Wild Reverence

Wild Reverence is a 2025 young adult romance fantasy novel by American author Rebecca Ross. It serves as a prequel to her 2023 Letters of Enchantment duology, Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows. Ross is also the author of the 2022 Elements of Cadence duology, A River Enchanted and A Fire Endless. Wild Reverence follows the story of the goddess Matilda, the only divine to be born to the clashing Underling and Skyward clans. Matilda forges a bond with a mortal man named Vincent, and their fates become entwined. The novel explores themes of The Impact of Power Dynamics in Romantic Relationships, The Risks and Rewards of Vulnerability, and The Role of Loyalty in Identity Formation.

This guide refers to the 2025 St. Martin’s Publishing Group Kindle edition of the source text.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, physical abuse, sexual content, emotional abuse, child death, child abuse, and sexual harassment.

Plot Summary

Wild Reverence takes place in the Letters of Enchantment universe. Its world is divided between three realms: the under realm, the mortal realm, and the Skyward realm. While mortals do not travel beyond their realm, the gods, or divinities, move fairly freely between the three.

Matilda is born to Zenia of Underling, the goddess of fire, winter, and cunning. Bade, the god of war, is the first to hold her, so Matilda once thought he was her father. Matilda’s real father is a Skyward god, but Zenia refuses to say who he is, as uttering his name will summon him, and she hopes to hide Matilda.

Zenia takes Matilda to Orphia, the Underling matriarch and goddess of death. Orphia sees, from the new constellation that appeared when she was born, that Matilda has six stars, making her a member of the Underlings Middle Court, less powerful than Zenia, Bade, or Orphia. Matilda is a herald, a messenger goddess. Orphia sees something strange in Matilda’s stars, but she doesn’t tell Zenia what it is.

Bade; Alva, goddess of dreams and nightmares; and Phelyra, goddess of revelry and coin, are all Zenia’s allies and powerful members of the High Court. Zenia makes Bade swear a salt-vow to protect Matilda. When Matilda grows older, she begins training with Bade, who guides her to guard her “fault line,” the one place she can be killed. Bade and Matilda’s fault lines are their hearts. Bade falls in love with the mortal Poet Queen Adria, who seeks to wage war against the king of the mortal realm. Meanwhile, Zenia and Phelyra steal scales from eithrals, the dragon-like creatures controlled by Dacre, god of healing and Underling lord, because the scales can kill divines. Zenia and Phelyra trade them to the Skywards in exchange for Skyward coins.

Alva gives Matilda dream scrolls, transcriptions of mortals’ dreams. Matilda reads one scroll from a boy named Vincent, who, strangely, dreams of her. When Matilda is almost 13, Zenia and Phelyra give her a moonstone belt with pockets to store things, but she notices that one of the moonstones looks strange.

Dacre summons everyone to court, and Matilda watches as Bade arrives with a badly wounded Adria. The only way to save her from death is for Orphia to give Adria four of her stars, making her a goddess. Orphia’s sister Rowena, the goddess of fate and Skyward matriarch, must also give Adria four stars. Bade asks Matilda to give Rowena the message.

Matilda journeys to the mortal world to find Rowena and sees Vincent. She saves him from a lone eithral, and they kiss. Vincent’s uncle, Grimald, tries to capture Matilda, but Shale, the Skyward god of wind, brings Matilda to Rowena’s orchard in the Skyward realm. Matilda meets Warin, the cruel god of spring, before Rowena sends him away.

Rowena gives Matilda five of her stars for Adria. Matilda finds an Underling door, but first, she finds a wasted door that leads her to a strange realm. She passes through an archway and sees Vincent at his desk. She leaves quickly and returns to the under realm to give Rowena’s stars to Adria.

Matilda reads another scroll and sees her appearance in Vincent’s dream, meaning the strange realm she visited was Vincent’s dreams. She decides to return to the strange realm, but she can’t find it. She instead sees Xan, the Underling god of iron, slain by Warin, who wanted to steal his power.

Xan leads Matilda to the Gatekeeper, Orphia and Rowena’s mother, who decides which souls progress to the mists and which must wander the wastes, or the strange realm, forever. The strange moonstone on Matilda’s belt is the Gatekeeper’s eye. The Gatekeeper lets Xan pass, and Matilda finds her way to Vincent’s dream archway. She enters.

In Vincent’s dream, he and Matilda climb a mountain and find a dead eithral with all but one of its scales removed. Vincent doesn’t want the final scale, even though it could let him slay a god. Matilda theorizes the Skywards have taken the scales. Matilda guides Vincent to control the dream, and he transports them to his bedroom. Grimald invades the dream and tries to grab Matilda, and Vincent wakes.

Matilda returns to the under realm. Phelyra arrives at Zenia’s burrow and tells her that Dacre knows about the missing eithral scales. Phelyra and Zenia leave and tell Matilda to stay inside. Alva drops off a dream scroll, and it’s Vincent’s dream of the eithral with Matilda.

Matilda realizes Alva is Dacre’s sister, and she knows that Phelyra and Zenia are selling the scales. Matilda warns Zenia, but Phelyra murders her with an eithral scale arrow. Zenia’s last word is Matilda’s father’s name: Thile, god of summer, oaths, and dusk, and the Skyward lord. Phelyra tells Matilda to run. Bade helps her escape the under realm.

Thile finds Matilda and brings her to Skyward, where she remains for 13 years. She grows in power and becomes Warin’s lover, but he is emotionally and physically abusive and tries to learn Matilda’s secrets. Meanwhile, in the mortal realm, Uncle Grimald stages a coup, murdering Vincent’s father and older brothers. Vincent and his younger brother, Nathaniel, survive, and Vincent becomes lord of Wyndrift.

Matilda returns to the under realm, escorting Enva, the goddess of music, who will become Dacre’s bride in exchange for ceasing his attacks on the mortal realm. Matilda returns to her mother’s burrow and finds unopened prayers, including a blood-stained one from Vincent, asking for her help. She visits Orphia, who tells Matilda that Rowena has fated a mortal man to die, but Matilda can save him by taking him a message. Matilda looks at the name on the message: Vincent of Beckett.

Matilda hurries to Wyndrift, a giant bridge fortress on the river, under siege by Grimald and his men. She summons Warin and asks for help crossing the river. Warin gives her slippers that let her walk through and breathe underwater. In exchange, she will have dinner with him when she returns them.

Matilda hurries through the river to Vincent, who recognizes her. He’s angry that she was gone for so long, but Matilda doesn’t explain about her mother’s murder. She promises to help him, but he refuses to read Orphia’s message. Matilda suggests that she and Vincent pretend to be married and parley with Grimald, and Vincent agrees.

Vincent and Matilda, posing as a mortal woman, meet Grimald on the bridge. Grimald’s assassin shoots at Vincent, but Matilda stands in front of him, taking the arrow and revealing her divinity. Grimald tries to convince Matilda of the validity of his claim to Wyndrift, but she tells him to leave. He asks for three days, which Matilda grants, though she assumes he will attack again. She and Vincent return to the hall for their wedding feast and discuss strategy. Matilda plans to ask Bade for help, and Vincent plans to lead those who can’t fight to Drake Hall, the home of his father’s ally, Hugh of Delavoy.

Matilda sneaks to Grimald’s camp to spy on him with her cloak of invisibility, a gift from Thile. She finds Warin with Grimald and eavesdrops. Warin agrees to ally with Grimald if he can institute a toll on the bridge. Suddenly, Warin senses Matilda. She tries to escape into Wyndrift, but the guards will only open the gate for Vincent. Warin drags Matilda into the river, and she loses her cloak in the water. Vincent jumps in to try to find her but only finds her cloak.

In the river, Warin tells her that his toll to use the bridge will be either a third of people’s harvest, a third of their money, or their third-born child. If Vincent agrees to the toll, he will have Warin’s support. He releases Matilda, who returns to Wyndrift before going below to find Bade. Vincent goes toward Drake Hall.

Below, Matilda finds Bade and Adria enchanted to sleep. Adria has written Matilda’s name along with the term “soul-bearer” and a 12-star constellation. Matilda finds the Underlings asleep and contemplates killing Phelyra, but she doesn’t. She goes to Skyward and asks Shale for his help, but he doesn’t promise her aid.

Matilda returns to the mortal realm to find Vincent traveling to Drake Hall. The next day, they find Hugh, who agrees to help, but Vincent doesn’t fully trust him. Matilda gives Vincent her invisibility cloak to continue to Drake Hall before returning to Wyndrift to help prepare for Grimald’s attack. At Wyndrift, she refuses, on Vincent’s behalf, to agree to Warin’s terms, so he joins Grimald.

At nightfall, Grimald’s men attack. Bade arrives and fights alongside Matilda and Nathaniel. Matilda sees a lone eithral flying above the fray and asks to see through her eyes. She controls the eithral as it attacks Grimald’s men before crashing into the tower.

Vincent’s men are delayed by rain, so he dons the invisibility cloak and rides ahead to Wyndrift. He rushes to Matilda, who kneels in a trance beside Bade. He pulls her out of the trance, then leaves to check on Nathaniel.

The Gatekeeper’s eye opens on Matilda’s belt, which means someone close to her is dying. She hears Vincent scream and finds him holding Nathaniel as he dies. Matilda hurries to the wasteland to find Nathaniel’s soul. She gives some of her own stories to the Gatekeeper to help Nathaniel reach the mists. In exchange, she will owe seven years of heraldic service to the Gatekeeper.

Matilda realizes she can bear Nathaniel’s soul back to the living realm. When they reach the mortal realm, Nathaniel wakes up beside Vincent. Vincent takes Matilda to his bedroom to rest.

Thile summons Matilda and sentences her to a whipping for controlling the eithral, which is forbidden, and for exposing Skywards’ ability to control flying creatures. She asks to break her salt-vow first, and he gives her until sunset to return. Matilda goes to Bade and breaks the vow. Adria gives Matilda two of her own stars, power to harness for later, and Matilda realizes Adria is now the third matriarch, like Orphia and Rowena.

Thile whips Matilda brutally until Rowena intervenes, taking Matilda to her villa to recover. While Vincent waits for Matilda, he writes a letter confessing his love for her and burns it. The smoke rises to Rowena’s villa, and Matilda hears his words. She goes to Drake Hall, where the people tell her some Wyndrift citizens have gone missing. Matilda promises to tell Vincent and hurries to Wyndrift.

On her way, she finds the eithral, who lets Matilda ride her, but when they reach Wyndrift, Hugh’s men shoot the eithral. Matilda helps the wounded eithral escape before Alva appears and takes her below. Alva tries to broker an alliance with Matilda, who is rescued by Enva before Alva can succeed in killing Matilda and stealing her magic, now visible in her 12-star constellation.

Matilda returns to Wyndrift and tells Vincent what happened during their time apart. They have sex, and afterward, Warin calls Matilda to return the slippers. Matilda finds the missing Wyndrift people, whom Hugh gave to Warin in exchange for using the bridge, making more slippers for Grimald’s men. Warin offers to free them in exchange for secrets about Matilda’s magic, but she refuses. Matilda goes below to borrow Phelyra’s magic of fire and winter. Phelyra loans her the magic for one day.

Grimald begins his siege of Wyndrift, and Bade, Vincent, and Nathaniel defend the fortress. Matilda returns and uses the magic of winter to freeze the river and the towers, stopping Grimald’s men from crossing. Vincent and Grimald fight, and Grimald drags Vincent into the water. Matilda uses Adria’s stars to calm herself and find them; she freezes the river, allowing them to pull themselves out. Vincent drowns Grimald and collapses on the riverbank.

Matilda warms Vincent. Warin arrives, wearing her invisibility cloak, which she lost after she and the eithral were shot down, and attacks Matilda. Bade comes to defend her, but Warin kills him. Matilda and Warin stab each other with eithral scales. Warin dies first, transferring all his magic to Matilda. As Matilda dies, she frees the people held in Warin’s villa. Vincent finds her and holds her as her soul leaves her body.

Matilda and Bade arrive in the wastes together. Matilda bears Bade’s soul back to the mortal world, but she must keep her promise to the Gatekeeper to serve for seven years as a scribe. Matilda bears some souls back to the mortal world, including a child, whom she assumes is Vincent’s son.

Meanwhile, Vincent relinquishes his title to Nathaniel and lives on a simple farm near his neighbors, James and Lara. They have a son named Tristan, who dies at four but then wakes, his soul returned by Matilda. After six years, Matilda manages to write a letter, telling Vincent that she’ll be back for him by autumn. When Matilda returns, Vincent welcomes her into his farm and his life.

The novel ends by moving years into the future, after Matilda and Vincent have gone to the mists. Enva summons Matilda and borrows her magic to enchant the Alouette typewriters that Iris and Roman will use to communicate throughout Divine Rivals and Ruthless Vows.