A Reaper at the Gates

The chapter begins with a flashback of the Nightbringer surrounded by his queen and children. The queen cautions the Nightbringer not to love so fiercely because obsession can lead to violence. The Nightbringer promises that nothing will happen to her and their children but vows to obliterate anyone who hurts them. The flashback ends with the Nightbringer declaring that within a year, he broke both promises.

In the present day, the Nightbringer looks at a diamond called the Star, a weapon powerful enough to both imprison and free the jinn. The Star is missing a piece, damaged when the Scholars imprisoned the jinn. The Nightbringer unites the Star with the armlet on his wrist, and the Star glows after receiving its missing piece.

The Nightbringer is surrounded by his allies: the Wraith Lord, ghouls, and efrit queens and kings. Not even the empire’s Masks, an elite group of soldiers, can detect the magical creatures. The Nightbringer wants the Wraith Lord to deliver a document to Helene Aquilla, who is the Blood Shrike, the Empire’s deadliest warrior. After the Wraiths and the air efrits leave, he addresses the remaining efrits—snow, wing, sea, cave, and sand—and the ghouls. He tells the ghouls to spread destruction and the efrits to help their Southern allies wreak havoc and conjure dark beings.