The Throne of Broken Gods

The Throne of Broken Gods, the second installment in Amber Nicole’s Gods & Monsters series, is a dark fantasy romance published in 2023. The novel picks up immediately after the events of The Book of Azrael, following the death of Dianna’s sister, Gabby. Like its predecessor, it features intricate world-building, mythological allusions, and morally gray characters. Throughout the story, Dianna wrestles with grief and guilt over Gabby’s death, driven by a desire for vengeance against those who wronged her. In her anguish, she attempts to sever her growing bond with Samkiel, but the God King refuses to let her fade from his life. The novel explores the intertwined themes of Grief as a Catalyst for Transformation, The Value and Limits of Loyalty, and Good and Evil as Choices as Dianna and Samkiel confront their pasts, their power, and the boundaries of love amid threats from both old and new enemies.

This guide references the 2023 Rose and Star e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, death, illness, suicidal ideation, self-harm, racism, and emotional abuse.

Plot Summary

Two weeks after the events of The Book of Azrael, storms lash Onuna (the realm of mortals); Samkiel (a demigod once known as “Liam,” who is also titled the “World Ender”) is grieving Dianna’s disappearance after Gabby’s death. On camera, he defends Dianna; off camera, he fears he has lost her. Suddenly, Dianna appears, numb and armed with a bargain: If Samkiel and The Hand (a group of guardians made up of celestials, the one-time soldiers of the gods) do not interfere with her revenge, she will spare them. He refuses. She murders his advisor with a flicked pen, shapeshifts, and escapes.

Camilla, a witch who previously betrayed Samkiel and Dianna, prepares her coven to flee. Dianna arrives, all fury until mention of Samkiel cracks her mask. Camilla guesses that Kaden (an Ig’Morruthen, or monster, whom Dianna used to serve) killed Gabby to break Dianna. Dianna demands help dismantling Kaden’s empire while holding off Samkiel’s forces. Camilla accepts, revealing that she hid Gabby’s body from Kaden; Dianna burns the remains. Dianna carries Gabby’s ashes to the beach, remembers their past, and relives Kaden turning her into an Ig’Morruthen—a price she accepted to save her sister’s life. She scatters the ashes and swears to move against him.

A week later, Samkiel confronts the vampires who aided Gabby’s abduction: Ethan, Naomi, and Drake. Dianna interrupts, kills Naomi, torches Drake’s estate, and feeds on Drake for answers, as she can read memories through blood. Samkiel and Logan intervene, but Dianna escapes. Drake dies, warning that Samkiel is Dianna’s last tether.

For a month, Dianna hunts Kaden’s network, learning that Kaden is stockpiling iron. Samkiel finds these shipments at a port called Donvirr Edge, captures the witch Santiago, and learns from him that Azrael, the celestial of death, still lives and that the iron is for Kaden’s project. Dianna soon arrives and confronts Santiago, who manages to overpower her before Samkiel kills him. Dianna in turn shields Samkiel from an explosion and then vanishes.

Dianna continues striking: She kills a banshee matriarch, forces Camilla to mask her, and then tortures and kills werewolves who tracked her and Samkiel for Kaden. Dianna infiltrates the ruined Rashearim (the realm of the gods, destroyed in the same rebellion that killed Unir, the king of the gods and Samkiel’s father). There, she steals texts (she is searching for a map from Drake’s mansion) and escapes after clashing with The Hand. Dianna also frees Roccurem, a fate who is bound in a prison. He warns that Kaden hides beyond realms sealed following the fall of Rashearim and that the One True King is coming. He binds himself to Dianna until Kaden dies.

Meanwhile, Samkiel forbids The Hand from attacking Dianna. As Dianna prepares to besiege Silver City, where The Hand is headquartered, Roccurem visits Samkiel and urges him to trap Dianna in the city and give her a family. When Camilla, disguised as Dianna, springs a sting, Samkiel therefore flips the trap to snare the real Dianna with a modified sleeping spell. He locks her up but refuses to abandon her, assigning two members of The Hand, Cameron and Xavier, to guard her.

While Samkiel rebuilds and probes Yejedin (a mysterious realm at one point believed to have been part of the Netherworld), Kaden bargains with a shadowed “king” to keep Dianna after an unnamed ritual and Samkiel’s death. Dream Eaters invade Arariel (the continent where the celestials live) so that Dianna can escape: Samkiel wakes to find her gone.

During a festival, Logan, another member of The Hand, follows iron trails underground and runs into Dianna. Tobias, Kaden’s general, portals in. Dianna shields Logan and then enters Yejedin with him. She orders him to find Neverra (Logan’s mate and a celestial who was kidnapped alongside Gabby) while she razes the forge in wyvern form. Tobias drags her down, and they fight until Dianna lets Tobias swallow her, then killing him from the inside. As Kaden arrives with an army, Dianna forces Logan and Neverra to flee and follows them through a portal. Samkiel catches her. Neverra explains that Kaden’s army dwarfs Onuna’s forces and that Kaden needs Dianna for his ritual. Samkiel responds by moving everyone to Rashearim for safety.

When Dianna wakes, Neverra brings her a letter from Gabby; it pleads with Dianna to live. Meanwhile, Samkiel faces down the council’s outrage, shielding Dianna. As Dianna recovers her strength, Samkiel drags her into a routine: food, hikes, and hard truths. Roccurem presses her to accept help. Cameron and Xavier haul her to a club, but this backfires when Seraphine, Drake’s fated mate, ambushes her. However, Samkiel kills the vampires and carries Dianna home, after which they speak plainly; he accuses her of self-punishment, and she asks him to stay with her.

Samkiel confirms that Yejedin is a prison realm where Unir used to lock away enemies and that someone freed its inmates. While interrogating a giant, Porphyrion, he learns that Unir forged three world-shaping generals; he suspects that Kaden is one of them. Meanwhile, Dianna and Neverra learn that Dianna was adopted; Gabby was not her blood sister. Samkiel helps her process this news, but both he and Dianna begin to experience nightmares of three horned figures (hinted to be the “generals” Porphyrion referred to); he plans to seek answers about this from a deity in the mental realms.

Dianna dreams of a cracked house with a glowing, locked door. She opens it and falls into a vision of Samkiel lying ashen on a stone slab as crowned figures surround him. She wakes, makes love with Samkiel, and makes him promise to return from the mental realms. Samkiel seeks answers from the Higher One, who appears as Dianna, mocks his fear, and reveals that Kaden is Unir’s son, Dianna is Samkiel’s amata (soul mate), and that it is too late to stop The Order. Chains drop as a celestial named Elianna and the council appear.

In the meantime, Kaden has ensnared much of The Hand. He confronts Logan and Neverra at their home, where he uses the Words of Ezalan (a spell for mind control) to overpower them. Kaden then lures Cameron with a call from Xavier’s phone and forces Xavier (also under the influence of the Words of Ezalan) to slit his own throat. Cameron submits and drinks Kaden’s blood, becoming an Ig’Morruthen to save Xavier.

Kaden invades Rashearim. Vincent, a member of The Hand who was previously revealed to be a double agent working for Kaden, blocks Dianna’s escape, and Cameron drags her through a portal. Kaden reveals that Azrael is her father and that her blood can break Samkiel’s immortality. Azrael himself is present but controlled by the Words of Ezalan; he coats a spear, built with the iron he was collecting, with Dianna’s blood as Kaden announces that the equinox will reopen the realms, as the seal is tied to Samkiel’s life. Meanwhile, Elianna boasts to a restrained Samkiel. Kaden arrives, calls Samkiel “brother,” and stabs him with the blooded spear. The realms tear, and Nismera, the goddess who led the rebellion against Unir, strides through a portal.

Inside her mind, Dianna returns to the house. Gabby demands that she unlock her power and save Samkiel. Dianna confesses a moment’s hesitation; Gabby calls it survivor’s guilt and orders her to live. Dianna wakes, breaks her chains, fights Azrael, briefly frees his mind, and then kills him at his plea. She portals to Samkiel’s side and escapes with him as Roccurem shields them.

Samkiel collapses in Dianna’s arms, confesses his love, and fades. Roccurem says that their bond remains unfinished and that a confession may revive Samkiel, though at a cost. Dianna declares love and vows ruin if he dies. The Mark of Dhishin, a sign of soulmates, burns on her skin and then vanishes. Samkiel breathes. Roccurem warns that Nismera now rules the realms because all believe Samkiel dead. Dianna lies beside Samkiel and wonders what price she had to pay to resurrect him.