House of Flame and Shadow

In Lunathion, Bryce returns to Midgard, landing in her father’s study. Her father, the Autumn King, immediately apprehends her with gorsian shackles—a special restraint that binds magic—and seizes Starsword and Truth-Teller. He interrogates her about the world she visited, claiming to want information for his personal research.

The Autumn King reveals that for the past five days, while Bryce was away, Ophion has been hemorrhaging members, but Ruhn and Hunt are still alive. In turn, Bryce tells him about Prythian, the Fae’s original home world. There, Fae are much stronger because they don’t have to pay a portion of their power to the Asteri in the Drop. She adds that she stole Truth-Teller to fulfill the prophecy of uniting the twin swords to unite their people.

In the Eternal City, Ithan is met at the House of Flame and Shadow—one of Midgard’s ruling houses—by Jesiba Roga, the owner of the art gallery where Bryce previously worked, and a collector of illegal artifacts and manuscripts. Ithan requests a necromancer to resurrect Sigrid.

In Lunathion, the Autumn King tells Bryce that he has been looking into the origin of the Fae since their powers are weakening every generation. Their future survival amongst other Vanir and the Asteri is threatened by this diminishment. The Autumn King has been studying a kernel of Ruhn’s starlight power contained in a prism, attempting to find a way to concentrate it into a weapon against the Asteri. As Bryce tells her father everything she learned of the Asteri, he suspects the Fae are weakening because the Asteri are devouring too much power.

In the Asteri prison, the Hawk takes Ruhn, Hunt, and Baxian from the dungeons to Rigelus. They meet with Lidia in the elevator, who is still recovering from burn wounds. As the elevator rises, Lidia pulls her gun and kills the Hawk.

Baxian is bewildered, unaware Lidia is also Agent Daybright. Lidia removes their gorsian shackles and carries Ruhn to their getaway car. Lidia drives out of the Eternal City, with Baxian and the rest gunning down enemies who stand in their way as Ophion rebels stationed throughout the city’s main railway points set off explosives with the help of Irithys’s fire.

Lidia brings them as near to the coast of the Eternal City as she can. As Hunt and Baxian fly to the Depth Charger while carrying the injured Ruhn between them, Lidia delays their pursuers by transforming into a hind.

Tharion greets Hunt’s group at the Depth Charger, where Ruhn begs the mer to help Lidia. However, it’s too late: Lidia’s attackers push her toward a perilous cliffside, so she shifts back into her humanoid form and jumps. One of their bullets strikes her chest as she falls to her death.

In the Eternal City, Jesiba agrees to find Ithan a trusted necromancer in return for his work as her assistant.

In Lunathion, the Autumn King tells Bryce that Ruhn and Hunt have escaped the Asteri dungeons. From his research, he’s also learned that together, Truth-Teller and the Starsword can open a portal to nowhere, creating a black hole. Bryce wonders if more answers can be found in the original resting place of the Starsword—the Fae island Avallen, whose veil of mist is impenetrable even to the Asteri.

On the Depth Charger, Ruhn refuses to leave Lidia’s side while she heals. After Tharion brought her body back to the Depth Charger, Lidia was resuscitated by medwitches. The Ocean Queen arrives to speak with Tharion: Her sister, the River Queen, and the Viper Queen have threatened her with war for sheltering him.

In the Eternal City, while handling Jesiba’s artifacts, Ithan learns her book collection is from the lost Library of Parthos—a human library guarded by Priestesses, predating the Asteri occupation by 2,000 years. Only one of the human ships managed to escape Asteri’s destruction: The Griffin, which sailed for Valbara with the help of the Ocean Queen and mer. When Ithan asks how Jesiba knows so much of that time period, she transforms, showing him her true, younger appearance. She is an original Parthos Priestess cursed by Prince of Hel Apollion to remain unchanged and immortal until she revealed his true worth to him. She inherited a kernel of his power alongside the curse and has since lived for over 15,000 years.

Bryce restrains the Autumn King with the gorsian shackles she’s slipped by using a hidden key found in Ruhn’s old bedroom. She reveals that she purposefully transported herself to his domain so he’d reveal his research about the swords to her. Bryce then charges up her powers enough to teleport to Hunt.

On the Depth Charger, Lidia wakes and runs to the ship’s school. She finds two golden-haired, 15-year-old boys she claims are her children: Brann and Actaeon. She is prohibited by the school director from seeing her children until their adoptive fathers, Davit and Renki, are present. Tharion, Hunt, and Baxian meet with the Ocean Queen, who reveals there’s a massive bounty on Tharion’s head. Bryce’s arrival interrupts the meeting.

Bryce calls herself Queen of the Valbaran Fae and claims responsibility for Tharion. She also explains that the Asteri have poisoned Midgard’s water with parasites. Bryce asks for the Ocean Queen’s help transporting to Avallen and the Ocean Queen begrudgingly agrees.

Bryce reunites with her friends and shares everything that happened in the Night Court, omitting only the Dread Trove. Bryce shows them the Autumn King’s research notebook, which she stole and plans to use as a bargaining chip with Avallen’s King Morven to access his Archives and his Cave of Princes.

Lidia meets Brann and Actaeon with Davit and Renki present. Both boys only know her as the Hind. While Brann is pleasant to her, Actaeon is openly hateful. A messenger summons Lidia to meet with the Ocean Queen, who is angry with Lidia for abandoning her position as the Hind and expects her to accompany Bryce’s group to Avallen. Lidia hates the Ocean Queen: 18 months after providing a safe haven for Lidia to birth her sons in secret, the Ocean Queen forced Lidia to part from the twins and return to her role as the Hind as a spy for Ophion.

Ruhn and Bryce inform their friends about the Murder Twins—two Fae who live in Avallen and can read minds without permission. Bryce and her friends agree to split up: Ruhn, Flynn, and Declan declare themselves Team Archives, while Bryce, Hunt, and Baxian become Team Caves of Princes. Lidia doesn’t yet choose a team. Afterward, Lidia brings Bryce to meet with the three sprites who arrived with Tharion. Since Irithys is now free, Lidia asks the sprites to track Irithys down and convince her to fight against the Asteri when the time comes.

In the Eternal City, the Astronomer visits Jesiba and Ithan to demands Sigrid’s return, but since he gained Sigrid through illegal means, Jesiba pays the Astronomer 10 million marks to let the matter go. Meanwhile, Jesiba summons Hypaxia to resurrect Sigrid. Hypaxia used to be the Queen of the Valbaran Witches, but recently Morganthia Dragas, a former witch general, usurped her. To escape execution, Hypaxia fled the House of Earth and Blood and swore fealty to the House of Flame and Shadow.

On the Depth Charger, Lidia visits her sons one last time before the ship docks at Avallen. Actaeon is still hateful, but she hands her ruby ring, a family heirloom, to Brann.