Book Review: House of Earth and Blood

Title: House of Earth and Blood
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Magic, Fiction

What it’s about: Bryce works at an antiquities store, when someone knocks, and without even looking at the screen, she sees that it’s her best friend and roommate, Danika Fendyr. Danika stashes her sword in the supply closet, along with Bryce’s smelly dancing clothes, and goes downstairs to take a shower in the bathroom of the Antiquities Gallery, where Lehabah (a fire sprite) and Syrinx (chimera) are guarding more precious books. When Danika is down, Bryce receives a call from her boss, Jesiba Roga, telling her that if Danika continues to store things in her closet, she will turn the woman into a reptile of some sort.

Once Danika is ready, she is in her wolf form, when she heads out of the gallery, and Bryce goes alongside with her. Danika is heading to meet with the council to argue about the release of Philip Briggs, a human-turned-terrorist, who wanted to bring the war from Pangera to the streets of Crescent City, due to the treatment of humans as slaves and less than people. The original plan was for him to blow up the White Raven, but Danika and her team busted him in his laboratory. The two girls touch the pads of the dial of one of the many Gates in the Crescent City, which were once used in order to communicate with others across the city by having two people touch the gate at different sides of the city, use their magic, and then communicate. But since telephones, they have been rendered obsolete, though they’re a fun gimmick for the tourists. Danika gets them ahead of the tourists, and after the girls touch them they go their separate ways—Danika to meet with the Council, while Bryce goes to find out more about Luna’s Horn, stolen from the Luna Temple.

That night, Bryce comes home to find Danika and her Pack of Devils—the name for her pack of wolves who fight by her side as a unit to protect the city—in their living room. The guys poke fun at Bryce a bit, and then at Danika, who is eating pizza in the kitchen before everyone else. Bryce talks to Danika about the Briggs situation, and she can tell that it didn’t go well for Danika, which Danika confirms as much by saying that they had to let the man go on a technicality. Bryce gets ready for her date with Reid Redner of the Redner Industries, and Danika pokes fun at Reid’s inability to have sex, while telling her to dump the guy. Danika calls in the team to pick up the pizzas, and at one point while Bryce is alone in the kitchen, Conner—Danika’s 2nd—comes in and asks her for a date, telling her that they can do a pizza, and see if they’re a fit; he had been waiting for her for five years now. Bryce tells him that it won’t happen, and then manages to get to her room, before the pack starts laughing, only to be silenced with Danika’s growl.

She gets ready, and goes to the restaurant to meet with Reid, only he is forty-five minutes late, giving the excuse that he had to meet with people. Bryce had started drinking wine while waiting for him, and she ordered another bottle while they were are the table. Reid keeps checking his phone, and finally Bryce has enough, deciding to end their relationship. She gives her friends—Fury (an assassin of some sort) and Juniper (a ballerina in the Crescent City Ballet)—a call. They all meet up at the White Raven, where they get drunk, high and party really hard.

Bryce returns to her apartment that night, but it smells so bad, and she wonders just what the hell it is that made this place smell so bad—it’s very much disturbing to her fae senses. She goes into the apartment and discovers that Danika and her Pack of Devils have been ripped to shreds—including Connor, with whom she was supposed to have a pizza date as she agreed to it while waiting for Fury at the club. She hears a sound, and she follows it to see the monster that had killed her friends. This monster had hidden in the trash chute. She follows the monster across the city, until she sees that it’s attacked an Angel—one of the 33rd Legions that protect the city. She fights the monster off, and puts her hand over the Angel’s heart to stem the flow of blood, as the monster escapes. She uses the Angel’s cell phone to call for emergency services, to get to her, and they do.

Isaiah stares at Bryce through the one way mirror, and Hunt Athalar come in. Both of them fought in the rebellion and have tattoos now on their arms and their foreheads that mark them as slaves and as the traitors. Hunt was the commander of the 18th legion that had lost the Rebellion and he had been at Shahar’s side throughout it all, as her lover and her commander, only to watch her die at the hand of her twin sister, Sandriel, who then became his owner and made him do unspeakable things. They talk about Bryce, but they are not able to determine what they can do to get Bryce to speak. Victoria—another of the angels, who had previously been a wraith that is now bound to this body as punishment for her role in the rebellion—tries to speak with Bryce but Bryce does not respond. Victoria plays a recording for Bryce, and Hunt is moving fast to get to that side of the mirror, when Bryce throws the table and the chair violently. He extends a hand to her to help her up and guide her out, which Isaiah notes is not something that Hunt does. Suddenly Isaiah tells them that they have to let Bryce go because she is part of the Fae court, and they have to deal with their own people, so they let her walk away. Ruhn Danaan, the Fae Prince and Bryce’s half brother (unbeknownst to anyone but Ruhn, their father and Bryce; he is treated as a cousin), barges in demanding that they hand her over. They tell him that she had walked out and he tells them to stay away, as he follows her out.

Nearly two years later, Bryce meets Maximus Tertian, a two hundred year old vampire at the White Raven, where she hands over a pouch, while he also hands over a pouch—an exchange for a rare piece that Jesiba has acquired in her gallery. He propositions her, and Bryce says no. Suddenly, Ruhn is there and Maximus gets possessive of her, to which she tells him that Ruhn is her cousin, and then goes to speak with him, where she gets another glass of water—she has stopped drinking alcohol since that fateful night. They get into a bit of an argument, where Bryce tells Ruhn that she does not need him to do anything for her or watch out for her. He also delivers Bryce the message that with the Summit coming up and them hosting this summit this time around, their father wants her to lay low and not get into anything. Ruhn then walks her home, to her new apartment which was willed to her by Danika, and now she has Syrinx as a housemate since she purchased the pet from Jesiba.

The next day, Bryce is visited by Isaiah and Hunt at her gallery, and they weasel their way in, telling her that their boss—the Governor, Micah the Archangel—is coming too, so she better get her boss on the line. They also reveal that Maximus Tertian is dead, having been shredded by the same beast that killed Danika and her pack, so they ask her for her whereabouts and she tells them that she saw Maximus at the White Raven, but that she had left him there, walking out with her cousin, who escorted her home. The meeting involving Micah and Jesiba goes well, with Micah telling them that he wants Bryce to be involved in the investigation as two people thus far have been killed and she is their last known contact. Micah tells Bryce that Maximus had known Danika, though Bryce doesn’t believe it because Danika had never said anything. As they leave, Hunt tells Bryce that he wants her to give him a list of suspects as soon as possible, and a list of all of Danika’s movements for the last two weeks prior to her death. Then the three men leave, and go onto the rooftop, where Micah tells Hunt that if he manages to figure out the monster in the time frame before the Summit, he will cut down Hunt’s debt down to 10 people. Hunt has been Micah’s personal assassin, and the deal they had was that Hunt would have to kill the amount of people that his legions killed in the Rebellion—a total of over two thousand soldiers. Micah tells him that he will be Bryce’s personal babysitter, and Isaiah tells him that it’s the kindest thing that he could do for Hunt considering Sandriel is coming as an envoy along with Pollux, and this is Micah’s way of keeping Hunt out of Sandriel’s way.

So Hunt begins to watch over Bryce, though neither of them can stand each other, and Bryce keeps him living on the rooftop across from her home as she won’t let him in. The first thing she does the next day is goes on a run, and then goes to get her nails done, which gets Hunt and Bryce into an argument in the rain. She eventually comes clean and gives him a list of names, and reveals to him that she had actually gone to see Maximus Tertian’s girlfriend after doing research on dating profiles. Maximus’s girlfriend confirmed that he did not know Danika at all, so that removes that connection. She then has to go to see the Viper Queen, but getting an appointment with her could take weeks, so Bryce sneaks out of her apartment through the back door, takes her motorcycle, and then Hunt meets her in anger at the Meat Market. They go into the Meat Market, where she goes to a dealer asking to purchase Obsidian Salt—the kind of Salt that would bring the powerful monster that she saw the night of Danika’s murder. This brings the Viper Queen out of hiding, and has both Bryce and Hunt invited to her office. There, the Viper Queen tells her that she is not the killer and provides her own alibi in the form of a pen drive with video on her, while simultaneously telling Bryce she needs to look where it hurts. They leave without any harm befalling them.

While at work, where Lehabah keeps grinding on about inviting Hunt into the Gallery, Bryce decides that she needs Hunt’s assistance, and she invites him into the subterranean room full of books. Lehabah loves him, because he is nice to her, as he acts respectfully towards her. Bryce asks him to ask her some questions to help jog her memory of Danika’s whereabouts during their last two weeks together, and he does, which causes Bryce to write quite a bit. Ruhn in the meantime has been tasked by his father to find the Horn, because his father believes that Micah had been trying to tell him that the fae have lost their powers and he wants to bring in the belief that they are strong. His father explains to Ruhn that since he has the Starborn powers, he should be able to find the Horn as the Horn is made of Starborn powers. Ruhn has Bryce meet him at Luna’s Temple, because the temple does not have any cameras, so they can speak quietly. Bryce brings Hunt with her, and they are shrouded by Ruhn’s shadow powers, while he explains to both Hunt and Bryce what he had found about the Horn—including a monster that looks exactly like the one that she had seen. Hunt steps out to make a call, and Bryce stays with Ruhn, where they get into an argument about how Ruhn had called her a half-breed slut. This is the part that Hunt overhears, before they head back to the gallery.

Another murder happens, and Hunt drags Bryce to it. Upon seeing the body, she shuts down and Ruhn yells at Hunt to keep her away, though it’s too late. Bryce walks away, and when Hunt tries to stop her to apologize, she tells him to leave her alone. She then runs around the city before entering the White Raven, where she gets a drink at a booth, and Juniper shows up. Hunt also gets in, and arrives roughly around the time Juniper shows up. Bryce and Hunt get into an argument and he brings up her drinking, but then realizes that she’s drinking water when he smells it. She tells him to figure out why she hasn’t been drinking, and then starts crossing the floor for the bathroom. Juniper follows her and they stop in the middle of the floor, looking back at Hunt, who is now with Ruhn. Ruhn tells him that he has a better chance at solving things with Bryce than Hunt does based on how Bryce is looking at him across the room. Suddenly the room explodes and Bryce jumps on top of Juniper to protect her. When the smoke clears, Hunt lunges for Bryce and then Juniper slaps her across the face, telling her that she had done the Drop so she is much harder to kill than Bryce—the drop is when they gain immortality and give up their first light of power that then powers the grid in the city.

Hunt takes her to Ruhn’s apartment, and cleans her up; then Ruhn joins them, and they talk, with Ruhn saying that his father had asked that Bryce be watched over and he had volunteered. Bryce tells him that she’ll take Hunt and he can move in with her. They also make plans on finding out more about the Horn, so Ruhn needs to get access to the library under neath the gallery that Bryce works in. Bryce and Hunt return to her place, and the next morning Juniper arrives with apologies to Bryce for what she had said and done. As time goes on, Hunt takes Bryce to Comitium to pick up some clothes, and on the way out, they run into Sandriel. Bryce acts like a dumb tourist, snapping pictures while all of the Legions are kneeling—all except for Hunt—because she has learnt a bit of his story and his fear of Sandriel. He takes her to the elevators when they are released, and flies her out of the Comitium to the rooftop of her house, before thanking her for what she did—playing a facade of what she wants people to think of her. Hunt then gets an order from Micah to kill someone that Micah wants assassinated, as a reminder that Micah is in charge after the show in front of Sandriel. Hunt also visits the Oracle, who calls him by his first name Orion Athalar, and tells him to stay away from Bryce, because she had seen such horrors in Bryce’s future—Bryce later admits that the Oracle had been screaming when she went to visit her, and that resulted in her father wanting nothing to do with her. The Oracle also tells him that the Horn can be fixed.

The two continue investigating, and at one point they go to the shooting range in Moonwood, the wolven territory, where they catch Ruhn and his two friends shooting rifles. They tease each other, and Bryce about shooting, and then Bryce asks them for a favor—to go through the video feed from the night that the horn was stolen at the Temple as Declan Emmett is a whizz with technology. She then proceeds to shoot three rounds in rapid succession into the middle of the target, which at first has one of them thinking that she missed, but Hunt sees that she didn’t, and he shoots one more round through her perfect shot, signaling to her that he sees her. Suddenly they get a call that another body has been found, and Hunt watches as Bryce struggles with going out there and seeing the horror. He helps her calm down, understanding precisely what she is going through because he himself struggled with it the night before when he assassinated someone.

They go, check out the body, and they realize it’s yet another person associated with the Horn. Bryce notices that these murders are happening across the main streets, which are the ley lines where the magic is most powerful. They also get a call from Declan, who tells them that the video feed was stitched, and someone matched it pretty perfectly to that around the temple at that time. The only thing is that the person who did this is none other than Sabine Fendyr, Danika’s mother who did nothing but berate Danika for being a failure (she seemed to be jealous of Danika after Danika got called to the fabled sword, and was potentially in line to be the next Prime of the wolves) and blames Bryce for Danika’s and the pack’s death, as she hated Bryce from the beginning.

Bryce and Hunt know that they will not be able to bring in Sabine because they do not have enough proof to connect her with the crime of the kristallos and she is a very high profile person in the Crescent City. So they meet her at the Den, where Bryce deals animosity and verbal cruelty from the Black Rose Pack, which includes Connor’s youngest brother, Ithan Holstrom. Ithan takes them to Sabine’s office, and they ask her the questions, to which she replies that Danika was never near the Luna Temple the night of the Horn’s disappearance, a clear lie. On the way out, Bryce tells Ithan to keep his eye out on his pack, because of the kristallos, and also argues with him that he is better than being second in command to Amelie Ravenscroft, because he is stronger. He makes a comment that he hopes she will pick up his calls this time around. When they get further away, Bryce tells Hunt that she had been dealing with the fallout of her messages being leaked, which is where a lot of the vitriol comes from. What she doesn’t tell him is that in the wolves’ eyes, she and Connor were meant to be; that anyone before them did not matter, but once she had said yes to going on a date with Connor, she was his, and he was hers. They were considered to be mates, even though this is not what she was raised to believe, and so Ithan had been extremely upset with her messaging Connor that she had sex with a random stranger that night while he was dying.

Viktoria calls them over to meet in her office, and shows them the images that she has been able to piece together about the Kristallos. So they head out to the gate where they were able to get snapshot of one of the monster’s legs, and Hunt realizes quickly that another thing lies along the paths where everyone has been killed—Sewer lines. So he decides to reach out to the river folk, who live in the river city watched over by the River Queen, and the only way down to the city is to get an invitation as the ferry goes up and down once a day. Tharion Ketos, a merman, answers their call, and Hunt reveals that they had worked on a case last year together, which is how they know each other. They talk with Tharion—with Bryce flirting back with him as he flirts with her—and tell him what they have discovered, to which Tharion says that he will poke around some things and get back to them. Hunt then decides to go hang out with his buddies at a bar, while Bryce promises to stay at home, but she is unable to handle the silence, so she heads out. Natalie, who is watching her, calls Hunt, who meets them at the park, and then Hunt and Bryce continue walking while talking. Bryce reveals that she just can’t deal with the silence, which is why she went for a walk. They continue talking and walking, with Hunt so severely focused on Bryce that he doesn’t notice the shadows.

They are suddenly attacked by the kristallos, which bites into Hunt, and he tells Bryce to call for help, but together they manage to fight off the demon, and kill it. Hunt tells her that he lost his access to magic, while he’s getting fixed up by the Medwitch—the same one that Ruhn had visited a few days prior to ask for her advice on how it could be possible that someone would heal the Horn, an inanimate object. Micah shows up, burns the body of the kristallos and tells them that this cannot get out, not even on the news media. Both Bryce and Hunt talk to Micah and tell him their suspicions about Sabine, including how they talked to her and the lies that she had said. Micah tells them to bring him proof. Hunt takes them both back to the rooftop of Bryce’s apartment, where they start making out, only to be interrupted by Sabine, who threatens them with a gun. Hunt does have a gun trained at Sabine in case she does something, and tries to figure out how he can protect Bryce if she hasn’t done the Drop. Throughout their conversation, Sabine ultimately reveals that Danika had stolen the Horn, and all that she has been doing has been protecting her daughter, while she went around breaking laws, which she claims is due to Bryce’s influence. Sabine tells them that she would never have been able to kill her own daughter, and then she leaves by transforming into a wolf and jumping off the rooftop.

Bryce spends five days brooding, even at work. When Ruhn comes around to check in on her, and to ask to read more of the books at the Gallery, Hunt and Bryce tell him the truth—Danika apparently stole the Horn. They get a message from Tharion via an otter that contains information and even images of bodies that he was able to find—all of whom have the same marks that Hunt had from the Kristallos, and are individuals that have gone missing over the last several weeks to a year. Bryce tells Hunt that these are not the same markings that Danika and her pack had, and mentions that they were able to easily defeat the kristallos together, just the two of them, yet Danika and her pack were in shreds and couldn’t stand up to the demon. She asks the question of what if there was another demon that came through with the kristallos.

They have a call with Bryce’s parents, because they want to meet her roommate, and Hunt mentions something about her injury, to which her mom says that she will set up an appointment for Bryce with a Medwitch to get it checked out, but Bryce avoids it because they go to find out more information about the drug Synth in the Meat Market, but no one talks to her about it. One girl tells them to get lost, courtesy of the Viper Queen—though the reason that they are looking for Synth is because it was a compound found on Danika’s clothing when it was run through the technology the fae have to look for other scents. Hunt is ordered by Micah to kill some drug dealers, and when he comes home, Bryce sees that he’s gone to a far off place, so she takes care of him—washing him, dressing him, and getting him to bed, where he falls asleep on her lap. He then takes her back to her bedroom, and they check in on each other in the morning. One day, Bryce goes to the pier with a box of chocolate croissants. Hunt joins her, and finds out that this day is Danika’s birthday, which Bryce cries that no one has remembered—not Fury, not Juniper, or even her parents. Not even a message to let her know that they miss Danika. She opens the box, and on top of the croissants is the word “Trash.” Hunt sees red, and while Bryce asks him to leave it alone, he shoots out into the sky with the box of chocolate croissants and finds none other than Amelie at a bar. He basically chokes her and shocks her with his magic, telling her to never ever consider coming close to Bryce ever again, nor to even speak to her. On his way out, he’s approached by Ithan who wants to know what is happening, and Hunt shoves the box of croissants in his hand, while telling him that he’s undeserving of Bryce, seeing how it dawns on Ithan what day it is and who loved those croissants.

Bryce does go to the Medwitch in the end—but the one that Ruhn knows, and the Medwitch removes the kristallos’s venom from her leg, while Hunt talks to Bryce throughout the pain and kisses her. They discuss this kiss afterwards, and decide to give themselves a chance. They get called in by Micah, and when they arrive at Micah’s office, they find Isaiah and Sabine along with Amelie, who tries to tell Sabine to let it go. Sabine does not, and asks for punishment. Micah doesn’t want to kill Hunt, but decides that the best punishment he can give him is what is known as the Living Death—where he cuts off Hunt’s wings. Hunt is prepared for this, but Bryce begs Micah to stop. Micah cuts them off, and Bryce says something to Sabine, that has Sabine responding to Bryce that she knows that she gave up her space up for Danika, who should have drowned as she went across the river, for begging to be saved on the audio from the monster that killed her and her pack.

Bryce takes Hunt back home, and keeps taking care of him while his Angel wings heal. She has to work, so she asks Ruhn to take care of him and when she returns, Hunt ends up giving her an orgasm on the couch, though it pains him and makes him bleed through his bandages. Another day at work, she finally logs into Danika’s account at Redner Industries, and finds only a picture of the jacket that she has been wearing, with the words that the Oracle had spoken to Danika, and realizes that there is something embedded inside the L of one of the words. She pulls it out, finding a drive with video of humans being injected with Synth. She shows this to Hunt, and they watch in horror, though they decide not to do anything at the moment, because they need to focus on the horn. Bryce decides to sneak out of the house that night after communicating with her old landlord. She makes it to the apartment building, only to see that it was burning down and wonders what could have caused it. Tharion calls her about a deal going down on the river, so she meets him, and they get close to the boat, where they see the Viper Queen talking to three figures—one of whom pays the Viper Queen with a bag of coins—and then the light flashes and they recognize that Hunt is one of those three people. Bryce gets on the boat, and Micah arrives with Isaiah and other men from the 33rd legion. Fury also shows up, and Hunt says something about it not being what it seemed. But Micah tells her that Danika was behind the spread of Synth and that she had been working with Redner Industries to track down those who sold Synth outside of the controlled process of Redner Industries—he’s an investor in them, so he knows a lot about that. He also tells her that Hunt and the other two were buying Synth for the powers it grants them to use it against their masters—those who own them. Hunt tells her that he was trying to stop this after he saw the video, and reveals that he has known about Synth since a few days ago—when he had to murder those drug dealers. The three are taken away, and Bryce taken home by Fury, who leaves her with Ruhn. Bryce wallows in anger at Hunt, and at herself for not listening to those around her who told her to not let it get too far with Hunt.

Hunt in the meantime is taken to the Comitium, where he is in a cell, while Justinian is crucified and left to die there in the atrium, with his blood dripping on a clear box containing Viktoria’s soul. He doesn’t know what his punishment will be, but eventually Viktoria is thrown into the deepest trench in the river; her punishment is to be surrounded by nothingness and go mad. Eventually Sandriel comes to see him, and flips through his phone showing pictures of him and Bryce, as her countenance towards Hunt changes—what he could have had, had he not gone to that boat that night. He realizes that he has been sold back to Sandriel, which is the worst type of punishment he could get. Eventually, he gets moved, and as he’s being walked through the lobby, Bryce comes running in, and tells Sandriel that she will buy Hunt. She gives Sandriel the check with the money for him, more than what Sandriel has paid for him before, and when that’s not enough, she also gives Sandriel the amulet, which Sandriel promptly melts. When that doesn’t work, Bryce offers herself up in his stead, which horrifies Hunt. He does not want her to do this. Ruhn shows up with his men, and Sandriel reveals that Bryce is the only daughter of the Autumn King, at which point Ruhn drags Bryce back, claiming her as his sister and saying that since she is his sister, she needs his permission to do such deals and she does not have it. Hunt tells her to shrivel up and die. Bryce is so angry with Ruhn, that she heads out to the docks and looks out, not being aware of the Kristallos demon that attacks her. Luckily, Declan pulls her out to safety, while Ruhn and the other one keep their eye out on the water.

The Summit starts, and Hunt recognizes that Hypaxia—the new Queen of the Witches is the Medwitch that he and Ruhn had been seeing. Ruhn and some of the other give him soft nods, communicating through body language, and at some point during the meetings Ruhn uses his mental communication ability to talk to Hunt. Bryce is at the gallery—living there while the Summit goes on—trying to find information that would free Hunt, because she knows that he said those last words to her in order for her to leave him alone, because that is something that she would have said. Micah shows up—Sandriel thinks he’s in a meeting—and he tells her that he is looking for her.

Jesiba, who is at the summit gets a message from Bryce, and asks Declan to put up the feeds. Hunt, Ruhn, Declan, Sabine, Jesiba and Hypaxia watch in horror as Micah reveals that the gallery’s library is a Library from a destroyed city, where the Vanirs held off the others so that humans could run and hide the books that they had. It’s the only one that exists in the world as many of these copies have been destroyed. Hunt watches as Bryce has fear on her face, and she also looks around for an escape. Ruhn calls for the Aux to get to the gallery but it’s taking a long time. In the meantime, Micah reveals that he put Danika up to stealing the Horn because he wanted it for himself and to heal it so that he could become one of the Asteri. He goes on to reveal that Danika outsmarted him and put the Horn into witch ink and onto Bryce’s back, and that as long as Bryce had that amulet, she was safe and muffled from the kristallos demon, but that she was the first one attacked after she lost the amulet. They all find out that Micah was the one who killed the Pack of Devils, by injecting Danika with Synth, and he also killed Maximus, and has been the one calling for the kristallos demons to come find the horn. He corners her and then injects her with Synth, as everyone is watching and seeing his actions and hearing his words.

He uses his magic, pushing it through the horn on Bryce’s back, but nothing happens. He tries it again, the pain going through her like fire. But then with Lehabah’s help, Bryce manages to lock him in the bathroom, and saves Syrinx while fighting off the nokk—a creature that cannot touch air at all. She grabs Syrinx and tells Lehabah to come with her, but Lehabah tells her that no, she’s going to give her a chance to get ahead, and that she knows that Bryce purchased her freedom from Jesiba because she saw the papers in Bryce’s drawers. Lehabah breaks the glass of the aquarium holding the nokk, which was already cracked from Bryce’s fight with the nokk. This gives Bryce enough time to open the door to the gallery, to make it appear like she had run outside, grab a vial of antidote to the synth, and piece back the gun in Jesiba’s wall with the one bullet that has the same inscription as the Meat Market—something about death. Hunt, who is watching through the feeds, cannot fall more in love with her when she puts the gun together without even looking at it, as if she had been one of the Auxiliary teams. When Micah enters up the stairs, after fighting through all of the liquid from the aquarium, she shoots him through the head. She then uses Danika’s sword, slashing through Micah in various ways, and then burning him before taking out the vacuum and cleaning up the ashes left of him.

Bryce then waits, but no one comes. In the meantime, everyone in the Summit scramble trying to figure out what is going on and why the Aux hadn’t made it to Bryce. Turns out that they are unable to come to her because all of the gates across the city contain open portals to Hel, and demons are coming through. Bryce goes to her apartment, drops Syrinx off, and gets dressed up in Danika’s jacket along with Danika’s sword and makes her way out into the city, towards the land of the humans where they are unlikely to be protected. The remaining folks at the Summit are arguing with their people, and giving orders. Hypaxia points out that she wants to be doing what Bryce is doing, pointing to the screen where she sees the whole thing go down. They all watch Bryce go killing these demons, emptying the guns she has, and then using the sword to kill them. But no one wants to come to her help, and both Sabine and the Autumn King tell everyone that it’s protocol that the Aux units have to protect their own people. Hunt calls the Viper Queen and tells her that she owes him a favor.

Bryce calls Jesiba and she tells her that no one is coming, but one of the packs—Ithan specifically overhears the conversation, and tells Bryce that he’s on the way, breaking the order given by Sabine. And so Ithan and some of his people come to Bryce’s aid, along with some of the Viper Queen’s people, who help kill the demons. Hypaxia frees Hunt from his shackles, and then when Sandriel comes back telling everyone that they are to stay at the summit and that the Asteri are sending people over to help them, they don’t argue with her about saving Human lives. They watch as Bryce and Ithan run towards the shelter, and Bryce pushes Ithan with her last ounce of fae strength into the shelter before it closes. She then has to figure out what to do, and heads towards the gate.

She calls Hunt’s phone, which Sandriel is holding onto, and everyone in the room convinces Sandriel to hand over the phone to Hunt. They all listen as Bryce apologizes to each and everyone one of them, and tells him to tell Ruhn that she forgives him. She then steps up to the gate, and a powerful white light comes out of her. Ruhn falls to his knees, as she says that she is the Heir to the Starborn Fae, and uses her light to shut down the gate. The Autumn King calls up Ember Quinlan in fury, and she tells him that yes they have known and kept it secret all these years, because his men had caught up to them, had them by their necks and Bryce used her power for the first time to kill them. The second time she used it was in front of Danika when she killed the asps that were running the animal trafficking ring. Hypaxia quietly begins removing the witches ink and magic from Hunt’s brow, granting back his power—she had asked him a few weeks prior what he would do if the witches ink was removed and he had said that he would fight back against Sandriel. Ruhn realizes what is going on, and keeps Sandriel focused on anything but Hunt. Once Bryce slumps down from using her magic, leaving her to be vulnerable, Sandriel gets off a call with the Asteri and explains that she has told them about Bryce, which means that they will now be hunting her to kill her because she’s a half-fae, half-human with way too much power. This pisses off Hunt because Bryce is important to him and it is unfair. Once the last vestiges of the shackles fall of his brow, he is in full control of his power. Sandriel realizes what has happened a little too late, and a fight breaks out with the two of them, where Hunt comes out on top, ripping her head off from her shoulders. He orders the 33 legion to the skies to go save as many people in the city as possible

Fury’s own helicopter is close by, and they had been talking about taking it earlier, but now they are truly running to make it to the city in time to save Bryce as the Asterian Guard comes with their machines that can decimate the city. Hunt’s wings are not strong enough to hold him so he is in the helicopter with the rest of the team—Fury, Ruhn, Flynn, and Amelie. When the Asterian Guard starts to shoot the missiles, and Declan tells them that Bryce is trapped under a slab of concrete from the last bombing, Hunt asks Fury to bring them as high as she can go, and then he jumps, plummeting towards Bryce, as he tracks another missile that will hit 10 blocks—not too far from them, which will mean that Bryce will die. He covers her just as the missile hits.

Bryce wakes up and she is whole—the missile had been close but somehow she is still alive. She looks around and sees Hunt completely shredded—his arm and legs and wings gone—and knows that he had protected her. She talks to him and tells him to hold on. She then runs to the gate, slams her hand onto the gate portal and asks anyone in the vicinity to be her anchor. No one responds, so she runs back to Hunt, and talks to him, telling him that all will be all right. Suddenly, she feels Danika talking to her internally, and then she hears her—she realizes that Danika has come from the Gate to the Realm of the Dead to help her do the Drop. So Bryce whispers something to Hunt and then runs for the gate, where she starts the Drop.

Jesiba, Tharion, Sabine, Hypaxia, Declan, and the Autumn King watch as Bryce’s Drop generates first light, running across all of the ley lines and creating a seven pointed star. It heals everything and everyone along its way—the buildings and the destruction goes away. She starts dropping and Declan measures her drop down to death—she goes further than anyone else has been; than what was expected, going even as far as getting just a decimal point above the Autumn King, her father, in power. But she stays there, and both Jesiba and the Autumn King say that she’s good as dead because Danika is not a person; she doesn’t have power to generate for Bryce to make the jump and run back.

Bryce sees Danika, and they talk—Bryce has decided to let it go and to not go back, but Danika explains that she had done what she’s done in case anything had happened to her, so that things would be safe. She explains that Bryce has so much to live for, including Hunt Athalar, and that she and the Pack of Devils are dead. And so Bryce, with Danika’s last burst of magic, makes the Ascent back. The group in the Summit room watch in awe as Bryce starts the ascent, which both the Autumn King and Jesiba said is impossible because Bryce is alone, but Sabine watches the extra increase of energy that Bryce gets, and says that she is not alone. It is the current Prime of the wolves that reminds them that there is one thing that makes things possible—a phrase that Sabine whispers because it was what the Oracle had said to Danika, and what she had written everywhere: Through Love, all is possible.

Hunt does chest compressions on Bryce, calling her a coward for saying the words she did while he was dying, and tells her to come back to him and tell him those words to his face. The night ends with everything being restored and the gates closed, but unfortunately Bryce is unable to bring back the dead that lie in the street—many families and people had lost someone that night. Bryce does talk to Ruhn that night, and is glad to see that he is well and alive. He asks her if she really truly thought that he cared more about his position as the Chosen One, the Starborn Prince, than about his relationship with her, because she explains that she had chosen to hide her ability from him when she saw how much their father’s praise mattered to him as he was the Chosen One.

Hunt and Bryce return to their apartment and are about to get into some sexy time, when Bryce’s mother, Ember, calls and she talks to her while being in the shower. She doesn’t tell her about how she killed Micah. Hunt in the meantime gets a message from Isaiah, asking for help as the angels in the 33rd Legion are all circling like prey, and they want to challenge him for the role he holds. Hunt looks down and notices that his slave tattoo has been changed. Bryce gets another phone call as she hangs up with her mom, this time from Rigelus, one of the Asteri, and she walks to Hunt with the phone call, where they both hear the guy tell them in as many words that they are to lie low and not speak of what occurred with Micah and Sandriel, nor are they to speak the truth of the night regarding the Asterian Guard. In exchange, Hunt gets his freedom, and no harm will come to their loved ones.

In the epilogue, Jesiba meets with Aidas, the Prince of Chasm, one of the circles of Hel, in Oracle’s Park. She confirms to him that the library beneath the gallery—the one containing all of the books from the lost city—has been moved elsewhere. Aidas tells her that he still remembers Theia’s light, which he had thought was extinguished after the first light under Prince Pelias’s blade; that it’s different from Ruhn’s light. Jesiba asks about Hunt Athalar, and Aidas responds that his father would have been proud of him, to which Jesiba retorts that it’s sentimental of Aidas. Aidas responds that she is free to disagree with him, as she had known Hunt’s father the best. Then they go their separate ways.

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. Sarah J Mays’s books always start a little on the slower side; there is a lot of story building in the beginning, and you do find out a lot of the backgrounds of the characters later, peppered throughout the book or even throughout the series. I think that the story really picks up for me with Danika’s murder—it’s a question of who, and what killed her. I do like that the storyline then skips forward two years, and how sometimes grief doesn’t go away just because time passes. Throughout the book, Bryce does struggle with that, and she also sees how Hunt struggles with his role as a personal assassin to the governor—seeing kindred spirits in each other, helps them heal to some extent. It becomes fast paced at the end, and a lot of things are revealed that I was not expecting.

What I really love about this series is that it’s totally different from ACOTAR and Throne of Glass—yes there are some elements that are the same whereby the fae are involved, and maybe a female that is hiding hidden powers—but it’s a different world thus far, and different set of circumstances that bring Bryce and Hunt together, that differs from Rhysand and Feyre, and also that of Aelin and Rowan. These characters are as different from each other as any person is different from the other—their similarities end in most of them being fae, with the parallels of the Angels and Illyrians being there, but also not the same. I honestly cannot wait to pick up the next book and read the continuation of Bryce’s and Hunt’s story.