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

by Sarah J. Maas

“It is in our history, Rhysand,” Amren said gravely. “But the Asteri were not known by that name. Here, they were called the Daglan.”

“The glowing letters inked on her back … they’re the same as those in the Book of Breathings.”

“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. Shock reared up in Hunt, dampened by the weight of an old, unbidden hurt. “I have no father.” Aidas’s expression was sad as he stepped out of the shadows. “You spent too long asking the wrong questions.” “What the fuck does that mean?” Aidas shook his head. “The black crown once again circling your brow is not a new torment from the Asteri. It has existed for millennia.”

Showing a masked queen, a crown upon her head, bearing instruments in her hand and standing before an adoring crowd.

AELIN?!

“It’s called Truth-Teller,” he said in that soft voice, like shadows given sound. “And no, it cannot.” Bryce arched a brow. “So does it … tell the truth?” A hint of a smile, more chilling than the frigid air around them. “It gets people to do so.”

“Like calls to like,”

“When we stop again … can you show me how that contraption works?” “The phone?” The word couldn’t be translated into their language, and it sounded outright silly in their accent. But Nesta nodded, her eyes fixed on the tunnel ahead. “Trying to figure out what it does has been driving us all crazy.”

Azriel said softly, voice tinged with pain, “She looks like Rhysand’s sister.”

But my mother, Theia, used the time she served the Daglan to learn all she could about their instruments of conquest. The Dread Trove, we called it in secret. The Mask, the Harp, the Crown, and the Horn.

They were Fae like us, but not. The ears, the grace, the strength were identical, but they were shape-shifters, all of them. Each capable of turning into an animal. And each, even in their humanoid body, equipped with elongated canine teeth.

THRONE OF GLASS?!

His claws hadn’t gone through her shoulder. They’d punched straight through her throat.

Locking him inside the House of Flame and Shadow.

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

The line will end with me, you fucking prick, Ruhn said into his father’s mind, because I yield my crown, my title, to the queen.

Even Morven’s shadows weren’t fast enough as Ruhn whipped the Starsword through the air again. And sliced clean through his father’s neck.

Home—he was home. Her ability to teleport to him had only proved that. Home wasn’t a place or a thing, but him. Wherever Hunt was … that was where home was. She’d find him across galaxies, if need be.

And Bryce said before she stepped into the light, “Through love, all is possible.”

Ruhn snarled, saying the words he hadn’t dared voice until now, “She’s my mate, you fucker.” Lidia inhaled a sharp breath.

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.

I WILL SCREAM

“This will all be here when you’re ready,” Jesiba repeated, then motioned to the green hills beyond. “We’ll all be here when you’re ready.”