The Serpent and the Wings of Night Audiobook Free
∘ Crowns of Nyaxia, Book 1
· The Serpent and the Wings of Night Overview
· The Serpent and the Wings of Night Summary
· The Serpent and the Wings of Night Themes
· The Serpent and the Wings of Night Characters
∘ Supporting Characters:
· Is The Serpent and the Wings of Night for you?
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Crowns of Nyaxia, Book 1
For humans and vampires, the rules of survival are the same: never trust, never yield, and always–always–guard your heart.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night Overview
First self-published, then acquired and traditionally published, by Bramble, a romantic imprint of Tor Books, The Serpent and the Wings of Night, 2022, is a new adult fantasy romance, a book of one, in Carissa Broadbent’s Nightborn Duet. It is the first book of the Crowns of Nyaxia series, composed of three planned duologies. This TikTok star is a Wall Street Journal Bestseller, as well. The story is narrated in the first person by Oraya, a 23-year-old woman, the human adopted daughter of the Nightborn King — a king ruling over the House of Vampires. Tired of her human weakness, Oraya enters a once-in-a-century competition known as the Kejari to obtain a wish from Nyaxia, the vampire goddess. However, her priorities and desires shift when she falls in love with Raihn, a member of an adversary vampire clan.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night Summary
As a child, Vincent found Oraya in the ruins of Salinae, a town that had been destroyed by Rishan rebels — these two House of Night clans, the Rishan and Hiaj vampires, battle for territory. Seeing a piece of himself in her, he adopts Oraya as his human daughter. He also likes the fact that she doesn’t trust him at first, but later, he explains to her that he is the one person that she can trust not to hurt her. As Oraya grows older, the limits are tested so that she becomes restless and starts to explore her human family. Yet Vincent cannot go after any remaining members since it will be a declaration of war to enter Rishan territory; however, he informs her that she can seek enough power to lead the search herself if she should ever win the centennial Kejari competition from the vampire goddess, Nyaxia. At the age of 16, Oraya meets a young vampire man who is recently turned and falls in love. His desire turns into a thirst for blood the first time they have sex, and he nearly kills her by draining her blood. As the punishment for heeding his command not to trust anyone but him, Vincento had Oraya murder her first love. To rid herself of the burden of killing her childhood lover as something he demands, Oraya begins to kill vampires at night.
Six years later, the 23-year-old Oraya patrols human districts for vampires. She sets out to compete in the Kejari, a once-every-century competition where the victor gets one wish from the vampire goddess, Nyaxia. The competition is held in the capital of the House of Night, Sivrinaj. Oraya plans to put herself up as a contestant and trade her prize in exchange for being fully emboldened with enough power to enter Rishan territory and locate the remainder of her human family.
The Kejari commences when Oraya is placed in the Moon Palace, the ceremonial starting place of the Kejari. Over four months, Oraya and its competitors face five challenges in total: The Full Moon challenge, the Waning Moon challenge, the Halfmoon challenge, the Crescent challenge, and the New Moon challenge. In the weeks running up to the Kejari, Oraya steals what time she can from Vincent, although he appears more and more distracted by matters that take place outside of the competition. He will not talk to her about his problems, but she suspects it has to do with his enemies — the Rishan, also known as the House of Blood vampires.
She has to fight humanoid demons to the death in the Full Moon trial but gains fatal injuries that she has to ally for and ends up living with two other vampire contestants, Mische and Raihn Ashraj. The coalition keeps her out of the bad graces of Angelika, the silver-haired leader of the Bloodborne contestants. At first, Oraya would not trust him enough to work with him and Mische in training for the Halfmoon trial, which requires teamwork to survive. Her fear of him causes her dormant magical power to lash out, something he tries to help her gain control over. Between the Full Moon and Waning Moon trials, Oraya meets a prince called Septimus, who hails from the House of Blood and seems to wager lives left and right on the destinies of these contestants.
In the Waning Moon trial, Oraya finds herself in a labyrinth she must escape from without being killed by other contestants. However, when she learns that humans are also locked in, her anger with the human children trapped in the arena draws the first line of difference between her and Vincent. Oraya starts vampire hunting again to atone for the death of human victims due to the vampire contestants. Raihn sneaks a glance and asks if he can come along too as a way for the two to train toward competing in the next challenge. Mische is badly injured during a raid on Moon Palace, and she drops out of the race. The night before the trial of Halfmoon, Jasmine takes Raihn into questioning, with scores of other Rishan and Bloodborne contestants, as Vincent is sure of the foul play by the factions; however, he sends him back in a terrible condition. Vincent turns a deaf ear to his promise to Oraya of not wanting to hurt Raihn increasing the gap between them. The following morning, the day before the Halfmoon trial, Raihn insists she can leave their alliance if she wishes, though Oraya chooses to stay.
The Halfmoon trial will help to build a connection between the minds and bodies of allied contestants. While other alliances cannot work the complications of extra intellect in their minds, having been trained just days earlier, Raihn and Oraya can adapt easily as they deal with the onrush of demons that patrol the arena. In the battle, Oraya awakens to her long-buried talent of Nightfire, whereby she burns the vampires and other demons around her. In the aftermath of the Halfmoon trial, Oraya and Raihn continue their alliance, and the thought of killing Raihn in the trials becomes impossible for Oraya to fathom. Preceding the Crescent trial, the vampires are deprived of blood.
The Crescent Trial uses vampires by releasing them into the forest to be their bloodthirst so they can feed on other animals that have been purposely poisoned. There, Oraya prevents Raihn’s death just as he lies passing like the others by feeding him her blood to satiate his hunger and keep himself alive. Her vampiric infection intensifies her natural draw to him. Together, they must traverse through a thick, scorching mist to get to the opposite end, the final gate to complete this Trail of Crescent Moon. In the quest, they discover remnants of Salinae, Oraya’s hometown from the Rishan territory, destroyed by Vincent as an act of war. At the quest’s end, only four people remain — Ibrihim, Angelika, Raihn, and Oraya.
When a long-awaited trial, the New Moon one, is moved to the next day, Oraya and Raihn succumb to mutual attraction and have sex. Their only promise is to fight to the end of Kejari, no matter whose blood they need to spill. He also relates his tragic tale about how he was Turned and enslaved for years; what he does not yet relate is that his enslaver was the former Rishan king, Neculai, whom Vincent killed and whose throne Vincent usurped. When Neculai died, the Rishan Heir Mark appeared on Raihn’s body. Reluctant to accept the responsibility it represented and assume the throne, he burned the mark from his body, leaving only an unrecognizable scar over his back in the place where it once was.
The New Moon contest is where the impersonations of three gods have each participant trapped in a room with them. After struggling for life, Oraya is released to a colosseum of spectators, battling both Ibrihim and Angelika to the death. Ibrahim is quickly taken out without a problem, but Angelika only dies because Raihn strikes a deal with Septimus, behind closed doors, that is. According to this pact, if Septimus ever instructs Angelika to let Oraya live, Raihn will be on the House of Blood’s side if he were ever to be successful in achieving the throne of Vincent. Raihan remains until the end with Oraya and Angelika, who deliberately stands idle so that Oraya can kill her. Finally, as a result of being the final two combatants, Raihn and Oraya face one another. As each promised from the beginning in Betanya’s training chambers, they vow to fight to the bitter end. Oraya hesitates and cannot bring herself to kill him, and as he assists her in plunging a blade into his heart himself, he dies so that she might win the Kejari and achieve her wish.
The despair that follows Raihn’s death becomes too much for Oraya, so she decides to give up her wish to ask for his life in exchange, wishing Nyaxia to turn the present reality into another where he wins the Kejari.
A newly resurrected Raihn approaches the scene, anguish filling his face as Nyaxia turns to him, asking him to declare his wish. Betrayal Oraya reels in betrayal as his hidden Heir Mark is revealed, and he asks Nyaxia for the powers of the Rishan Nightborn King to be returned to him as Heir to the Rishan line. The first act of power: killing Vincent and taking the throne. As Vincent is dead by his hand, a Heir Mark emerges upon Oraya’s body — it reveals her to be the biological daughter of Vincent. Desperate to keep her among the undead who now want her dead to stop the threat, Raihn weds her for protection. Jasmine visits surreptitiously and tells her that she is prepared to use the forces of the House of Night to free Oraya from Raihn’s hands. Oraya sent the girl into hiding at court; in the interim, she gathered intel that would be useful later for the reclamation of the throne. The novel closes with Raihn and Oraya present at the assembly of nobles called in the Nightborn Castle’s throne room, surrounded by covert enemies; among them stands Septimus offering in the name of the House of Blood his friendship to Oraya. So, it balances precariously the state of Raihn’s rule, setting up a sequel of the conflict.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night Themes
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Conflict Between Light and Dark: This classic struggle, which the story goes into, between good and evil, appears to manifest outwardly within a world divided between humans and vampires or demons and inwardly within characters.
Identity and Belonging: Oraya is the human protagonist but was born to vampire parents. Raised in a society of vampires, she still can’t fit in. Viewed as an outcast by humans and a suspect among vampires, she struggles with identity in societies that wouldn’t understand her peculiar story. Raihn is a vampire prince who has been passing through an identity crisis since he began questioning the traditional ways of society.
Survival and Trust: Tough facts of life drive Oraya to an operation of survival, coupled with a certain amount of caution. With trust being such a scarce commodity, the story goes on to show that bonding with someone in that kind of dangerous place takes real work.
Forgiveness and Redemption: Characters such as Oraya or Raihn can have the chance to be forgiven and, just possibly, redeemed from past actions or the cruelty of their upbringing. Breaking the Cycle of Violence: The narrative also sees an eye-welcoming glance at the possible breaking of established cycles of hatred and violence between different factions. Oraya’s journey might be a chance to bridge this gap and create a path toward peaceable coexistence.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night Characters
In “The Serpent and the Wings of Night” by Carissa Broadbent, the central characters are:
- Oraya: The protagonist, a human raised by vampires since childhood. She’s fiercely independent, skilled in combat, and harbors a secret power. Torn between her human heritage and vampire upbringing, she seeks her place in the world.
- Raihn: A vampire prince with a mysterious past. He’s intelligent, and observant, and harbors a rebellious streak against the established vampire order. He becomes an unlikely ally to Oraya in the Kejari trials.
Supporting Characters:
- King Vincent: The powerful Nightborn vampire king who raised Oraya. He’s a complex figure with both protective and manipulative tendencies.
- Seraphina: A formidable vampire warrior and Oraya’s rival in the Kejari trials.
- Demons: Creatures of chaos who serve as both allies and enemies depending on the situation.
- The High Council: The governing body of the vampire society, often at odds with King Vincent and his methods.
Is The Serpent and the Wings of Night for you?
Here are some reasons why one would enjoy “The Serpent and the Wings of Night”:
If you like your fantasy with a bit of darkness: It’s meant to be written with dark magic, vampires, and bloodthirsty intrigue. It’s being talked about in the same breath as such a hugely successful series as A Court of Thorns and Roses.
For Fans of Competition and Romance: This is the area that the plot spins around, a deadly tournament — the Kejari. This force pushes the protagonist, Oraya, to join and try to gain power for a secure position. Then there’s a slow-burn romance as a corollary to boot.
Strong Female Lead: Oraya is a daughter adopted into the vampire community. She is an underdog who has to fight to take her place in survival.
Exploration of duality: Supposedly, the story expounds upon the struggle of light and darkness, good and evil. This can be both in the world and within characters.
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