House of Earth and Blood

Hunt and the others at the Summit are able to watch Bryce’s progress through the video feed. Bryce phones Jesiba, calling for backup at the Meadows, but the forces in the city are spread thin. Ithan volunteers to help Bryce even though Sabine commands her wolf pack to keep still.

All the shelters in the city are about to go into lockdown as Bryce and Ithan battle their way to refuge in the Meadows. Sandriel commands the members of the Summit to stay put. She says that the Asteri are sending the Asterian Guard as reinforcements. Bryce manages to shove Ithan through the door of the shelter before it locks. She is now alone on the streets, but the demon battles have moved a few blocks away. Bryce decides to head for the portal in the Old Square.

Bryce calls the Summit and asks to speak to Hunt. Now exhausted, she believes she is saying her final goodbyes. She tells Ruhn that she forgives him for everything. The two men plead with her to take refuge in her apartment, but she is determined to reach the Old Square Gate.

When Bryce arrives at the Gate, a strange glow begins to emanate from her. To everyone’s amazement, she announces that she is the heir to the Starborn Fae. “Bryce exploded. White, blinding light ruptured from her, unleashed from that secret place in her heart” (739). Taking the light into her hands, she aims it at the quartz conduit in the Gate and commands it to close.

Witnesses at the Summit are shocked. Bryce has kept this secret gift of light all her life. She flashes back to years earlier when she rescued Danika from the asp shifters and their illegal animal trade. Bryce blinded her attackers with her light and then shot them. Danika kept this secret for the rest of her life.

The Summit participants watch in awe as Bryce seals the Old Quarter Gate. “Bryce possessed the light of a star, such as hadn’t been witnessed since the First Wars. Jesiba looked like she’d seen a ghost. Fury gaped at the screen. When the flare dimmed, Hunt’s breath caught in his throat” (743).

The Autumn King is stunned by this revelation about his worthless daughter and immediately calls Ember for an explanation. Bryce’s mother and Randall knew all along about her power. When they were fleeing from the King’s Fae guards, Bryce was able to blind the attackers so she and her parents could escape.

Ruhn asks why Bryce didn’t reveal her power to him, but Ember explains that she didn’t want to interfere with her brother’s title as the Chosen One and his right to inherit the Fae throne. None of the magical detectors ever registered Bryce’s power because the light of the Starborn isn’t a power. It is a gift. It only holds meaning for the Fae. It was also Bryce who blinded the Oracle during her reading to prevent her secret from being revealed to the Autumn King.

Ironically, only Starborn Bryce had the power to use Luna’s Horn after it was repaired. This is why Danika inked it on her back. Sandriel informs the Summit that she has told the Asterian Guard to kill Bryce because her power to open and close portals is a threat to the Republic. While this discussion is occupying everyone’s attention, Hypaxia quietly dissolves Hunt’s slave halo. He is now free to kill Sandriel.

It takes Hunt only a few moments to destroy his former owner and tormenter. Then, he asks Fury to commandeer a helicopter to get them to the Old Square Gate so he can rescue Bryce before the Asterian Guard bombs the location. The guard has already launched brimstone missiles over the city, and one has exploded near Bryce, pinning her foot under a chunk of concrete.

Bryce, now spent, lies on the ground by the Gate, hoping to gather her strength enough to seal the other six gates, but her foot remains caught in the rubble. Before the guard can aim another missile at her, Hunt launches himself out of the helicopter. He still can’t fly, but he is determined to shield Bryce with his body before the next attack.

Hunt lands in time to cover Bryce as the blast hits. She is alive, but his body has been broken by the fall, and he is barely breathing. Bryce has an idea to save him. If she can make the Drop now, she might gain enough power to heal Hunt. She reaches up to the intercom on the Gate and attempts to contact someone who might be near one of the other six gates.

If she makes the Drop, she needs someone to act as her Anchor, or she might not survive. Nearing despair, Bryce finally gets a response from one of the other gates. “Bryce whipped her head around to look at the Gate as Danika’s voice sounded again. ‘Light it up, Bryce.’ The onyx stone of the Bone Quarter glowed like a dark star” (764).

Jesiba and Hypaxia, monitoring the video feed from the Gate, agree that a dead soul cannot act as an Anchor. Bryce doesn’t care. “And soul to soul with the friend whom she had not forgotten, the friend who had not forgotten her, even in death, Bryce made the Drop” (765). As Bryce goes through the ritual, the monitors at the Summit are picking up her vital signs and magical power level. Because she is physically connected to the Gate, she is gathering the power of all the souls who stopped and made a wish at that spot. The deeper she drops toward death, the more power she gains.

Bryce’s connection to the Old Quarter Gate activates all the other gates and light begins to stream from them, dispelling the demons. As the gates close, a mystical healing begins, restoring all the injured people in the city and all the structures as well. The Autumn King is dismayed by the power his rejected daughter has amassed. He warns everyone at the Summit that she still needs to come back to life and probably won’t make it.

Danika says that she can’t help Bryce make the Ascent back to life, though she urges her on to gain momentum before the final leap. Back at the Summit, the monitors show that Bryce has flatlined. Her father says that it will be impossible for her to return, but the power of love proves him wrong. Hunt, now recovered, is applying cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and challenging Bryce to come back to him.

As Hunt continues to apply CPR, he thinks, “He had Fallen, he had survived, he had gone through every trial and torture and horror—all for this moment. So he could be here. It had all been for her. For Bryce” (778). A few moments later, Bryce returns to life.

As Bryce and Hunt make their way back to her apartment, people emerge from their homes, deep in mourning. Bryce realizes what happened during the time she was unconscious:

The Horn inked into her back had done its job well. Not one void remained in the Gates. And her firstlight—through those Gates—had been able to heal everything: people, buildings, the world itself. Yet it could not do the impossible. It could not bring back the dead (780).

Back in the apartment, on the verge of a passionate reunion, Bryce and Hunt are interrupted by a call from Ember. She badgers her daughter for reassurance that Bryce is alright. Meanwhile, Hunt receives a call to return and take charge at the Comitium. Just as both are about to exit and deal with the challenges ahead, Bryce receives a call from one of the Asteri named Rigelus.

The purpose of this call is to thank Bryce for saving Lunathion. As an extra gesture of gratitude, Rigelus magically removes the slave tattoo from Hunt’s wrist and grants him citizenship. He will never have to answer to another master again. Rigelus manages to convey a hidden threat along with the gift, which Hunt interprets after the phone call ends. “Hunt slumped on the couch, rubbing his face. ‘Live quietly and normally, keep your mouths shut, never use the Horn, and we won’t […] kill you and everyone you love’” (791).

As Bryce and Hunt emerge from her apartment, they meet up with Fury and Ruhn. Ruhn tells Bryce that he never cared about becoming king. He only wants his sister back. The siblings repair their broken relationship, discovering that they share the Fae gift of telepathy. The four go their separate ways, each intent on a separate mission to restore the city.

Bryce takes Syrinx for a walk along the Bone Quarter dock. She gazes across the mist-shrouded water. As a special thank you, the Under-King parts the fog long enough for Bryce to see the wolfpack happy in their afterlife. She blows a kiss to Connor before the fog closes back in. After shutting the door on her past, Bryce heads home, thinking, “There was an angel in her apartment. Which meant it must be any gods-damned day of the week. Which meant she had joy in her heart, and her eyes set on the wide-open road ahead” (797).

Jesiba is seated on a bench in Oracle’s Park, conversing with Aidas in his feline form. Aidas observes that Bryce bears the same light as the Fae Queen Theia, who first made the crossing into Midgard. He seems concerned by her level of power. Jesiba and Aidas appear to be allies, but their future plans for Midgard are not spoken. Their concluding words are cryptic and set the stage for the next volume in the series:

Jesiba didn’t speak again until the fifth Prince of Hel had stalked a few feet away. ‘Don’t f*** us over this time, Aidas.’ ‘I do not plan to,’ he said, fading into the space between realms, Hel a dark song beckoning him home. ‘Not when things are about to get so interesting’ (799).