House of Flame and Shadow

Tharion and Sathia return Midgard, where the Viper Queen has Sathia’s former lover Colin in her employ and drugged on her blood. Ithan and Hypaxia also arrive and their newfound power roles convince the Viper Queen to leave Tharion alone. As Sathia frets over Colin’s safety, Hypaxia administers the antidote to Tharion and tasks him with delivering the rest to Bryce in the Eternal City.

As Bryce, Hunt, Ruhn, and Lidia head for the Eternal City, Bryce and Hunt record themselves revealing Asteri secrets. They prepare the recording—and the recording Jesiba made of Bryce killing the Archangel Micah in a previous novel of the series—to go live tomorrow and inspire rebellion.

They shelter for the night in a safe house. When Hunt and Bryce have sex, an unprecedented merging of their magic and souls occurs.

Most of the wolves have fled Lunathion, so only Perry remains behind to help stragglers. At Perry’s urging, Ithan sends word to all the wolves, convincing them to seek shelter with the River Queen or evacuate to Avallen if the Asteri target the wolves as punishment for Ithan’s actions.

Sathia leaves a note for Tharion, informing him she’s gone to free Colin from the Viper Queen.

Ruhn comforts Lidia, who is worried about her sons, and they have sex.

Ithan buries the former Prime Apparent before heading to the Eternal City with the Gunslayer Rifle and secondlight bullet. Bryce and her companions split up: Ruhn and Lidia will rescue Brann and Actaeon from Pollux, Declan will hack the palace’s security cameras, Flynn will act as getaway driver, and Bryce and Hunt will reanimate the Fallen before destroying the firstlight core.

Hunt changes into his old Umbra Mortis suit and helmet which they find in the palace throne room, while Bryce uses the Mask to reanimate the pieces of soul still attached to Fallen wings hanging on the walls. Rigelus finds them and smugly reports that his armies are headed for the Northern Rift. They plan to infiltrate and conquer Hel while its armies are attacking the Eternal City. Unbeknownst to Rigelus, Bryce has anticipated this and split Hel’s army up accordingly.

Bryce and Hunt teleport out of the palace to the Northern Rift, where Hel’s armies are being attacked by the Asterian Guard and Mech-Suits. Bryce dons the Mask again, bringing the Fallen into the Mech-Suits and turning them on the Asterian Guard.

Ruhn and Lidia enter the palace and question the mystics about her sons. The mystics send them to the firstlight core beneath the castle. Ruhn, worried Lidia won’t be able to think clearly over her fear, shoots her in the thigh and races ahead to face Pollux alone.

All the Asteri except Rigelus arrive on the battlefield to face Bryce and her allies. Leading Hel’s armies are three Princes of Hel: Apollion, Aidas, and Thanatos. Bryce uses the Starsword and Truth-Teller, fueling both blades with Theia’s magic to open a portal to nowhere—a black hole—which sucks in Polaris, an Asteri Bryce has been fighting. Only Hunt’s magic prevents Bryce from being sucked in too. Ruhn radios Hunt and Bryce for backup at the firstlight core, so they teleport into the palace. Tharion also arrives in a blast of water.

Tharion loses the pack of antidotes in the water, so Bryce and Hunt leave him behind and get to the firstlight core, where Rigelus waits. Ruhn faces Pollux, but Lidia’s twins, Actaeon and Brann, are nowhere to be found: The mystics have led them into a trap set by Pollux. Tharion finds the antidotes and administers it to Lidia, releasing her full power—fire magic—and rapidly healing her.

Bryce and Hunt drain their power by teleporting around Rigelus and blasting the crystal protecting the core with Hunt’s lightning.

Meanwhile, Ithan approaches the Crystal Palace but is thrown to the side by a blast. He’s helped up by humans who have come to fight back after watching Bryce’s recording. Lidia and Tharion reach Ruhn and Pollux, who brings out her sons.

Tharion attempts to blast Pollux with water but Pollux shoots him in the chest. Lidia begs for Pollux’s mercy on her knees. To spare the lives of her sons and Lidia, Ruhn offers up himself in exchange for their freedom. Pollux denies the offer and decides to kill them all.

However, when Pollux attempts to harm Brann, Lidia tackles him out of the way and unleashes her fire on Pollux, burning him to ashes. Her sons display gratitude and awe, calling her “mom” for the first time. Lidia tasks Ruhn with getting her boys to safety while she destroys the Asteri brimstone missile launchers. This almost costs Lidia her life, but she is saved by the fire sprites and Irythis, who destroy the machines alongside her. Ruhn ingests the antidote and heals Tharion with his released power.

Ithan finds Bryce and Hunt and delivers Connor’s instructions, the Godslayer Rifle, and secondlight bullet. Bryce’s magic is drained; she knows that getting near enough to Rigelus to shoot the bullet into the firstlight core will leave her open to his fatal attack. Bryce gives the Mask to Hunt and teleports to the core alone. The four remaining Asteri are guarding it. Rigelus reveals that the core is Midgard’s kill switch—destroying it will destroy Bryce’s world.

Rigelus offers to make Bryce a conqueror herself if she yields, but she refuses to give in. She shoots the bullet into the core. Rigelus grabs her and she draws his magic into her, powering herself up to open another black hole portal. The black hole pulls all the Asteri—and Bryce—in.

Bryce opens another portal to nowhere inside the black hole, hoping it will consume the first black hole in Midgard and prevent it from doing damage beyond the palace. Three Asteri are pulled into the second portal of nothingness, but Rigelus remains gripped onto Bryce, pulling her closer.

Desperate to save Bryce, Hunt remembers the transfer of their magic, their souls, during sex. He also remembers that Made people or objects—such as Nesta or the Horn on Bryce’s back—can wield the Mask. This means he might be able to as well. The reanimated spirit of his former lover, the Fallen angel Shahar, allows him into her Mech-Suit, which projects him into the black hole and toward Bryce. The Mask gives Hunt air to breathe in the nothingness.

Shahar uses the last bit of power in her soul to blast Rigelus into the second black hole, ridding Midgard of the last Asteri. Holding Bryce, who is dead from lack of oxygen, Hunt lashes back at the closing portal with his lightning. Apollion grabs it and hauls him in while Aidas holds open the portal with the magic and help of Bryce’s and Hunt’s friends.

Hunt attempts using lightning to resuscitate Bryce, to no avail. Just then, Hypaxia and Jesiba arrive. With Hypaxia’s necromancer abilities, Jesiba is willing to transfer her curse of immortality to Bryce. Jesiba enters the realm of the afterlife where Bryce resides. In the distance, the Pack of Devils—including Danika and Connor—wave to her. Jesiba assures Bryce that she must return to her life with Hunt, while Jesiba stays behind with the other happy dead. As she transfers her immortality to Bryce, Jesiba leaves Bryce her wealth, books, and artifacts. Bryce returns to the living.

Hunt turns down the chance to lead the angels following the Asteri collapse and instead gifts the honor to Isaiah. Bryce opens a portal to Prythian to reclaim her parents and finds that Nesta has formed a mother-daughter connection to Ember. Bryce returns the Mask and Truth-Teller, then leaves the Starsword with Nesta. She no longer needs it in Midgard and believes that Nesta’s repeatedly been shown the eight-pointed star for a reason.

Ruhn and Lidia reunite her boys with their fathers, Renki and Davit. Brann and Actaeon are open to visiting Lidia in the future. After amicably parting with the Princes of Hel, who return to their realm with their armies, Bryce closes the Northern Rift permanently. Tharion searches for Sathia in the Meat Market, but is found by Ariadne.

Bryce invites all the Fae nobility and various media outlets to the Autumn King’s home. She announces an end to the royal houses, abolishes the monarchy entirely, and initiates a democratic Senate. She disperses her father’s wealth, making his mansion into an orphanage. Finally, she opens a new gallery with her inheritance from Jesiba—Griffin Antiquities—and hires Sigrid’s three former fire sprites to be her employees.

Ruhn and Lidia get an apartment near Bryce and Hunt, with a spare bedroom for her sons. Ithan, Flynn, and Declan greet the returning wolves at the Den. Hypaxia works on creating mass antidotes, while other scientists rush to find solutions to keep the power grid on without relying on firstlight and secondlight.