House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City, #2)

by Sarah J. Maas

“The late Queen Hecuba had two daughters, from different sires. Hypaxia’s sire, Hecuba’s coven learned afterward, was a powerful necromancer from the House of Flame and Shadow. Hypaxia seems to have inherited his gifts alongside her mother’s.” Ruhn blinked. Slowly. Hypaxia could raise and speak to the dead. All right. He could live with that. “Cool.” Flames danced along his father’s hair, dancing over his shoulders. “Her older sister, however, was sired by a shape-shifting male. A stag.” “So?” Cormac snorted. “Hypaxia’s half sister is better known as the Hind.” Ruhn gaped at him.

“You do remember that Bryce and Athalar are together?” Ruhn said. “Try to get between them, and you’ll get a refresher course on why he was called the Umbra Mortis.”

“Males will always try to control the females who scare them. Marriage and breeding are their go-to methods.”

“You say that as if it’s a foreign thing for females to have jobs.” “In Avallen, it is.” He leaned against the doorjamb. “My people have let the old traditions remain untouched. You will need to adjust.” “Thanks, but no. I like my TV and phone. And I like being considered a person, not livestock for breeding.”

“Of everything I’ve ever been called, Quinlan, your mate will be the one I truly cherish.”

Do you know Mordoc? Have you met him before? Ithan’s gaze remained on the powerful male now rising to sniff the air. Yes. A long time ago. He came to visit the Den. Why? Ithan at last responded, eyes wide and pained. Because he’s Danika’s father.

“You’ve got some nerve, coming to our city and trying to start shit.” The Hind replied with equal calm, “So do you, lusting after the female your brother loved.”

“Bryce is my friend.” The Hind drew another card. “Years of pining in secret, years of guilt and shame for feeling what he does, for hating his brother whenever he talks about Miss Quinlan, for wishing that he had been the one who’d met her first—”

“Loving her, lusting for her from the sidelines. Waiting for the day when she would realize that he was the one she was meant to be with. Playing his little heart out on the sunball field, hoping she’d notice him at last. But then big brother dies.”

“And he hates himself even more. Not only for losing his brother, for not being there, but because of the one, traitorous thought he had after learning the news. That the path to Bryce Quinlan was now cleared. Did I get that part right?”

Baxian. The angel shifter had a gun drawn, aimed at Sabine’s legs to disable her if she tried to run. Only a glimmer of surprise on Hunt’s face told Bryce this wasn’t a planned appearance. Sabine turned slowly. Recognition flared in her eyes. And something like fear. Baxian’s teeth gleamed in a feral grin. “Hello, Sabine.”

“Light it up, Hunt.”

It means that he’s going ballistic in the way that only mates can when the other is threatened. It’s what happened then, and what’s happening now. You’re true mates—the way Fae are mates, in your bodies and souls. That’s what was different about your scent the other day. Your scents have merged. As they do between Fae mates.

“I love you undone like this,” he said, moving again. Setting the pace. “Utterly at my mercy.”

“Everything that ever happened to me, it was all so I could meet you, Quinlan. Be here with you. I’m yours. Forever.”

“You remind me that I’m alive,” she said, voice thick. “You remind me that goodness can exist in the world.”

“Through love, all is possible.”

Baxian peeled back the collar of his battle-suit, revealing brown, muscled flesh. And a tattoo scrawled over the angel’s heart in familiar handwriting. Through love, all is possible.

She knew that handwriting. “Why,” she asked carefully, voice shaking, “do you have Danika’s handwriting tattooed on you?” Baxian’s dark eyes became pained. Empty. “Because Danika was my mate.”

“I love you. I wish I’d said it more. But I love you, Quinlan, and …” His throat closed up, his eyes stinging. His lips brushed her brow. “Our love is stronger than time, greater than any distance. Our love spans across stars and worlds. I will find you again. I promise.”