From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout Book Summary

TROPE GUIDE: Enemies to Lovers | Forbidden Love | Forced Proximity | Secret Identity

QUICK LINKS: Chapter Summary 1–7 | 8–20 | 21–35 | 36–41 // Book Review

TL;DR Summary

This quick chapter summary of From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout contains spoilers.

Chapter 1. A waitress at the Red Pearl recognizes Poppy in disguise and tells her to hide from Vikter in an upstairs room, where a man pulls her close.

Chapter 2. Hawke mistakes Poppy for someone else and kisses her.

Chapter 3. Poppy chooses to stay with Hawke, but Kieran interrupts them. Hawke asks Poppy to wait; she agrees but leaves the Red Pearl soon after.

Chapter 4. Poppy and Vikter secretly visit a cursed Huntsman. Poppy comforts his wife and mercifully ends his suffering with her bloodstone dagger.

Chapter 5. Poppy flees after Lord Mazeen harasses her and finds a woman’s body drained of blood.

Chapter 6. While on her nightly walk, Poppy’s guard, Rylan, is shot dead with an arrow.

Chapter 7. Poppy confronts Rylan’s assassin and is wounded. The Duchess suspects the Dark One is coming for Poppy.

Chapter 8. At Rylan’s funeral, Vikter reluctantly leaves Poppy in Hawke’s care.

Chapter 9. At a City Council meeting, Poppy is overwhelmed by the Tulises’ grief and senses a burning sensation from a blond man in the audience.

Chapter 10. The Duke appoints Hawke as Poppy’s new personal guard and instructs her to reveal her face to Hawke.

Chapter 11. Poppy reveals her scarred face, expecting revulsion, but Hawke calls her beautiful and vows to protect her.

Chapter 12. Hawke escorts Poppy to the Duke’s office and notices her and Tawny’s discomfort.

Chapter 13. The Duke punishes Poppy with seven lashes for her various transgressions, which she endures stoically while Lord Mazeen’s watches.

Chapter 14. Poppy sneaks off to help fight the Craven, despite Tawny asking her not to.

Chapter 15. Hawke catches Poppy during the attack, pulls her close as she tries to run, sees her bloodstone dagger, and calls her “Princess.”

Chapter 16. Hawke reveals to Poppy that he’s known all along that she’s Penellaphe the Maiden.

Chapter 17. Hawke dismisses Tawny and questions Poppy, who shares her trauma from a Craven attack as the reason she fights. He suggests she dress more suitably next time.

Chapter 18. During a public address on the Craven attack, Poppy is overwhelmed by the crowd’s emotions until Hawke steadies her, just before a Descenter throws a severed Craven hand at the Duke and Duchess.

Chapter 19. Poppy meets with Duchess Teerman, who explains that Poppy’s evolving gift is a sign of her nearing Ascension. 

Chapter 20. During a tense history lesson, Poppy questions the Ascension, angering Priestess Analia. Hawke intervenes, and afterward, Poppy hints at past abuse and consoles him over their mutual grief.

Chapter 21. Poppy “borrows” Miss Willa Colyns‘s diary, hides from the Duke by climbing out of his private room, overhears him mention the captured Descenter, and gets rescued by Hawke, ending in a near kiss.

Chapter 22. Vikter escorts Tawny and Poppy, dressed in non-white, to her first Rite.

Chapter 23. Agnes speaks with Poppy and Vikter at the Rite and cryptically warns Poppy to be careful. Later, Hawke convinces Poppy to visit the garden instead of returning to her room.

Chapter 24. In the garden, Hawke shares a painful memory. Poppy uses her gift to comfort him, and he confesses his feelings. She then asks him to kiss her.

Chapter 25. After their passionate kiss, Poppy and Hawke run into Vikter. Once Hawke leaves, Poppy clashes with Vikter over her role as the Maiden. They suddenly hear screams and learn that the Duke has been murdered.

Chapter 26. Poppy and Vikter fight Descenters, and Vikter dies. Enraged by Lord Mazeen’s taunts, she kills him before blacking out.

Chapter 27. After Vikter’s death, the Duchess summons Poppy, tells her she’ll be sent to Carsodonia for her safety, and assures her she won’t be punished for killing Lord Mazeen.

Chapter 28. Poppy reluctantly leaves Tawny behind and heads to Carsodonia with Hawke, Kieran, and the guards, her veil off for the first time in years.

Chapter 29. Poppy rides with Hawke through the desolate Barren Plains and the eerie Blood Forest, camping near Craven territory.

Chapter 30. Poppy struggles with the cold and anxiety until Hawke warms her with his body and gives her pleasure.

Chapter 31. Hawke thanks Poppy for their intimate moment. Later, a Craven attack mortally wounds Airrick, and Poppy eases his death with her gift, revealing her power to Hawke and Phillips.

Chapter 32. In her room at New Haven, Poppy tells Hawke more about her gift and admits she eased his pain before. She then asks him to stay.

Chapter 33. Poppy and Hawke become intimate. He then asks her to promise that she won’t forget that their bond is real, no matter what happens.

Chapter 34. The next day, Phillips warns Poppy of Hawke’s deception. Chaos erupts as Kieran shifts, Jericho appears, and Hawke kills Phillips and others.

Chapter 35. Hawke admits he orchestrated Rylan’s death and knew Poppy’s identity. She discovers he’s Atlantian just before being imprisoned.

Chapter 36. While treating Poppy, Hawke confesses to killing the Duke and reveals the truth about the Atlantians, Craven, and Ascended. He says they need her to trade for Prince Malik but insists not everything he’s done was a lie.

Chapter 37. Shaken by Hawke’s revelations, Poppy tries to escape but is caught in a brutal fight. Mr. Tulis stabs her, and she collapses. Kieran and Delano save her and call for the Prince.

Chapter 38. Hawke, who turns out to be Prince Casteel, saves Poppy by giving her his blood. It heals her but reveals his true identity, prompting her to stab him with a bloodstone dagger.

Chapter 39. After stabbing Cas, Poppy runs. Hawke catches her, feeds on her, and seduces her, something she doesn’t regret later on. He then tells her they’re headed to Atlantia.

Chapter 40. Poppy learns from Kieran that Atlantia actually still exists. As she wrestles with recent truths and her complicated feelings for Cas, Kieran warns that Cas still wants her, no matter the cost.

Chapter 41. Cas takes Poppy to dinner, where the sight of her impaled attackers rattles her. He reveals she’s half-Atlantian and that they must return home to marry on Atlantian soil.

Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

This chapter-by-chapter summary of From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout contains spoilers.

Chapter 1

Penellaphe “Poppy” Balfour is at the Red Pearl, a brothel, playing cards with three off-duty guards from the Rise. Disguised in a cloak Poppy had borrowed from a castle servant named Britta, she listens as the guards talk about Finley’s gruesome death, his body found just outside the Blood Forest. 

Phillips Rathi tells the younger guards that it’s an inappropriate topic to discuss in the presence of a “lady.” Poppy worries for a moment that Phillips recognizes her even with a mask. As the Maiden, she usually has her face covered with a veil, but since only a few people have ever seen her without the veil, she believes there is no need to panic. 

After another losing hand, Poppy leaves the table and wanders off. She keeps her senses and empathic abilities to herself, as she doesn’t want to feel the pain of others. 

A woman in red stops Poppy from entering a room where people are dancing and being intimate. The waitress recognizes Poppy as the Maiden. Poppy tries to deny it, but the waitress assures her that her secret is safe and that she won’t report her to the Duke and Duchess of Masadonia. However, Poppy panics when she sees Vikter Wardwell walk in. 

Vikter, a member of the Royal Guard and one of Poppy’s personal guards, is like a father to her and trains her to fight. Poppy knows Vikter would recognize her anywhere. The waitress tells Poppy to hide upstairs in an unoccupied room and that she will come for her when it’s safe.

Poppy enters the room, and a man pulls her close to his very hard body. 

Chapter 2

Poppy turns around and comes face to face with the strikingly attractive Hawke Flynn, a Rise Guard who arrived a few months ago from Carsodonia, the capital city. Mistaking Poppy for Britta, Hawke takes off his tunic and passionately kisses her but quickly realizes his mistake.

Despite Hawke’s insistence, Poppy doesn’t reveal her name. As they banter and chat, Poppy weighs the potential consequences of her actions as the Maiden and the Chosen, such as the possibility that the gods might find her unworthy.

Chapter 3

After debating with herself, Poppy decides to stay in the room, despite the risk of severe punishment and possible exile from the kingdom.

Hawke repeatedly asks Poppy to remove her mask, but she refuses. However, she lets him take off her cloak. As Hawke explores her body, he finds a bloodstone dagger with a wolven bone handle sheathed to her thigh. He quickly pulls it out and tells Poppy it’s unwise to carry a weapon she doesn’t know how to use. Annoyed, Poppy informs him that she does know how to wield it.

After stabbing her dagger into the bed, Hawke pounces on Poppy. Just as he is about to kiss her, Kieran interrupts and announces that the envoy has arrived. Before he reluctantly leaves, Hawke tells Poppy he will be back and asks her to wait for him. She agrees, but she leaves shortly after he does.

The next morning, Tawny Lyon, Poppy’s Lady in Wait, asks where Poppy was last night because she wasn’t in her room when she checked. Poppy trusts Tawny to some extent, but she fears Tawny might report her to the Duke and Duchess. After some hesitation, Poppy relents and tells Tawny about her night at the Red Pearl but leaves out the part about Hawke.

Poppy and Tawny then discuss the rumors about the mist and their upcoming Ascension. While Poppy fears her Ascension, Tawny is excited about hers and the start of a new chapter.

After supper, Vikter knocks on Poppy’s door. He tells Poppy there’s a cursed individual.

Chapter 4

Poppy and Vikter leave the castle through a secret passage and arrive at a house in Masadonia’s Lower Ward that’s discreetly marked with a white handkerchief. Vikter quickly removes the cloth to conceal their treasonous activity. He then knocks on the door, and an emotionally distressed Agnes answers. As they enter, Poppy notes the unmistakable smell of a curse. 

Agnes reveals that her husband, Marlowe, a Huntsman for the Rise, returned home two days ago and started showing signs of the curse. She explains that his condition has already advanced.

Poppy asks Agnes if she has said her goodbyes. Agnes suddenly kneels in front of Poppy and mentions the rumors that Poppy is the child of the gods and has the “gift.” Poppy downplays these rumors and offers her hand to help Agnes up. Poppy then uses her gift to temporarily take away the grieving woman’s pain. 

While Vikter speaks with Agnes, Poppy enters the bedroom where Marlowe lies. Knowing he will soon turn into a Craven, Poppy touches him to take away his physical pain and then uses her bloodstone dagger to grant him a merciful death.

Chapter 5

As Poppy and Vikter make their way back to Castle Teerman through the supposedly haunted Wisher’s Grove, Vikter reprimands Poppy for revealing her abilities to Agnes. He warns that doing so increases her risk of discovery. Poppy tries to reassure Vikter that she’s being careful, but he believes she is taking too many risks. 

Later, Poppy’s other personal guard, Rylan, escorts her from her bedroom to the Queen’s garden for her evening walk. They are stopped by Lord Brandole Mazeen, an Ascended noble, who insists on speaking with Poppy alone. Lord Mazeen pulls Poppy into an alcove and begins to harass her, taunting her about the Duke’s “lessons.” Just as Poppy readies her dagger to defend herself, screams ring out, which distracts Lord Mazeen and gives her a chance to escape.  

Reunited with Rylan, Poppy and Rylan follow the screams to a nearby room. Inside, they are met with a gruesome sight: the body of a partially undressed woman, drained of blood, her neck broken, and deep puncture wounds on her neck.

Chapter 6

Rylan brings Poppy back to her room while a castle-wide search for the culprit begins. Tawny suggests a Craven killed the woman, but Poppy’s observations—two puncture wounds instead of four and the lack of blood—cast doubt on this theory.

Vikter arrives and reports that the Duke blames the Descenters for the death of Malessa Axton, who was Lady Isherwood’s Lady in Wait. Saddened by the loss of someone so young, Tawny excuses herself and quietly returns to her room.

Poppy and Vikter continue discussing the incident, both agreeing that Malessa wasn’t killed by a Descenter but by an Atlantian. 

In the early dawn, Poppy quietly sneaks into the room where Malessa’s body was found. With most of the furniture gone, Poppy carefully searches the space and spots a single jasmine petal that doesn’t match the other flowers.

Later that evening, Rylan knocks on Poppy’s door for her nightly walk. Although he normally enjoys their regular outings in the garden, he is more alert than usual because of the recent attack. As Poppy admires her favorite night-blooming roses, Rylan is shot in the chest with an arrow. 

Chapter 7

Poppy tries to stop the bleeding, but Rylan’s wound is fatal. Suddenly, a cloaked figure emerges and claims responsibility for Rylan’s death. The figure also threatens further harm unless Poppy complies. Grief-stricken but fueled by rage, Poppy attacks the man with her dagger, just as Vikter had taught her. Although she manages to wound him twice, she also sustains injuries.

The assassin tells Poppy that he will kill her and enjoy it and that he doesn’t care about someone else’s plans for her. However, the man leaves after hearing a whistle.

Hearing the commotion, the Royal Guards and Vikter arrive and discover Rylan’s dead body.

Duchess Teerman questions Poppy after learning about the attack. Vikter mentions that the arrow that killed Rylan bears the Dark One’s promise: “From Blood and Ash. We Shall Rise.” The Duchess then reveals that Malessa’s attacker is believed to be an Atlantian. She explains that there is reason to suspect Rylan’s death is part of a larger, sinister scheme and that this scheme confirms the Dark One is coming for Poppy.