Anathema is a dark fantasy romance by notable dark romance author Keri Lake. Anathema is Lake’s 18th novel, and she is a USA Today best-selling author. The novel was originally published in September 2024 and intended to be the first novel in a duology, though Lake has since suggested that it may become a trilogy. Lake describes the novel as a gothic dark fantasy with elements of horror, a slow-burn romance, and cursed or shunned main characters.

The novel follows Maevyth, a mortal woman in Vonkovya, who has always been shunned from the community of Foxglove Parish. Foxglove is reminiscent of the US colonial period, and she faces harsh oppression for being both a woman and an orphan with mysterious origins. When Maevyth is forced from the parish through the Eating Woods, she finds herself in Nyxteros, a country in Aethyria full of magical immortals. There, she meets Zevander, a brooding, cursed man who needs Maevyth both to find a cure for his curse and to fulfill his destiny. Beset by the dark mage Cadavros, the king’s Magestroli, and the wicked Solassions, Maevyth and Zevander fight their urges to develop a relationship while struggling for their lives. The novel explores themes of Magic as Both a Gift and a Curse, The Struggle of Developing Close Relationships Under Hardship, and The Price and Power of Social Exclusion.

This guide refers to the Kindle edition published by Keri Lake in 2024.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, graphic violence, sexual violence, rape, child sexual abuse, child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, pregnancy termination, gender discrimination, antigay bias, animal death, addiction, substance use, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

In the Prologue, Lady Rydainn, a noblewoman with magical powers, fails to prevent Cadavros, the dark mage, from corrupting her infant son, Zevander Rydainn, with sablefyre, a powerful flame forged by gods. Cadavros already corrupted Lady Rydainn’s oldest son, Branimir, with the curse of sablefyre, and both Lady Rydainn and her husband are injured while trying to stop Cadavros. Zevander appears unharmed after the corruption, though he will be cursed forever.

Two hundred eleven years later, Maevyth is a young woman in Foxglove Parish, a village in Vonkovya on the continent of Mortasia. She just received news that her adoptive father, a religious missionary, is dead, leaving Maevyth and her sister, Aleysia, at the mercy of their cruel step-grandmother, Agatha. Maevyth scratches her arm on the archway to the Eating Woods, a terrifying forest marking the barrier of Foxglove Parish, from which no one ever returns.

Agatha sells Maevyth in marriage to Moros, a wealthy man in town, while Aleysia forms a sexual relationship with her step-uncle Riftyn. When Aleysia becomes pregnant, she and Riftyn are sentenced to be banished to the Eating Woods. Moros shows Maevyth horrible experiments, and rather than remaining with Moros, Maevyth follows Aleysia and Riftyn into the Eating Woods. Moros follows her, and she sees a strange creature kill and eat Riftyn and Moros. After breaking through the Umbravale, the barrier between her world of Mortasia and Aethyria, a continent of magic immortals, Maevyth is captured.

Earlier, in Aethyria, Zevander, a Letalisz (one of a group of assassins to the king of Nyxteros in Aethyria), collects bloodstones, gems formed from the dead bodies of notable magic users that retain some of their power. He works with Dolion, a former member of the Magestroli, the king’s mages, to collect the stones for a cure for the powerful curse that Cadavros laid on him when he was a baby. Dolion believes that a mortal named Maevyth is the last of the Corvicae, a group of mortal mages who were killed off by the Aethyrians generations ago. He sends Zevander to Mortasia to kill Maevyth and collect the bloodstone from her dead body, but Zevander fails.

After Zevander returns to Aethyria, he receives an order from the king to kill Dolion. He decides to safeguard the mage in his castle, Eidolon. Hearing that Maevyth came through the Umbravale, Zevander rescues her, bringing her back to Eidolon with his sister, Rykaia. Zevander fights his attraction to Maevyth.

Maevyth enjoys life in Eidolon, growing close to both Dolion and Rykaia while avoiding her budding romance with Zevander. Though she knows nothing about magic, Maevyth gradually learns to use some glyphs (spells), such as pushing away enemies and summoning bones. Dolion provides Maevyth with a puzzle book from an extinct group of mortal magic users called the Corvikae. The book contains both history and glyphs, and Dolion tells Maevyth that he suspects she is the last remaining Corvikae.

Maevyth opens the book with a drop of her blood, revealing an animated reenactment of a conflict from the past between Morsana, the Goddess of Death, and Magekae, the God of Magic and Alchemy. After reading the story, Maevyth manages to contact Morsana, who guides Maevyth in learning how to use her magic.

Zevander, while protecting the king’s son, Prince Dorjan, discovers that the king tied a magical pendant to Dorjan’s soul in order to protect him; if the prince dies, a deadly pestilence will be released. At the same time, Zevander finds out that Cadavros is alive. The dark mage was presumed dead for many centuries, but he plans to release a deadly disease over Aethyria. Zevander struggles to cope with his feelings for Maevyth as it becomes increasingly challenging to protect her, himself, and Rykaia. All the while, Zevander keeps his brother, Branimir, imprisoned in the castle as a constant reminder of the consequences if he should fail to cure his curse. Branimir experienced the full consequences of Cadavros’s curse and has become a dangerous and unpredictable hybrid of human and spider.

Meanwhile, the Magestroli are looking for Maevyth—they believe that if she is the last of the Corvikae, they can use her blood to make a powerful weapon that might resist Cadavros’s pestilence. Dolion makes plans to hide Maevyth on Calyxar, an island in his native Elvynira. Maevyth refuses to go with Dolion, but she has not learned enough magic to return to the Eating Woods and try to reunite with Aleysia.

Zevander, Rykaia, and Maevyth attend the Becoming Ceremony of Nyxteros’s princess, in which her “virginity” is auctioned off, at which Maevyth recognizes a scribe from Foxglove among the Magestroli. Maevyth and Rykaia are separated from Zevander and accosted by mages and guards. Maevyth awakes amid a mage ritual to sacrifice her for her blood, but the goddess Morsana helps her repel the attackers. Maevyth returns to Foxglove Parish to find Aleysia, but all the villagers have become monsters, infected by the magic that entered their world through the Umbravale.

Zevander pursues Maevyth to Foxglove Parish. They meet an old woman who claims to be Aethyrian, but Cadavros appears and possesses the woman. Maevyth uses Corvikae magic to kill the woman, but Cadavros traps Zevander in a psychological vision of assaulting Maevyth and reliving the abuse he faced as a child. Maevyth manages to wake Zevander, and they confess their feelings for one another. After making love, Maevyth and Zevander discover Maevyth’s sister, Aleysia, underneath the floor of the old woman’s home.