A Light in the Flame is the second book of Flesh and Fire, the prequel series to From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout. This book picks right back up where we left off in the shadowlands after the Arae reveals that Seraphena is the true Primal of Life. Nyktos’s Court and Inner Circle have to navigate the new threat Kolis poses to Sera and how as Sera becomes closer to her Ascension, she also gets closer to death.
The second installment of the fantasy romance series is full of worldbuilding that moves the plot forward in both the current timeline and prequel series.
Read our full summary of A Light in the Flame.
The True Primal of Life is Revealed
After Holland’s revelation, Nyktos bows to her much to Sera’s repulsion. As the Primal of Life is the ruler of all Courts, all gods owe Sera deference.
Penellaphe tells Sera of a vision she’s seen of a queen of flesh and fire ruling realms with gods born of blood and ash. Her and Nyktos both think Seraphena is the queen from the prophecy.
The other primals would have sensed someone with enormous power in the Shadowlands, so Sera must be protected from all costs. Nyktos wants to also crown Sera as his Consort to increase her protection.
Bele also needs to remain in Shadowlands as she is a threat to hanan, The Primal of Hunt and Divine Justice.
Sera, a mortal with embers of life in her, cannot carry the embers maturity and she needs to be ascended by the blood of a god who carries the embers of life and loves her.
Nyktos reveals that he had his kardia, the part of him that allows him to love, removed to protect himself and others around him.
The False King of Gods, Kolis has created the Craven, mortal drained of the blood to overrun the mortal realm with and subdue them. Unless Sera can kill Kolis, the Rot, which Kolis is the cause of will never stop.
Holland privately apologizes for keeping his identity secret and tells Sera, she is his weakness. Sera assumes this is about Kolis, knowing Kolis loved Sotoria.
Nyktos promises to find a way to save Sera and leaves with Rhahar. The fort gets attacked by emtombed gods and Sera joins the fight.
Sera manages to kill multiple emtombed gods before one chews her arm. Nyktos arrives in primal form, covered in shadow magic. He saves Sera, and takes her to his chambers. Knowing Sera can’t afford to be weakened, he makes her feed from him which turns sexual.
Hanan revealed to have caused the attack, threatened by Bele’s Ascension.
Aios visits Sera and tells her about Gemma’s recovery. As a survivor, Gemma, much like Aios has a long way to recovery.
Sera decides to turn herself in to Kolis in order to save Nyktos and others. She enters the Dying foods and finds large silver hawks. When she is attacked by Shades, the hawks fight with her. Nyktos arrives and is infuriated that Sera puts herself in danger.
They fight, and Sera loses control of her growing powers, her power lashing out to Nyktos. Nektas arrives, but surprisingly protects Sera over Nyktos.
Nyktos takes Sera to bed, making her promise not to leave, to which Sera agrees.
Nyktos and Sera Begin Mending Their Relationship
Nyktos praises Sera’s bravery in front of his entire court to build her image.
Sera finds Nektas eating breakfast with his 2 year old daughter Jadis. Jadis is drawn to Seraphena, and they begin bonding. She finds out Kolis has killed Jadis’s mother, Halayana.
Nyktos arrives and tells Sera he might be able to remove the embers from Sera before she is Ascended, simiar to how Kolis took the embers from Eyhtos. Once the embers are removed, Sera can be ascended like any god. To learn how Kolis removed the embers they need to visit the Pools of Divanash a place where death, therefore Nyktos cannot go.
Nyktos tells Sera Kolis killed Halayana because he was loyal to him and he is the first draken. Once Nyktos takes the embers he’ll become the King of Gods and the true Primal of Life.
Hanan has sent Cimmerians, warrior gods, to retrieve Bele. A fight breakks out and they fend her off.
Nyktos is furious for Sera for putting herself in danger once more. Sera argues that her whole life she was told what to do, while Nyktos berates her recklessness due to her not valueing her own life. Sera then tells Nyktos that her own mother disowned her after Nyktos rejected.
Sera’s wounds heal themselves because of the embers of life. Nyktos tells her he won’t feed her his blood as it turns her on and he doesn’t want to take advantage.
Sera asks if Nyktos wants to go to war with Kolis which he says he doesn’t want to to avoid bloodshed.
They talk about the night prior where Nyktos watched sera when he shadowstepped. Sera tells him she doesn’t want to be Consort in name only and that she wants them to be together physically and at least friends.
Their conversation is interrupted by Attes, the Primal of Accord and War, sent by Kolis to remind Nyktos he can prevent him from crowning Sera as a consort. They are both summoned to visit Dalos to ask Kolis’s permission to get married. Before he leaves, Attes warns Sera about Veses, the Primal of Rites and Prosperity as she carries a torch for Nyktos.
Nyktos is furious and asks Sera to distract him which she does by kissing him. Later Nektas escorts her back to her room and tells her to give Nyktos the benefit of the doubt as Kolis has killed everyone who could possibly ascend as the Primal of Life and Nyktos has to pretend to tolerate Kolis.
Fragile Trust Between Sera and Nyktos
Nyktos helps Sera learn to manage her panic attacks. Saion gives Sera a tour of the palace and tells her that Nyktos let them take refuge in his court after him and Rhahar experience cruelty in Phanos’s court.
Sera trains with Nyktos. She distracts Nyktos and wins the fight. She asks to visit the mortal realm, not eat dinner alone and Nyktos includes her with his plans about Kolis.
Nyktos realizes Sera has trouble with the bathtub ever since the attempt on her life and asks her to bathe in his chamber. He watches her. They talk about the unrivaled desire between them, from Sera always being open about her attraction to him to him denying their chemistry.
Nyktos asks why she’s quiet, to which Sera replies with she was raised as the Maiden, veiled and meek. Nyktos tells her he never wants her to be like that. They spend the night together.
When she wakes she finds Jadis sleeping at her feet and Nektas in her room. Nyktos has gone to Lethe to perform duties of the Primal of Death. Nektas tells her Nyktos doesn’t want to exclude her but doesn’t want to force duties of Consort on her.
Sera and Nyktos eat dinner together with plans to visit the Pools of Divanash and then the mortal realm and Ezra which is a whole new risk.
They discuss the duties of Primals and Sera tries to convince Nyktos that just because he has to deal in Death doesn’t mean he’s evil. Nyktos says Primals do not feel love and hate the way mortals do, in fact the only time Primals felt emotion initially was when they fall in love with mortals, something fates tried to discourage them from. They have sex again.
Nyktos and Sera visit the mortal world. They speak with Ezra and then run into Calliphe. Nyktos threatens her and tells her that she should be thankful to Sera for making him not kill her.
Nyktos shows Sera a pool underground and reveals he only went to Sera’s lake because she was there. He watched over her for years. He encourages Sera to practice her power in the pool as well since her eather is growing.
Later when she is speaking with Nektas later, his eyes flash from red to blue a sign that the bond between the draken and the Primal of Life is reviving. Sera is closer to her ascension than they thought.
The Pools of Divanash and Veses
Nyktos, Sera and Nektas travel out of the Shadowlands. Nyktos can go as far as the Pillars of Asphodel where the dead can pass through to which Sera’s embers respond to. Nyktos tells Nektas to watch over Sera as she’s important to her to which Sera replies with she wants to be the consort of the shadowlands.
Sera and Nektas arrive at the underground lake of Divanash which demands a drop of blood and a secret she didn’t even admit to herself. Sera confesses that one time she took too much sleeping draft with the hopes of not waking up. The pools reveal Delfai’s location in mortal realm.
They are attacked on the way back to the Shadowlands by nymphs which Sera is able to kill. They return and Sera finds Nyktos in his office with Veses in Nyktos’s ap, moving against him and feeding from him.
Jealous, hurt and humiliated Sera assumes Nyktos and Veses are together. She rushes to the pool, her trust in Nyktos vanishing and feeling betrayed. Uncontrolled eather pours out of her and she explodes the stone table in the pool. The walls of the pool crack and she begins destroying the chamber.
Roots emerge from the ground, Nyktos and Rhain arriving in a rush to try to calm her down. Nyktos commands Sera to sleep and she faints.
When she wakes, she is surrounded by Rhahar, Rhain Bele and Nyktos. She went into statis and her ascension nearly began. She wants to leave but she rationalizes that their relationship was always friendship and he never trusted her.
Nyktos tells her they weren’t having sex but refuses to disclose the relationship further. Sera ends their relationship telling him she’ll be his consort in name only. She also asks for her freedom once Nyktos takes the embers from her.
She decides to be more transactional around Nyktos but before she can begin her silent treatment olis summons them. Nyktos tells Aios he was hoping to have the embers removed before they saw Kolis. Aios helps Sera pick a dress as he’s big on ceremony.
Aios tells Sera that she doesn’t believe she can be Kolis’s weaknesses as she doesn’t think Kolis can love. She then tells him that Kolis kept her a prisoner in a gilded cage until he got bored and released her.
They arrive at Dalos and Nyktos asks Sera to pretend to be a loving couple with her.
Visit to Kolis’s Court
They are welcomed to Kolis’s court by Attes and a masked man named Dyses. When Dyses insults Sera, he rips Dyses’s heart out.
Sera can tell something is off about Dyses as she didn’t feel his soul.
Hanan arrives and asks Nyktos to give Bele to which Nyktos responds with a lie that he has no idea where Bele is.
Kolis welcomes them to the throne room and examines Sera. He tells Nyktos Sera is stronger than expected. Nyktos denies Bele’s ascension. Dyses joins them, very much alive and revealed to be a Revenant, a creation of Kolis.
Kolis is seemingly upset that Nyktos didn’t ask his permission to marry Seraphena and makes Seraphena kill a young draken. Sera hears a scream in her subconsciousness and realizes it’s Sotoria.
Sera makes them take her to Vathi so she can bring back the draken. Sera revives the draken. Attes bows to her, pledging his loyalty to his queen and the true primal of life.
They return to Shadowlands and Sera tells Nyktos that although she is supposed to be Sotoria, she can feel her as a distinct entity in her.
Veses arrives with Nyktos gone while Sera is hanging out with Reaver. She moves to attack Sera and Reaver defends her. Veses throws him into a wall.
Bele arrives. Veses can see she’s ascended. They fight and Sera heals Reaver. Sera joins the fight against Veses, the two of them fend her off until Nyktos arrives and hits Veses with his power. They put her in the cells.
Nyktos feeds Sera to heal and Sera can see his memories, another sign that her powers are growing. They need to remove the embers from her soon or she’ll die as she’s reaching the end of her culling. They make up and have sex.
A Light in the Flame Ending Explained
Rhain tells Sera that Veses is taking advantage of Nyktos and there is nothing going on between them. Sera realizes she’s in love with Nyktos on her way to the City Hall in Lethe for her coronation. Rhain begins performing the coronation ceremony.
Nyktos bows on one knee in front of Sera and places a crown of moons, lined with chains of diamonds on her head. He announces as the consort of shadowlands. He also gives her the title “one who is born of Blood and Ash, the light and the fire and the brightest moon”. A golden mark appear on their hands, a sign that the fates have blessed their union.
Nyktos asks Sera to call him Ash again and they have sex. He later asks what changed her mind and Sera reveals she knows about Veses.
They find Delfai, who has been waiting for them. He tells them Kolis stole a diamond called the star to remove the embers from Ethyos. A primal touching the diamond and the embers can transfer them. Delfai however tells them if Nyktos feeds from Sera, he can just take the embers. The only caveat is that Sera will die, the embers have fused to her being.
Nyktos is furious and asks for another way which Delfai refuses. Sera, conceeded to her fate, asks Nyktos to be the one to kill her. Nyktos refuses at first, and tells Sera he wishes he never had his kardia removed. Sera tells him when the time comes, he wants Nyktos to take her to his lake.
When they return, the shadowlands are under attack. Kyn and his dakkai are destroying the Rise. Sera resurrects Aios but is unable to bring Ector back.
Attes arrives and Sera is grateful but he tells her not to be. If Sera comes with him willingly, he promises to spare everyone else. Sera agrees.
Sera wakes up and finds herself in a gilded cage. Dyses, who Sera realizes to be Callum, the god he visited in mortal land visits her. Sera realizes it was him who told his mother how to kill Nyktos and Kolis had always known about her.
Sera’s father, King Lamont, summoned Kolis on the night of Sera’s birth to makke a new deal and spare his daughter, unknowingly revealing the deal and the location of the embers to the false primal of life.
Sera wonders why Kolis didn’t kill her as a baby. Kolis enters and tells her it’s so that the embers can fully mature to complete the prophecy, the prophesized queen who wears two crowns and can bring moral, god and draken back to life. Now that he’s confirmed Sera is who she needs he’ll kill her and take the embers.
Kolis bites Sera. Sera thrashes in pain and Sotoria’s voice speak to her, telling him he’s killing her all over again. She reveals that she is Sotoria. Kolis recoils.
Attes arrives and tells Kolis that Keella might have planted Sotoria’s soul in Seraphena.
Sera collapses and the last thing she sees through the open doors is a silver, white wolf, Nyktos, watching her.
That’s everything from A Light in the Flame! It has lots of moments of passion and emotion as Nyktos begins getting closer to Sera and Kolis’s bigger plot unfolds.
What did you think of the A Light in the Flame? Do you prefer the prequel series or current timeline series? Let us know in the comments!
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