A Bargain So Bloody Ending Explained | What Really Happened

When A Bargain So Bloody opens, it feels like a classic dark fantasy romance setup: a witch sentenced for a crime she didn’t commit, a cursed prison, and a vampire too dangerous to be left unchained.

Samara just wants to survive her sentence in Castle Greymere. Raphael, a vampire bound by enchanted cuffs, just wants freedom. Their uneasy alliance sparks the story, a bargain born from desperation that quickly turns into something deeper and far more dangerous. What starts as a jailbreak story morphs into a full-blown moral and emotional labyrinth: trust, control, betrayal, and the ever-blurring line between love and manipulation.

By the time the book hits its final act, the tone shifts into full-on political and moral chaos. Let’s break down what really happened, why Samara couldn’t just walk away, and what that ending might mean for the series.

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Spoiler Warning
This post contains major spoilers for A Bargain So Bloody by Vasilisa Drake. If you haven’t finished the book yet, save this post for later, or catch our book review and chat discussion first for a spoiler-light take.

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Quick Recap Before the Storm

After escaping Greymere, Samara finds herself drawn deeper into vampire politics. She’s told she’s free but every choice is controlled by someone else: Raphael, the court, and the dark magic binding them together.
Her moral compass starts to crack as she uncovers what she perceives as the ugly truth of vampire society:

• Blood donors exploited and drugged for pleasure.
• Vampires turning children to create “families.”
• Justice that’s performative, brutal, and mostly for show.

And through it all, Raphael, charming, commanding, infuriating, insists this is the best system possible. Enter the Black Grimoire, an ancient necromantic text that becomes Samara’s lifeline and her secret weapon. It’s tied to a prophecy about a necromancer who rises every 200 years to control vampires, a role Samara doesn’t yet realize she’s destined to fill.

Why Samara Couldn’t Just Leave

Samara’s bond to Raphael isn’t romantic fluff, it’s political, magical, and existential. She’s marked as his “Chosen,” which gives her status but strips her freedom. Add in the Grimoire, and she becomes too valuable (and too dangerous) to be let go. Leaving would mean death, either by the vampires who need her or the witches who no longer trust her. In other words, she’s trapped, not by chains this time, but by obligation, purpose, and a very confusing attraction to the monster who might be her undoing.

The Spy’s Role & Motives

This is where the spy becomes central, not just a side character. He returns with a lethal deal: betray Raphael (kill him), and he’ll grant Samara sanctuary in the Witch Kingdom. He leverages her emotional ties to Alamathea and her search for belonging. He also despises seers, particularly Alamathea, and sees her arrival in the vampire realm as proof that seers are a danger. Irony is lost on him, though, because he instigates chaos while condemning prophecy.

He planted the earlier attack on her (via the stolen library books) to weaken her trust in vampire allies. He murdered the donor girl as a cruel proof that vampires are irredeemable. His final betrayal: he stabs Samara with a poisoned blade using multiple magic cards, delivering a twist she doesn’t fully see coming.

Why He Matters

He catalyzes the ending. Without him, the eclipse showdown doesn’t get the same sting. He mirrors the hypocrisy and cruelty in both the witch and vampire sides, proving that monsters live in every corner. His reveal frames Raphael’s turn of Samara as reactionary, forced by external manipulation, not just internal choice. In other words: the spy is the external push that forces the internal collapse.

Did he feel a bit cartoonish in my opinion? Maybe. But he was still pivotal for how things ended, which was the perfect setup for the next book.

The Triple Eclipse and the Betrayal

When Samara discovers that the Triple Eclipse will end with Raphael drinking her blood in a ceremonial display of power, she’s furious. The witch king’s spy reappears, offering an escape: poison herself, let Raphael drink, and watch him die.

Samara agrees… at least until her heart gets in the way.

At the ceremony, Raphael confesses love and vulnerability, but Demos casually reveals he’s only been doing “the right thing” to please her, not because it’s right. It’s the final fracture. Samara panics, runs, and the witch spy attacks. He confesses he orchestrated the earlier attacks and even murdered the donor girl just to prove vampires are evil. Then he stabs her with a poisoned blade.

Raphael arrives too late and in a desperate act of love, he saves her the only way he knows how, by turning her into the only thing she despises.

The Twist: From Witch to Vampire to Necromancer

Samara wakes up in a cell with copper bars and no heartbeat. She’s now a vampire, the one thing she swore she’d never become. Demos, her new jailer, tells her Raphael is in a coma and that everyone believes she betrayed him. When he brings her blood, she refuses, and accidentally discovers she can command him through sheer will.

That’s when the truth clicks: she’s not just a vampire. She’s the necromancer the prophecies warned about, now immortal, unstoppable, and very, very angry.

The book ends with her swearing vengeance on Raphael and his kingdom. It’s not just a cliffhanger, it’s a declaration of war.

What the A Bargain So Bloody Ending Means

Raphael’s Love = Hubris: Turning her was meant to save her but made her the ultimate threat.
Power Shift: The oppressed witch becomes the apex predator.
Moral Collapse: The so-called “civilized” vampires reveal themselves as monsters, and Samara’s revenge now feels righteous.

It’s the moment the story pivots from dark fantasy romance to a revenge epic about reclaiming power and rewriting the rules of who’s truly monstrous.

Raphael couldn’t let her die because he realized how deeply he cared for her. I certainly have my theories that he may have known all along about her potentially being the necromancer and in spite of that he turned her to save her. The pain of losing her was more than the risk of what it would mean to create the biggest threat to vampires yet.

Raphael: Alpha, Lover, or Both?

Raphael is a throwback to the early 2010s vampire alpha. He’s dangerous, magnetic, and emotionally guarded. But Vasilisa Drake writes him through a modern lens: his dominance isn’t glorified; it’s examined. He’s not a romantic savior; he’s a cautionary tale about control, devotion, and the thin line between love and possession.
Readers who love old-school paranormal romance (like the Black Dagger Brotherhood) will feel that nostalgia, but others may see him as the embodiment of everything the modern heroine is ready to burn down. I think we can love and enjoy both in the same hero, can’t we?

What’s Next for the Series

With Samara reborn as the necromancer, Book 2 is set to explore:

• Her rise to power and revenge arc
• The fallout of Raphael’s coma
• The political chaos between witches, vampires, and humans
• And I’m sure plenty of secrets that need to be aired out

If A Bargain So Bloody was about survival, the sequel looks like it’ll be about reclamation and ruin.

Continue the Conversation

We unpacked all our thoughts about A Bargain So Bloody by Vasilisa Drake on the Reading Under the Covers Podcast. Catch our full discussion and review with Francesca, Jen, and Angela here: A Bargain So Bloody Book Club Chat

In the meantime, if you want even more book recommendations, check out all our fantasy romance books to stack your TBR even longer. And if you hate cliffhangers, maybe try diving into these completed romantasy trilogies you can binge right now.

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