The Fallen & the Kiss of Dusk

The Fallen & the Kiss of Dusk (2025) is a new adult romantasy by Carissa Broadbent. It is both the fourth installment in the Crowns of Nyaxia series and the second installment in the Shadowborn Duet, picking up where The Songbird and the Heart of Stone (2024) left off. Mische, the former acolyte of the god Atroxus turned vampire, is now a wraith after being killed by the goddess Shiket for her murder of Atroxus, the sun god. Meanwhile, Asar, heir to the vampire House of Shadow, grapples with his newfound divinity following the thwarted resurrection of Alarus, the god of death. Sent on a mission by the goddess of fate, Acaeja, Mische and Asar must locate and wield the three artifacts of Alarus—his mask, eye, and heart—to ensure Asar ascends to full divinity and saves the realms from collapsing.

Carissa Broadbent is an epic fantasy and romantasy author who self-published her first works, building a significant platform that caught the attention of traditional publishing houses following the success of The War of Lost Hearts trilogy (2020-2022) and The Serpent and the Wings of Night (2022). Her works were picked up by Bramble, a romantic imprint of Tor Books, and traditionally published beginning in 2023.

This guide refers to the e-book edition published by Tor Books in 2025.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, death by suicide, animal death, self-harm, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

The novel opens with Asar’s childhood under the brutal tutelage of his mentor, Gideon, who molds him into a weapon. Asar learns to equate strength with anger and sacrifice. Decades later, he has become a fearsome warrior but carries deep grief over those he has lost, including his dog, Luce, and his lover, Ophelia, both of whose deaths were tied to Gideon’s teachings.

In the present, Mische awakens in the collapsing underworld after her death in the previous installment. There, she learns from Vincent, the late king of the House of Night, that her actions against Atroxus, the god of the sun, and the thwarted resurrection of Alarus, the god of death, have destabilized the realms.

Asar, still alive but imprisoned by the White Pantheon, grapples with his newly acquired partial divine power. He endures torment in the Pantheon’s custody, reliving Mische’s death at the hands of the goddess Shiket. When brought before the gods to help restore the sun, which shattered when Mische killed Atroxus, he fails due to his vampiric nature. However, he secretly steals a shard, which he uses to break free. He is subsequently captured by Acaeja, the goddess of fate, who offers to help him ascend to full divinity to stabilize the realms and revive Mische. All he must do is collect and wield the three relics of Alarus: his mask, his eye, and his heart.

Reunited in Morthryn, though unable to touch without pain, Asar and Mische begin their quest. They return to the House of Shadow, where Asar’s half-sister, Egrette, holds power. At court, he defuses tension by swearing loyalty to her rather than claiming the throne, buying them time while they prepare to steal the mask during the Melume festival, when the veil between past and present thins. This reveals the ancient ruins of Vathysia, where they believe the mask is hidden.

After securing the mask and fleeing the House of Shadow, Asar and Mische’s journey leads them to the deadlands, a plane between the mortal and divine, in search of the second relic. They are aided by Atrius, Septimus’s cousin, and Sylina, an acolyte of Acaeja and Atrius’s wife. Within the forge of the goddess Srana, Mische and Asar are attacked by Srana and Sentinels. They wield the axe embedded with Alarus’s eye while struggling against the relics’ corrupting influence, and they ultimately escape.

Their path next takes Mische and Asar to the House of Night, where they reunite with Mische’s friends, Raihn and Oraya. Though hesitant to involve their friends, Asar and Mische accept their help in finding the heart and preparing the ascension ritual. Eventually, Gideon, disguised as the Nightborn general Vale, gains access to the House of Night and reveals that he has been tracking Asar. He alerts the gods and destroys the blood they need for the ritual, sacrificing his life to deny them success.

Sentinels (warriors of Shiket, the goddess of justice) invade the House of Night, capturing Mische and dragging her to Vostis, a human city devoted to Shiket. There, Mische discovers that the Sentinel hunting her is her sister, Saescha, now consumed by fanaticism. Asar pursues Mische while Nyaxia launches her armies against the humans in Vostis.

In Vostis, Asar confronts Nyaxia and learns that she holds Alarus’s heart, which she consumed to gain godhood. Bargaining with her, he sacrifices his own heart, offering loyalty and his mortality in exchange for sparing the city. Nyaxia replaces his heart with Alarus’s, and Asar becomes the god of death. He no longer remembers Mische; when she reaches him on the battlefield, pleading for him to remember his purpose, he turns away.

Mische travels to the underworld, where the dead claim her as their chosen queen. She confronts Saescha and offers her soul passage to a peaceful afterlife, finally gaining closure. Meanwhile, Asar visits the underworld, leaving pieces of himself behind for Mische to find—his own version of the mask, eye, and heart relics. The dead lead Mische to collect these items, which give her enough divine power to raise Morthryn into the mortal world and confront Asar. Rather than rip Alarus’s heart from his chest entirely, she splits it; they each take half, making them equal rulers of Vathysia, the reclaimed House of Death. The act restores Asar’s mortality, but Mische’s body is unable to withstand the divinity of the heart.

While the White Pantheon and Nyaxia prepare for war between vampires and humans, Acaeja plans to limit the suffering of both by utilizing her allies in the House of Night and House of Death. Acaeja spares Mische’s life and allows her to keep her divinity; she then urges her and Asar to rebuild and prepare for war. Vincent bids farewell to Mische and leaves a letter for his daughter, Oraya, that offers her closure. Mische and Asar wed in a traditional Vathysian ceremony in the poppy fields of the underworld.

The Epilogue shifts focus to Septimus of the Bloodborn, who plots Nyaxia’s downfall even as he continues to serve her during the following 10 years of war between vampires and humans. He waits for the chance to betray her but first seeks the mortal who possesses a gifted blade of Shiket.