Kissed by the Gods by Caty Rogan: Chapter-by-Chapter Book Summary

This Kissed by the Gods book summary covers Caty Rogan’s The Eternal Wars Book 1. Whether you need a full recap before Blessed by the Damned or just want a refresher on what happened, this chapter-by-chapter breakdown of Kissed by the Gods has you covered. The summary of Kissed by the Gods below includes full spoilers.

KISSED BY THE GODS TROPES: Feminine Rage | Forbidden Romance | Found Family | He Falls First | Slow Burn

Jump to Chapter Recap of Kissed by the Gods: Chapters 12–21 | 22–31 | 32–43 | 44–53 | 54–63 | 64–72

Kissed by the Gods Book Summary

This Caty Rogan Kissed by the Gods book summary contains full spoilers for all 72 chapters.

Part 1: The Grounded

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 1

While harvesting wheat with her family, Leina’s senses suddenly overwhelm her, as they sometimes do. Seb notices and checks on her, and they share a brief, quiet exchange before their mother ends it and tells them to get back to work.

Leina catches something no one else can hear and realizes soldiers are coming down the road. The news crushes the family. Leina’s mother immediately begs Seb to run and hide in the woods, but he refuses. He knows that if he disappears, the soldiers will punish the family and eventually tear through the village to find him.

Their father sends Leo inside and tells Leina to bring their mother back to the house. But Leina can’t move. She stands watching the four riders close the distance, and her eyes drop to the scythe in her hand. Seb tells her to loosen her grip before the soldiers mistake it for a threat. She doesn’t listen. Instead of moving toward her mother, she walks toward the soldiers.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 2

Leina steps between her family and a group of the king’s soldiers. When her mother speaks out of turn, an archer kills her instantly. Leina fights back with a scythe, and her father charges the archers in a rage. She takes down the captain and the remaining soldiers, but her father is struck by two arrows and dies before reaching her.

Together, Leina and Seb pin down the last surviving soldier. The soldier is clearly frightened of something beyond her, something he refuses to name. She presses her pruning shears to his ear, and he finally blurts out that she fights like an Altor, a divinely gifted warrior class. He dies before saying anything more, convulsing as insects devour him and vanish without a trace. Seb believes the soldier was cursed to keep him from talking.

Afterward, Leina and Seb turn to find Leo on his knees over their mother’s body. Seb tells Leina to pack supplies so they can flee before reinforcements arrive. She suggests turning herself in, but Seb shuts it down, pointing out that Leo would have nobody left to look after him. When Leina worries about what happens if the king sends Altor after them, Seb tells her she already is one. She faints.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 3

Leina wakes in the back of a farm cart in the Weeping Forest after two days unconscious. Seb gives her water and food after Leo cries himself back to sleep in her arms.

Seb suggests they seek out Zyrenna Kastrel, the rebel commander whose offer they had previously refused. Leina doubts the idea, but with nowhere else to go and nothing left to lose, she eventually agrees. They grieve together over their parents before settling into an uneasy silence.

A short time later, Leina picks up the scent of a stranger in the trees. An arrow flies at Seb, and she snatches it out of the air, putting herself between her brothers and the threat.

A man steps out of the forest and introduces himself as Ryot, an Altor of the Stormriven Vanguard. He was sent to execute the one responsible for killing a group of Faraengardian soldiers, but when he sees that Seb is just a boy, his focus shifts to Leina. He tells her she’s an Altor and must be brought before the Synod, while her brothers will simply be left behind. Leina refuses and goes for him with her scythe.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 4

Leina attacks Ryot with her scythe, but he overpowers her easily, throws her to the ground, and tells her she’s too untrained to protect her brothers from anything. When Seb charges at Ryot with a sword, Leina jumps between them. In the struggle, Ryot grabs her arm and dislocates her shoulder. He then gets Seb under control by holding a dagger to his throat.

With no good options left, Leina agrees to go with Ryot if he promises not to help capture her brothers or reveal where he found them. Seb confirms the vow is genuine. Ryot takes her scythe and pruning shears, and when Leina begs to say goodbye to her brothers, he refuses and pulls her into the forest, leaving Seb and Leo behind.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 5

Ryot drags Leina through a dark forest at a punishing pace. As they walk, she asks him for answers, and he reluctantly explains that Altors can sense emotions, a trait they use to communicate with their bonded winged horses, the faravar.

By the time they reach a clearing, Leina is completely spent. The moment Ryot lets go of her, she drops to the ground. He pulls her back up and makes her drink something called laomai, which restores her energy almost immediately. Once she’s recovered, he sets her dislocated shoulder.

That’s when Einarr appears. The faravar is enormous and unsettling in a way that goes beyond his size. He gets right in Leina’s face, seems to size her up, and then loses interest. Ryot and Einarr share one of their wordless exchanges, and then Ryot tells Leina they won’t be walking to Faraengard. They’ll be flying.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 6

Leina and Ryot prepare to fly on Einarr. She’s nervous, so Ryot opens an emotional connection and lets her feel what he felt before his own first ride, fear and all, which steadies her enough to take his hand and mount up. Einarr launches them into the sky.

During the flight, Leina sees her homeland Selencia below, and then Faraengard stretching out ahead. When they descend, she gets her first look at Edessa, Faraengard’s wealthy capital. The abundance on display, built on the labor of her people, fills her with rage.

Ryot then draws Leina’s attention higher, to the Synod, a military fortress built into the mountain range above the city. A soldier named Maxim spots them and blows a horn to signal their arrival. Soldiers scramble to their posts. A swarm of faravars descends from the peak, and their riders take position across the fortress towers. Every eye turns to Leina and Ryot.

As they approach, Ryot tells Leina to prepare herself, and it’s clear he isn’t talking about the landing. 

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 7

Ryot and Leina land on the tower aboard Einarr, who immediately rears and lashes out, sending the gathered men scrambling. Maxim confronts Ryot about bringing a grounded woman to the Synod, and a younger ward named Tyrston makes a crude remark about Leina. Einarr strikes Tyrston across the face before anyone else can react. Leina introduces herself to the group, refusing to be talked over or dismissed.

Helping Leina down from Einarr, Ryot barely gives Maxim a chance to needle him about his judgment before silencing him with a punch to the mouth.

Then Archon Lyathin arrives. He demands to know why Ryot abandoned his assassination mission to drag a grounded woman onto sacred ground. Ryot holds firm and calls Leina an Altor. Lyathin refuses to accept it, arguing the role has no precedent for women in all of Synod history. When he reaches for his whip, Leina has had enough of being talked around. She summons her scythe directly off Ryot’s back, and the laughter on the tower dies.

Before the standoff can go further, an enormous faravar lands and shakes the stone beneath their feet. Every man on the tower kneels. Leina does not. She lifts her chin and looks up at the old man on the beast’s back.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 8

The Elder arrives and immediately shuts down the argument among the warriors, scolding them for neglecting their duty. He asks why none of them saw what was coming, and the warriors look up to find draegoths dropping silently out of the sky.

Ryot throws Leina to the ground as the attack breaks out. A Kher’zenn scales the tower wall and catches her eye, and she falls into a kind of trance, reaching out to touch him despite herself. The moment they make contact, she feels a pain that runs far deeper than anything physical.

Suddenly, Ryot kicks Leina away from the Kher’zenn, badly injuring her hand. The Kher’zenn releases a strix before Ryot decapitates him and puts down the riderless draegoth with Einarr’s help.

In the aftermath, Lyathin learns the strix escaped and is furious about what it might be carrying back. Ryot sits with Leina and holds her hand, and the warmth of his touch slowly drives back the strange decay creeping across her fingers. The Elder tells her the marks mean she’s an Altor, the only kind of person who can survive a Kher’zenn’s touch. Lyathin orders her taken to the infirmary, and Ryot releases her hand.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 9

Leina finds herself inside a stone fortress, badly injured, with dark rot creeping over her fingers. A field medic named Nyrica examines her and tells her the rot on her fingers is permanent damage from contact with a Kher’zenn and can’t be healed. Ryot, who dragged Leina there, hovers in the background until Nyrica kicks him out.

Not long after, a woman enters flanked by four guards. Nyrica calls her “your highness,” and Leina quickly realizes the woman is Rissa, heir to the throne of Faraengard. Rissa sizes Leina up with open disdain, dismisses her as a farm girl, and orders Nyrica to the archons’ chambers, then leaves. Nyrica settles Leina into a bed and tells her the rest can wait until morning.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 10

Leina wakes from an unsettling dream and finds herself recovering in an infirmary alongside two other patients, Tyrston and a young man named Leif. Leif greets her with immediate friendliness, but Tyrston, hostile from the start, tries to shut the conversation down. When he escalates and verbally attacks Leina, Leif steps in to defend her despite being injured himself.

Before things can get physical, three men enter. Leina recognizes Maxim and Archon Lyathin. The third is Thalric, who turns out to be Leif’s master. Lyathin sends Leif and Tyrston out of the room with Thalric, then tells Leina the Synod Council has summoned her. She asks what happens if she refuses, and Lyathin makes it clear she has no real say in the matter. On the way out, he tells her to leave the fork she’d hidden under her pillow.

Kissed by the Gods Chapter 11

Archon Lyathin escorts Leina through the Synod, and they briefly cross paths with Ryot in a hallway. Ryot reacts with open fury at the sight of Leina and walks off without a word to either her or Lyathin.

Leina is brought into a council chamber barefoot and wearing only a thin tunic, where she stands before a table of archons. King Agis and Princess Rissa arrive with their attendants and take their seats, followed by the Elder, who joins the council at the head of the table.

Just as Lyathin is about to open the proceedings, Ryot storms in late. He throws Leina a canvas bag and calls out the council for summoning her without giving her proper clothes or even shoes. The Elder tells the room to wait while Leina looks through the bag. She pulls out an oversized fur‑trimmed leather coat and a pair of wool socks and puts them on. She gives Ryot a nod.

Lyathin then calls Leina by her full name, Leina Haverlyn, tells her the council has questions for her, and asks her to sit.