Hell Bent

Name: Hell Bent (Alex Stern, #2)
Author: Leigh Bardugo

by Leigh Bardugo

Genre

Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal

Year

2022

Pages

520

Contents

Overview

In Hell Bent, Leigh Bardugo returns to Yale’s hidden occult world, where secret societies bargain with dangerous magic under the watch of Lethe. Alex Stern, still trying to hold together a fragile student life, is determined to bring back Daniel Arlington—Darlington—after his disappearance beyond the Veil. Her closest ally, Pamela Dawes, helps her pursue forbidden research even as Lethe’s new oversight tightens around them.

Alex’s rescue mission collides with a string of unsettling campus deaths, pressure from a criminal contact outside Yale, and the growing suspicion that hell’s influence is not safely contained. As Alex draws in Detective Abel Turner, her roommate Mercy Zhao, and the compromised Tripp Helmuth, the story follows a found family of damaged people facing institutions built on secrecy, privilege, and sacrifice.

The novel blends dark academia, horror, and supernatural mystery, exploring guilt, loyalty, power, survival, and the cost of bringing someone back from a place that does not release its prisoners freely.

Plot Summary ⚠️ Spoilers

Alex Stern begins the story caught between ordinary Yale life and Lethe’s occult responsibilities. Darlington is still missing beyond the Veil, and Alex and Pamela Dawes have spent months searching for a Gauntlet that might retrieve him. Their work is complicated by Alex’s own unstable connection to the dead, by Eitan Harel’s criminal leverage over her, and by Lethe’s decision to install a stricter Praetor. When a necromantic ritual at Book and Snake produces a message Dawes interprets as a signal from Darlington, they abandon cautious research and attempt to open a portal through Scroll and Key. The ritual releases hellhorses and damages the society’s table, but Darlington’s voice confirms he is still reachable.

At Black Elm, Alex and Dawes discover Darlington alive but transformed: horned, burning, and trapped in Dean Sandow’s golden circle. He later compels Alex to him and explains that he is tethered between worlds. Alex learns she can cross the circle unharmed and is called a Wheelwalker, someone with unusual access between worlds. Clues lead Alex and Dawes to Sterling Library, where the hidden Gauntlet is built into the architecture. The rite requires four murderers to pass through symbolic stations and experience actual death in order to descend.

Meanwhile, Detective Abel Turner brings Alex into a murder investigation. Professor Marjorie Stephen and Dean Beekman die in staged scenes linked by biblical quotations and New Haven regicide lore. Alex suspects occult design, and the investigation eventually points toward Andy Lambton, who confesses but says he was guided by a courteous “ram.” Before that truth becomes clear, Alex and Dawes recruit Turner and Tripp Helmuth for the Gauntlet. Mercy Zhao, after learning the truth about Lethe and Blake Keely’s death, volunteers as watcher and discovers a hidden Sterling passage that completes the ritual route.

Alex’s outside troubles intensify. Eitan sends her to confront Linus Reiter, who proves to be a vampire-like demon connected to Yale’s past. Alex survives by channeling a Gray and burning Reiter’s mansion, then learns Eitan knowingly used her as bait. Research reveals Reiter’s old ties to Skull and Bones and to earlier Lethe debates about demons feeding on human emotion. These discoveries make the Gauntlet feel less like a rescue tool than an old trap whose history was deliberately buried.

On Halloween, Alex, Dawes, Turner, Tripp, and Mercy activate the Gauntlet. The descent forces each pilgrim to confront the killing that qualifies them: Dawes killing Blake to save Alex, Tripp letting his cousin Spenser drown, Turner shooting corrupt Detective Carmichael, and Alex’s role in the deaths tied to Hellie and Len. In hell, the group finds a distorted Yale and Darlington rebuilding a ruined Black Elm under compulsion. Alex draws his soul into a childhood Arlington Rubber Boots box, but the escape fails when demonic wolves attack and the metronome above is interrupted. Alex manifests the Wheel and gets the team out, but Darlington is not fully restored and personal demons follow them back wearing the faces of Hellie, Blake, Carmichael, and Spenser.

Michael Anselm punishes the group for the unauthorized rite, firing Turner from Lethe service and banning Alex and Dawes from Lethe resources. But the threat grows too quickly for obedience. The demons feed on despair and begin solidifying into vampire-like dangers. At Il Bastone, Mercy finds a protective working that grants the group salt guardians: Alex receives a serpent, Dawes a slow loris, Turner an oak, Mercy a winged horse, Tripp an albatross, and Darlington’s absent ward appears as Cosmo. When demons attack and burn Il Bastone, the guardians repel them.

Alex soon realizes that “Anselm” is not truly Anselm. At Black Elm she finds Darlington’s parents dead, their hearts torn out, and the real Anselm reduced to a husk. The false Anselm reveals himself as Golgarot, a demon that came through the earlier Scroll and Key attempt, killed and impersonated Anselm, used the campus murders as distraction, and fed on shame and misery. Alex uses the damaged circle as a doorway, claims Darlington’s living soul, and reunites it with his body. Darlington, restored but altered, destroys Golgarot. He returns to the mortal world human enough to pass Il Bastone’s wards, but still marked by hell and bound in service to Alex because she stole him back.

The group learns the danger is not over. Golgarot used Alex’s blood to wedge the Gauntlet open, and their demons must be forced back. Tripp disappears and later becomes a vampire inhabited by his demon, though his albatross proves his soul still remains protected. With Tripp unavailable, Darlington takes the fourth pilgrim role. During the full-moon descent, Mercy uses Pierre the Weaver’s spindle to create a sorrow-web that lures the demons. In hell, a crowned Anselm-like power reveals the Gauntlet was designed as an offering and beacon to summon a Wheelwalker, giving hell access to future suffering. It demands Darlington’s soul as payment.

Alex refuses the bargain. Having prepared for Eitan’s interference, she uses Mercy’s trap at Sterling to seize Eitan’s soul and yoke him as the demanded murderer instead. She channels Turner, Dawes, and Darlington through herself and returns them to the mortal world, escaping after Anselm bites her and drinks her blood. The group cleans Sterling, moves Eitan’s body to Black Elm, and later burns the bodies there with Alex’s hellfire and Darlington’s demonic strength. The immediate threat is closed, but costs remain: Mercy is shaken by killing, Darlington struggles with his new nature, and Lethe’s hidden history is darker than they knew.

The ending turns toward the next danger. Alex, Darlington, and Dawes find Michelle Alameddine dead in Reiter’s Mercedes at Black Elm, and Darlington concludes she had been Reiter’s familiar, recruited to watch the Gauntlet. Alex cremates Michelle and vows revenge. When the team discovers Tripp’s vampiric condition and sees a winged demon over Harkness, they understand hell’s door remains dangerously open through Alex’s blood. Alex sends Turner to protect Mercy, places Tripp under Dawes’s care, and sets out with Darlington to hunt the new incursion and begin the work of sealing the Gauntlet for good.

Characters

Alex Stern

The protagonist and Lethe operative whose ability to see, hear, and channel the dead makes her central to both Darlington’s rescue and the murder investigations. She is revealed as a Wheelwalker, able to cross between worlds, and her choices repeatedly determine who survives hell’s bargains.
Daniel Arlington

Darlington is Lethe’s missing Virgil, trapped in hell and transformed into a horned, demon-marked version of himself. His rescue drives the main plot, and his return leaves him powerful, dangerous, and magically bound to Alex.
Pamela Dawes

Dawes is Lethe’s Oculus, a researcher and ritualist whose knowledge makes the Gauntlet attempts possible. Her loyalty to Alex and Darlington leads her to defy Lethe authority and become one of the core members of the rescue team.
Detective Abel Turner

Turner is Alex’s police contact and Lethe’s Centurion until Anselm strips him of that role. His hidden killing qualifies him for the Gauntlet, and his skepticism, faith, and practicality anchor the group’s increasingly reckless plans.
Mercy Zhao

Mercy is Alex’s roommate, drawn from ordinary campus life into Lethe’s secrets after Alex tells her the truth. She becomes the team’s watcher, helps complete the Gauntlet route, and later plays a crucial role in trapping Eitan.
Tripp Helmuth

Tripp is a former Bonesman recruited as one of the four killers needed for the Gauntlet after the team finds him trespassing in Skull and Bones. His past choice to let Spenser drown makes him vulnerable to his demon, and he later becomes a vampire-like figure whose soul is still partly protected.
Michael Anselm

Anselm is a Lethe board figure who funds and supervises Alex before punishing her and Dawes for the unauthorized Gauntlet. His real body is later found at Black Elm, revealing that he had been killed and impersonated by Golgarot.
Golgarot

Golgarot is the demon that impersonates Michael Anselm, feeds on shame and misery, and orchestrates the campus murders as a diversion. He kills Darlington’s parents, manipulates events around the Gauntlet, and is destroyed after Alex restores Darlington’s soul.
Professor Raymond Walsh-Whiteley

Walsh-Whiteley is Lethe’s new Praetor, a strict and sexist overseer who distrusts Alex and imposes tighter controls. His pressure complicates the rescue effort, though his continued recognition of Alex’s duties preserves access when Anselm disappears.
Eitan Harel

Eitan is a criminal figure from Alex’s Los Angeles past who uses leverage over her mother to force Alex into dangerous collections. Alex ultimately turns his threat against him by yoking his soul as hell’s demanded sacrifice.
Linus Reiter

Reiter is a wealthy vampire-like demon connected to Yale’s past and to Skull and Bones. His predation, drug empire, and use of familiars make him the major unresolved enemy by the end of the book.
Michelle Alameddine

Michelle is a former Oculus and Darlington’s former Virgil who initially warns Alex away from the Gauntlet. Her lies and later death reveal that she had been serving Reiter as a familiar, likely watching the Gauntlet for him.
Mira Stern

Mira is Alex’s mother, whose safety and financial vulnerability are used as leverage by Eitan. Alex’s efforts to protect her shape several of Alex’s bargains and threats.
Hellie

Hellie is Alex’s dead friend, central to Alex’s grief and to the memories surrounding the Ground Zero killings. Demons repeatedly wear Hellie’s face to feed on Alex’s shame and hopelessness.
Blake Keely

Blake is the man killed at Il Bastone when Dawes saves Alex during Sandow’s attack. His death qualifies Dawes for the Gauntlet, and a demon later wears his face to torment her.
Dean Sandow

Sandow is the former dean whose greed and banishment ritual led to Darlington’s fate. His earlier compulsion of Blake and his hidden circle at Black Elm continue to shape the consequences Alex and Dawes face.
Cosmo

Cosmo is Darlington’s cat at Black Elm and a small but recurring guardian presence. A salt talisman appears in his form for Darlington, and he helps hold Golgarot at bay during Darlington’s restoration.
Darlington’s grandfather

Darlington’s grandfather is a Gray haunting Black Elm whose memories reveal the family’s decline and the coerced euthanasia that shaped Darlington’s past. Alex channels him to repel Darlington’s parents and later hears him after gaining deeper access to the dead.
Daniel Arlington IV

Daniel Arlington IV is Darlington’s father, estranged from Black Elm and frightened away when Alex channels his father’s voice. He is later found murdered at Black Elm, and his Gray helps Alex escape the basement.
Harper Arlington

Harper Arlington is Darlington’s mother, who comes to Black Elm with Daniel Arlington IV and threatens legal action. She is later found murdered, and her Gray helps Alex understand the danger in the house.
Marjorie Stephen

Marjorie Stephen is the psychiatry professor whose unnatural death begins the campus murder pattern. Her aged body, milky eyes, Bible, and Isaiah clue draw Alex and Turner into the larger mystery.
Dean Beekman

Dean Beekman is the Yale dean whose staged murder continues the biblical message begun with Marjorie Stephen. His death deepens campus fear and helps reveal the historical pattern Golgarot is exploiting.
Andy Lambton

Andy Lambton is arrested after confessing to the Stephen and Beekman murders, but his confession reveals he was guided by a courteous horned figure. His role exposes the manipulation behind the killings rather than ending the case.
Ed Lambton

Ed Lambton is Andy Lambton’s father, a disgraced professor tied to the scandal that gives Andy a motive for anger. His humiliation helps explain why Andy was vulnerable to the murderer’s guidance.
Chris Carmichael

Carmichael is Turner’s corrupt former mentor, killed by Turner after Carmichael shoots Delan Tuttle and tries to stage a cover-up. A demon later wears Carmichael’s face to prey on Turner’s guilt.
Spenser Helmuth

Spenser is Tripp’s bullying cousin, whose drowning Tripp chose not to prevent. A demon in Spenser’s form later torments Tripp by exploiting that buried guilt.
Tzvi

Tzvi is Eitan’s bodyguard and enforcer, first used to test Alex’s supernatural strength in Los Angeles. He later accompanies Eitan during the failed attempt to threaten Mercy at Sterling.
Lauren

Lauren is Alex and Mercy’s roommate and part of the ordinary Yale life Alex tries to preserve. Her presence highlights the contrast between campus normalcy and the occult crisis surrounding Alex.
Chris "Oddman" Owens

Oddman is a dealer from whom Alex is forced to collect a debt for Eitan. The encounter shows how Eitan’s leverage drags Alex into violent work outside Lethe.

Themes

Leigh Bardugo’s Hell Bent is driven by the question of what it costs to rescue the dead—and whether love, loyalty, and survival can remain morally clean in a world built on exploitation.

Descent as moral reckoning. The literal journeys into hell become confrontations with buried guilt. The Gauntlet forces Dawes, Turner, Tripp, and Alex to relive the killings that qualify them as “pilgrims”: Dawes killing Blake to save Alex, Turner executing Carmichael, Tripp letting Spenser die, and Alex’s violence after Hellie’s death. Hell is not only a place but a structure that reveals the compromises each character has made to keep living.
Institutions feed on hidden violence. Yale’s beauty—Sterling Library, secret-society tombs, Lethe’s archives—conceals systems of power maintained by erased histories. The Gauntlet was not created for noble discovery but as a bargain with hell, while the Peabody artifact’s origins in tracking enslaved people expose how magic and privilege have long been intertwined. Lethe’s official rules often protect reputation more than people, making Alex and Dawes’s disobedience feel ethically necessary.
Monstrosity and humanity blur. Darlington returns horned, hungry, and bound, yet still capable of tenderness, scholarship, and duty. Alex, too, is repeatedly called monstrous: she uses Grays, kills without conventional remorse, and eventually becomes a Wheelwalker who can seize souls. The novel refuses easy categories; the “monsters” are often those who defend the vulnerable, while polished figures like Anselm/Golgarot and Linus Reiter embody predation beneath civility.
Grief as vulnerability and power. Demons weaponize shame, regret, and despair by wearing the faces of Hellie, Blake, Carmichael, and Spenser. Alex’s grief over Hellie and even Babbit Rabbit becomes a point of attack, but also a source of fierce resistance. The book suggests that pain cannot simply be purged; it must be recognized, named, and transformed into action.
Chosen loyalty over purity. Alex’s circle—Dawes, Mercy, Turner, Tripp, and Darlington—forms not because they are innocent, but because they keep choosing one another. Soup at Il Bastone, Mercy’s refusal to be protected through ignorance, and the group’s repeated returns to hell turn friendship into a counter-magic against despair.