House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)

by Sarah J. Maas

Legend claimed that even the Asteri could not pierce the mists that shrouded Avallen, but Lidia had never heard of it being tested. Perhaps that was also why Morven had come—to keep the Asteri from having a reason to explore whether the legend was true. If they were somehow repelled by whatever ancient power lay around Avallen, that would be a secret worth abasing oneself to keep.

There, one thousand mystics slumbered. Each of whom were now focused on a single task: Find Bryce Quinlan

Amren picked at an invisible speck on her silk blouse.

Okay still doing this sjm lol

To the shield that echoed there with a sense of Rhysand. Power the likes of which she’d never encountered—at least, other than from the Asteri.

An enormous worm, gleaming with water and mud. A mouth full of rows of teeth opened wide and snapped

Alaskan Bull worm

“To ensure that we can continue to rely on you when the time comes.” “To do what?” Hunt ground out. “What you were born to do—to accomplish the task for which your father brought you into existence,” Apollion said before fading into nothing, leaving Aidas standing alone before the prisoners.

Her ears hollowed out for a moment, a dull thump sounding once, and her hand spasmed, seemingly tugged toward those blades. Azriel’s wings twitched at the same moment, and he rolled his shoulders, like he was shaking off some phantom touch.

Ruhn nodded to Hunt. “We need you to be the Umbra Mortis. He’s a badass—he wouldn’t hesitate.” “A badass,” Hunt said, “not a cannibal.” “Desperate times,” Ruhn said, meeting Hunt’s stare.

picking at an invisible speck on her golden silk gown

Again

“My only interest in you lies in the bloodline you stand to pass on.” “Too bad Hunt complicates that.” “More than you know.”

“Maybe that sword and dagger can cleanse the parasite, though.” She hummed again, as if thinking it over. “Maybe you should let me impale you with them and we can see what happens.”

Wings stirred, and Ruhn stirred with them. “Lidia,” he croaked.

Lidia let out a choked, bloody laugh as she died.

NO

“They’re not my brothers,” Lidia whispered. Her fingers curled on the glass. “They’re my sons.”

He just removed invisible flecks of lint

again

Bryce hid her wince as the Ocean Queen surveyed her. “You are young. And idealistic. And inexperienced.” “Don’t forget ill qualified and always inappropriately dressed.”

“You’re my home, Hunt. Our love spans across stars and worlds, remember?” She smiled slightly. “I’ll always find you.”

“Most dudes run when they find out the female they’re into has kids.” Her eyes flickered with cold fire. “That’s male strength for you.”

picking at an invisible fleck of dirt on his night-black pants.

Again

It took Hypaxia seven hours, seven minutes, and seven seconds to raise Sigrid.

Apollion lifted a hand. Pure, sizzling lightning danced around it, arcing out to meet Hunt’s. “Welcome, son,” said the Prince of the Pit.

“Because the Princes of Hel cannot be contained by the black crowns. The Asteri learned that—it was their downfall. As you were made by Hel’s princes, it should not be able to hold you.”

Bryce brushed invisible dirt off her shoulders,

Again

So Bryce peered down at Morven and finished sweetly, “And I’m your motherfucking executioner.”

his bowels watery

Really.....

“That is …,” Randall said, and retched again. “Useful, but horrible.” “I think that sums me up in a nutshell,” Bryce said.

Disgust roiled through him. He’d never once hated Bryce, but in that moment, as she doubted him, he did.

Oh

Bryce swung her arm out in a grand, sweeping gesture as the Prince of the Chasm stepped through the Northern Rift. “Welcome back to Midgard,” she said. “Hope you have a pleasant stay.”

“And she,” the Under-King went on, gesturing to that unusual depiction of Urd towering above him, “was not a goddess, but a force that governed worlds. A cauldron of life, brimming with the language of creation. Urd, they call her here—a bastardized version of her true name. Wyrd, we called her in that old world.”

“You kill it, you become it,” Jesiba said to Hypaxia. “You are now, for all intents and purposes, Head of the House of Flame and Shadow. And this place.” Her face paled. “That’s not possible. I don’t want that burden.” “Too bad. You killed him.”

Only when they stood before it did Connor speak again. “That bullet,” Connor said, nodding to where Ithan held it, “was made by us—the dead. For Bryce.” A soft, pained smile crossed his face at her name. “To use with the Godslayer Rifle.”

So he said to her, mind-to-mind, I love you. I fell in love with you in the depths of my soul, and it’s my soul that will find yours again in the next life.

It confirmed what Lidia had long guessed. Why she had named Brannon after the oldest legends from her family’s bloodline: of a Fae King from another world, fire in his veins, who had created stags with the power of flame to be his sacred guards.

The explosions shook the very world as the missiles ruptured, turning the war-machines into death traps for the soldiers within. They melted into nothing. The heat of it singed Lidia’s face, and amid the burning and billowing smoke— Three tiny white lights burned bright. Fire sprites. Simmering with power. Through the fire and smoke and drifting embers, Lidia recognized them. Sasa. Rithi. Malana. Blazing, raging with fire. They must have crept up unseen from behind enemy lines. Too small to be noticed, to ever be counted by arrogant Vanir.

I believe it all happened for a reason. I believe it wasn’t for nothing.

Danika, here—with everyone. Safe and loved. She heard the words on the wind, carried from her friend’s soul to hers. Light it up, Bryce. And Bryce was laughing, laughing and sobbing as she yelled back across the lush plain and hills, “Light it up, Danika!”