Book Review: House of Flame and Shadow

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

What It’s About: Bryce finds herself placed into a cell by Rhysand and his group, including the male who had picked her up, and who now holds her sword—the Starsword. Bryce refuses to answer too many questions, but she does answer some, though not truthfully enough, and the male holding the Starsword tells Rhysand to read her mind, which Rhysand asks Bryce, but she tells him no. They call Nesta in, who tells them that there is something Made on her, specifically in the tattoo on Bryce’s back. Amren had given Bryce a bean that gave her the ability to learn their tongue, which causes the tattoo to react. The little bit that Bryce reveals about Theia and the Asteri, Amren is able to confirm, though vaguely, and she says that the Asteri were known as the Daglan in this universe. They leave Bryce alone in the cell, occasionally bringing her food—she continues to listen as animals screech below the grate, and then when she tires of her waiting around, she makes the decision to jump down and then teleport to the precipice below. It is surrounded by some kind of animal, and Bryce walks through the group of them with her Starborn power, which keeps them quiet. Once she is through to the other side, where there seems to be a grate, she continues making her way. Eventually, Nesta finds her and the two of them make their way through the tunnels. They walk, and share a bit about each other, but nothing deep. At one point, Bryce decides to jump into the water of a river that seems impassable, and Nesta follows her, telling her that she shouldn’t have done that as they could have gotten carried over, and Azriel shows up. The three of them continue on, and Bryce sees paintings on the cavern walls, reading things in the Old Fae language, that tells the story of the people. At another point, Bryce brings the Middengard Wyrm to them, and Azriel and Nesta feign being dead. When she comes back they recapture her and tell her that they will use her as bait for the Wyrm. Once the Wyrm is dead—with Nesta using the Mask—they continue on, not trusting Bryce. Eventually they reach the area where Nesta saw the eight-pointed star; the same location where she had found the Harp, and Bryce enters through the wards to the middle of the area, which is the platform that contained the Harp, and which has an eight pointed star. She stomps on it, and the three of them watch as a High Fae talks to them—Silene, the sister of Helena and the daughter of Theia. She tells them the story of how they got the Daglan out of Prythian, using the Dread Trove that contains the Mask, the Harp, the Horn and the Crown. The Dread Trove was created by the Daglan to control them, and was made utilizing the Cauldron. But Theia had used it against the Daglan and the fae were able to kick them out of Prythian, restoring the land back to its health. After some time, Theia wanted to go conquer other worlds, and found another planet that was ripe for the taking that the Daglan had talked about, only to find that the Daglan—who were now going by the true name of the Asteri—had taken it for themselves, and Pelias—Theia’s trusted General—had been working with them all along to get them to this world. In this world, they learned about other Fae types who were shifters, and Theia found Aidas when she opened the portal, believing that he was her Mate, having found each other through the worlds. They found out that the Asteri were putting parasites in the water that would make it so that everyone immortal had to do the Drop—or pay the Tithe, as Silene had said—or else their bodies will decay. It was the energy that the Daglan would be eating. Silene then tells the story of how Theia realized that they were going to be outmaneuvered and so she gave Helena the Horn, and Silene the Harp, and then she split their Starborn power into three pieces, giving them one of each to help them get home. Silene was the only one who made it through, shutting the portal back to Midgard, while the Fae in that world had screamed, begging for their children to be taken back. Silene got married to the High Lord of the Night Court, after turning her home into the Prison and capturing all the beings that the Daglan had created. She warded the place so only her sons and her son’s heirs could be the ones to reach this place, if needed. Azriel reveals that Rhysand doesn’t know, and that it must have gotten lost somewhere along the line. Bryce then breaks the ground of the Prison, and they find a crystal casket with a body. When the person wakes up, and they talk, they realize that it is one of the last Daglan—which had been preserved by Theia in that casket. They end up killing her, and Bryce pulls in the remaining Starborn power—what Silene had left for her between the stone. Bryce uses the crystal casket to portal back to her own world.

In the interim, Ithan, Declan and Tristian have the lost Fendyr heir, who has now been named Sigrid, and they are in the Meat Market debating what to do about Tharion, who has sold his soul to the Viper Queen. They know that they need him to get out of the Crescent City to go save Ruhn, and Hunt, but they don’t know whether he will be able to make any difference. Their choice is made for them when they encounter Sabine, who tries to kill Sigrid, but in turn ends up being stabbed by the Viper Queen. The Viper Queen takes them to her court, and they hang out with Tharion, as well as the three Fire sprites that they had freed from the rings. Before Tharion can do anything to help them, Lidia shows up talking to the Viper Queen, and then gets a chance to talk to them. She tells them that in two days, there will be a boat ready to take them to the Eternal City, in order to help her save Hunt and Ruhn. They just have to figure out how to get out of the Viper Queen’s fangs. Ithan goes to visit the Viper Queen, who tells him that she will free him and his friends if he fights for her in the ring. Ithan agrees. The day of the fight comes, and Tharion tells Ariadne to go easy on Ithan so that he doesn’t get hurt, but in a change up, the Viper Queen sends Ariadne away and tells Ithan to fight Sigrid. He ends up killing Sigrid by accident because of her untrained movement—decapitating her. The group is freed, and races to the water way, but once they are by the boat, Ithan keeps thinking about making his brother proud, and decides to turn around and go back to the Crescent City. He ends up in the entrance to the House of Flame and Shadows, where Jesiba Roga finds him. She takes him aside to her office after they talk a bit in the bar, and offers him to work for her as she has a lot of paperwork, in exchange for him getting a necromancer. As they work together, she tells him that she was a human priestess from Parthas that had sailed on a ship. She had met Apollion—who had been full of magic from destroying Sirius, the Asteri Star—that he had imbued her with eternal youth and magic. At one point, the Astronomer comes and points at Ithan asking that he return the female wolf. In the end Jesiba tells him to put it on her tab, and she will pay it, before explaining to Ithan that it is a tax write off. Hypatia shows up in the midst of this, and reveals that there has been a coup—Morganthia had taken over, and almost had her killed, so she pledged allegiance to the House of Flame and Shadow. Jesiba sends her to do her oaths to the Under-King before she can bring Sigrid back for Ithan.

Hunt, Ruhn and Baxian are tortured and beaten, and at one point, they get the bright idea of chewing Ruhn’s hand off so that he could get to the poker, only to be caught by Pollux, and the Hawk. Lidia in the meantime works a different angle, and gets to meet Irithys, the Fire Sprite Queen, asking Pollux to use her to torture Hunt, Ruhn and Baxian. Instead, she uses it on a Hag, and the sprite refuses to harm the Hag because she is honorable. Lidia confirms this with another person, and then when Pollux tells her that the Harpy is being brought back to life, she realizes that she has to speed up the process. So she makes a call through the disposable cell and makes a plan, and also infuses Hunt and Baxian with medwitch potion that will heal their wings. Hunt is forced to give Rigelus a bit of his lighting magic, into a quartz, and he doesn’t know what it’s for, until Aidas meets with him, and they think that it’s possible Rigelus is trying to use it to bring back someone from the dead. One day, Pollux, Mordoc and the Hawk come to get the three, and bring them up to Rigelus. They are taken to the Elevator, where the Hind awaits, and when the doors close, she shoots The Hawk as well as two of the other soldiers in the elevator besides them. They get into a car, and drive all the way through to the edge of the city, avoiding being captured and blocked in. She tells Hunt and Baxian to fly Ruhn to the Depth Charger, the ship, and then she transforms, with Mordoc and the dread wolves on her tail. When the men land on the ship, Ruhn tells Tharion to go after the Hind and save her. Lidia is pretty much captured by Mordoc, but then decides to jump into the water, because she prefers this death over the torture she would get, and gets shot. Ruhn sits with her in the medical ward in the ship while she recovers, ignoring Declan’s and Tristian’s please to rest.

Bryce lands in the Autumn King‘s office, and he has her shackled in Gorsian shackles, while taking away the Starsword and the Truth Teller from her. He tells her that he has sent away everyone else, and that he wants her to answer some questions of his, as he’s been seeking answers to the land of the fae for years. In the end, Bryce outsmarts him, getting out of the shackles, and putting them on him, telling him that she specifically came here to get the information out of him since he’s been researching this for years. He tells her that the only place she could get more information on the sword and the knife is Avallen, so she locks him in a closet, with a toilet and some water, and teleports into the ship, getting there just in time to see the Ocean Queen roasting Tharion over being wanted by the River Queen and the Viper Queen. She negotiates with the Ocean Queen to get them to Avallen, telling the queen that she is not going to run away and take only select few to safety while everyone else dies; rather she wants to help everyone. The Queen agrees to take her to Avallen, as long as Bryce saves some of her Mer if things go south, and never gets back onto the ship. Tharion, however, does not get to leave until the Queen decides what to do with him.

Lidia wakes up, asks Ruhn where she is, and when he gives her the name of the ship, she barrels down to the classroom section, where she reveals that she has sons—twins. She later meets with them both, and their parents. The boys are a bit rude to her, and when she steps out after the meeting, one of their parents talk to her telling her that basically they have very similar personalities to those she remembers as 18 month old babies. She meets with the Ocean Queen who tells her that Lidia has to go to Avallen with the rest of the group in order to continue to receive the Ocean Queen’s graciousness in protecting her sons. Lidia and Ruhn get into an argument, and Lidia tells him off, while he asks her if she would tell him more about herself. Eventually, she says goodbye to her sons, and at breakfast she reveals to the rest of the group that she will be joining them, as they debate who is going to the Archives and who is going to the Caves in Avallen, because Bryce wants to check out both areas for more information.

The group gets off at Avallen, with Tharion making a split second decision to join them. They meet with the King Morven, who tells them that females are not allowed in either the archives or the caves, until Bryce tells him that she will give him access to the Autumn King’s notebook if he lets them through. Tharion also agrees to marry Sathia, Tristian Flynn’s sister, as the Avallen king does not want unwed females on his land. They search through the Archives at first, and they only find a map that seems to indicate that there were many more archipelagos around the island 15,000 years ago, but they have disappeared since. The group splits up, and Lidia, Ruhn, Declan and Flynn stay in the archives researching, while Hunt, Bryce, Tharion, and Sathia head into the caves. Lidia, Ruhn, Flynn and Declan research, but at one point the Murder Twins—Morven’s nephews that had been an issue for Ruhn, Declan and Flynn during their ordeals—come up to them, and Ruhn ignores them until they go away. Then Declan and Flynn disappear, and it takes a while for Ruhn to notice, but he stays the night with Lidia in her own bedroom, and the next morning when they do not see his friends, he knows that something is up. Bryce and her group heads to the caves, and she uses her starlight to keep the ghouls away. They head deeper into the cave, but at one point, they come face to face with Morven, the Autumn King, the Murder Twins, who are holding Declan and Flynn hostage. Bryce causes a cave in, and the group heads further into the caves, until they hit Pelias’s sarcophagus. Bryce pushes on it, and they find a hidden chamber, with the eight pointed star, two slits and a lot of black salt—which is how Bryce realizes that Helena had to have been communing with Hel. She starts to drink the water full of black salt to commune with Hel, but Hunt joins her, and together they visit the plane where they meet with Aidas, Apollion, and Thanatos. The three princes of Hel tell Bryce and Hunt the truth—that they had been waiting for her a long time, how Aidas and Theia had loved each other, and that Hunt was created by the three princes after their last experiment failed, which was the thunderbirds, in order to help fuel someone like Bryce, who is a world walker. They reveal that Hunt’s father agreed to be the experiment, and he knew his mother, but then was caught by the Asteri for being in communication with Hel.

When they return to the cave, they find that Tharion, Sathia, Flynn and Dec are in a ring of fire controlled by the Autumn King, and Morven and the Murder Twins are with him. The two kings start to talk disparagingly about her, and a fight ensues, in which the Murder Twins are killed, along with Morven by Bryce and Hunt, while Ruhn kills the Autumn King with the Starsword. Bryce then enters the sword and the knife into the slits in the floor, and pulls out the last of Thea’s starborn power into herself. The archipelagos around Avallen appear again, and Bryce, who is now the Queen of Avallen and the Valbaran fae creates a door in the mist for anyone who may be seeking shelter. No one wants to house them in their buildings that night, but Baxian finds them a stable for them to sleep in, and Hunt asks him to be his second in command to look after the people here in Avallen, as they make their way there and keep the fae in check. At one point Ruhn and Lidia get a little frisky in the stables though everyone hears.

Jesiba reveals that she had been waiting for Hypaxia to come and help them, and it turns out that she had been ousted by her mother’s second in command from the witch clan, so Hypaxia must now swear fealty to the House of Flame and Shadow in full in order to avoid the clan coming after her. She goes to say her oath at the black dock with the Under-King, and then she helps Ithan put Sigrid back together and bring her back to life, since Hypaxia is part necromancer. Unfortunately, Sigrid returns and becomes a Reaper instead of herself, leaving with him. At some point Asphodel Meadows is attacked by the Brimstone missiles, killing scores of helpless humans. Ithan and Hypaxia go to help out but the situation is extremely grim. Hypaxia has an idea on bringing Sigrid back to life, but they need the thunderbird’s body, which is in Avallen. Jesiba is able to get them access to Sofie Renast’s body, as Morven does agree to let them in. So the two of them head to Avallen, only to find out that Morven is gone, and they find Bryce and Hunt. Bryce tells them about the parasite and asks Hypaxia to figure out a cure, with a request that Ithan continue to guard her. The two return back to Lunathion and Hypaxia gets some blood from Ithan, as well as the Reapers—when Ithan reminds them that they are not the living—and is able to find an antidote for it; however, she has no one to test it on, and had used the last of Hunt’s lighting, which he had given to her in a quartz cube as they wouldn’t be able to get to Sofie’s body underneath the rubble of the castle, to stabilize it. Ithan decides to test it on himself, and is filled with immense power—ice magic, the likes of which he has never felt, along with shifting abilities. Hypaxia takes on antidote as well and is more powerful as well.

Ithan decides to head over to the Den, where he asks Perry to call a meeting, and then steps out of the shadows to tell them the truth about the Asteri and the Parasite, showing even the magic. He is trumped up by Sabine, who walks in with the Astronomer and Sigrid, in her Reaper form. Sabine tells the wolves that Ithan had killed Sigrid, her niece, and then tells them that she makes Sigrid her heir. The Prime comes out, saying that he has heard everything, and tells Sabine that she is no longer Prime Apparent, and instead, Ithan is going to be the Prime. A fight ensues, in which Sabine grabs Danika’s sword—Ithan had brought it with him—and he shifts so fast, and is so powerful that he’s able to snap it into pieces. Sabine also kills her own father, and Ithan watches as Sigrid laps up his second light, and then goes after the Astronomer. Once the dust has settled, Sabine is dead, and Sigrid is nowhere to be seen; Ithan has become the prime, and he does get the wolves to agree to take the antidote—whereby they all get additional powers. Ithan and Hypaxia go to visit the Under-King to see Connor, and the Under-King allows him to see Connor, but Connor is unable to speak, though he does give Ithan a bullet. Ultimately Hypaxia kills the Under-king and becomes the leader of the House of Flame and Shadow with Jesiba’s help. She lets Connor speak and he reveals to Ithan that they have figured out what happens to them—the second light. He tells Ithan that the pack of devils and some of the other people left in the domain had decided to give their magic up to create this bullet for Bryce to use in the fight against the Asteri and make it count.

Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn, Lidia, Declan, Flynn, Tharion and Sathia have a plan, and they all scatter to carry it out. Ruhn, Lidia, Declan, and Flynn head to Lunathion, with Flynn and Declan being left to figure out where Isaiah and Naomi are, while Ruhn and Lidia go to see them at the Comitium. Tharion and Sathia meet the River Queen to ask her to take any of those who can escape into the Blue Court. It turns out that Tharion’s wife is really good at the politicking and ultimately the River Queen does not want him to marry her daughter, but tells him that he has so much potential, and that she remembers what the world was like before the Asteri, so she will take whoever wants to come and seek safety. Tharion and Sathia head up and encounter the Viper Queen, who ultimately does leave them alone but Sathia recognizes one of the fae males in the Viper Queens employ—her former love interest, who does not seem to recognize her, and she reveals that he was her Ordeal. Lidia gets the message that her sons were stolen from the ship, and she needs to go after them, so Ruhn calls in Declan, Flynn and Bryce and Hunt to tell them that they need to go after the Asteri.

In Avallen, Fury, June, and Bryce’s parents arrive with Connor—formerly Emile Renast. Bryce takes her parents on a helicopter ride to Nena, where they discover that the Harpy has been resurrected via a video feed. She takes them to the gate in the Northern Rift, and opens it directly to where Nesta is sitting. Nesta at first wants to kill her because Rhysand is pissed at Bryce for what she has done and taken from them, but Bryce bargains with her for the Mask, exchanging it for her parents as collateral. When Nesta is hesitant to give it to her, Bryce tells her to take them anyway. Nesta gives it the Mask to Bryce, and Bryce promises to bring it back along with Truth-Teller. Hunt pushes the parents with his magic into portal and they close it before either Bryce’s mom or dad manage to turn back. They are attacked by the Harpy—who is now soulless, but has a command to kill them—and in order to defeat her, Bryce uses the Mask to stop her from doing anything and tells her that her work is done, which seems to be a kill order for the Harpy’s actions. Suddenly, Celestina, Naomi, and Isaiah show up and seeing Celestina causes Hunt to get pissed off to the point that he not only breaks his own Black Crown—something that the princes of Hel revealed was created by the Asteri in Hel but didn’t hold because their power could kill—and the crown on Isaiah’s brow. Celestina realizes that Hunt had killed Sandriel and Bryce had killed Micah, and ultimately kneels in front of them. Bryce manages to talk Hunt off the ledge, telling him that they have bigger fish to fry and Celestina does not deserve this rage; that he does not deserve to have this death on his hands. She reveals to them the plan—the Mask will raise the dead souls of the Fallen in the Asteri Palace, and they will give the souls the bodies of the Mech Suits to fight under Naomi and Isaiah’s leadership in the Eternal City. Celestina decides to go to Ephraim to keep him busy. Bryce gets a phone call from Ruhn about Lidia’s kids, and they know that it is go time.

Hunt, Bryce, Lidia, Ruhn, Flynn, and Declan hide out in an old Ophion safe house not too far from the Eternal City. Bryce had done a recording revealing the truth about the Asteri and showing the video of her killing Micah, which Declan will be releasing at a certain point the following day in order to keep the Asteri distracted in trying to tamp down on this information. Hunt and Bryce, and Lidia and Ruhn have their last nights together, and the next morning they head into the city, and the Palace. Lidia and Ruhn go searching for Lidia’s boys, in the dungeons. Pollux calls out to Lidia telling her that he has them, and Ruhn sees that she is losing it. He tells her that he loves her just in case, then shoots her in the leg to incapacitate her so that he could go face Pollux—she tells him that she hates him and will kill him. While Ruhn is in Pollux’s presence, Tharion shows up, and moves Lidia, before giving her the antidote, telling her that it will give her more power. He had gotten it from Hypaxia and had taken one himself, which had resulted in a lot of plumbing issues in the House of Flame and Shadow. Pollux comes out with Ruhn, holding a gun to Ruhn’s head, while two of the Asterian Guards come out with the boys, so Lidia comes out of her hiding spot and faces him. Tharion at one point uses his ability to spike at Pollux, but he shoots Tharion through. Then he tells Lidia to decide which of her sons lives, before aiming at Brann and shooting him. Except Lidia gets there first, and uses her fire magic to shield them. Then she traps Pollux in her magic—which has been unleashed courtesy of the antidote, though she’s always known about it—and burns him from inside out. She tells Ruhn to get Tharion and protect her boys, while she runs into the fray of the battle outside, where she is met by the fire sprites burning down the suits and other friends of the Asteri. Ruhn takes the vial of the antidote and is able to heal Tharion. The group start heading out, when they come across Ithan running into the city looking for Bryce. The boys want Ruhn to help so they go back to help.

Bryce and Hunt land in the throne room, where Bryce uses the Mask to free the souls and their wings. Hunt burns Isaiah’s and his own wings, after donning the Umbra Mortis outfit. They are caught by Rigelus, who tells them that he had seen what they were doing through the Harpy’s eyes, and that he sent his own legion to Nena, where they will enter the gate to Hel and wreck havoc. Bryce teleports with Hunt and they end up in the battle field, when the Three Princes of Hel arrive with their army—and they comment about having left some of their army behind by the gate to face off the enemy. Bryce uses the Mask to put the souls with the wings into the Mech Suits, and they start killing the Asterian Guard and other enemies. As a result of all this chaos, five of the six Asteri arrive, and the Princes of the Pit fight them, though the Asteri recognize Apollion and tell each other to stay far away from him as he is the Star Eater, the prince of the void. Bryce goes head to head with Polaris, one of the Asteri, and she stabs Polaris with both the dagger and the sword, which causes a black hole to be created in Polaris. Hunt feels that it’s sucking Polaris and also it will suck them in, so he funnels his own magic into it, and it creates enough of a portal that it sucks Polaris into nothingness. Bryce and Hunt portal into the room with the first light that is feeding the Asteri, and find Rigelus there. They portal around and Hunt uses his lighting to crack the quartz, giving them access to the first light. But they are both getting tired, and so Bryce portals them out of it to get away from it as Rigelus had gotten too close the last time. They are about to go in again, when Ithan catches up to them and gives Bryce the Rifle from Jesiba’s office as well as the bullet of second light from Connor and the Pack of Devils, telling her to make it count. Bryce hands the Mask over to Hunt and tells him that she loves him, before she portals down to the first light storage room, and this time finds Rigelus as well as the three remaining Asteri. She has the gun pointed at the Quartz, when Rigelus reveals that if she destroys it, she also destroys Midgard because they’ve put in a kill switch. He offers her to be the Queen of all of Midgard if she just drops it all, but she doesn’t want to. So she shoots the first light, and opens a portal to nothingness—which takes not only the Asteri but her. She realizes that the Asteri’s power is pure firstlight, when she sucks it out of Rigelus after getting close to him. When they’re all in the black hole, two of the Asteri go over, and the third one clings to Rigelus, who kicks him off and then floats to Bryce, where they both are locked in a battle.

Hunt watches the portal with the black hole and Bryce. He wants to go save her, though Aidas and Apollion tell him that there’s no luck as there is no wind for his wings. He sees a mech suit come up to him and realizes that it is Shahar, who is willing to help him get to his mate. So he gets into the Mech suit, and with Shahar’s and other Fallen’s help he makes it all the way to Bryce—shoving Rigelus off of her, and then with the Mask on him, he takes her back through the portal, which is now being held open by all of their friends—Lidia, Ruhn, Aidas, Apollion, Flynn, Declan, and more. When he gets through the portal does he let himself hear what the Mask has been telling him—she’s dead. Hunt uses his magic to try to restart her heart, though nothing happens, but then Hypaxia shows up with Jesiba, and they reveal that they can save Bryce by trading Jesiba’s life for Bryce’s. Jesiba tells Hunt the truth that she’s a priestess from Parthos and she has lived a long enough life—after speaking to Apollion, who isn’t sure if this can be done.

Bryce is in what looks like to be paradise, when Jesiba meets with her and tells her the truth of who she really is, and what she is doing for Bryce. She sees Danika and the Pack of Devils, and Jesiba tells her to go back to her Angel who is waiting for her. So Bryce and Danika yell to each other to Light it up—a phrase they used together—and then Bryce walks her way back to the land of the living. When she wakes up, she finds her friends surrounding her and is glad to be with them. Hunt doesn’t let Bryce go out of sight, except for the moment when he goes out to the fields and tells the Fallen that they are free, thanks them, and that they will work to remove the hierarchy. Isaiah joins him, and offers for him to be the leader of the Angels, but Hunt decides that he is not interested, telling him that the Angels are already spoken for—by Isaiah.

Hunt and Bryce return to Nena, sending the armies of Hel back through the portal to their world, and Bryce thanks Aidas for his help, telling him that he will see Theia again, because the after life takes good males no matter where they are from. Then she shuts the northern rift again for good, before reopening the portal to Nesta, where she sees her parents. She hands over the Mask, then the Truth Teller as promised, and her parents re-enter their world. For a moment Bryce hangs out with Nesta, with Nesta’s mate nearby the mantle just to ensure that Bryce won’t hurt her, the same way Hunt is watching them closely as well. She tells her to take the Starsword and to discover why Nesta too has the eight pointed Star—clearly there is something she needs to learn.

Upon their return to Lunathion, Bryce is now the Queen of the Avallen and Valbaran Fae, so she signs a new edict that declares all of the fae without any hierarchies, and the homes that formerly belonged to the Autumn King would be either sold or repurposed for those from the Meadows that had survived the attack and had nowhere to go home. She begins working on the Gallery with Hunt. Lidia and Ruhn get their own apartment underneath Bryce’s apartment in the same building. And Ithan is in charge of the Den, bringing the wolves back under control. Bryce and Hunt have also taken the antidote once Hypaxia created some more, but she is now working with Redner Industries to mass produce it to get it out to the people. In the interim, the engineers are working hard to figure out how to solve the firstlight problem—everything is powered by Firstlight, and now that they don’t have the Asteri, they will run out of firstlight to power everything.

While at the Gallery, Bryce gets three phone calls from Baxian, and Hunt picks up on the third call. Baxian’s voice quickly sours their sexy mood, because he sounds worried, but then he reveals that there are horses with wings flying around—pegasuses— in Avallen, and asks them to come save him.

My Thoughts: Oh my goodness this book is so good. I really loved how fast paced it was and how we get all of the different perspectives, and the different stories coming together and apart. I did see this as a continuation of the storyline so I’m a bit confused as to what all of the complaints are about this book. Whatever. Either way, I’m still in love with Bryce and Hunt as a couple, and the cross over with Prythian was pretty cool. That said, I really wish that Bryce and Hunt had stayed to help Nesta figure out the eight-pointed star, because I think they all would have become very fast friends with Nesta, Feyre, Rhysand, Cassian and Azriel, and maybe Hunt would have even met the other fae in other courts that also had wings, while Bryce brought back some more pegasuses to Prythian. Still, this is supposed to be a stand-alone series from ACOTAR, but nevertheless, I love this crossover, and it was so seamlessly written and connected. The history of how these fae arrived in Midgard does not skip a beat. Now that the author has announced a 7th book in the ACOTAR series, I wonder how the events in this book—namely the situation with the Prison and Nesta getting the Starsword (known as Gwyndion)—will impact events in ACOTAR. Overall, a very awesome book and conclusion (potentially, though I am holding out hope for another one) for the trilogy thus far.