A Fire in the Flesh

A Fire in the Flesh is a 2023 fantasy romance novel by American author Jennifer L. Armentrout and the third book in her Flesh and Fire series. Armentrout is a New York Times best-selling author who blends new adult, romance, and fantasy genres and has achieved widespread mainstream success with her series, most notably her Blood and Ash series (including From Blood and Ash, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, The Crown of Gilded Bones, The War of Two Queens, and A Soul of Ash and Blood). The Flesh and Fire series is a prequel to the Blood and Ash series, exploring the lives of the ancestors of the Blood and Ash characters. With this third novel in the Flesh and Fire series, Armentrout explores themes of The Transformative Power of Love, The Weaponization of Trust, and Fate Versus Free Will.

This guide refers to the 2023 e-book edition published by Blue Box Press.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, rape, sexual violence and harassment, death by suicide, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

This novel begins where the previous book in the Flesh and Fire series, A Light in the Flame, left off: Sera and Nyktos are being held captive by Kolis, the false Primal of Life and King of the Gods. Kolis’s belief that Sera is the reincarnation of his lost love, Sotoria, is their only chance of escape. Though seducing a god is what she has trained her whole life to do, the erratic cruelty of Kolis and his Court is beyond anything Sera has prepared for. To make matters worse, Sera’s Ascension and prophesized death is almost upon her; if she dies, the realms die with her. 

A Fire in the Flesh opens in Dalos, the City of the Gods, as Sera barely holds onto consciousness in Kolis’s arms while Attes and Callum argue over her fate. As Sera nears death, Nyktos arrives in his Primal form, killing Hanan, the Primal of the Hunt, and wounding Kolis. Kolis taunts Nyktos about murdering his parents and claiming Sera. 

As the battle between Kolis and Nyktos intensifies, Sera uses the embers of life (which Eythos planted in her earlier in the series) to magically compel them to stop fighting. However, her intervention allows Kolis to steal her shadowstone dagger and stab Nyktos. Kolis imprisons Nyktos and takes Sera to Phanos, the Primal of Skies and Seas, to heal her. Phanos summons creatures called the ceeren, who revive Sera at the cost of their own lives. A horrified Sera tries and fails to kill Kolis, and he traps her in a gilded cage.

In her prison, Sera creates a makeshift weapon that she uses to attack her guard, the Revenant Callum. She steals his key and escapes. While making her way through the palace, she sees a godly orgy. She also sees a new Ascended feeding on a man (in the series, gods and Primals are vampiric), creating a monstrous Craven in the process. Guards arrive, kill the Craven, and capture Sera again, returning her to her gilded cage. 

While unconscious, Sera dreams of a lake in Lasania where she once found peace, and of Nyktos, guarding her as a wolf. When she wakes up, Attes arrives in hawk form. Although she is angry about his betrayal of herself and Nyktos, Attes reveals that his actions were intended to prevent greater destruction. He also tells her that she isn’t Sotoria reborn; however, the dead woman’s soul is trapped inside her due to Eythos’s interference with fate. If Sera dies, she will doom Sotoria’s soul to an eternal limbo. Attes warns Sera against being reckless and pledges unwavering loyalty to her and Nyktos.

In another dream, Sera reunites with Nyktos at the lake. The two pledge their love for each other, but the dream soon unravels, leaving Sera devastated upon waking. Later, Sera attempts to manipulate Kolis into releasing Nyktos by claiming to be Sotoria reborn. Kolis agrees to consider her request but threatens severe consequences if she has lied about being Sotoria.

At a feast, Kolis displays Sera to the court in a transparent gown to assert his control over her. Attes’s brother, Kyn, brings news of unrest in the Shadowlands, where Nyktos’s generals refuse to retreat until their leader is freed. Kolis introduces Sera to the goddess Ione, who has the power to see her memories and confirm if she’s Sotoria. Sera panics, but Ione lies to Kolis, confirming her story. When Sera asks if he will let Nyktos free now, Kolis attacks and feeds on her. Afterward, Kolis acts remorseful before leaving.

Attes visits Sera and tells her that Nyktos is being kept in stasis, induced using a weapon made from an Ancient’s bone, and warns her to be cautious of Kolis’s growing instability. After Attes leaves, Callum returns to guard the cage and questions Sera’s identity, but she channels her embers to silence him. When Kolis intervenes, she attempts to shift the blame for their fight onto Callum. 

Kolis believes Sera, thinking that Callum, who was Sotoria’s brother, is in denial about her return. After dismissing Callum, Kolis tries to embrace Sera but is frustrated by Sera’s fear of him after his previous assault. When she requests freedom, he allows her to sit with him when he holds court. 

Sera struggles to maintain her composure at court as Veses, the Primal who extorted Nyktos, approaches. When Veses insults Sera, Kolis orders Kyn to sexually assault her in front of the court as punishment. Sera tries to intervene but is shackled and taken back to her quarters. Later, Kolis releases her from the chains, apologizing and promising to change, but his words ring hollow.

Sera struggles with her growing despair and the physical toll of her Ascension. She is afraid that if she dies, Kolis will gain the embers. She asks him to get the Star diamond for her, which she can use to remove and save Sotoria’s soul. He reveals that it has been hidden on the roof of her cage all along and restores it to its true form. 

When Kolis allows Sera to hold the diamond, its energy triggers visions of Kolis killing his brother Eythos (who is also Nyktos’s father) in jealousy and rage. She realizes that Kolis trapped Eythos’s soul within the diamond. When Kolis demands to know what she saw, Sera channels the embers and uses their power to destroy her cage and free Nyktos from his stasis. Sera stabs Kolis with one of the gilded Ancients’ bones that made up the cage, sending him into stasis before collapsing into Nyktos’s arms as he arrives. Sera retrieves the Star diamond using the embers, pushing herself closer to death, and Nyktos whisks them away. Once out of the palace, Sera tells Nyktos that his father Eythos’s soul is in the diamond.

Sera’s Ascension has progressed to the point where she only has hours left. She and Nyktos travel to the Bonelands, where they reunite with their allies. Sera transfers Eythos’s soul out of the diamond and Sotoria’s soul into it. Aware that her time is nearly over, Sera requests to visit her lake with Nyktos one last time. 

As Sera is dying, Nyktos risks everything by attempting to Ascend her. It works, and the embers transform her into the true Primal of Life. Back at Nyktos’s palace, Sera feeds on him to stabilize herself. As her memories return, they have sex. Outside, the Rot threatening the realms finally ends. However, they still need to deal with Kolis, the other Primals, and the implications of Sera’s new role as Queen of the Gods.