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Vows of Blood and Deception Chapters 51–60 Summary
This Aria Ashbrook Vows of Blood and Deception chapter summary contains full spoilers.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 51
The group discovers that one of the Rottings was a Wrohelm soldier, still in uniform. Kyor admits he killed the soldier and confesses that men have vanished from his army rolls over the years without any deaths ever being officially recorded. Seeing the soldier’s face gives Kyor a terrible answer about where those missing men went.
Around the campfire, Ruben and Benny ask Kyor why a Wrohelm soldier turned up so far west, near Torailian territory. Kyor deflects the question, and Rose cuts the argument off before it spirals. She turns the conversation to the Sannings instead and asks why the Rottings never seem to target them. Loch explains that the Rottings can sense people without magic, and the Sannings have none.
Later, Rose notices Kyor is in real pain from his shoulder wound. She offers him two drops of Robbard’s, an addictive painkiller, and he takes four or five. The fact that Kyor doesn’t argue tells Rose that the injury is worse than he has let on.
Rose stays with Kyor while he stands watch. He admits he feels guilty about killing one of his own men and confesses that he was terrified of losing Rose during the fight with the Myrkr. Rose tells him she needs Kyor to truly see her and not walk away again. They kiss. Kyor promises that, once it’s all over, he wants everything out in the open between them.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 52
The group rides west into open terrain. Rose and Fen both sense that something is wrong, and when Benny mentions that they’re being followed, Kyor doesn’t deny it. Neither Kyor nor Benny will give a straight answer about how many people are trailing the group.
Suddenly, Torailians rise out of the earth and close in on all sides. They go after Rose with nets instead of blades. Fen vaults clear with Rose, though one soldier manages to grab her ankle before the soldier is forced to let go. Through telepathy, Rose catches a command ordering the Torailians to take her alive and treat the others as expendable.
As the fight continues, Rose pieces together that the Torailians are reading her intentions through her bond with Fen and using that knowledge to stay ahead of her. The leader tells Rose, out loud, that she carries Torailian blood and that makes her their concern. Rose refuses. A second wave of Torailians appears immediately.
Rose severs her mental link with Fen so the Torailians have nothing to read. She can barely stay on Fen without the connection, but Fen tears through the Torailian lines, and the soldiers, unable to anticipate his movements anymore, start to fall.
Kyor demands space to unleash a full lightning strike. Afraid that he’ll burn himself out permanently, Rose pulls energy from the plant roots she raised earlier and feeds it into him. She trusts Kyor the way he once trusted her, and Kyor detonates.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 53
Kyor brings down a devastating lightning strike that kills several Torailians and scatters the rest. Rose uses her telepathic ability to warn the survivors away, and the group rides hard to put distance between themselves and the attack.
While the group travels, Rose slips her consciousness into a nearby raven and flies back to see whether the Torailians are giving chase. A Torailian leader spots the raven and orders it shot down, and Fen yanks Rose back into her own body before anything worse can happen.
That night at camp, Rose tells the group what she’s learned about Torailian mental magic and how Torailians can communicate silently and read minds. She realizes that her father may have had the same ability, which means he could’ve heard her resentment and dark thoughts about him during his worst years. She walks away from the fire and falls apart.
Kyor follows Rose and gently suggests that her father’s Torailian magic may have been too weak or already stripped to have worked that way. When Rose starts spiraling about how many powers she seems to be accumulating and loses her grip on her emotions, Kyor kisses her to snap her out of it.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 54
Kyor kisses Rose, and the contact has the surprising effect of pulling Rose’s magic back under control. Afterward, he tells her he intends to stay with her past the Hirathean Pass and travel all the way to the Issen with her.
Rose kisses Kyor back, and things between them escalate fast until Rose moves toward his waistband and Kyor suddenly breaks away. He explains that the wolves are mating nearby and their bond has been seeping into the moment. Rose realizes the cause with some embarrassment and pulls her mind free of the connection. They briefly acknowledge the charged moment between them and head back to camp without another word.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 55
Rose returns to camp to find the group had clearly been talking about her. Ruben pulls her aside to check in and offers to deal with Kyor if necessary.
The Rose realizes she can hold full conversations with Fen, something no one else can do with a bonded wolf. Kyor is unsettled and suspects the ability connects to Rose’s Torailian heritage, and he urges her to keep it quiet. Rose also discovers she can speak with Elska. She ends up acting as a bridge between Kyor and Elska, and Elska shares that she has loved Kyor since long before he ever realized it.
Later, Rose notices Stide is feverish and spends the night giving her tonic after tonic, but nothing lowers the fever. By morning, Stide still hasn’t woken, and when Thessa tries to rouse her, Rose and Thessa find that Stide’s skin has turned mottled green. A tiny scratch was all it took. The Rottings have already spread up Stide’s arm, and both Stide and Kyor are clear that there’s no way to stop them.
Stide asks Kyor to end her life quickly, but Thessa refuses to let Stide die in pain. Thessa produces a vial of fast-acting poison. Stide tells Thessa she’s always loved her and asks her to act before the infection causes Stide to lose herself. Thessa gives Stide the poison and stays with her until she’s gone.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 56
The group spends the day giving Stide a proper burial according to Sanning custom. Tasks are divided among the group, with some digging the grave, others gathering stones to mark the spot, and Rose foraging for herbs while Thessa and Caz prepare the body. Once Stide is in the ground, nobody has the heart to ride, so the group relights the fire and sits together without much being said.
After a while, Rose steps away from the camp, and Kyor comes after her. He admits he was raised to see silence as strategy rather than deception and that unlearning that habit is harder than he expected. She nearly opens up about her own secret, the brother she hasn’t told Kyor about, but can’t make herself do it.
The conversation ends before either Rose or Kyor says what they really want to say, and instead of continuing to search for the right words, they give up on talking altogether. They end up sleeping together out in the dark away from camp, and afterward, Kyor draws Rose into his arms, and they stay like that.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 57
After sleeping with Kyor in the woods, Rose returns to camp, where the group makes it clear they know exactly what happened. Thessa has already taken a potion and is out for the night.
The next morning, Thessa spends the early hours grieving at Stide’s grave while everyone else keeps their distance. Needing a break from the weight of it all, Rose slips into her raven vision, only to find herself somewhere completely unfamiliar. Instead of her usual experience, she finds herself underground in pitch darkness.
Rose works her way through tunnels, choosing to go deeper rather than climb toward the surface, until she stumbles into a massive underground cavern. The cavern is packed with Rottings, completely still and barely breathing, arranged like columns throughout the space.
Moving between them, Rose starts recognizing faces. Her old neighbor Evelina from Wrohelm is there, despite the priestesses having taken her away to die. Then Rose spots Noleen, Ruben’s mother, who was also believed to be in the priestesses’ care and close to death.
The shock jolts Rose out of the vision. Back with the group, she tries to explain what she saw. When she gets to Noleen, Ruben falls apart. Rose realizes it was an army, and armies only exist because a war is coming.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 58
The group pushes through brutal snow and cold toward the mountain range that borders Issen territory. When Caz floats the idea of turning back after Rose’s vision, Rose feels a pull from her ring and shuts down the suggestion. They keep moving.
Conditions worsen enough that the group abandons the horses entirely. Fen finds them a cave to shelter in for the night, and Elska heads out to hunt.
Once they’re inside, Ruben uses his power to warm everyone up. Benny quietly pulls Rose aside and admits he has feelings for Ruben but worries about complicating things because of the difference in their social standing. Rose tells him to be honest with Ruben, then drags Kyor outside under the pretense of gathering firewood to give the two of them some space.
Outside, the sky clears, and the mountains come into sharp view. Rose spots something odd on the mountainside, a faint shimmer of color that she can’t explain as sunlight or drifting snow. She struggles to get Kyor to see it too. Then Thessa comes running over after spotting the same thing. Rose recognizes it from something Stide once taught her and realizes the mountain range itself is an illusion and that the entrance to Issen territory is hidden within it.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 59
Rose returns to the cave and immediately tells the group what she and Thessa discovered. The mountains aren’t entirely real. Thessa backs her up, and Benny rushes outside to see for himself. He comes back shaken and confirms that several peaks across the range are illusions. The group concludes that the Issen created them to stop armies from crossing while leaving hidden passages for their own use.
The next morning, the group reaches the base of the range. Kyor presses his hand against the rock and finds it solid, making it clear they need to track down the false peaks specifically. Caz suggests splitting into two groups to cover more ground, but Rose disagrees. She wants everyone to stay together, and that’s final. She uses her ring to choose their direction but keeps that to herself.
The group moves along the range, testing the rock until Benny spots one of the peaks flickering. Rose points to a small cluster of bare trees nearby and says that’s where they need to go. Kyor tries to take the lead, but she stops him. Rose takes out her dagger, steps into the trees, and walks toward the rock face with her eyes closed.
Vows of Blood and Deception Chapter 60
The group passes through an illusion concealing a mountain ravine and discovers a stunning city in the valley below, home to the Issen people. Rose gives everyone a chance to turn back, but the entire group chooses to stay with her.
Just as the group prepares to head down, Benny notices that the surrounding rock faces are also illusions. A group of Issen men suddenly appears around them, hidden behind those same illusions. Rose sets her dagger on the ground to signal that she means no harm, then introduces herself and explains her purpose. The Issen men drop to their knees before her, and one tells her that the Issen have long been waiting for her.
Disclaimer: This is a Vows of Blood and Deception summary. The original work is the property of Aria Ashbrook and Hellhound Press Limited.
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