The Lion and the Deathless Dark (Crowns of Nyaxia Book 5)

From New York Times bestselling author and BookTok sensation Carissa Broadbent returns with a brand new novel in the Crowns of Nyaxia series, The Lion & the Deathless Dark – the first book in the Bloodborn Duet.

Some blood tastes like vengeance. Some blood tastes like grief. Some blood tastes like nothing at all.

Under an eternal night, the world has been ravaged by ten years of war between humans and vampires. Kyrene scrapes by as a bounty hunter, bearing a blessed sword from the goddess of justice. But in the wake of a devastating loss, Kyrene commits a crime that makes her a target for mortals and gods alike – and she is still desperate for vengeance.

Her only chance at survival – and revenge – is making a deal with her enemy, the silver-tongue vampire prince, Septimus, who offers her one final job: to slay the gods themselves.

Together, Kyrene and Septimus must hunt the ultimate marks, all while navigating a web of prophecies and curses. Septimus is calculating and mysterious, masking secrets bloodthirsty enough to consume them both. Yet, most dangerous of all, Kyrene finds an unexpected kinship in him.

But their growing attraction is deadly in a world where the only currency is blood. And Kyrene will stop at nothing to fulfill her ultimate goal: to kill the goddess of vampires, even if it means sacrificing love for revenge.

I've been concerning teachers and parents with mercilessly grim tales since I was roughly nine years old. Since then, my stories have gotten (slightly) less depressing and (hopefully a lot?) more readable. Today, I write fantasy novels with a heaping dose of badass ladies and a big pinch of romance.

I work as a cybersecurity marketing professional during the harsh light of day, and am also a visual artist. I live with my fiance, one very well behaved rabbit, one very poorly behaved rabbit, and one perpetually skeptical cat in Rhode Island.

To keep up with my work, join my mailing list at www.carissabroadbentbooks.com!

Praise for the Crowns of Nyaxia series:

"Majorly addicting." - Marie Claire on The Serpent & the Wings of Night

“Fans of dark romantasy won’t want to miss this.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review on The Serpent & the Wings of Night

“[A] haunting, action-packed political fantasy with a doomed romance at its center, full of heartbreak and intrigue.”– Library Journal, starred review on The Serpent & the Wings of Night

“Vampire romance lovers will drink this series down to the last drop.”– POPSUGAR, "The 18 Best Fantasy Romance Books" on The Serpent & the Wings of Night

"Broadbent builds realistic and gripping tension as Raihn and Oraya navigate the roles of rivals, lovers, and potentially co-rulers... There’s plenty here to sink one’s teeth into." ―Publishers Weekly on The Ashes & the Star-Crossed King

“This novel is fast-paced from the first page, with equal parts war action and romance. Romantasy fans will want this next book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series.” – Booklist on The Ashes & the Star-Crossed King

“Expect gorgeous, immersive descriptions of magical worlds, a grumpy-sunshine romance with more than a hint of spice, and thoughtful explorations of deep emotional wounds.” – The Skimm on The Songbird & the Heart of Stone

“A Court of Thorns and Roses meets Dante’s Inferno, in an epic fantasy romance of love and treachery between mortals and gods.” – i09 November Roundup, on The Songbird & the Heart of Stone

“Carissa Broadbent marries a thoughtful look at religious and family trauma with epic adventure and romance.” – BookPage (starred review) on The Songbird & the Heart of Stone

"Another winner from Broadbent." ― Publishers Weekly, on Slaying the Vampire Conqueror

Carissa Broadbent’s The Lion and the Deathless Dark is the first book in the Bloodborn Duet and the fifth novel in the Crowns of Nyaxia series. It shifts the focus to two very different characters: Kyrene, a fierce human bounty hunter carrying a divine sword, and Septimus, the calculating vampire prince whose earlier appearances left readers with little reason to trust him. Set in a world trapped beneath an eternal night and scarred by a decade-long war between humans and vampires, the novel combines revenge, divine politics, dark magic, grief, and a slow-burning enemies-to-lovers romance.

Kyrene begins the story as a woman who has learned to survive by being dangerous. She is an acolyte of Shiket, the goddess of justice and war, and carries one of Shiket’s sacred weapons, the Blade of Retribution. The sword, called Zefiah, is itself an ancient and rather opinionated presence, giving Kyrene an unusual companion as she works as a bounty hunter. The opening immediately establishes her personality: she is impulsive, violent when necessary, sarcastic, and seemingly unafraid of consequences. Yet beneath this hard exterior is someone carrying enormous emotional pain.

Kyrene’s relationship with Shiket is especially important because she genuinely believes in the goddess she serves. Justice has given her life a sense of purpose. The sword is not merely a weapon; it is a physical symbol of the faith and identity Kyrene has built for herself. She believes that serving Shiket gives meaning to her violence and distinguishes vengeance from simple bloodshed.

That belief collapses after a devastating personal loss.

Overwhelmed by grief and rage, Kyrene commits an act that should be impossible for an ordinary mortal: she kills Shiket herself. The goddess she worshipped becomes the victim of Kyrene’s fury. In one terrible moment, Kyrene destroys the very figure who gave her power and purpose.

The consequences are immediate. Gods and mortals now want her dead. She has committed an act of divine murder, and there is nowhere obvious for her to hide. More importantly, however, Kyrene is still consumed by the grief that caused the crime in the first place. Killing Shiket has not healed her. It has only made her more desperate and isolated.

Her unlikely salvation comes from Septimus.

Septimus is a vampire prince and one of the most enigmatic figures in the larger Crowns of Nyaxia world. He is intelligent, controlled, sarcastic, and extraordinarily good at manipulating people. Where Kyrene acts first and thinks later, Septimus plans several steps ahead. Their personalities seem almost designed to clash.

Yet Septimus offers Kyrene something no one else can: a way to survive.

His proposal is simple but horrifying. He wants Kyrene to help him kill the gods.

The arrangement forces two enemies into an uneasy partnership. Kyrene has every reason to distrust a vampire prince, particularly one as secretive as Septimus. Septimus, meanwhile, has his own reasons for choosing a human bounty hunter who has just murdered a goddess. Neither completely understands the other, and both are withholding crucial information.

Their first objective is therefore not romance but survival. They must hunt beings who are immensely more powerful than either of them. The gods are not ordinary enemies, and killing one divine being does not mean that Kyrene has suddenly become capable of killing the entire pantheon. Their journey takes them into the complicated mythology surrounding the gods, vampires, curses, prophecies, and the ancient history of the world.

As the two travel together, however, their hostility slowly begins to change.

Septimus sees through Kyrene's anger more quickly than she would like. He recognizes that beneath her recklessness is grief. She is not simply violent because she enjoys violence; she is trying to survive feelings that are almost too painful to carry. Kyrene, in turn, begins to realize that Septimus's coldness is not the whole truth about him.

This is where the novel's emotional strength lies. Neither character is conventionally heroic. Kyrene is capable of brutality and terrible decisions. Septimus is manipulative and willing to do morally questionable things to achieve his goals. Yet each begins to recognize something familiar in the other. Both are people shaped by loss. Both have learned to hide vulnerability behind weapons, sarcasm, and control.

Their attraction therefore develops slowly, almost against their will.

The romance is particularly complicated because Kyrene's ultimate goal does not disappear. She still intends to kill the goddess of vampires. Even if Septimus becomes someone she cares about, he remains tied to the vampire world and to the larger conflict she is trying to destroy. Their growing intimacy therefore creates a terrible contradiction: the closer Kyrene gets to Septimus, the harder it becomes to separate her personal feelings from her mission.

At the same time, Septimus is hiding secrets of his own. His motives are much deeper than the simple desire to eliminate a few gods. The more Kyrene learns about him, the more she realizes that his careful plans have been developing for a long time. He is not merely reacting to events; he has been manipulating them.

This makes trust one of the central conflicts of the novel.

Kyrene must decide whether she can believe a man whose entire personality seems built around deception. Septimus must decide whether allowing himself to love Kyrene will make his carefully constructed plans vulnerable. Their relationship becomes a battle between intimacy and self-preservation.

The wider divine conflict also grows increasingly dangerous. Prophecies and curses suggest that the struggle between gods and vampires is part of a much older history. The world’s eternal darkness is not merely an atmospheric detail. It reflects the enormous power of the forces that have shaped the kingdoms of both humans and vampires. Broadbent expands the mythology of the series while keeping Kyrene's personal grief at its center.

The novel also asks what justice actually means.

Kyrene begins by believing that justice comes from a goddess and that her role is to carry out divine judgment. But after killing Shiket, she can no longer rely on that simple understanding. She has to decide whether justice means obedience, punishment, revenge, or something more complicated. Her journey gradually separates justice from vengeance. She begins to understand that grief can disguise itself as righteousness, encouraging a person to destroy everything around them while insisting that the destruction is deserved.

Septimus provides a darker counterpoint. He does not pretend to be noble. He is willing to manipulate others and commit terrible acts if he believes the outcome justifies them. Yet his motivations increasingly reveal loyalty and love beneath the calculation. Through him, Broadbent challenges the idea that goodness must look heroic or pure.

The partnership eventually leads to revelations and betrayals that transform the stakes of their mission. Kyrene learns that she cannot simply move forward with revenge without confronting the secrets surrounding the people she has come to care about. Septimus's plans prove more complicated than he initially admitted, and the relationship between them becomes inseparable from the larger struggle between gods, vampires, and mortals.

By the end, Kyrene has changed profoundly. She is still fierce and dangerous, but her strength is no longer simply an expression of anger. She begins to understand that surviving grief does not require remaining trapped inside it.

Septimus, meanwhile, becomes more than the villainous or morally dubious vampire prince readers may have assumed him to be. His connection with Kyrene exposes the loneliness behind his carefully controlled exterior and reveals how much he is willing to sacrifice for the people he loves.

Yet Broadbent does not give the pair a simple happily-ever-after. The novel ends with the larger conflict far from resolved and with new revelations pointing toward an even greater threat. The ending functions as a powerful setup for the second half of the Bloodborn Duet rather than a complete conclusion.

Ultimately, The Lion and the Deathless Dark is a story about what happens when vengeance becomes a person's entire identity. Kyrene begins by believing that revenge is the only thing keeping her alive. Her journey with Septimus gradually teaches her that love, trust, and grief can be equally powerful forces.

The novel's deepest question is not simply whether Kyrene will succeed in killing the gods. It is whether she can find a reason to live after revenge is no longer enough. And in Septimus—a man who hides his tenderness beneath manipulation and darkness—she unexpectedly finds someone who understands that struggle better than anyone else.