Title: House of War and Bone
Author: Leia Stone
Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Romance, Fiction
What It’s About: Fallon is now forced to start learning healing magic, all the while she seeks ways to save Ariyon. The Queen, Solana, comes to her with a nearly magic less fae in order for Fallon to transfer the powers to her because Queen Solana does not believe that a Bane should be a Maven Healer. Further, there will be an issue with Fallon being the Maven healer because no one trusts her not to go dark. Fallon offers to make a public announcement stating her loyalties lie with the Queen, and Solana takes that under consideration. Fallon returns home and gets a letter later that day in which the Queen and her council have agreed to Fallon’s idea, but with some conditions of their own: Fallon must change her last name to Bane, she and her father must move into Bane Manor, and she must be in the Manor by 10 pm every night. Fallon agrees to the demands. Eden receives her invitation to the Junior Brigade as does Fallon, conditional on her getting her powers back from Ariyon. Some of Fallon’s healing classes are with Master Hart, who continues to struggle being around her, so she wonders what Marissa did to him.
Ariyon, in the meantime, saw Yanric in the Realm of Eternity and then gets taken by the Nightlings to the Realm of Rebirth, where he begins the trials–three a day, without knowing how to use Fallon’s own magic. He admits to himself that he has been smitten with Fallon since day one, and was hurt when Ayden called dibs on her the first day, though he did try to rationalize his way and talk his brother out of it as Fallon was the child of the woman who killed their parents. To no avail-Ayden was still smitten with her, so Ariyon had to let it be, and let the romance run its course as surely neither of them would be able to deal with the fact that they cannot touch. Sure enough, that had been the end of their relationship that night.
Ayden, Eden and Fallon research in the library, trying to find a way to bring Ariyon back and Fallon has an encounter one night with Blair, who has attacked her. Fallon hurts her badly enough that Blair had to seek help from the student clinic on a day that Fallon shadows Hayes. She really roughed Blair up, with the threat to kill her. Fallon then makes an off-hand comment to Hayes that they are sitting around in an empty clinic when the west side needs healers. Hayes later goes to talk to Avis, which is where Fallon encounters him. She questions Avis, who in turn tells her that there’s more to Hayes than Fallon knows.
A little while later, Fallon finds out that Hayes actually was abused by his father for being a healer. She invites him to help and tells Eden about the situation, considering that Hayes had stranded Eden the night of the dance. They find more information that night in the old archives including a book on the Banes line that informs her that her predecessors were able to control people, and that whatever power she has, she inherited it from her grandparents and her parents. Master Clarke takes that book away so they do not keep reading more, but they do find out that Amethyst was her grandmother, and she was the one who manifested the power to switch abilities.
Ariyon meets Marissa and Amethyst, who tells Marissa that technically his powers would go back to Fallon upon his death and that they should just kill him, but Marissa tells her that they have to follow the rules. Ariyon uses his powers–Fallon’s powers–by accessing his rage and incinerating people. He also has a dream in which he meets Emmerick, an Eldor Fae, who tells him that the next time he sees Fallon, eh must tell her to seek him out and that he will tell her the solution to the problem.
The School comes under attack and all the students including Fallon are herded to the basement where one teacher puts protective spells against nightlings, so they are unable to get to the students. Marissa tries to get in but cannot get in either, and Queen Solana uses her powers to send the Nightlings running. Fallon rushes to find the Queen dying in the school, and Master Hart coaches her through how to hook onto the soul of the Queen to fight the Grim. Fallon heals the queen, fights the Grim, and then asks to see Ariyon. After sending the Queen away, the Grim asks her if she ever wonders why Ariyon is the only one who can touch her, and reveals that it is because there needs to be a balance in all things. To find someone who balances her out is incredibly lucky especially since she found him so early in her life.
When Fallon sees Ariyon, he hugs her and they talk. He tells her about Emmerick of the Eldor Fae, and upon her return to her world, Fallon asks Aydan about it. In turn, Aydan tells her that the Eldor Fae are ridiculously hard to find, and notorious for rarely responding to their requests to engage with them. But he agrees that they will convince the Queen to send her along with a small contingent of men to see them if it helps getting Ariyon’s powers swapped back. Fallon and her father move into the Bane Manor after the fight, and she finds an artifact in one of the shelves, that essentially lets her overhear Marissa talking to someone else in the Realm of Rebirth about Ariyon. Eden visits as well, and promises to help her get to the Eldor Fae.
As the Queen had requested her presence after the fight to talk, Fallon gets dressed in the clothes sent by the Queen, and heads out early to meet with her. Fallon makes her allegiance to the Queen clear, and Solana reveals to her that she was the one that cursed her when Marissa was pregnant with her, which upsets Fallon. Solana also tells her that Marissa is after this pendant that has to contain the blood of the ruler and the heir in order for them to rule over the fae, and originally the houses rotated the crown amongst them but that one of her ancestors changed the rule and made the Madden family the permanent rulers of all the Fae. Solana reveals that the next house to rule would have been the Bane house. Since Fallon throws a fit, Solana shows her the memories of the night that Marissa cursed Solana to be barren, and Solana in turn cursed Marissa’s unborn child to live life without being able to touch another person without pain. Solana also shows Fallon the attack Marissa carried out on the Queen and King, who was Solana’s brother, after her pregnancy. In this memory, Fallon sees how Clarke took the twin boys away, and shrugged to Marissa when she makes a comment to him that she did this all because of him. Solana had managed to defeat Marissa.
Fallon goes to the event, makes her declaration of loyalty, revealing that if she ever goes dark, she would rather be killed than live like that. Thank, she heads off to find the Eldor Fae with Hayes, Ayden and Eden along with a few soldiers. The Eldoria Kingdom is hidden and revealed only when Ayden throws a rock that uncovers the kingdom. The man waiting for Fallon tells her that she is the only one that can cross, and takes her to Emmerick, after confirming who she is. Emmerick tells her that he sees the future and that in one version of it, she saves Ariyon and herself at a huge cost–by giving her possibility of resurrecting as a Nightling. She then dies the following year around the same time as a hero. Fallon says that she wants to go through with this, without any hesitation and without hearing a different option. So Emmerick tells her that she needs to go to the Realm of Eternity in Soul only, ask to meet the Quorum, see Ariyon, switch powers, and tell the Quorum that she gives up her second life. Fallon returns home with the group and tells the queen the plan.
Ariyon continues to strengthen Fallon’s magic in his fights. Then another prisoner takes up the space next to him and tells Ariyon that he’s from the House of Ash and Shadow–living in land that seems to be inhospitable. Pax, as that is his name, tell Ariyon that there were originally two Houses of Fae in the beginning and the House of War and Bone experimented on volunteers who wanted to gain more power. When the experiment went awry, they separated themselves from the experiment by creating a separate house–the House of Shadow and Ash. The members of the House of Shadow and Ash are not natural fae, but Fae-made, they cannot go to the Realm of Eternity, but have to come to the Realm of Rebirth, where they undergo a series of trials. If they win, they get a chance to be reborn as Magicless Fae, and if they do not yearn for power, then they can go to the Realm of Eternity. If, however, they yearn for power, they become nightlings and require blood to sustain themselves. Pax adds that if they do not win the trials or they die a knighting, their soul gets eviscerated by the Bottomless Pits. Ariyon ultimately has to fight Pax, who has become his friend, and decides to forfeit so that Pax can be reborn.
Solana comes for Fallon and tells her that a member of her staff has been harmed. Fallon realizes that the man is Solana’s lover, and promises to save him. She faces the Grim and saves the lover. Then she asks the Grim to see the Quorum, and to see Ariyon. The Grim sends her down to the fight, and Ariyon begins to forfeit but then notices her and puts up a shield to protect her an him. Yanric comes with the news that the transfer has to happen when there’s a blood transfer. Fallon cuts herself and mixes her blood with Ariyon, and their powers switch back. As they are pulled out of the pits to meet the Quorum, Marissa tells Fallon to read her letter. Fallon and Ariyon meet the Quorum, which is comprised of different beings possessing one body and separating out into four bodies. The Quorum is surprised when Ariyon knows the true history of the Fae. Fallon asks to free Ariyon and to give up her second life as payment, but the Quorum show her the true history of the House of Shadow and Ash. They are still surprised when she chooses to give up her second life after seeing the true history, but they send Ariyon up to their plane, and then strip her of that second life. Fallon feels that loss of her second life, which is now filling up with darkness.
She returns to the castle and Solana is shocked that Ariyon is able to touch her without pain, so Fallon lies that it is only since they’ve returned that they are able to do that as she doesn’t want Solana to know the full extent of their ability to touch each other. She heads home, and later they hang out at the Twin’s home. Ariyon visits her for breakfast after and she hasn’t slept well–she feels numb. They go to school and she visits Avis afterwards, where she finds Avis, Hayes and Eden’s mom talking about opening up an ice cream shop in the West End to create an undercover apothecary. Avis notices that something is off, and tries all of the different remedies that she can think of to help Fallon, to no avail.
The next day, Fallon goes to school and uses her fire magic, only to miss her target out of lack of practice. Blair starts to make fun of her, after Ariyon had told Blair that same morning that he loves Fallon and they will never marry. This was the result of Fallon revealing that Solana had told her that Ariyon is betrothed to Blair and while his life can be short, they will l have many children. Due to the bullying, Fallon lights Blair’s hair on fire–pure purple fire–and hears a male voice in her head. Ayden, Ariyon and Eden are shocked and Fallon runs out of class and all the way home, telling Yanric that they are going dark. She takes the backpack her dad made as a contingency plan when they first came to the city, and also reads the letter from Marissa that tells her the history of the House of Shadows and Ash. But in her letter, Marissa also reveals that Master Clarke is Fallon’s biological father, who has betrayed Marissa. She had invited him to meet Fallon after she was born, and he kidnapped her and hid her in the village–had she know that is where Fallon was, she would have come for her earlier. Marissa also includes a map to her own location, asking her to come see her. Fallon leaves behind letters for her father and Ariyon, telling them to not find her.
She then runs away, sneaking out of the city by paying a merchant to tell her that she is traveling with him. She rides her horse, which Ariyon had purchased for her, but has no clue where to go. Suddenly, she comes across Master Clarke, who was running after her. He admits to her that he is her father, and that when he met Marissa, she was already dark. He explains that he thought that by showing Marissa love, he might be able to save her, except that she fell in love with him after one date and would threaten him if he didn’t do what she wanted, then she seduced him. Fallon explodes with magic from her anger and she cannot seem to stop it because all she wants is to be able to feel something and not be numb. Fallon tells Master Clarke to leave because she is going dark, and he uses his telekineses to grasp her by the throat, arms and stop Yanric from attacking all at the same time. Clarke tells her that he will hold her like this–not killing her but slowly choking her to force her to pass out and cut off her magic and her anger. He promises her that he will not let her go dark. Fallon nods, feels light fill her and then subsequently passes out.
My Thoughts: Holy Moly, I was not expecting it to take such a turn when I started reading this book. But at the same time, I really love Ariyon and Fallon together, and how they’re so willing to fight for each other. I specifically love how Fallon was more than willing to learn how to use healing magic and had conversations with the Queen to show her that she is someone who is caring and trust worthy. Cannot wait until the next book in the series!
The Girl with The Red Backpack 