Our Infinite Fates

Laura Steven, author of Our Infinite Fates (2025), is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. This novel is a young adult fantasy romance, often referred to as a “romantasy,” and it quickly rose to the top spot on the New York Times Best Seller list after publication. It also received various accolades, including being named a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Pick for March 2025. The book spans over 1,000 years, alternating between a contemporaneous main narrative and flashbacks to the protagonist Evelyn’s former lives, each of which ends before her 18th birthday, when her lover, Arden, finds and kills her. The work features LGBTQ+ representation and gender-fluid characters and explores themes of the Blight of Humanity, Nature’s Apathy to Human Pain, The Fluidity of Sexual and Gender Identity, and The Power of Love to Shape Human Events. 

This guide refers to the 2025 hardcover edition published by St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, child death, graphic violence, antigay bias, suicidal ideation, mental illness, child abuse, sexual content, substance use, and cursing.

Language Note: For ease of reference, this guide uses the names and pronouns attached to the two primary characters in the main narrative—Evelyn (she/her) and Arden (he/him)—even in flashbacks to prior lives.

Plot Summary

Hundreds of years ago, as a couple awaits their elder’s wedding blessing, the elder transforms into a witch. The bride (later revealed to be Arden) then slits the throat of the groom (later revealed to be Evelyn), and they both die. At a 2004 wedding in El Salvador, Evelyn knows that she will die soon. A young man whom she never suspected of being Arden pulls a knife on her, but Evelyn kills him first, and they both die. 

In Wales, 2022, Evelyn is Branwen Blythe. Her sister, Gracie, has leukemia, and Evelyn is scheduled to donate stem cells to Gracie in four days. However, she turns 18 in two weeks, and she worries that Arden will kill her before she saves her sister. He has killed her in every life she can remember, though this does not stop her from being attracted to Arden whenever they meet. In Russia, 1986, she learned from Arden that they made a “deal” a long time ago that sealed their ultimate fates, even if the details of their lives change: In Nauru, 1968, for example, both Evelyn and Arden were girls, while in Algeria, 1932, both were boys. When the two were serving together in the trenches of World War I France, the woman from the centuries-ago wedding suddenly appeared, prompting Arden to throw a grenade, killing Evelyn. Later flashbacks reveal that Evelyn has also encountered Arden in 1898 Austria-Hungary, in an 1862 US psychiatric hospital, on a ship in the Dutch East Indies in 1770, in the Ottoman Empire of 1472, during a 1652 witch trial in Norway, in the Mali Empire of 1290, and in Northern Song in the year 1042. 

In the present timeline, Evelyn sees a blond boy who she believes is Arden and confronts him. The next day, the boy—Ceri—comes into the shop where she works and gives her his number. The day of the procedure arrives, and Dylan, the family’s farmhand, gives Evelyn a ride. However, Gracie’s doctor says that Evelyn doesn’t have enough stem cells to donate and that Gracie has an infection. Evelyn must therefore survive her birthday to donate bone marrow in two weeks.

A week before her birthday, Evelyn and Ceri go on a date, and Evelyn offers him a farm tour. In the barn, she knocks him out with a shovel, drags him to the stables, and ties his wrists. However, when she hears Dylan’s voice behind her, she realizes that he is Arden. He says that he must kill Evelyn now, but she persuades him to give her more time to save Gracie. Arden agrees to wait, but only until her birthday. Ceri needs medical attention, so Arden and Evelyn take him to the hospital. She thinks that they can figure out a way to survive, but Arden says there is no escape. She realizes that he remembers everything from their former lives, unlike her. 

Learning that there are no hospital appointments before her birthday, Evelyn decides to see her former therapist, Dr. Chiang, who might convince her wife, a surgeon, to do the stem cell procedure early. Meanwhile, Arden accompanies Evelyn to work. Ceri walks in, and Evelyn begins recording on her phone. She explains the truth, but Ceri threatens to call the police on Arden, who he believes is manipulating and abusing Evelyn. However, Arden says that he will kill her immediately if the police get involved. 

Dr. Chiang calls to say that her wife has agreed to perform the procedure on the day before Evelyn’s birthday, so Evelyn sends the phone recording to Ceri with a note saying that the police can arrest Arden after the surgery. Arden drives Evelyn to her procedure. Later, they argue, and Arden claims that something worse will happen if he doesn’t kill her. The police arrive, but Arden escapes. At home, Evelyn tells her mother that she’s going to bed but then leaps from her window and runs. With one hour before her bus arrives, she goes to see Gracie, but when she leaves, Arden is waiting for her. Evelyn tells Arden that she needs to understand, and he agrees to tell her the truth. 

Arden reveals his belief that Evelyn is the devil. In Lundenburg, 1006, Evelyn appeared to him while he was praying for his sick sister. Entrusted with “reaping” souls for a being called “the Mother” (the witch-like woman whom Evelyn has periodically seen), Evelyn said that she could save the girl but that he had to sacrifice himself. He accepted her offer. However, Arden says that his sister died despite the deal, so he killed Evelyn. When she died, so did he, and he spent the next seven days on hot coals. During his next life, he was pulled back to the “Underrealm,” the realm that Evelyn had come from, when he turned 18. Evelyn also returned, with no memory of Lundenburg. The Mother, who lives on others’ suffering, told them that their souls belonged to her and that it was time to begin reaping; if they refused, they would be tortured. Arden has been killing Evelyn to spare them this fate, but Evelyn thinks they should return to the Underrealm so that she can kill the Mother. They have sex, counting their moments with one another.

The moment they turn 18, they are yanked to the Underrealm and learn that the Mother is sustained by their pain. Evelyn stabs her with a bone fragment, but the Mother survives and orders Arden to the coals. Evelyn argues that if she puts Evelyn on the coals, she gets no more souls, whereas if she sends the pair back to the world, they can go back to their old pattern. The Mother believes that their love can sustain her, so she offers them freedom in exchange. She drains them of all love, but it’s too strong for her “withered soul,” and she dies.

A flashback reveals the couple’s true origins. In Greece, 986, a girl named Daphne (Evelyn) loves Calliope (Arden). One night, Calliope seizes and dies. Daphne pleads with the gods, prompting the Mother to appear and admit that she poisoned Calliope. The woman can ensure that Daphne and Calliope reincarnate together forever. They will spend a week on the coals, feeding her with their pain, and then they will reap souls together. 

In Scotland, 2054, a young man named Léon Cazares is in barista training. He has a vague sense of searching for something, and he feels like this café is where he will find it. One day, a young man comes in, and Léon’s heart aches for him. He approaches the man, asking if they’ve met before.