Wrath (the Faithful and the Fallen, #4)

The fourth and final book in The Faithful and the Fallen series opens in the aftermath of catastrophe. The ancient fortress of Drassil, hidden within the forest of Forn, has fallen to Nathair, King of Tenebral, and his ally Calidus, a Kadoshim demon made flesh. The Kadoshim are fallen angels who serve Asroth, the Demon-Lord, in his war against the Ben-Elim, angelic warriors loyal to the god Elyon. This conflict, known as the God-War, spans the Banished Lands, a continent of warring human and giant kingdoms. At its center are the Seven Starstone Treasures, artifacts forged long ago by giants, including a cauldron, cup, spear, dagger, torc, and necklace. Calidus needs all seven to open a gateway between the mortal world and the Otherworld, allowing Asroth to cross over and become flesh.

Veradis, Nathair's foremost warrior and military champion, has learned the truth about Calidus' manipulation and fled after attempting to kill the Kadoshim. The giant Alcyon, freed from sorcerous enslavement, rescues Veradis, and they are saved from pursuing Kadoshim by Veradis' brother Krelis and Maquin, an allied warrior.

Corban, the young warrior many call the Bright Star and prophesied champion of Elyon, is missing. He has learned from Meical, the Ben-Elim's captain, that the prophecy is a fabrication designed to lure Asroth into vulnerability. While reeling from this revelation, Corban was captured by Jotun giants and their war-bears, and his wolven companion Storm—a great wolf-like creature—was left mortally wounded. Coralen, a warrior and Corban's love interest, leads survivors in searching for him, while Gar, Lord of the Jehar warrior order and Corban's lifelong guardian, organizes a resistance force in the forest surrounding Drassil.

Corban is carried north to Gramm's hold, a Jotun settlement. When the Jotun's ancient King Eld arrives, he orders Corban taken into the Desolation, the Jotun's barren homeland, and executed secretly. Corban notices that Eld carries the starstone dagger, one of the Seven Treasures. Gar invokes the Jotun blood-feud tradition, challenging Warlord Ildaer to single combat for killing Gar's father Tukul. While the duel draws every giant's attention, Coralen and Corban's close companions Dath, Kulla, Farrell, and Laith infiltrate the settlement and free him. Gar slays Ildaer, but the giant Mort attacks Gar and sparks a Jotun civil war. Corban's friends fight their way out, and Storm, fully healed, arrives to save them from Mort's pursuit. Varan, a Jotun healer who tended Corban during captivity, secretly gives him the starstone dagger after Mort is killed. When Corban reveals the prophecy is a lie, his companions pledge to follow him regardless, bound by friendship and the real threat of Asroth.

Across the Banished Lands, other forces converge. In Ardan, the fugitive Queen Edana wages guerrilla warfare against Rhin, Queen of the West. Fidele, Nathair's mother and widow of the murdered High King Aquilus, leads the warband of Ripa through Forn. Maquin kills Jael, King of Isiltir, fulfilling his blood-oath to avenge his murdered ward Kastell, and Fidele declares they will march on Drassil.

Inside Drassil, Calidus discovers a map showing all Seven Treasures' locations. He dispatches Lykos, Lord of the pirate Vin Thalun, with Legion, a Kadoshim housing many demon spirits in one body, to retrieve the starstone torc from the island of Kletva. He orders Rhin to march east with the remaining Treasures. Corban's sister Cywen, imprisoned in Drassil, discovers that Haelan, the child-King of Isiltir, has been hiding beneath the fortress with Storm's cubs. The tunnels connect to a lair of draigs, monstrous burrowing reptiles, and Cywen begins planning an escape while studying a book of giant spells.

The warband of Ripa unites with Corban's resistance, bringing Veradis, Krelis, Alcyon, and hundreds of warriors. Veradis develops "Shield-Breakers": giants armored in iron wielding long-hafted axes designed to crack Nathair's elite eagle-guard, the shield-wall infantry that has never been defeated.

Rhin finds the necklace and drinks from the starstone cup with Uthas, her allied giant leader, restoring their youth. Camlin, Edana's outlaw companion, infiltrates the fortress of Dun Carreg, and Craf, a crow allied with the resistance, snatches the necklace from Rhin's hands. They escape with the Treasure despite casualties. Fidele secretly leaves camp to appeal to Nathair but is captured by Lykos. On Kletva, Lykos seizes the torc, and Maquin's pursuing force attacks. Maquin decapitates Legion, but Fidele chooses to fall to her death from the island's cliffs rather than remain Lykos' prisoner.

Edana liberates Ardan in a decisive battle and marches east with 2,000 warriors and the starstone necklace. Veradis rescues nearly 200 prisoners from Drassil in a nighttime raid, saving Cywen from execution. Cywen leads Haelan and the cubs through the draig tunnels to escape the fortress.

The final battle unfolds across multiple fronts. Corban confronts Nathair in the forest, offering forgiveness; Nathair refuses. Balur One-Eye, a Benothi giant among Corban's allies, leads the Shield-Breakers to devastate the enemy flanks while Wulf, an allied commander, drives colonies of giant ants into the opposing warband, causing mass panic. On the plain, Conall, regent of Domhain and Rhin's supposed ally, betrays her at the moment of his cavalry charge, declaring Domhain free.

Meanwhile, Corban's small group infiltrates Drassil through the draig tunnels and reaches the great hall where the Treasures are gathered. Calidus springs a trap: A Ben-Elim allowed himself to be captured in the Otherworld, revealing Corban's strategy so that the Ben-Elim could also use the opened gateway to become flesh. Calidus murders Brina, Corban's healer and counsellor, and throws her body into the cauldron to fuel the ritual. Asroth and his Kadoshim host pour through the gateway, becoming flesh. But Corban frees Meical from imprisonment in the Otherworld, and Ben-Elim warriors flood through after the Kadoshim.

Meical frees Corban's companions. Gar duels Calidus but is fatally stabbed from behind. Cywen chants the spell of Unmaking while allies defend her. Rhin is killed by Cywen and her companions. The remaining Treasures are hurled into the cauldron, which explodes, engulfing Asroth and Meical in molten iron that hardens into an unbreakable tomb. The gateway closes permanently.

Corban fights Calidus in a final duel. Calidus taunts him and runs him through the belly with a sword. Remembering Gar's lesson that sometimes one must take a wound to give one, Corban pulls himself along the blade and decapitates Calidus, then pursues the demon's spirit into the Otherworld and feeds it to Viathun, a soul-eating creature, before returning to his body.

Ethlinn, queen of the Benothi giants, defeats Uthas in single combat. Lykos kills Krelis in a dishonorable fight. Veradis kills Nathair after his former king stabs Alcyon in the back. Maquin tracks and kills Lykos, then dies saving Haelan from a draig. The Jotun nation arrives in overwhelming force, their bear-mounted giants shattering Rhin's remaining warband.

Gar dies holding Corban's hand, telling Corban he is the son Gar never had. The Seven Treasures are destroyed, the gateway sealed, and all Kadoshim and Ben-Elim in the mortal world are now mortal. Edana returns west to rebuild her kingdoms. Veradis declines the throne of Tenebral, leaving it to Alben, a healer-warrior from Fidele's warband. Corban places a thistle on Gar's cairn, rebuffs the Ben-Elim's attempts to command him, and announces he will build a school of arms and healing to honor Gar and Brina. He rides from Drassil with Coralen, Cywen, Veradis, Storm, and his closest companions toward a new beginning.