QUICK LINKS: From Blood and Ash Recap by Chapter 1–7 | 8–20 | 36–41 // Book Review
From Blood and Ash Chapters 21–35 Summary
This chapter-by-chapter summary of From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout contains spoilers.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 21
Restless, Poppy slips out while Hawke guards an empty room. She heads to the Atheneum to find Miss Willa Colyns‘ scandalous diary and becomes so absorbed in it that Poppy loses track of time. Then the Duke walks in, and she has no choice but to climb onto a narrow ledge to avoid being seen.
Poppy listens as the Duke questions a guard about Lev Barron, the man behind the Craven hand incident. Lev turns out to be a lone actor with no real ties to the Descenters, and the Dark One hasn’t been spotted near the city. But the Duke intends to deal with Lev personally.
Once the room clears, Hawke appears and makes it clear that he knew Poppy was there. He pulls her back inside and yanks down her hood, revealing the mask beneath. Hawke demands to know how she got out, but his anger fades. He traces the line of her face, and Poppy realizes that she wants him to kiss her. For the first time, nothing is hiding her from Hawke.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 22
Instead of kissing Poppy, Hawke uses the moment to get her talking. Poppy ends up confessing about the servants’ passage she’s been using to move through the castle. Hawke isn’t pleased about the security gap. Poppy pushes back, reminding Hawke that she handled a kidnapping attempt alone with nothing but her dagger.
Before walking Poppy back, Hawke swipes the diary and reads the steamier passages out loud, clearly enjoying every second of Poppy’s mortification.
The next evening, Poppy dresses for the Rite in a sheer red gown with a matching domino mask, far removed from the white veils she usually hides behind. The outfit unsettles her, mostly because she worries about how Hawke will see her in it. When she arrives at the hall, only Vikter waits. Hawke, tied up in security meetings, will join later.
Inside the Great Hall, Poppy moves through the crowd, enjoying her anonymity. But the feeling doesn’t last. Lord Mazeen spots Poppy and calls out her name.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 23
The encounter with Lord Mazeen leaves Poppy unsettled. Lord Mazeen smells of jasmine, the same scent Poppy connected to the room where Malessa was murdered and to a strange petal she found there. The detail stops being a coincidence when Tawny confirms Malessa had been carrying white flowers the day she died.
The evening grows heavier when Agnes appears with a vague but pointed warning. The ceremony isn’t as secure as the Royals believe, and the Dark One’s reach has come closer than anyone in power wants to admit. Vikter can tell Agnes is holding something back, but she slips into the crowd before he can press her.
When Hawke arrives to relieve Vikter, Poppy sends Tawny off and finds herself alone with Hawke. Poppy reaches for her gift without meaning to and picks up what he’s feeling, hesitation mixed with attraction. When Hawke invites Poppy to walk through the gardens, she accepts. Hawke makes the case that a good memory is the best way to overcome a bad one. Poppy takes his hand, and the two of them slip away into the dark together.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 24
Hawke tells Poppy about losing his brother and his best friend when he was young. Poppy opens up about her loneliness, the absence of her parents, and how much she misses Ian.
Poppy follows Hawke to a weeping willow, tucked away and private. Hawke pulls her into his lap as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She points out all the reasons it’s wrong, but he doesn’t want to hear it. He tells Poppy that he isn’t interested in the Maiden. He’s interested in her, the actual person underneath.
When Poppy brings up her scars, Hawke doesn’t flinch. He tells her they’re proof of what she survived. He also doesn’t hide his contempt for the Duke, for what was done to her.
When Hawke suggests they go back before it gets harder to leave, Poppy doesn’t move. Instead, she looks at him and asks him to kiss her.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 25
Hawke kisses Poppy, and it builds into something neither of them pulls back from easily. Hawke is the one who stops. Poppy tells him that she wouldn’t have stopped him.
They don’t get long to sit with it. They run into Vikter, and one look tells Vikter everything. He goes for Hawke, who hits back where it hurts, telling Vikter that for someone who claims to care about Poppy, he treats her like a piece on a board. Poppy steps between them before it goes further. Hawke is sent away, and Vikter walks Poppy to her room in silence.
Something in Poppy gives way. She tells Vikter the truth about the Duke’s lessons, what they really were. Then she says what she’s never said out loud. She hopes she’s found unworthy of the Ascension. She wants out.
Poppy doesn’t finish the thought. Screams tear through the air from the Great Hall. She and Vikter run. The Duke’s body hangs from the dais, run through with his own cane. Above him, painted in blood, is the mark of the Dark One with the rebellion’s words beneath it.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 26
Chaos erupts in the Great Hall when arrows shatter the windows. In the panic, Poppy loses her companions and watches Loren die. The attack is a coordinated Descenter strike, its members wearing silver wolf-shaped masks.
The Duchess flees to a side room with a small group, but the attackers break through. Poppy fights and kills several Descenters, shocking everyone around her. As the fight dies down, one last attacker mortally wounds Vikter.
Hawke arrives just as Vikter dies in Poppy’s arms. When Lord Mazeen mocks them, Poppy’s grief darkens into rage. She seizes Vikter’s sword and brutally dismembers and beheads Lord Mazeen. Hawke pulls Poppy back, and she blacks out.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 27
Ten days after the massacre, Poppy is still caught between rage and numbness. One day, Hawke visits and tells Poppy that he’s sorry he wasn’t there the night Vikter died. She tells him that she doesn’t blame him, and they find a brief moment of comfort in each other’s company before he tells her the Duchess wants to see her.
The Duchess informs Poppy that the King and Queen have ordered her to the capital for her safety. When Poppy asks why she isn’t being held responsible for beheading Lord Mazeen, the Duchess tells her that she knew what kind of man he was and considers the matter closed.
Poppy is told to be ready to leave at sunrise.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 28
Poppy tries to bring Tawny along, but Hawke refuses, saying the road is too dangerous. Tawny ultimately makes the choice herself. It hurts Poppy to leave Tawny behind, but she understands.
On the morning that they set out, Hawke tells Poppy to travel without her veil to better hide her identity. He also surprises her with her dagger, the one she thought was lost during the attack on the Rite. Hawke then introduces their escorts, including a few guards from Masadonia and Kieran, someone Hawke trusts from the capital who knows the territory well.
The group sets off toward the Barren Plains.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 29
The group pushes hard across the Barren Plains, with Poppy riding alongside Hawke. The closeness between them creates tension, but the mood lifts when Hawke reveals he brought Lady Willa’s scandalous diary from the castle. Poppy is mortified at first before giving in to the humor.
By dusk, they reach the Blood Forest, its entrance littered with skeletal remains. Inside, the temperature drops as the crimson canopy cuts off the last of the daylight. After another hour of riding, the group makes camp in a territory known to be crawling with Craven.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 30
Poppy can’t sleep through the cold, and Hawke eventually climbs under her blankets to share body heat. He tells Poppy that Vikter warned him about her nightmares and that he needs to stay close in case she cries out and draws the Craven.
In the quiet, Poppy opens up about her dread of the Ascension and her resentment of the Queen’s plan to marry her off to a stranger. Hawke listens without judgment and tells her that wanting a life on her own terms isn’t wrong.
That emotional closeness shifts into something physical. Afterward, the tension Poppy has carried for so long finally loosens, and she falls into a peaceful sleep in Hawke’s arms.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 31
Before breaking camp, Poppy overhears Kieran reminding Hawke of their objective. Hawke makes it clear that the mission is still his priority.
Deeper in the Blood Forest, the group is ambushed by a barrat. They kill it, but the noise triggers a Craven attack. Poppy holds her own with a dagger until Hawke gets her a bloodstone sword. In the chaos, she trips over tangled roots, and a guard named Airrick throws himself in front of a blow meant for her, mortally wounding him.
Unable to walk away while Airrick is suffering, Poppy kneels beside him and uses her gift to draw the pain out of him, giving him a peaceful death. Both Phillips and Hawke witness it. Phillips says what others have long suspected, that the Maiden has the gift known as the touch.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 32
At Haven Keep, the group is welcomed by Elijah, whose familiarity with Hawke and Kieran makes clear that the three go back a long way. Poppy notices how naturally Hawke moves among the locals and how he knows Magda by name, which contradicts his earlier claim of being a stranger to the area. Poppy says nothing, too grateful for the comfort of a private room, a hot meal, and a bath.
Later, alone with Hawke, Poppy tells him the truth about her touch. She can feel other people’s pain and pull it out of them, and she once used it on him to ease his grief. He doesn’t recoil and is grateful.
As the evening winds down, Hawke tells Poppy she deserves a future she actually chooses. It lands harder than she expects. She’s spent so long bending to rules she never agreed to, and she’s tired of it. So she asks him to stay.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 33
Hawke is upfront with Poppy. If he stays, things will turn physical. She answers by dropping her robe, and he responds with genuine admiration.
For Poppy, the night means more than desire. It’s a choice she’s making for herself.
Afterward, Hawke asks her to promise she’ll always remember what this was between them, whatever comes next. Poppy gives him her word.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 34
At dawn, Phillips bursts in with a warning. Haven Keep is a trap. Guards have gone missing, and not a single Ascended noble is anywhere to be found. Poppy and Phillips try to run, but Kieran cuts them off. Phillips stabs Kieran, but Kieran doesn’t go down. He transforms into a Wolven.
Poppy and Phillips run to the stables, but Jericho, the Descenter who killed Rylan, is waiting. Then Hawke arrives and shoots Phillips dead with a crossbow. The Wolven kill the remaining guards. Poppy realizes that Hawke is the one who’s been leading the insurgents all along.
When Poppy reaches out with her gift to read Hawke’s emotions, she finds nothing, a cold, hollow emptiness she has only ever felt from the Ascended. When Hawke’s men move to kill her, he stops them. They have their own plans for her.
From Blood and Ash Chapter 35
Poppy confronts Hawke, who admits his arrival in Masadonia was a ploy to earn her trust. Rylan’s murder was orchestrated to open a spot in her guard so Hawke could step in. When Poppy demands the truth about Vikter’s death, Hawke’s evasiveness pushes her over the edge. In the struggle, she lands a hit but stops when she notices his fangs and realizes that he’s Atlantian.
The townspeople call for Poppy’s death, but Hawke shuts them down and makes clear she is his to deal with. Overpowered, Poppy is locked in a cell beneath the keep. Alone, she sits with the weight of realizing everything between them was a lie. Delano lets slip that an Atlantian prince has ordered her to be kept alive, deepening the mystery. Hawke then comes to her cell to face her, the woman he spent months deceiving.