Crescent City
by Sarah J Maas

Strap in, it's quite a read. It’s been a few days since the end of House of Sky and Breath. Cormac and Ruhn’s fathers are pleading their cases in front of the Asteri as Lidia and Pollux listen. Bryce’s dad is calling her Quinlan again, trying to create space between them. He asks the Asteri where Bryce is, but they have not found her yet. They know she is not on Midgard. They dismiss the kings for now and ask Lidia how the interrogations are going. She says she is still evaluating Baxian, and both Hunt and Ruhn will take time to break, but she can get what they need from them. Even though Bryce and her friends destroyed the mech suit and lab, Rigelus had already created a ton of suits that don’t even need a body inside them, although one will fit if need be. They have the three prisoners in the dungeons in gorsion stone manacles, which slow their healing and don’t let them access their powers. Pollux cuts off the angels’ wings. Bryce is questions by Rhysand and Co (Azriel and Amren), Bryce tells them she was trying to get to Hel and ended up wherever they are instead. Spins some tale about how maybe her sword called to the dagger and pulled her here but Rhysand knows she’s lying. So, Bryce tells the truth. She starts with the sword and Queen Theia and Prince Pelias; Amren has clearly heard of Theia. They once lived there. Then Bryce tells an abridged version of the Asteri, mentioning the only places to survive them being Hel, Iphraxia, and the original world of the Starborn Fae. She tells them that the Asteri want to find this place and punish them for defeating the Asteri. Amren says they were known there as the Daglan. Using the veritas orb, Bryce shows them the mech suits and the guns the Asteri now have. They offer her a weird bean and when she eats it, she can speak and understand their language, but she has a reaction to it and ends up glowing on the floor. Her tattoo also reacts, the words changing to something from their Book of Breathings. Tharion is fighting for the Viper Queen. He and Ariadne are her prize fighters, they get top billing. He’s found a way for Ariadne to not have to go back to the Astronomer even though he technically still owns her. She tells him he can call her Ari. Tharion drank the venom from the Viper Queen and now he’s addicted, always wanting more. It ties him to the Viper Queen, a literal feeling in his gut when he’s too far or she calls for him. He hates it, but he still wants it. Ithan, Flynn, Declan, and Marc are at the Meat Market trying to get information on their imprisoned friends and Ithan is upset they aren’t even trying to save Tharion. He’s being shadowed by Sigrid Fendyr, the wolf mystic that he saved and who now insists on seeing everything. The fire sprites have become attached to her, but Sigrid is kind of a jerk to everybody. The group wants to rescue their friends but who could help hide them if they get them out? And then they would need to hide their families too. The only possible place is the Ocean Queen’s vessels, but Tharion would have to help them get in contact. They’re discussing how to talk to him when they smell wolves coming. They move quickly, trying to get Sigrid out of the market through a back way and they find Sabine waiting for them. Rhysand fetches Nesta, who tells them that Bryce’s tattoo is Made. They leave Bryce for a while and she thinks about how to get home, or IF she can get home if no one can charge the horn. Hunt, Ruhn, and Baxian are being tortured in the dungeons by the remaining member of Sandriel’s old triarii. None of the prisoners have said anything about Lidia or where Bryce has gone. Hunt sees something move in the shadows and thinks that he’s hallucinating. Lidia tries to talk to Ruhn’s mind. She apologizes to him and tries to tell him why she does what she does, but he refuses to listen. Sabine tells Sigrid that she killed Sigrid’s dad and sister, which sets Sigrid off. She went into the tank to keep her family fed and then Sabine went and killed them anyway. She challenges Sabine, who leaps at her but both Declan and Flynn shoot Sabine before she gets to Sigrid. Flynn shoots her a second time; it doesn’t look like she’ll be getting back up anytime soon. They realize the rest of the pack has gone quiet, the Viper Queen got rid of them somehow and now she brings the group inside her den, where they see Ari and Tharion. Tharion is in a deep depression, he’s made so many bad choices. Seeing the rest of his friends together just makes it worse. Lidia asks to retrieve Queen Irithys to help break Hunt. A fire sprite queen that was given to the Asteri a century ago, Irithys has never lived free since all sprites are now slaves, having tried to help the Fallen when they rebelled. Irithys protects the thousand mystics that the Asteri keep, her fire can repel Hel’s darkness should it come knocking. Rigelus agrees to Lidia’s request, but Lidia doesn’t take Irithys to the dungeons. Instead, she takes Irithys to a room where Hilde, Grand Hag of the Imperial Coven, is waiting. Hilde was caught with a communication crystal used by Ophion, she insists she was set up (she was, it’s Lidia’s crystal). She also happens to be who enslaved Irithys, and Irithys remembers. But when Lidia unleashes Irithys and tells her to burn Hilde, Irithys refuses. No matter what she is threatened with, she will continue to refuse. Lidia returns Irithys to her post protecting the mystics. Bryce has been left alone long enough; she can’t leave out the door in her chambers, but it does have a grate in the floor. Looking down into the grate, she sees a bunch of sobeks, or something similar, and a ledge. She teleports to the ledge. Now she’s stuck down in the hole with a bunch of monsters, and she can’t teleport anymore because she’s out of power. Luckily, the sobeks don’t like her starlight and stay away from her, and Bryce sees a tunnel. Bryce goes into the tunnel, following the direction her star is telling her to go. She makes it to a small door, which she goes through, and which the sobeks cannot fit through. She walks for what feels like ages and sits to rest, when she wakes up Nesta is there to bring her out of the tunnels. Bryce hits her with some light and makes a run for it, not wanting to be questioned, the shadows try to stop her. Eventually, Bryce gets caught by Nesta and suddenly there’s a cave in. Now they have to walk where the star wants Bryce to go, together. They walk until they get to a large chamber, where the path continues on a narrow bridge over a large gap, with a rushing river far at the bottom. Nesta pauses, worried they could be ambushed by…something. No one else has been down here so it could be anything, but there’s nowhere to go but forward, so they continue. About halfway across the bridge, the attack comes. Weird bat-lizard things come from above while a massive, Middengard Wyrm comes from below. Bryce almost falls off the bridge into the abyss that houses the wyrm but catches the bridge and Nesta pulls her back up. They make it to relative safety on the other side of the bridge and the monsters retreat (only after the wyrm ate a bunch of the bat-lizards). Nesta scolds Bryce for freezing on the bridge, you either fight or you run. The shadows watching Hunt reveal themselves to be Apollion. Hunt asks him if Bryce is safe, if she made it to his realm. Apollion seems surprised and retrieves Aidas. Bryce is not in Hel. They suspect they know where she is, that the star may have led her there, but they don’t tell Hunt where that is, in case he accidentally revealed it during his torture sessions. They tell Hunt that the crown that enslaves him is not a new device, it has existed for millennia, and that they will still need him to do what he was created to do. It’s the reason his father brought him into this world. Of course, Hunt doesn’t know who his father is or what that reason could be. Tharion wakes the next morning to his friends’ anger and tries to explain that he came to the Viper Queen because the River Queen would have killed them for offering him sanctuary. They decide they need to get to the Ocean Queen’s giant boat, the Depth Charger, and to the Eternal City to rescue Hunt and Ruhn, and that Tharion is coming too. But Tharion insists that the Viper Queen won’t release him. The Vipe comes into the room, just having met with a pretty blonde female here to get some drugs. When she leaves again, the pretty blonde comes in. It’s The Hind. Bryce and Nesta walk until they get to a fork. On the left is more tunnel, on the right is an archway with planets and a sun carved around it. Bryce’s light leads them to the right. There’s a carving of someone named Silene who tells a story through the carvings. A warning, it shows dead Fae on a battlefield. More carvings show the Fae offering up magic to crowned beings while humans lay chained behind them. Back at the Meat Market, Lidia tells the group that she is Agent Daybright and that she needs their help to free Ruhn. Declan’s help in particular. She needs him to hack into the cameras at the Crystal Palace like he did for Bryce and Hunt, he needs to be prepared to do so at all times since it could be at a moment’s notice. In two days, at dawn, there will be a boat waiting to take them to the Depth Charger. Take this time to get anyone that they care about into hiding and be on that boat in two days. Because in three days, they break their friends out of the Crystal Palace. Nesta and Bryce are stopped by a freezing cold, wide, rushing river. They can’t get across, and Bryce can’t teleport without being powered up again, which she won’t tell Nesta. After a moment, Bryce realizes that her star wants her to go downriver, not across. She’s not happy about it but she plunges in, Nesta jumping in after her. They make it to a smaller pool off of the main river, which leads to another tunnel. Nesta reveals that they didn’t have to get wet at all, if Bryce had just given her some warning. Out of the shadows comes Azriel, carrying his dagger and the Starsword. The three continue down the tunnel. At one point, Bryce trips and scrapes her hands and knees, causing them to bleed. The next morning, Azriel notices that her knees are healed but her hands are not. Bryce asks about the Daglan, but Nesta doesn’t know anything about them. Ithan asks for a meeting with the Viper Queen. He asks if she is going to turn him and Sigrid over to Sabine, she doesn’t give him a real answer, but she does make him an offer. He gives her one fight, and she will let him and his friends walk free. Including Tharion, free of the viper venom. Ithan agrees. Lidia puts her plan into action, using a burner phone to contact Ophion. She asks them to mobilize all agents and be ready in two days but she’s told there aren’t many agents left. They’ve suffered losses recently, and defections after Cormac died. Command is pulling in and going into hiding. She speaks to Command directly, giving them information and a way to stay alive for a little while longer. They’ll be ready and waiting in two days. Nesta keeps asking about Bryce’s star scar, an eight-pointed star that showed up when she released the star inside her and announced to the world that she was Starborn. Nesta had a magical tattoo on her back of an eight-pointed star, it’s gone now. She had made a bargain that gave her the tattoo as chose the design. They find another archway, the carving, clearly an important one, of a male with his hand raised in greeting. Suddenly, a Middengard Wyrm appears from the river behind them. Bryce has led it here, falling to make herself bleed and then continuing to reopen the wounds on her hands and dripping blood for the wyrm to follow. As Nesta and Azriel prepare to fight, Bryce takes off running. She hears both of them get injured, the colors of their powers disappearing, and she goes back hoping that they’re still alive to save. She finds Nesta lying in the river, the wyrm and Azriel gone. She thinks the worst but she’s wrong, they’ve laid their own trap to bring her back, and they’ve still got to kill the wyrm. They don’t have to wait long for it to come at them again, or rather, to come at Bryce. It appears to be hunting her specifically. Unfortunately, it’s fighting everything that Nesta and Azriel throw at it. But Nesta conjures a silver mask and puts it on, Azriel takes Bryce and hides as Nesta reanimates a giant skeleton they passed in the tunnels. Once the skeleton pins the wyrm, Nesta takes her sword Ataraxia and kills it. Azriel demands that Nesta take the mask off, but she is no longer Nesta. He has to talk her back into herself and coax her into removing the mask, which she does a few very tense minutes later. The three keep walking, in silence until Bryce starts apologizing. It comes out that Azriel has seen the eight-pointed star on someone else, someone other than Nesta, and it wasn’t good. So, they want to know what the star is leading her towards. If only she knew. They continue until they come to a giant chasm, not even Bryce’s light manages to touch the other side. Azriel can’t fly since the tunnel is too narrow, the only option is to teleport, or winnow as Nesta calls it, to the other side. To do so, Azriel has to power Bryce up. When his power hits her, it’s so strong it makes her body glow. She is able to teleport all three of them at once. Ruhn reaches out to Lidia to tell her that Bryce did not make it to Hel. They don’t know if she’s even alive. Lidia believes that she is, because Rigelus believes that she is. He has all one-thousand of the Asteri’s mystics looking for her at all times, which means that he’s scared she’s made it somewhere that can provide her help. It gives Ruhn a small amount of hope, but that does not make him soften toward Lidia. When Lidia tells Ruhn that she’s doing what she can to help him, he tells her that she is dead to him. Ooof. Bryce, Nesta, and Azriel find a carving of a mountain that is sacred to the Illyrians and the Cauldron. They explain to Bryce that the Cauldron is their world origin story, but that it is also real. Nesta was shoved inside of it and turned into a High Fae. It’s sentient, Bryce asked if it’s similar to the Mask in that way. It seemed like death incarnate and Nesta explains that the Mask gives its wearer power over death. It is one of three objects that the Cauldron made, they call them the Dread Trove, and Nesta can wear the Mask since she was also Made by the Cauldron. They talk about souls and what happens in this world when they die. Nesta gives Bryce her phone back, they had taken it when she first arrived. They make it to the end of the tunnel, they’re met with a massive metal wall with a giant eight pointed star carved into it. Bryce touches the star and a door appears for her. When they walk through, the door seals behind them. This is where Nesta and Azriel saw the star before. They call it the Prison. Ithan has to fight Ariadne for the Viper Queen’s match. Tharion warns Ari not to kill Ithan, he’s important to a lot of people and a good male, while Flynn gives Ithan tips. Tharion tells Ithan to use Ari’s arrogance against her. But when the Viper Queen arrives, an audience of one, she says that Ariadne is no longer employed there. An offer came in that was too good to turn up. Instead, Ithan can fight Sigrid. The Prison is an island off the coast, that door must have been a portal. Now that she’s arrived, Bryce’s star is dark, and she has a terrible, foreboding feeling. The floor is full of carvings and in the center is another star, but there are wards all over. Luckily, Bryce is wearing the amulet that protects her, she’s able to stand on the star and sees that the carvings in the floor are of the constellations on Midgard. She notices carved mounds on the ground that are the planets that she recognizes. Midgard is represented by the star. When Nesta was last in this room, there was a Harp on the star. The Harp is Made, it can transport someone between places and can stop time. Bryce asked if there was a Made object called the Horn, but Nesta doesn’t know. Bryce steps on the star in the center. Ruhn, Hunt, and Baxian have a tentative plan of escape. If Ruhn can swing from his manacles to the weapon rack and get the iron poker, he could possibly break his chains. But Ruhn can’t swing that far with both hands shackled. He asks Hunt to bite his hand off to give him more range, but Hunt can’t do it. Baxian offers, says he will shoulder this burden so that Hunt doesn’t have to. He does, in fact, do as asked, and Ruhn manages to reach the poker. But as he prepares to use the poker, Rigelus appears with the Hawk and Pollux. In the palace above, Pollux comes in to give Lidia some good news. The Asteri were able to fix the Harpy. She’s not awake yet but the Asteri are optimistic. Another day, maybe two. Not good for Lidia, who killed her. As Bryce stands on the star, a hologram of a High Fae female appears. Bryce recognizes her as Silene, whose name and portrait was carved at the beginning of the tunnel. Silene shares visions of the story of her people, enslaved by the Daglan for thousands of years, making the Tithe every year in which they gave a bit of their magic to the Daglan. Silene’s mother appears in the vision, a step behind a throne of the Daglan. The mother had served for a century. Her mother is Theia. Silene talks about the Dread Trove, actually four items: the Harp, the Mask, the Crown, and The Horn. Theia stole the trove from the Asteri and went to the top of Ramiel, the sacred mountain. She planned an uprising with Silene’s father, Fionn, the first and last High King here. But the pair needed the Cauldron, which was a a tool made by the Fae here but corrupted by the Daglan and made into something deadlier. From the Cauldron they created the Starsword. Theia and Fionn used these tools to defeat the Daglan although Silene is not specific how they did so. Fionn became High King, Theia his Queen, but she claimed the island they now call the Prison as her own. They had two daughters, Helena and Silene, and when Fionn was close to dying he chose to pass his crown to Helena instead of to Theia. This upset Theia and members of her court, including her general Pelias, who believed Helena was too young to lead. Together, Theia and Pelias watched as Fionn was killed by a monster he was hunting, who dragged him down into the bog, doing nothing to save him. Afterward, the monster returned the Starsword to them, and its matching dagger that Azriel calls Truth-Teller. It had belonged to Fionn’s friend during the war, Fionn had had it since his friend died. Theia then took the trove for herself, giving herself unlimited power. Yet, she craved more. She used the Horn and the Harp to open a door to another world, she would conquer that world. Pelias had chosen the world they would conquer. Little did Theia know, he had used all of this time to learn all he could about ancient magic, especially summoning magics. When they traveled to Midgard for the first time, they were greeted by Rigelus, whom Pelias had summoned and who Theia believed to be Fae as well, not recognizing him as Daglan. Fortunately, Theia had been paranoid and had hidden the Harp and the Horn. The plan was for Pelias to coax the locations from Theia, then the Daglan would reconquer the land that had been taken from them. When Theia and her people arrived, they found humans and other Fae, although they did not realize those Fae had been lured there by the Daglan. Theia took the humans as slaves, but the humans united against the Fae. Soon, shifters arrived too, giving Theia and Pelias pause. The shifters answered directly to Rigelus, as if they’d known him for a long time. Eventually, Theia only trusted her daughters who could control both the Starborn light and shadows. The daughters infiltrate the Asteri palace and learn the truth about the Asteri, and their mother tells them what happened before they were born. She remembers another world that fought off the Asteri…Hel. Ithan is worried about hurting Sigrid, or worse, in their fight, she’s a possible heir to the Prime, but Sigrid has no such qualms and she comes out swinging. All instinct and no training, but still able to draw first blood. Ithan is feeling guilty because he’s fighting an Alpha, Tharion feels guilty because all the decisions he’s been making are terrible and now he’s caused Ariadne to be moved who knows where. The Viper Queen refuses to stop the fight, saying it ends when she says so, and snaps some pictures of the two fighting. Ithan is barely hitting Sigrid, at war with himself as he fights the wolf he rescued. Sigrid thanks Ithan for freeing her and then goes for his throat, death in her eyes. Ithan goes to fight back, aiming for her shoulder, but Sigrid is too fast. Faster than either of them realize, and he hits her in the throat instead. After they defeated the Asteri, Aidas was charged with tracking the remaining Asteri down so that they could be destroyed. He and Theia spoke to each other for some time without meeting. Theia went to the Library of Parthos, a human stronghold, because she needed the help of the people she had massacred and enslaved. She told them what she had learned, and they revealed what they had learned as well: the Asteri had poisoned the water, contaminated it with a parasite that burrowed in Vanir bodies and corrupted their magic. They created the drop ritual, and anyone who didn’t take part was drained by the parasite until they died of “old age”. Theia convinced some humans and some Fae to fight, about ten thousand, and Hel brought fifty thousand to join them. The Asteri put Pelias in charge of their army. Theia believed that when she called out for help from Hel, Aidas answered because he was her mate. He stayed with her through the war. But one night, when he returned to Hel to gather reinforcements, Theia was overrun by enemies. She kept the Starsword (they call it Gwydion) but gave Helena the Horn and Silene the Harp and the dagger and told them to run. Theia used the Harp to transfer some magic from herself to each of her daughters as protection, another of the Harp’s abilities. The Asteri had made Pelias a prince and Theia knew that he was going to try to have children with her daughters to legitimize himself, she bade them go, then left to fight. Helena and Silene try to flee back to their old world, but the shifters find them. Instead, Helena pushes Silene through the doorway and stays behind to buy Silene time. Before Silene closes the portal, she sees Pelias kill her mother and take the Starsword for himself. Silene is transported back and uses her light like a laser, similar to what the Asteri do. She carves this space herself as a reminder to those who need it and herds the Asteri’s monsters into their cells. She married the High Lord of the Night but refused the title of High Lady. She eventually told her son about the Prison, and that the weapon he would need to beat the Asteri was there, should he need it. That information was passed on, generation to generation, but at some point that stopped since Rhysand does not know it. Silene told tales and over time, her mother became a legend that no one was sure had ever been true, and Theia’s daughters’ names lost altogether. Rigelus wants Hunt to do one job for him and he’d be willing to make a deal for the lives of Hunt’s friends. He wants some of Hunt’s lightning. When Hunt refuses, he says he can take the lightning from him or Hunt can give it up willingly, just a little bit. If Hunt refuses, he will need to choose which of the others will die. Hunt can’t choose and deposits a bit of his lightning into a quartz crystal, hating himself. As he pulls the lightning out, Rigelus takes more than Hunt was offering. He then tells Pollux to kill one of them, doesn’t matter which. Lidia is out of time and goes to the dungeon, she finds all the prisoners unconscious, Ruhn now missing a hand, with Pollux and the Hawk. She tells the others to get out, then injects Hunt and Baxian with compounds of firstlight that a medwitch made to regrow their wings faster. She tries to wake them so she can get them out, but there’s one problem. Ruhn is not responding to her. Nesta realizes that Bryce is the Horn, it’s the only way she could have gotten to this world and why her tattoo had reacted when she’d first arrived. Azriel flies to talk to Rhysand but Bryce is able to reach down and take the power that Silene had saved for her heir. She’s now incandescent with power and the mountain responds even to her thoughts. She stops Azriel from leaving but is warned not to open the cells, the cells of monsters that Silene had imprisoned. While she fights Azriel, Bryce moves the ground and a huge space opens up beneath her. The three of them fall into a secret chamber, with a sarcophagus containing a dark-haired female. A Daglan, sleeping encased in stone. Lidia heads down to the mystics to retrieve Irithys once more. She offers the Sprite Queen a deal, help her and she will no longer be a slave. Irithys agrees and Lidia calls for Hilde the hag, who she’s also made a deal with. Take the slave halo off of Irithys and Hilde can go free. When she removes Hilde’s shackles, Hilde tries to turn on Lidia, but Lidia is too quick and pulls a gun on her. Lidia makes a vow that she will not kill Hilde even after Irithys is freed, and so Hilde (stuck between a rock and a hard place) removes the halo. But Lidia had not made any vows for Irithys, who promptly burns Hilde to ash. Then Lidia lays out her plan, having already called Declan to turn the cameras away. It starts with Irithys burning Lidia, and it needs to look real. Sigrid is dead and she won’t be coming back, Ithan’s claws cut her head straight off as he pulled them out of her throat. The Viper Queen lets the rest of them go, including Tharion, arranging for a car to meet them at the door. When they get in, the sprites arrive at the windshield, urging Flynn to drive. They had not been watching the fight, they took that time to burn the Meat Market down instead. Declan reports that Marc is notifying their families and making sure everyone is safe, Flynn drives the car to the harbor. They meet the boat that will take them to the Depth Charger, the Ocean Queen’s city in a boat, but when they arrive Ithan can’t get on. He mutters that he has to go back to make it right and then runs back into the city. Tharion, Flynn, Declan, and the sprites all get on the boat. Ithan runs to the Bone Quarter and enters the House of Flame and Shadow. He goes down the stairs in pitch black until he physically runs into a metal door. Jesiba opens it. The Daglan awakes when they arrive, but she can’t get out of the stone. She doesn’t seem to realize that time has passed. She asks if Theia had sent them, or Fionn, or Fionn’s friend Enalius, who originally owned the dagger. Bryce tries to question her, but the Daglan female will only talk if she’s released, so Bryce releases her! Then Bryce calls for the Starsword from Azriel’s back. The Asteri says her name is Vesperus, and they once came from a green planet that became overpopulated, they had people who could travel the fabric of the worlds, wayfarers. But after they left their home planet, their powers dimmed, so they needed the trove. They compiled their powers to make the Cauldron, which then was used to create the Dread Trove. They tied the Cauldron to this world so if you destroy one, you destroy the other. But she won’t tell Bryce how to kill an Asteri. Vesperus sees Azriel holding the dagger and says he doesn’t know how to use it, not really. She also reveals that there are points in the world where the Asteri hid pockets of their power to be called on if necessary. Misty places where the veil is thin that are more suitable to holding power. Like this island. She pulls the stored power up into herself but before she can do anything else, Nesta stabs her through the chest with Ataraxia. Vesperus’ power gutters out. Let’s hope she’s dead. But no, we aren’t that lucky. Vesperus just shoves the sword out of her chest and heals right up. Bryce calls Truth-Teller to her and the traitorous dagger comes. Nesta and Azriel hit Vesperus with their power while Bryce stabs both blades into Vesperus’ chest. Bryce floods the blades with her power. But Vesperus absorbs Azriel’s power as he tries to hurt her and Vesperus grabs the Starsword’s handle and flings it away. Nesta uses Ataraxia to cut off Vesperus’ head and stabs the head repeatedly after it is removed. Now she’s dead for real. Bryce is angry, she could have gotten more answers from Vesperus given time. Bryce is an idiot. But Nesta and Azriel are also angry, Azriel demands that Bryce go back with them to see Rhysand. Instead, Bryce takes the sword and the dagger, opens up a portal, and leaves. Hopefully to Midgard. Aidas visits Hunt, the real Aidas this time. He’s looking for Bryce but has yet to find her. He believes that Rigelus wants Hunt’s lightning because Rigelus believes he can use it to resurrect the dead. Aidas believes that Rigelus has finally realized what Hunt was bred to be, but Aidas won’t tell Hunt what that means right now. Then he leaves. Bryce ends up in her father’s study, where he promptly puts her in gorsion shackles and disarms her. He suspects that he knows where she was, since she came back with the dagger, and says she won’t be leaving until he sees fit. In Bryce’s words, “taking your daughter hostage: great parenting.” Bryce and her father question each other, he explains to her that the Fae bloodlines have been weakening for generations and he is trying to figure out why and how to stop it. It’s the reason he betrothed Bryce to Cormac (RIP). She asks if the mists around Avallen are really impenetrable, even by the Asteri. The Asteri have never tested it, but Cormac’s father believes so. She guesses aloud that he is studying the light because he wants to get rid of the Asteri, he neither confirms nor denies it. She reveals to him everything she learned about the Asteri, figuring the more people that know the better. Mordoc and a bunch of dreadwolves collect Hunt, Baxian, and Ruhn, Rigelus wants to see them. They take the prisoners to an elevator where the Hind is waiting for them, her burned arm in a sling. The Hawk and two dreadwolves join her and the three prisoners on the elevator, the rest of the dreadwolves run to meet them upstairs. As they ride, Lidia takes out a gun and shoots the Hawk in the head, then the two dreadwolves. She unlatches the manacles around the prisoners’ ankles and wrists, and gives them directions on where to go next. Ruhn is so weak that she has to carry him, but they make it to an empty military vehicle: Lidia driving, Ruhn in the passenger seat, Hunt in the back, and Baxian in the gunner seat. They blow through guard stations, Baxian shooting, and a white van pulls up next to them, matching their speed. Flynn opens the van door. Lidia’s gets an update: eleven different locations report they are a go, all major depots along the spine (a vital railway to the imperialists). Then the small voice of Irithys, it’s a go at the Crystal Palace. Irithys gets the okay and she blasts the Crystal Palace, followed by explosions in the other eleven locations. The van separates from them, going toward the highway, they’ll meet at the port. Their enemies start to close the metal gates, trying to trap them inside the Eternal City, but Lidia doesn’t stop. She drives under the gate and rips the gunner seat off the vehicle, Baxian is now hanging on to the back of the vehicle. They’ve got an hour-long drive ahead of them, and it’s not going to be easy. Declan reports to Lidia that Irithys made it out of the palace and that most of the imperial forces are at the train station instead of following them. The bad news: Mordoc and a team of dreadwolves made it out of the city too, and they’re pursuing the escapees. Lidia is going to have to find a way to lose them. They’ve only got one gun left now that the machine gun is gone. Lidia hands it to Hunt and tells Declan to prepare the hatch for an aerial landing. They drive at top speed until the road stops, and she can drive no further. She asks if the angels can fly, they test their wings and say yes. She tells them to carry Ruhn between them and get to the Depth Charger. She won’t be coming with them. Mordoc will pursue her as the bigger prize and that will buy them time to get to the boat. Baxian insists he can carry her, but she demands that they go and then shifts into her deer form and runs off. Ruhn wants to go back for her, but the angels won’t let him. When they make it to the ship, Ruhn asks Tharion to go find Lidia. Tharion takes a swim. Lidia is running from Mordoc and the dreadwolves, desperate to make it over the mountain that she is running up, which is right next to the ocean. There may be a ledge over the peak she can use to go down the sheer mountain face to the water. As she reaches the top and finds what she’s looking for, she realizes the ground is too soft and she won’t be able to climb down. The wolves find her and she has to jump, but as she does they shoot her in the chest. Ithan tells Jesiba that he needs a necromancer to raise the lost Fendyr heir. She knows a necromancer that is trustworthy and agrees to collect Sigrid’s body and keep it on ice, until the necromancer is available. In payment, Ithan will work for her as her assistant. She’s not been able to find a good one since Bryce. Bryce has a run in with her father where he tells her that Hunt and Ruhn escaped. He tells her that he wants to open a portal to the other Fae world and then maybe Rigelus will be so grateful he will let the Autumn King have a portion of it. It’s then that Bryce realizes that he doesn’t want to take the Asteri down, he just wants to get as much as he can from them. He explains a little more about the dagger and sword, that together they can open a hole to nowhere, with no life and no light. He read it in the Avallen archives, but the source didn’t reveal how to merge the blades. Tharion saw Lidia jump and cushioned her fall with water, so she didn’t land directly on the rocks. He brought her body to the Depth Charger, with a gunshot hole the size of a fist through her chest, and she’s barely hanging on. When she’d been brought to the ship, she had been dead, but Hunt restarted her heart with his lightning and the medwitches went to work. Ruhn refuses to leave her, she’s flatlined twice and both times he was not in her room. Tharion is going through withdrawal, and just generally going through a tough time. He blames himself for what happened between Ithan and Sigrid, for Ithan staying behind, for Ariadne being sent who knows where. And he’s an outcast here on the Depth Charger for having defected from the River Queen, even though these are the Ocean Queen’s people. It’s like he defected from being mer. He goes to ask Captain Sendes if she can arrange a meeting between the Ocean Queen, himself, and Hunt, and he’s told that the Queen is actually arriving tomorrow to the ship. Something to do with both the River Queen and the Viper Queen threatening war for harboring Tharion. Ithan organizes Jesiba’s books, asking questions about them. They did come from the Library of Parthos, Jesiba had ensorcelled them when they came into her care so they could protect themselves. The people at Parthos had fought the Vanir and tried to get the books to safety, but only one ship made it, the Griffin. The mer for the Ocean Queen had helped the Griffin escape to Valbara. Jesiba doesn’t say why the mer did it, how she came to have the books, or how she has the amulets the Pathos priestesses wore. Like the ones she gave Bryce. Eventually, Jesiba reveals that she was the priestess from the Griffin. Apollion heard how the humans made a stand at the library and believed that the humans must’ve been guarding knowledge of a new weapon or something more important than just books. He cursed Jesiba to eternal youth, until she gives him that information (hard to do since it doesn’t exist). This happened just after Apollion had eaten Sirius and, although he did not intend to do it, he transferred some of his power to Jesiba. That is how she, as a human, acquired her magic and why she is still alive. Bryce finds her father in his study and snaps the gorsion shackles on him. She had found a disarming key in Ruhn’s room - their father used to put Ruhn in the shackles before he burned him, then send Ruhn to his room with the shackles on to delay healing. So Ruhn invested in a key - and freed herself. Turns out, Bryce came here on purpose to find out what their father knew about the Starsword (I should give her more credit). He knows the most about the Starsword since he was obsessed with it and had been convinced that he was Starborn but of course, the sword did not respond to him. Bryce locks him in a basement closet with an empty bucket and some water, which should last him until one of his guards shows up. She gained some valuable information from him, including where to find more. The Avallen archives. She finds her phone in his study, along with his notebook of annotations from his light experiments, the crystal he used to separate light, and the device to bring it back together. When she hits the crystal with her light, it separates not into a rainbow, but ranging from bright starlight to shadows. What would happen if power was put through both so that they hit each other? She decides to try it, and steps into the center where they meet. Doing so, she is able to power herself up and teleport to find Hunt. Lidia wakes up. When Ruhn tells her they’re in the Depth Charger, she rips the medical equipment off herself and takes off running. She makes it to a room full of teenagers and she watches two boys, her sons. Fifteen-year-old twins: Brannon and Acteaon, whom she hasn’t seen since they were eighteen months old. Tharion is told by the Ocean Queen that the Viper Queen has offered three million marks for Tharion, five million if he’s alive so she can punish him herself. She’s holding him responsible for property damage. Give the Ocean Queen one good reason she should not hand him over to either the Viper Queen or to her sister, the River Queen. Luckily, Bryce enters the room just then, saying that Tharion serves her. Bryce Danaan, Queen of the Valbaran Fae. The Ocean Queen tells them they are not to leave the ship without her permission, and that she needs to speak with Tharion alone. Bryce not so gently says no, she and the Ocean Queen have urgent matters to discuss. She tells the Queen everything that she’s learned about the Asteri and that she’s looking for allies. Ophion is nearly decimated, and the rebel humans look at the Vanir with as much hatred as the Asteri do. They accept help from Vanir but only begrudgingly. Bryce mentions that Hel would help, but the Queen is wary of that idea. She tells Bryce that she and the mer have been on Midgard for longer than the Asteri, they were here with the humans before Theia came along. The Queen asks if Bryce would consider bringing as many people as possible to the other world and then sealing the door forever, leaving everyone else behind to live with the Asteri forever. Bryce is not amenable to the idea, and the two clash. The Queen finally agrees to Bryce and her friends off in Avallen (but not Tharion), that will be her last gift to them. All she asks in return is WHEN Bryce realizes that she cannot win and opens a portal to escape, they take as many of the Ocean Queen’s people as she can. Lidia meets the boys and their fathers. Brann, an easy-going jock type, seems receptive to knowing her but Acteaon (Ace), a quiet genius, is very much not. Ace really tells Lidia what’s on his mind and it’s not good. She says she doesn’t want to take them away from their family, but maybe at some point she could be a part of it too. Their fathers, Davit and Renki, seem open to it. But after their short meeting, the Ocean Queen makes her displeasure with Lidia known and tells her that she will be getting off the boat the next day with the others. She runs into Ruhn on her way to her room. He asks her some questions but she’s cold to him. She told him that she just wanted him to listen to her, but he was unwilling and now he doesn’t deserve to hear her story. Ithan is working in Jesiba’s office when a call comes in. Jesiba tells him to grab the Godslayer Rifle and come with her. In the main room, the Astronomer is waiting. He wants the wolf, Sigrid, returned to him. That’s going to be difficult. The group discusses the trip to Avallen they will take in the morning. King Morven, Cormac’s dad, is awful and there are also the “murder twins”, Ruhn’s twin cousins who worked with Cormac to try to kill him and his friends during their Ordeal. By the way, the twins can read minds. Bryce wants to check out the archives as well as the Cave of Princes, where the Starsword is kept in Pelias’ tomb when not claimed by Starborn. Females are not allowed in either the archives or the cave. The team decides to split up for expediency’s sake: Declan, Flynn, and Ruhn will go to the archives while Bryce, Hunt, and Baxian will go to the cave. Tharion will stay on the ship because he is not allowed to leave. Lidia hasn’t decided where she’s going, but she tells them about a new, worse mech suit that the Asteri have created that can be piloted from afar, sounds very similar to a drone but a full suit. She also reveals the Ocean Queen wants Lidia to continue spying or she will no longer protect Lidia’s children. Originally, the Queen wanted Lidia to find out more about the suits, but Lidia is really not in any position to do that anymore and has convinced the Queen that she would be more useful spying on Bryce and her friends. Lidia and Bryce go to speak with the fire sprites, who have locked themselves in an internal room of the ship because of their anxiety about being surrounded by water. The triplets were planning on joining the others in Avallen but instead, Bryce and Lidia ask them to find Irithys. Lidia suggested to Irithys that she may want to find a stronghold of the sprites, but Irithys had seemed reluctant, that perhaps she would not be well received. They need the triplets to find Irithys and to accompany her, and to convince her to fight with them against the Asteri when the time comes. The triplets accept. Hypaxia walks in after the Astronomer and tells him that as Sigrid was not a slave, all Ithan did was give a free citizen a choice: stay in the tub or leave. The Astronomer insists on being paid anyway, which Ithan agrees too, but Ithan chokes when the Astronomer gives his price: ten million gold marks. Jesiba tells the Astronomer to consider it paid and he stalks off. Jesiba asks Hypaxia what took so long, and it’s not anything good. Morganthia Dragas, Hypaxia’s mother’s general, and her cronies staged a coup and ousted Hypaxia as Queen of the Valbaran Witches. Hypaxia had to swear fealty to the House of Flame and Shadow so she wouldn’t be killed. Morganthia is queen now, her first act was to order Hypaxia’s execution and her second was to inanimate Hypaxia’s ghost tutors and friends. While Hypaxia goes off to swear her oath to the Under-King, Jesiba tells Ithan that the Fendyr line has been carefully curated by the Asteri, dominant enough to not be questioned but in the Asteri’s palm. Until Danika, who was too smart and too willful and had to be gotten rid of. Then Jesiba gets a call, Hypaxia is done with her oaths and waiting for Ithan in the morgue with Sigrid’s body. We also learn that Hypaxia and Celestina broke up after Hypaxia found out that Celestina had sold out Bryce and Hunt. Thank goodness, Hypaxia deserves better. Lidia meets with the twins once more before disembarking. She tells them she’s leaving, and she hopes that she will be back, but she can’t say more than that. She explains that left them to give them a life of safety with people who would love them, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t think of them every day. She gives them her giant ruby ring, an heirloom from her father’s side. They can keep it, or sell it if they need to, it’s up to them. Before she leaves, she tells them that she is proud of them and of the males they have become and are still growing into. Brann thanks her for the parents that raised them. Ace says bye, which is probably more than Lidia had hoped for. Captain Sendes drops them off as close to Avallen that they can get. There is some sort of ward that accompanies the mists, not one they’re used to seeing, but they can’t cross it regardless. Almost as if the wards are a natural phenomenon instead of created by magic. Luckily, the Starsword grants you entry privileges. Bryce pulls the sword and the mists part to show a white boat waiting to collect them. Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn, Declan, Flynn, and Lidia get on the boat, leaving Tharion on the Depth Cruiser. As they get ready to leave, Tharion jumps over the edge of the Depth Cruiser and joins them, trusting the mists to protect him from ALL the queens who want his head. Hypaxia starts to resurrect Sigrid as Ithan and Jesiba look on. She will sew Sigrid’s head back on and as soon as Sigrid is reanimated, will give her an injection of firstlight to heal the neck wound quickly. After over seven hours Sigrid wakes up but she isn’t breathing. She’s a reaper. Bryce and Co try to speak to Morven, but since he refuses to acknowledge Ruhn or Hunt, and Bryce as a female is only allowed to speak when asked to do so, Flynn takes the floor. Unfortunately, Morven reveals that the murder twins have captured his sister Sathia. All we know up to this point is that Flynn’s dad is a Lord and that Flynn doesn’t get along with any of his family. Morven explains that a lot of the Fae have been seeking refuge in Avallen and he has allowed them to stay, if he deems them suitable. But Sathia has refused to pay the asking price, to marry one of the murder twins. After all, it wouldn’t be safe for women to be running around without husbands or fathers to answer for them, but Morven has no use for more males in Avallen so the pickings are slim. He’s allowed Flynn’s parents to stay but refuses to send Sathia to them, since she’s refused such a tantalizing offer of marriage, so she will have to go back to the city. But word has gotten around that Declan and Flynn helped the prisoners escape and their families are no longer safe there. Apparently Sathia has been refusing all the males her dad brings to her doorstep and now he’s washed his hands of her. Back to the matter at hand, Bryce lets Morven know she’s here to investigate his archives and the Cave of Princes. And no, she’s not asking. What gives her the right? Her Starborn light and these two blades she‘s holding. Oh, and Sathia is with them now. Her brother is right here, he can take responsibility for her. When Morven says that Flynn is too irresponsible, Tharion offers to marry her. He sees a bit of his sister in Sathia and wishes there had been someone to save her. Even though Ruhn, Declan, and Flynn try to get them to reconsider, the two of them are wed right away. Hypaxia thinks she may be able to fix the whole Reaper situation. Somehow, she thinks it’s a good idea to resurrect Sofie, who has been dead for months, and use her thunderbird lightning to hold Sigrid in place and give her the option to not be a Reaper anymore. Sigrid may not like being a Reaper after a few days. Jesiba tracks down Sofie’s body, Morven has it for some unknown reason. Flynn keeps saying that his magic feels uneasy in Avallen, and his sister agrees. Either way, in the morning they will separate to start looking through the archives and cave, but Bryce takes a quick look at the archives after their meeting with Morven and filling Sathia in on what they know so far. Declan pretty quickly finds a map from the First Wars that shows a bunch of small islands around Avallen that are no longer there. Sometime in the hundred years after the Asteri showed up, those islands disappeared. Bryce remembers in Silene’s story, she mentioned that some islands withered and died with the appearance of the Asteri. She wants the people who are looking in the archives to try to find more information but tells Ruhn quietly they likely only have a few days before Morven will call the Asteri. They keep looking all together until dinner but find nothing else. Bryce, Hunt, Tharion, Sathia, and Baxion go into the caves. Ruhn, Declan, and Flynn go into the archives. Lidia watches them go and is approached by Morven, whose bitterness seems personal. He calls her a traitor and says she has no loyalty; she retorts that until now she’s had no one who inspired the feeling. He tells her she’s a fool for following Bryce, she responds that he’s a fool not to. Morven approaches Ruhn next, telling him that he is the only hope for the future of the Fae. You can imagine, that doesn’t go over well with Ruhn. He proceeds to the archives and Lidia joins Ruhn and his friends. Ithan, Hypaxia, and Jesiba prepare to go to Avallen when omega boats pull into the river and fire brimstone missiles into Asphodel Meadows, where the humans live. Ithan and Hypaxia run there to help however they can. Team caves starts to see carvings like the ones in Silene’s tunnels. At least the ghouls that live in the caves don’t like Bryce’s light and mostly stay away from them. Sathia asks Bryce what her plans are after all this, since she controls three Fae artifacts. Bryce doesn’t give her the answer she wants, she has no plan of ruling the Fae. Lidia and Ruhn are talking to each other again. A little. They’ve had no choice since Flynn and Declan left them to two meals alone. While in the archives, Lidia looks into earth magic since both Flynn and Sathia have said Avallen feels wrong. In the First Wars, those with earth magic would scout for good geographical positions but areas those with ley lines as well. These Fae scouts selected Avallen for the Fae, something between then and now changed or else the scouts would not have chosen this spot. Neither Lidia nor Ruhn seem concerned that Declan and Flynn never show up in the archives. Baxian talks to Bryce about how Danika felt about the wolves, close to how Bryce feels about the Fae. But sometimes, the right leader makes all the difference. That’s why Danika was killed, to get rid of that small bit of hope for change. They come to a large river that Bryce needs to teleport them across but before she can, the Autumn King steps out of the shadows, deep shadows created by King Morven. We finally find Declan and Flynn, they’re being held hostage, kidnapped by the murder twins who are also there. After some verbal sparring, Bryce uses her light laser to bring the roof down then yells for her group to jump in the river, leaving Declan and Flynn with the kings. These caves are nearly identical to the other tunnels, she knows where to go. Ruhn finally realizes that his friends are missing the same time that he realizes that the twins and Morven are also gone. He thinks it’s a trap, but he and Lidia prepare to go find them. Bryce finds Prince Pelias tomb - sarcophagus included - where Ruhn had retrieved the Starsword from. It’s in the same place as where she heard Seline’s story, but in Avallen’s caves. She realizes the caves weren’t built by Pelias; they were built by Helena. Bryce pushes the top of the sarcophagus to the floor, revealing a secret stairway leading down. At the bottom they find a small stream, with a jug and bowl sitting on an eight-pointed star. The star has a slit in two of its points. Bryce tells them what she’s known since walking into the caves, the whole tunnel system is carved out of black salt, salt used to summon demons. She thinks that Helena used to drink some of the salt dissolved in water to talk to Hel without anyone knowing. She and Hunt decide to test the theory. It works and they see Aidas. He takes them via boat to see Apollion, who greets Hunt with the name “son”. Thanatos is there as well, and he’s brought two dog companions that are very reminiscent of the Shepherd. They all go into the Temple of Chaos, a replica of the Temple of Urd on Midgard (or vice versa). Apollion tells Hunt that the black halo he wears was called a black crown in Hel, where the Asteri came up with the idea. He’s surprised to see Hunt wearing one since the Princes of Hel cannot be controlled by the black crown. The Princes explain that it wasn’t Helena that closed the Northern Rift to Hel, the Asteri commanded Pelias to use the horn to do so. When he did, he sealed them from all the other worlds, with a small little sliver in the rift left open for Hel to sneak through. Helena spoke to them to try to mount a force again, but Hel couldn’t find a way through except one or two at a time, and their forces were very depleted by then, especially since the Vampyrs and Reapers had defected to the Asteri. When Theia said goodbye to her daughters, she had used the Harp to divide ALL of her magic into three parts, but a third was not enough to protect herself. Both the Starsword and Truth-Teller are keyed to Theia’s magic, but you have to have enough of it to get them to work. They call to each other, which is why when Bryce used the Horn, she ended up right where Truth-Teller was and not in Hel like she had wanted. The Starsword had overruled her. Bryce already had Helena’s third of the power, passed down through the generations, and now she has Silene’s as well, from calling it up from where Silene had buried it. Before Theia died, she had removed her third and placed it in the Starsword. Helena later hid it. Theia had wanted to keep the sword and dagger separate until the right person came along because together, they can unleash “ultimate destruction”. But Helena did not have the Horn and had to find a way to move the magic without it. She recognized that these misty “thin places” like the Prison and the Northern Rift were built on ley lines which can move magic. She found another spot, not as powerful but with the black salt, and convinced Pelias that it would be the perfect place for a shrine to him, so that all the future generations with the right bloodline could worship him. Knowing that he would not part with the sword that he’d taken when Theia was killed, Helena waited until he died and used the ley lines to take her mother’s magic and hide it. Bryce needs that third piece of magic to really make the blades work and to stop the Asteri. None of the Princes know where the magic is or how the blades work. In fact, not even Theia knew what the blades would do, which is why she didn’t do it herself. By the time she was scared enough to use them, it was too late. They do know that the black salt in Avallen repels the Asteri, so Helena had the magic hidden somewhere in Avallen. But Bryce has the Horn, and the Princes don’t want her to use the blades to open a spot to nowhere for the Asteri to rot. They want her to give the Asteri to them by opening the Northern Rift. They knew if a world-walker, like Bryce, came along, the walker might not be able to get the dagger, so the Princes needed a backup plan. Thanatos is excellent at crafting things, like his dogs or the kristallos demon. He made the thunderbirds to be able to “power up” whoever the world-walker would be but the Asteri realized what was happening and had the thunderbirds killed. And so they made Hunt. An angel blessed with lightning, the Asteri believed it was due to their breeding practices that Hunt was born with his power. But really, it was given to him from Apollion. Helfire, able to kill almost anything, including an Asteri. It’s how Apollion killed Sirius. Unfortunately, Hunt’s lightning is diluted and could hurt an Asteri but not kill them. But no, none of the Princes are Hunt’s actual father. A male angel had been researching thunderbirds, on a project called Project Thurr, when his research led him to the Princes and the angel offered to help them. Hunt’s mother was impoverished, and the male knew having a partner would help her out of her poverty, so they got together, and Hunt was conceived. The male planned to stay with Hunt’s mother and raise Hunt in secret, but the mystics told Rigelus about how the male had found the Princes and Rigelus had him executed. But the angel did not break, and he never mentioned Hunt or his mother before he died, he protected them until the end, the Asteri still do not know who, or what, Hunt is. The male’s name was Hyrieus. The Princes never intended for Hunt and Bryce to be mates, that just happened the normal way. As for opening the Northern Rift and letting the Princes (only these three, the others are otherwise occupied) of Hel in with their armies to help defeat the Asteri, Bryce will think about it. Before the salt wears off and Bryce and Hunt a returned to their bodies, Apollion reminds Hunt that no Prince of Hel can be caged, meaning Hunt could break his halo. When Bryce and Hunt wake up, the Kings have found them and their friends are trapped by the Autumn King’s fire. Hopefully Ruhn and Lidia show up quickly to help. They demand that Bryce relinquish the blades since she’s a female and therefore unworthy of them. The twins break into Sathia’s mind and have her hold a dagger to her own throat. They’ll make her kill herself if Bryce doesn’t listen. So, Bryce lets the blades go and Sathia lowers the dagger. Bryce reveals that she is the one that killed Micah, cut him to pieces, but she will do much worse to the two Kings and she calls the blades back to her. At the same time, Hunt releases his lightning at the twins (they’re just able to pull up shadows to save their lives, unfortunately). Then Bryce runs for her father and unleashes her starlight. Hunt continues to hit the twins as Bryce fights the Kings. The twins try for Bryce’s mind but she explodes her light into their brains and kills them. After taking a nasty fall, Morven pulling her feet out from under her with his shadows, Bryce teleports to the Autumn King and blasts him with her starfire, what she’s now calling her laser. She burns his hand off but he’s still alive and the two Kings attack in tandem. She’s knocked to the ground without her blades and the Autumn King is poised from above to kill her with his burning sword but Ruhn shows up, grabs the Starsword, and drives it through their father’s chest while Lidia guards him from the Stag King. Ruhn now believes that when the Oracle told him the royal bloodline would end with him, that meant the entire system of corruption and misogyny would end. Ruhn tells his father that he is yielding his crown and his title to the Queen of the Fae. Then he cuts his dad’s head off. Morven yields. Bryce pronounces herself Queen of the Valabaran and Avallen Fae, and then kills Morven too. Bryce fills everyone in on their talk with Hel. Ruhn thinks the magic is in the actual earth of Avallen, the reason the other islands withered, and the earth feels rotted to Flynn, the same as how the lands around the Prison withered as it held Silene’s magic. Bryce realizes that the sword and dagger fit in the slots carved into the star on the floor. It releases the magic that Helena had trapped there and also causes a cave in, but the earth itself pushes the whole group up into the fresh air before they’re trapped. The earth no longer feels rotted and the waters surrounding the island are clear and blue instead of gray and angry. And incredibly, the other islands pop back up, too. This, obviously, terrifies the hell out of all the Fae who were not in the cave and have no idea what is happening. Whatever they did that freed the land gave them cell service too, and Declan finds out that the Asteri attacked all of Ophion’s camps, killing everyone there, as well as Asphodel Meadows. Bryce decides to tell open up the Northern Ridt for Hel, but first, they’re going to release the footage of Bryce killing Micah. Cause a PR nightmare. Ithan and Hypaxia finally arrive in Avallen, Jesiba did not join them, and for the first time since she left Midgard, Bryce and Ithan see each other. They all catch up with one another and Ithan tells them why he and Hypaxia are there. But Sofie’s body is now covered in a mountain of rubble, so they can’t retrieve it. But maybe they can use Hunt’s lightning instead of Sofie, Rigelus was planning to use (and maybe did use?!) Hunt’s lightning to reanimate someone. Hunt imbues some lightning into crystals that Ithan and Hypaxia can take back to the House of Flame and Shadow, but Bryce tasks them with something more important they need to do first. Hypaxia needs to find a cure to the Asteri’s parasite and Ithan needs to keep her safe while she does it. If she can manage it, call Bryce and Hunt and they will meet her for the antidote. If she can’t reach them, go to the mountain where Rigelus is keeping the mech suits, and they will find her there. Only after can Hypaxia continue with Sigrid. Hunt asks Baxian to be his second in command for everything that’s coming, because he trusts him. We learn that Baxian’s mom was a helhound and his dad was an angel, and neither family was happy about them being together. When he was eight, both of his parents were killed by their own people and Baxian was left on the street to fend for himself. He eventually learned to steal secrets and sell them, which is how Sandriel found him. He hated what she did, but he did it anyway, just to have a place to belong. They call a meeting of the War council, which is just all of our friends. Hypaxia and Ithan are already en route to find a cure to the parasite. Ruhn, Declan, Flynn, and Lidia will be going to Lunathion to convince Isaiah and Naomi to join their fight against the Asteri. Tharion and Sathia are going the the Blue Court (RIP Tharion) to try to convince the River Queen to a) not kill Tharion and b) provide sanctuary to as many people as the Blue Court can. Baxian will be staying in Avallen to coordinate the incoming refugees and watch over Cooper, because Bryce’s parents will be joining Bryce and Hunt as they go to Nena to open the Northern Rift. Afterwards, her parents will join Cooper in Avallen. Ithan gets several samples of water for Hypaxia, then gives several samples of blood. Then, he has an interesting thought: what happens to the parasite when they die, does it die too? Now he has to find Hypaxia a reaper so they can find out. Jesiba puts in a request, and they manage to get the most misogynistic Reaper on the market, but Hypaxia does not see the parasite in him. She doesn’t detect anything living in him at all. Fury brings Juniper and Syrinx to Avallen, picking up Bryce’s family on the way and bringing a bunch of supplies for Avallen and the trip to Nena, which is apparently very cold. When they get there, Bryce and Juniper make up for their last, very big, fight. Those going leave for Nena. Hypaxia quickly isolates the parasite and is able to use the previous cure she made for the kristallos venom to also make one for the parasite. She had to I use all of Hunt’s lightning to stabilize it though, so Sigrid will have to wait, and even with the lightning it’s very unstable. Plus, the antidote is only temporary, probably lasting more than a few days but not more than a few months. She and Ithan have a serious talk about planning for the future and the fact that he wants Sabine gone, but no one is going to do it but him. Then he tries the antidote and the parasite that has been crippling his power is gone. He is the same wolf, but more somehow. Faster, his senses are stronger, and he can even summon ice. He decides to go to the den and tell the wolves that they don’t have to accept Sabine, they could break away from what they’ve always accepted. He goes to Bryce’s apartment first and grabs the papers Danika had hidden. Papers that make it clear that even Danika thought things needed to change. While he’s there, he grabs Danika’s sword. No need to go in unarmed. When they get to Nena, it’s empty of any guards, even though it’s supposed to be constantly under angel guard. Ember and Randall find surveillance footage that shows a necromancy raised Harpy eat the guards, literally. I guess Rigelus did use Hunt’s lightning. Hunt flies Ember while Bryce teleports Randall to the rift, they really don’t want to run into the newly remade Harpy so they’re trying to hurry. Ithan gets to the den and Sabine is in a meeting, so that’s lucky. He convinces Perry, Amelie’s younger sister and the only wolf to check on him after he was thrown out of the den, to call the other wolves and he gives them his speech. Honestly, he should have practiced it. He reveals everything they know about the parasite and about Danika and tells them there is another Fendyr. Just then, Sabine comes out of her meeting… with the Astronomer and Sigrid. Sabine calls Ithan a traitor, citing the fact that he killed Sigrid. Tells them that Ithan and his friends tried to kill her too, she has the footage from the Viper Queen proving it. Sabine announces that Sigrid will be her new heir, displacing Amelie, and this now undead wolf will live at the den from now on. Just then, the Prime comes out and says he didn’t approve of anything like that. Ithan kneels and offers the Fendyr sword back to him. Then the Prime makes Ithan his heir, specifying “and no one else.” He offers the sword back to Ithan, but Sabine takes it and kills her father with it, then Sigrid drinks the firstlight of her grandfather, the Prime. Or would you call it secondlight now that he’s dead, I don’t know. Sabine really doesn’t want him coming back so she cuts off his head for good measure. Sabine swings the sword at Ithan, and he shatters the blade. Then he kills her, going feral in the process. Meanwhile, Sigrid rips the heart out of the Astronomer’s chest while also devouring his secondlight (it’s called that now) and then disappears before Ithan can deal with her, too. The rest of the wolves swear fealty to Ithan, the new Prime. When they get to Lunathion, Declan and Flynn go check the Aux headquarters for any information on Isaiah and Naomi, while Lidia and Ruhn go to the Comitium via the sewers. On the way, Lidia and Ruhn decide that they’re boyfriend and girlfriend. They wait for hours at the Comitium, but it’s empty, and Isaiah’s and Naomi’s rooms look like they’ve not been used for a while. But they’re about to get worse news, Pollux has kidnapped Lidia’s sons. Tharion gets to the Istros River, which he finds swarmed by warships and omega boats. He sends an otter message to the River Queen, asking for an audience. She agrees, and Tharion and Sathia are killing it in the meeting, if I do say so myself, until the Queen’s daughter makes a surprising and very dramatic entrance. It causes Tharion to fly into a rage, apologizing for what he did but commenting on how selfish both she and her mother are, and explaining why he married Sathia. At the end, he offers to divorce Sathia (a big no for the Fae) and marry the River Queen’s daughter when the war is over… if they harbor people beneath. The daughter quickly agrees but the Queen refuses. However, this offer impresses her. She tells Tharion that she has long tried to fight the Asteri in whatever small ways she could, and she agrees to shelter people of any sort in the Blue Court. Bryce and Hunt get to the Northern Rift and Hunt charges the Horn to open it up. They open it up not to Hel, but to Rhysand’s land and see Nesta waiting for them. Nesta is understandably not pleased, Bryce tells her she needs the Mask. Nesta obviously tells her no, but Bryce explains that the Asteri just massacred Asphodel Meadows to punish her and Hunt. That she will return the Mask, and Truth-Teller, when she’s done, and that she even brought collateral: her parents. In fact, even if Nesta won’t give the Mask up, take her parents anyway and keep them safe. This convinces Nesta, who makes the trade, and Bryce is able to close the portal just as Rhysand comes in with a flurry of shadows. They are alone now, Hunt asking Bryce to teleport them out, when the Harpy comes. She’s different than she used to be, she has no soul, and her eyes are just empty. Hunt tries to hit her with his lightning but she’s too fast. Just then, Isaiah and Naomi show up. With Celestina. The Harpy goes for Bryce again and again, and she and Hunt are already drained from opening the portal, they can’t fight both the Harpy and Celestina, so Bryce puts on the Mask. Masked Bryce tells the Harpy to stop (she does), to kneel (she does), and to rest as her work is done (and she does), the Harpy’s body withering away. Then Bryce takes the mask off and turns to the angels. But it’s Hunt the other angels should be worried about. His fury at seeing Celestina finally gives him the confidence to try to get rid of his halo, so he will be at full strength to kill Celestina. He manages it, and also manages to free Isaiah. But when Hunt tries to kill Celestina, it’s his newly freed friend that steps in front of him, and Bryce who tells Hunt that maybe the Archangels do deserve punishment, but Hunt is not the person who needs to administer it. Celestine yields to Hunt and asks to help them. She regrets what she did to Hunt, but it was Asphodel Meadows that was the last straw. She’s here in Nena against the orders of the Asteri, who told her to stand down when Celestina heard tales of a new demon wreaking having at the rift. The Harpy. But Celestina couldn’t allow the Harpy to continue eating innocents, and the other angels had volunteered to help her. And so, Bryce fills them in on the rest of the plan. She’s going to open the Northern Rift and allow the armies of Hel in. At first, Celestina begs her not to, guarding the rift in Nena was her previous post, but she eventually acquiesces, assuming that Hunt and Bryce know what they’re doing (lol). But Bryce also plans to use the Mask to raise all of the fallen angels who had fought in Shahar’s uprising. They never had sailings and the Asteri have kept their wings as trophies. She may not be able to raise bodies for them, but she can raise their souls (she assumes they’re available since they never had sailings and possibly still slightly attached to their wings) and these angel souls will pilot the new mech suits the Asteri have made. She will not force the Fallen into service, but will give each of them the option to help when she tells them what she needs. Isaiah and Naomi will lead the Fallen. Celestina will go distract Ephraim, the closest Archangel to the city, and keep him occupied however necessary. Ithan needs to talk to the Under-King. When he was made Prime all the wolves sent out a howl, including one from the Bone Quarter that Ithan recognized as Connor. He thinks Connor is trying to tell him something, but Ithan is deferring to an expert this time since he doesn’t want to screw it up, Jesiba says she will see what she can do, but he better take Hypaxia with him. Ithan and Hypaxia see the Under-King. Ithan asks for five minutes with Connor. Hypaxia asks why the Reapers defected from Hel. Turns out, in Hel the Reapers fed on the Vampyrs and when the vamps defected, the Reapers went where the food was. But the Reapers found a feast on Midgard and have not needed the Vampyrs. The Under-King explains that he was born in the void, but lived on the same planet as the shifters and came here when everyone else was distracted. Then the Under-King tells Ithan that he can speak with Connor, he even gives him two extra minutes! Ithan goes to speak to Connor while Hypaxia continues talking with the Under-King. He tells Connor everything and Connor, who can’t talk, conveys that he knows about the secondlight. He then gives Ithan a bullet. Ithan doesn’t understand and the Under-King ends the meeting before Connor can explain. Ithan goes feral again, his anger causing his new found ice to coat his hands. The Under-King looks worried, so Ithan encases him in ice and Hypaxia breaks the ice into pieces. We are just toppling the hierarchy left and right over here. Jesiba shows up and explains that killing the Under-King makes Hypaxia head of the House of Flame and Shadow. Hypaxia needs to make some quick decisions before Rigelus catches on to what’s happened, like what to do with all these souls. They want to free the souls but Connor, who is still hanging around, says no. And now that Hypaxia has given Connor permission, he can speak. He leads the others to the Dead Gate. The dead made that bullet for Bryce to use with the Godslayer Rifle. The souls decided for themselves to go through the Dead Gate so that their secondlight could be used to kill the Asteri. Connor tells Ithan that he is and has always been proud of him and, and asks him to pass a message to Bryce, “make the shot count,” before he promptly walks through the gate himself. The secondlight separates itself from the gate and Ithan puts it in the bullet. Tharion and Sathia make it out of the water and just when he thinks he’s safe, the Viper Queen shows up with her Fae guards. One of her guards is an ex-flame of Sathia. Colin, who she thought had left because he got a new posting. Losing Colin was her Ordeal. Sathia is upset, even more so when the Viper threatens Tharion. Tharion steps up and asks her to let Sathia walk away before she does anything to him. But just then, Hypaxia and Ithan show up. Talk about timing. Hypaxia and Ithan tell the Viper Queen to get lost and she begrudgingly does. Bryce and Hunt meet up with Lidia, Ruhn, Declan, and Flynn. They have the footage of Bryce killing Micah. Bryce and Hunt record a message to the populace. Ithan goes to the den and finds it empty of everyone but Perry and the dead Prime. Perry lets him know that she dumped Sabine and the Astronomer in the sewers and that everyone else was scared and left to lay low elsewhere. He asks Perry to send an encrypted message to all the Valbaran wolves, warning them of what’s coming and advising them to get to safety in either the Blue Court or in the wilds. He digs a grave for the Prime. Tharion takes the parasite antidote and is overwhelmed with the power of water in his veins. Hypaxia has decided to stay in the city and start working on a better, more stable, and longer lasting version of the antidote, so Tharion prepares to go to the Eternal City. When he goes to get Sathia so they can set out, he finds a note that explains she can’t leave Colin in the Viper Queen’s nest and she hopes he understands. Looks like she’s not going with him, and Tharion can’t stop thinking about her. They release Bryce and Hunt’s video the next morning and it causes an uproar. It includes any footage Declan could get of Bryce trying to save the city. The Asteri and their advisors meet to discuss next steps, as Declan can see from the video surveillance system he is monitoring. When the others go into the palace, Declan will try to keep the cameras away from them and Flynn will keep the van moving that he and Declan are in, it will also serve as a getaway vehicle when the time comes. Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn, and Lidia break into the palace. Bryce and Hunt head to the throne room to raise the souls of the Fallen and Ruhn and Lidia search for her sons. Before they start, Ruhn tells her that he loves her. Just in case. Bryce and Hunt make it to the throne room to find Hunt’s Umbra Mortis helmet and armor pinned to the wall like a trophy which is convenient, he was just thinking how he’d like to be wearing it. Bryce puts on the Mask and the wings of the Fallen come to life, all except the ones that he and Isaiah lost when they fought with the Fallen. Hunt burns those. When they let the wings free, Rigelus sees them. Then the armies of Hel arrive. Declan sends out an alert to the general populace to get out of the city and to the coast or somewhere else safe and shelter there. But Rigelus knew she had opened the Rift and prepared his Asterian Guard. He also sent three legions to the rift that she had left open and straight into Hel. Ruhn and Lidia go through the palace to the dungeons, hidden by Ruhn’s shadows, but no matter where they look, they can’t find the boys. Panic starts to set in for Lidia, but Ruhn makes her stop and think. She takes him to the mystics, if anyone can find the boys, they can. And find the twins they do, quickly. Pollux has the boys under the palace, where the core of firstlight is kept. Lidia runs, frantic to find them, and Ruhn knows that if she can’t slow down she will get herself killed, and possibly her sons as well. So, Ruhn shoots her in the thigh and leaves her in the stairwell, running to save the boys without her. Tharion is in the waterways of the Eternal City, his magic telling him which way to go to get the antidote to his friends. Bryce and Hunt teleport to where Aidas is. The Imperial Guard think they have Hel’s forces on the run and they are about to pursue Hel over the walls. Bryce can see the mech suits marching with the Imperial forces. What they don’t know is that Bryce left the Rift open on purpose, half of Hel’s army is waiting for them there. Declan hacks into the mech suits, preventing whoever is piloting them from continuing to do so. Bryce asks the Fallen to use the mech suits to fight with Hel, taking their lead from Isaiah and Naomi. The Fallen enter the mech suits and the two angels take the Fallen into the city. The Asteri (not including Rigelus) approach the fray, Apollion and Thanatos part their armies to meet them. Aidas has Bryce teleport him to their side. The Asteri start to fight in earnest but Polaris makes a break for Bryce. She and Hunt are SUPPOSED to be destroying the firstlight core. Instead, the two of them fight Polaris, and Bryce starts to open the portal to nowhere. As she does, Hunt realizes that if she manages to open it, the portal will take in everything that it can. They would all die. He has to stop her. Working only on instinct, he hits the crossed blades with his lightning, and Bryce has already hit them with her starlight. Polaris implodes, sucked into the portal that shrinks till it is gone. It was a black hole and Polaris is gone. Bryce and Hunt teleport to the room with the firstlight core, right into a pack of deathstalker demons. But Bryce is tiring quickly, her nose is now bleeding after opening the black hole and she needs a moment to rest. Luckily, Tharion arrives right then in a wave of water. Tharion pushes the water into the stairwell, taking the demons while leaving the rest of them on solid ground. Unfortunately, the force of the water pulled the antidote from him, so as he looks for that, Bryce and Hunt run down the stairs to the core. Ruhn runs to where the mystics told him the boys are being held, but before he gets there Pollux intercepts him. Rigelus had instructed the mystics to lie. Pollux is now holding Ruhn at gunpoint while he looks for Lidia, but she’s no longer in the stairwell. Tharion had found her while searching for his bag. Unfortunately, only two of the antidote vials are intact and they can hear the Hammer coming. Tharion gives one of the remaining vials to Lidia. She and Tharion sit, waiting for Pollux to come closer, but when she refuses to come out to meet him Pollux has two angels bring out the bound and gagged boys. Bryce and Hunt make it to the firstlight core to find Rigelus waiting for them. He’s not messing around and immediately starts assaulting them. They need to destroy the Asteri power source if they have any chance of killing the remaining Asteri, so Hunt uses his lightning to create a tunnel directly to the core of the power source. Ithan makes it to the Eternal City. Tharion spears his water at Pollux, but Pollux manages to evade the water and shoot him in the chest. Pollux is still within reach of the boys and tells Lidia to pick which of them dies first. Ruhn offers himself in trade for the boys, telling Pollux that Lidia is his mate. But Pollux thinks he can get everything he wants and unleashes a spear of power toward Brann. Lidia runs, faster than the bullet, knocking Brann to the ground before she bursts into flames. Ace pulls Brann to safety as well as he can while bound. Lidia yells at Ruhn to get the boys to safety and Tharion to a healer, she will deal with Pollux herself. She kills Pollux, burning him from the inside out so all that is left is ash. Lidia gives Ruhn the last vial and runs out to help the others fight. Lidia always knew she had fire in her veins, but it hadn’t been like this, She had inherited from her father’s line although he didn’t have it himself. Lidia runs into the dreadwolves, and she kills them, including Mordoc. It wasn’t even hard. She runs to destroy the brimstone missile launchers but before she gets there, they melt completely. The fire sprite triplets have come to fight, Irithys with them. They saw Bryce’s video and came immediately to help. Ruhn drinks the last vial as two angels guards show up, he uses his shadows to cut their heads off. He finds some dormant healing magic and is able to heal Tharion. He’s hopeful that Tharion will survive even though he’s lost a lot of blood. There’s a ripple through the ground, another Asteri dying. He takes Tharion and the twins out of the Palace and runs into Ithan. He points him to where Bryce is, but Ruhn does not go with Ithan. He has one job right now, get his charges to safety. Hunt continues to lengthen the tunnel to the core, Bryce teleporting them in between lightning strikes to keep Rigelus from attacking them. Until she can’t teleport them anymore. She teleports them a floor up before Rigelus can kill them, and that’s where Ithan finds him. Ithan passes Bryce the rifle and bullet, but Bryce doesn’t have enough energy to teleport both Hunt and herself back down. Instead, she passes Hunt the Mask, takes the rifle, and leaves alone. She prepares the rifle in the space between floors, but when she arrives ready to shoot, the other three Asteri have joined Rigelus and are standing in line in front of the core. Rigelus tells her that if she destroys the core, she destroys the world. A darkness she cannot conceive of will come and the planet will simply no longer exist. Rigelus, to the outrage of the others, offers to let her and her friends go free. He can give her a world of her own! Maybe even Midgard, if she doesn’t shoot that bullet. Bryce shoots anyway. She’s close enough now that Rigelus can grab her and she sucks his energy from him. She takes all his power and throws it into the Horn on her back as Midgard starts to implode, starting at the firstlight core. A portal opens and Bryce sends the core through the portal she’s opened and into the black hole. Rigelus and the other Asteri get sucked in, and then Bryce herself. The palace starts collapsing inward and the people outside start to feel the pull. Tharion tells Ruhn and the boys to run. Hunt grabs Ithan and shoots into the air as the palace around them starts to collapse into the portal. He takes Ithan to -relative- safety, but he sees Bryce being sucked in and needs to get back to her. Bryce watches as two of the Asteri get sucked into the black hole, Rigelus and the last Asteri fighting each other as they float through space, Rigelus trying to get free. Finally he kicks off, sending the last Asteri flying into the hole and Rigelus flying toward Bryce. She wraps her arms and legs around him, intent on sending both of them into the black hole. She knows she still needs to close the portal, but she wants one more look at Midgard before she loses it forever. Hunt refuses to let Bryce go. He has to find a way to get to her, and she did leave him the Mask. Suddenly a mech suit shows up and offers him help. Shahar. Hunt gets into the mech suit and follows Bryce into the void. He can’t breathe in space so he puts the Mask on which helps him to breathe, the same way Bryce was using the Horn. Shahar indicates that he should fire the brimstone missile built into the suit and when he does, Shahar leads it to its mark, Rigelus, who gets propelled into the black hole. Hunt catches Bryce, whose face is covered in ice, and uses the suit to propel them back to the portal, which is now closing. He almost doesn’t make it but Aidas and Apollion keep it open, Apollion trying to pull Hunt back through by Hunt’s lightning. It’s still not enough, the portal will close before Hunt can make it through, but then all of Hunt and Bryce’s friends show up to help. All of the different types of people on Midgard, all working together. They make it through, the portal closes, the Asteri are gone, but Bryce is dead. Then Hypaxia arrives. She’s not going to raise Bryce, but she brought Jesiba with her. Jesiba offers her life, or her curse rather, to Bryce; she wants to change places with her. Apollion is stunned. Jesiba and Bryce meet in death and Jesiba explains that Bryce’s amulet isn’t just protection, but also a link to Midgard. She leaves Bryce what remains of the Library of Parthos and her gallery. Jesiba tells Bryce that they’ll all be waiting for her when she’s ready, Bryce looks up and sees the Pack of Devils, including Danika, and Lehabah, watching her. Bryce goes back to the living with the knowledge that her dead loved ones are safe. Bryce returns the Mask and Truth-Teller to Nesta and collects her parents. She also gives Nesta the Starsword, explaining that the age of the Starborn is over for Midgard, but Nesta needs to figure out why she had that eight-pointed star tattoo. The Princes return to Hel, Bryce says goodbye to them and thanks them before closing the Northern Rift very securely. Lidia quits the Ocean Queen’s service, kind of, and returns her sons to their fathers. Their reunion is full of relief and love, her goodbye to them is better than the last one. Brann even calls her mom. Tharion is forgiven by the Ocean Queen, she even offers him a job. But he needs to find Sathia before he makes any decisions, so he returns to the Meat Market where he runs into Ariadne. They’re concerned about the power grid now that the firstlight is gone, but they have people working with the Ocean Queen (who doesn’t use firstlight to power her ships). Bryce dissolves the royal houses of the Fae. She will continue to represent the Fae in the new government they are building, but it will not be as Queen. Bryce buys a building for a new gallery and hires the fire sprite triplets to help keep the books in line. She plans not to hide the Library of Parthos any longer, to allow people to visit. Ithan and Ruhn will head up the Aux, the different kinds of Vanir working together instead of separately. Hypaxia fine tunes the antidote and starts working, hesitantly, with Redner Industries to mass produce it. She thinks they can start rolling it out by spring. Fury and Juniper come back to the city from Avallen. Baxian has stayed in Avallen to help Bryce, although he’s chomping at the bit to come back to Crescent City, and now that the winged horses are back he really needs some help.