarly institution after discovering the scholars planned to vivisect the humans. In Westwere, a retired immortal knight explains that the God of Death's demons rise every night and only water repels them. During a river journey north, a storm injures Kira's leg so badly she cannot continue. Kira makes Aris promise to deliver magic to Anise, then departs. At the Beast Tree, where flying creatures bond with challengers who leap from its crown, Zane descends to fight Cadoc's archers while Aris, cornered at the treetop, jumps. A silver dragon bursts from underground and catches her. They bond, but Cadoc attacks on his own fire-breathing dragon, wounding Aris's mount. Aris takes shelter in a cave, where she encounters Raker.

Alone and desperate, Aris proposes a partnership: She has the map memorized, and Raker needs it. She burns the physical copy so he cannot simply take it. Raker agrees under brutal conditions, and their journey is defined by mutual hostility. Yet when a demon disguised as Aris's dead sister lures her into the night, Raker follows and carries her to safety. He begins training her with the sword. They traverse the Bone Woods, where the Gardener, an ancient being older than the gods, spares Aris in exchange for one of her cherished memories. Saberwolves attack, and Raker fights through the horde while holding Aris, who is paralyzed by their venom. A fire demon in underground tunnels amplifies buried desires; Aris and Raker act on intense physical attraction before he kills the demon and insists it meant nothing.

After a snake bite that Raker treats by sucking venom from Aris's neck, both collapse from exhaustion and poison. The Astral Queen, an ancient being who exists beyond the gods' authority, guides them to the Traveling City, a settlement of faelings, fairy-like immortals descended from the stars. A faeling blacksmith identifies Aris's sword as a godsword that once belonged to an original god, explaining why divine forces pursue her. The faelings heal both travelers and give Aris a necklace of trapped starlight that repels night demons. During a sparring session, Aris discovers her sword's name, Stellaris, and summons it for the first time. She and Raker duel as true equals, and she places her blade at his throat, the first mark anyone has ever left on his skin.

Aris summons Vander Evren, the immortal Stellan told her to find. Vander, a powerful heir who wields a shape-shifting godsword, answers because Stellan sacrificed his own Questral magic fifty years earlier to help Vander's people. Vander reveals that Aris's sword can portal her between Great Houses if she secures invitations sworn on her blade. At Heartfall, a grand courting ball, Aris displays her silver markings openly and secures three invitations. She portals to House Rodin, the estate nearest the Land of the Gods, but walks into a trap: Lord Rodin has alerted the God of Death and surrounds her with knights. The oath on her blade prevents Aris from harming anyone under Rodin's hospitality. Raker appears and kills Rodin and every knight.

In the desert beyond, a sand-creature forces each traveler to confront their worst memories. Aris breaks free through fury; she finds Raker trapped in his own illusions, his sword swinging at invisible torments. She refuses to leave, telling him she sees past the armor and the kills. He opens his eyes, and the illusion breaks. After Aris survives the City on Fire, a landscape of endless flame she walks through unburned, a faeling named Este heals her shattered body. The night before their final push toward the Land of the Gods, Aris and Raker sleep together in an encounter that is emotionally raw; Raker kisses her, breaking his lifelong refusal of an intimacy he considers more vulnerable than sex.

Aris wakes to find Raker gone with both Stellaris and his own sword. Three challengers find her weaponless, intending to deliver her to the God of Death; she kills all three with their own blades. She encounters Cadoc, who has drunk the immortal cup and now carries Kira's sword, confirming Kira is dead. Cadoc kicks Aris into the City on Fire during their duel, but she walks through the flames and summons Stellaris back from across the sky. Este heals her once more, and Aris's dragon returns, drawn by a diamond necklace she offers skyward. The Astral Queen explains that Aris's and Raker's swords are two halves of the same original blade; letting someone into her heart allowed him to take what was hers. The Queen arms Aris with a sword of starlight.

Inside the Land of the Gods, Aris claims a goblet of magic for Anise and summons the God of Travels, the goddess who burned Silverside. The goddess reveals she destroyed the village because of a prophecy about Aris and that killing the God of Death can resurrect Aris's family. Aris swears a blood oath not to kill the goddess, then has her dragon devour her, circumventing the oath.

Aris is transported to a hall of thrones where Raker sits on the God of Death's seat. He reveals his true identity: He is the God of Death, who five years ago buried a shard of his soul on Stormside when rival gods plotted against him. He awoke as a human and needed the Questral's magic to restore his divine power. He proposes they reunite their swords and overthrow the other gods. Aris tells him she thinks she loves him, then plunges Stellaris through his heart. He grins, telling her nothing can kill death itself. Aris seizes his sword and flees on her dragon toward the closing gates. She stabs him at the threshold, but he does not die. She slips through as they seal for another fifty years. Through the silver bars, Raker warns that the gates will not keep him from her. Aris turns back toward Stormside, carrying both halves of the most powerful weapon in existence, a cup of magic, and the knowledge that killing the God of Death can resurrect her family. The story continues in subsequent volumes.