Web of Vows and Vengeance by Aria Ashbrook: Chapter-by-Chapter Book Summary

This Web of Vows and Vengeance book summary covers Aria Ashbrook’s The Hirathean Path Book 1. Whether you need a full recap before picking up Vows of Blood and Deception or just want a refresher on what happened, this chapter-by-chapter breakdown of Web of Vows and Vengeance has you covered. The summary of Web of Vows and Vengeance below includes full spoilers.

WEB OF VOWS AND VENGEANCE TROPES: Deadly Competition | Enemies to Lovers | Forced Proximity | Found Family | Slow Burn

Jump to Chapter Recap of Web of Vows and Vengeance: 15–28 | 29–40 | 41–54 | 55–67 | 68–75 // The Hirathean Path Book 2 Summary

Web of Vows and Vengeance Book Summary

This Aria Ashbrook Web of Vows and Vengeance book summary contains full spoilers for all 75 chapters.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 1

Rose has spent three nights watching the temple, waiting for the right moment to sneak inside and make an offering to the goddess Etta. She’s trying to get into the Retterheld, a once-in-a-century competition, and tonight is her last chance before candidates are chosen. Rose is doing all of this for her sister Kay.

While Rose waits, a man makes a run at the temple and nearly goes through the ice covering the moat. The man catches himself with magic, which gets him disqualified on the spot since Etta requires all applicants to come to her without any magic. The guards swarm him, and Rose takes the opening.

Rose makes a break for a back window she found the night before. As she walks on the frozen moat, the ice gives way under her, and she goes in up to her neck. But she finds her footing and wades across. She gets up the wall and tears her palm open on the window frame, and a guard spots her just as she pulls herself through. She then drops to the marble floor inside and stays on her feet.

At last, Rose is in. Then she looks up, and the temple brings back memories of her family and everything they lost.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 2

Rose, whose family has fallen from wealth into poverty, has come to the temple dedicated to the goddess Etta and kneels at the altar to make her offering. Etta requires tears, so rather than suppress her grief, she leans into it, weeping as she prays for a place in a deadly competition called the Retterheld. She wants to fight to clear her mother’s name and give her sister a chance at a real life. She leaves her tears on the altar and considers the offering made.

Just before Rose leaves, she notices a man climbing down from a window high in the rafters. At one point, she sees something drop and assumes the man has fallen to his death, but it turns out to be only his fur coat. He reaches the ground safely, and the two come face to face. 

The conversation quickly turns prickly and charged. The man mocks Rose’s compassion and tells her she has no hope of surviving the trials. She gives as good as she gets, warns him that making enemies before the competition starts is a bad strategy, and walks out.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 3

Rose returns home in the middle of the night to find Kay awake and worried. Kay has already pieced together that their neighbor Evelina was in some kind of trouble, having heard screaming and seen priestesses at the house earlier that day. Before she can push Rose on where she’s been, she spots a deep cut on Rose’s hand and refuses to let her leave again until it’s properly stitched.

Once that’s sorted, Rose heads next door with a medicinal brew for Evelina’s husband Corem. He tells her the priestesses will be coming the following day to take Evelina to the temple, believing she’ll be more at peace there when she dies. 

Rose gives Corem the brew and won’t hear of being paid for it. He offers bread rolls instead, and even though Rose is hungry, she only takes one, leaving the rest for him and his wife. She says a quiet goodbye to the unconscious Evelina and walks back out into the cold, barely keeping her tears in check.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 4

Rose and Kay are pushing through a crowded market when they bump into Ruben and his disagreeable friend Peter. Rose had secretly put her name forward for the Retterheld trials without telling Kay, and when guards unexpectedly arrive to announce the selected names far earlier than anticipated, she panics and tries to get Kay to leave. Kay refuses.

The guards read out the list, and Rose’s name is called. She is so overwhelmed she needs to grab something to steady herself, and she ends up clutching Kay rather than Ruben. Rose turns to find her sister staring at her, jaw tight, furious and betrayed.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 5

Rose and Kay are still at the market when Kyor Knavin‘s name is announced among the Retterheld entrants. Kay is already furious with Rose for not telling her about joining, and the prince’s entry only makes things worse. Kay pleads with Rose, saying the prince will kill her, but Rose is unmoved. She decides she now has two goals in the tournament. She wants to win it and get revenge on the prince who once destroyed both their lives.

Fifty participants are chosen in total and must report to the High Hold the following night for their presentation to the king.

Rose has no money for a weapon, so she hitches a ride on a carriage heading toward the third ring. She gets off before the gate and approaches on foot. She talks her way past the guards and their dire wolves by invoking her place in the Retterheld, and the guards reluctantly let her through.

At the back of the temple, Rose makes her way to the ivy-covered wall before the priestesses’ quarters. Speaking Priestess Dinah Poltick‘s name into the ivy, she waits and hopes Dinah is there and willing to see her. Dinah appears and greets Rose warmly, saying Rose is the image of her mother.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 6

Rose visits Dinah, a priestess who has always been like a grandmother to her, to ask for two favors. During the visit, Rose reveals that she entered the Retterheld and was chosen by the Goddess Etta. Dinah is troubled by the news but accepts it.

The first favor is for Dinah to contact Lord Artur Lorathin and arrange for Rose’s sister to be moved closer to the palace. Rose wants Kay to live somewhere safer than the slums, where she can stay informed about anything that happens to Rose. Dinah agrees to help.

Rose then asks for a weapon. Dinah says she’ll find one for her. Dinah also reveals that she’s leaving for the North the next day and won’t be there for Rose’s vows or the first trial. Before they part, she asks Rose to hold on until she returns.

Dinah steps through a stone wall and returns with a large bundle. From it, she gives Rose a bag of old clothes to wear at the palace balls held between trial stages. She also hands over a heavy satchel filled with items she believes Rose will have more use for than the temple ever would. Dinah tells Rose to wait until she’s home alone before opening it. The two embrace and say goodbye.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 7

Rose comes home to find Kay furious about Rose’s decision to secretly enter the Retterheld. Kay calls it reckless and notes that even seasoned royal knights are competing, including Prince Kyor himself. Rose holds her ground, insisting she felt genuinely chosen by the Goddess and believes she can win, though she privately concedes that Kay’s arguments are hard to dismiss.

When Kay brings up Kyor, Rose brushes the subject aside, claiming she probably wouldn’t even recognize his face after fourteen years. It’s a lie. Rose remembers Kyor vividly from the day he blamed her mother for the queen’s death and had Rose’s family cast out.

Before she leaves the next morning, Rose directs Kay’s attention to a satchel from Dinah. Kay’s curiosity overtakes her anger, and she goes through it. They find medicinal seeds, dealun seeds, fighting gloves, and a dagger in a metal box. When Rose picks up the dagger, she feels a strange jolt of energy. Kay reaches for the dagger and pulls back, saying it burns, though to Rose it feels barely warm.

Rose decides not to sell the dagger despite its obvious value. Rose and Kay sit with the understanding that Rose may have to take lives with it. They set the rest of the satchel aside for later and head off to eat, with Kay making clear that the argument is far from finished.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 8

Rose wakes before dawn on the day she must leave and travel to the High Hold to compete in the Retterheld. Ruben is waiting outside for her. He gives her a fire bead bracelet, a one-shot magical weapon from the whole slum community that, when thrown to the ground, will set the surrounding area alight. Rose asks Ruben to watch over Kay in her absence, and he agrees without hesitation.

After a tearful goodbye with Kay, Rose heads through the outer rings toward the High Hold. Neighbors call out encouragement along the way, and a carriage driver gives her a ride partway. At the gates, the knights and their bonded dire wolves let her through without question.

Inside the High Hold, Rose stops a priestess for directions and makes her way toward the palace. There she runs into Jonas Lorathin, the now-grown son of Lord Artur Lorathin, whom she knew as a child. He tells her the other Rettlings arrived earlier and have already been sparring and sizing up the weapons available to them. 

Rose asks whether Jonas’s father has taken Kay into his care as arranged, but Jonas hasn’t spoken to his father since arriving and cannot say. He offers to take her to drop off her things and get her to the battle yard so she can start training.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 9

Jonas shows Rose around the eastern arc where the Rettlings are being housed. On the way, he mentions Lora, a former friend of Rose’s who was attacked by a dire wolf and never made it to the Retterheld.

Then Jonas takes Rose through the dining hall and up toward the dorms. She stops on the staircase to watch a group of Rettlings training in the courtyard below, and their fluid, practiced movements unsettle her. She asks Jonas how many competitors were accepted this year, and he says around fifty. He then tells her that fellow competitors have already killed two Rettlings before the trials have even started. He doesn’t say much more than that.

Rose and Jonas head down a corridor, and Jonas finds her a room. Before they can go in, a young woman named Zara turns up with a few other Rettlings behind her. She calls Rose a slum rat and makes it clear she means to hurt her. Jonas steps between them and tells Zara to go back to her room.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 10

Rose comes face to face with Zara, a competitor from Rowell who has apparently killed several of the other Rettlings before the tournament has even started. Zara makes it obvious she plans to do the same to Rose. Rose tries to talk her down, questioning whether the Goddess would truly favor someone who kills outside the trials, but Zara is unmoved and utterly certain of her own right to be there.

When Zara uses her magic to reopen Rose’s old wounds, Rose knows the confrontation is only going one way. She goads Zara into stepping closer to a wicker basket full of kindling, then throws an activated flame bead from her bracelet into it. The fire takes hold immediately and catches Zara, burning her skin and hair.

Before the fire can kill Zara, an unknown woman steps in and extinguishes the flames with a sharp blast of icy air. Zara survives but is badly burned from her head to her waist. She shrugs off her companions and walks away on her own, refusing any help. Rose is shaken by what she’s done, but she holds herself together. She knows she’s made a dangerous new enemy, and the tournament hasn’t even begun.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 11

After Zara Duarte threatens anyone who shelters Rose, every room turns Rose away. Jonas steps in and gives Rose his own private quarters at the top of a rickety staircase. Jonas asks Rose about the fire magic she used in the fight, and she brushes him off without giving him a real answer about what she can actually do. He warns her that the confrontation has probably made things harder for her, then fills her in on Zara’s support network among the other Rowell competitors, including Zara’s twin brother, Shim.

Rose retreats to the bathroom to treat the leg wound Zara reopened, using salve she packed herself and turning down any suggestion of a healer. She pushes Jonas to show her his power, and after some reluctance, he takes her hand and blinds her without warning. Jonas can use the ability from any distance as long as he can see the target. However, he can affect only one person at a time, which makes him far more useful when paired with someone who can strike while the target is disoriented.

Jonas then touches Rose’s face and admits he’d thought about her almost every day after she left. Rose leans in, but when she brings up his father, something changes in him. Jonas pulls back without explanation and leaves.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 12

Rose is left alone in her room after Jonas departs. She searches for somewhere safe to stash her valuables and finds a hidden gap behind a tile in the bathroom, where she tucks away some rare seeds and two daggers. Rose keeps one dagger strapped to her thigh.

Too hungry to wait for the evening feast, Rose heads downstairs. Voices from the kitchen give her pause, but the mention of pastries draws her in.

Inside, Rose finds five Rettlings sitting around a table: Benny, Llinos, Coulter, Loch, and Jai. The group tells Rose that Zara killed one of their members the day before, a girl named Suan, and that they want nothing to do with Zara or the Rowell crew. They openly share their powers and explain their goal of keeping as many members of their group alive as possible through the final challenge, the Ofur.

When Coulter asks about Rose’s power, Rose admits she has none. She gives them her name, but it means nothing to them, so Rose explains that her mother was Reeva Kultavaris, the healer King Korvane held responsible for the queen’s death. The group responds with sympathy and condemns the ruling outright. Benny jokes that it would be awkward since Prince Kyor, who lied about Rose’s mother’s role, is also competing in the trials.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 13

Rose spends time in the kitchen getting to know the Eastern Isles group, weighing the group up as possible allies. She bonds with Llinos, who offers to help her prepare for the upcoming ball. Rose and Llinos stop briefly at Llinos’s dorm before heading up to Rose’s room, where Rose finds a bucket of sand that Jonas left outside the door as a private joke between them.

Llinos starts working on Rose’s hair, and the two begin to open up. Llinos mentions her nine-year-old sister Carys. During their conversation, a raven lands on the windowsill. Then Llinos gradually reveals that someone she loved, a woman named Caz, vanished four years ago. Llinos suspects someone sent Caz away rather than taking her and vaguely suggests the decision had something to do with Caz’s power. When Rose and Llinos look back at the window, the raven is gone.

Llinos then admits she hopes that if she wins the gifting, the Goddess might bring Caz back to her somehow. Rose is left sitting with a discomfort she can’t quite shake. Getting close to the other competitors is dangerous when only one of the competitors can win in the end. Llinos doesn’t dwell on the concern, though, and steers them back to the task at hand.

Web of Vows and Vengeance Chapter 14

Llinos helps Rose get ready for the Cotillion ball, cutting the skirt of Rose’s dress so Rose can reach the dagger sheathed on her thigh. When Rose finally sees herself in the mirror, she’s struck by how striking she looks.

Heading to the kitchen for water, Rose crosses paths with a heavily tattooed, already-drunk man who knows exactly who she is. He calls Rose the daughter of the Queenkiller and writes her off as someone who won’t survive the tournament. Rose shuts him down by pointing out that Zara is the one currently with the healers, not her, and the man seems grudgingly impressed before moving on.

The group gathers and walks over to the palace together. Llinos reminds Rose that Prince Kyor will almost certainly be at the ball, which rattles Rose more than she’d like.

Inside, the group runs into Jonas, who is obviously taken with how Rose looks. Rose introduces Jonas to the group, and Jonas pulls her aside to warn her about something. Jonas doesn’t get the chance to finish because Llinos suddenly spots Zara across the room, very much recovered and very much there.