House of Earth and Blood

That evening, Bryce goes to visit her brother at his bachelor pad. Because he’s a member of the military Auxiliaries, or Aux, she thinks he might have some information about the Viper Queen’s whereabouts on the night that Danika was killed. The two were on bad terms, making the queen a suspect in the shifter’s murder. Ruhn agrees to check the official records. He has a hunch that his search for Luna’s Horn is somehow connected to Bryce’s investigation.

Hunt is once again furious that Bryce gave him the slip to visit her brother. He starts badgering her about completing the suspect list instead of getting her nails done. She coolly informs him that her manicurist was Maximus’s girlfriend, and she told Bryce that Maximus didn’t know Danika at all. This contradicts Micah’s assertion about their connection. However, Danika and Maximus did have one mutual acquaintance—the Viper Queen who rules the Meat Market Quarter. Bryce takes off on her scooter for the district, with Hunt flying after her.

Bryce enters the shop of a satyr and haggles with him to purchase some contraband obsidian salt. This is used for summoning demons from Hel:

Hel was severed from them by time and space, but still accessible through the twin sealed portals at the north and south poles—the Northern Rift and the Southern Rift, respectively. Or by idiots who tried to summon demons through salts of varying powers (204).

After Bryce makes her purchase, she is accosted on the street by the Viper Queen herself.

The Viper Queen takes an interest in Bryce’s illegal purchase. She invites the girl and her angel guardian into her office. While Hunt quietly fumes about their predicament, Bryce whispers that it was her plan all along to get immediate access to the Viper Queen. Buying illegal salt was the quickest route. The Viper Queen has an alibi for the nights of both murders and gives the pair of detectives a flash drive documenting her movements. She advises Bryce, “Here’s a pro tip for your little investigation […] Look toward where it hurts the most. That’s always where the answers are” (214-15).

The next day at work, Bryce calls Hunt to help her with a project. Because her memories of Danika’s death are so painful, she is having trouble completing the report of the shapeshifter’s movements during her final week alive. Hunt meets Bryce in the basement of the gallery, which contains mysterious and forbidden volumes of lore. Possessing them is illegal, but he promises not to tell the authorities. Lehabah, the guardian of the books, immediately develops a crush on Hunt. Syrinx also seems to like him. By asking Bryce leading questions, Hunt gets her to compile the list of Danika’s activities. As they complete the project, Bryce gets a text to meet her brother at Luna’s Temple. Hunt decides to tag along.

Though unhappy that his sister is working with Hunt, Ruhn accepts the situation and gives them valuable information about the demon they are seeking. He has learned that the King of Hel created it to track Luna’s Horn. “It dwells in the darkest depths of the Pit […] So lightless that the Star-Eater named it the kristallos, for its clear blood and teeth” (235).

The Horn once had magical properties that no one has been able to access since it was broken millennia earlier. It was created by the first Starborn Prince, Pelias, during the original wars that sealed the demon realms away from Midgard. Ruhn has inherited Starborn magic, and he thinks he can track the Horn through some psychic connection to it. Bryce, Hunt, and Ruhn believe that the kristallos has emerged to find the Horn as well. They conclude, “We find the demon, we find who’s behind this. And if we have the Horn […] The kristallos will come to us” (237).

Hunt leaves to make some phone calls while Bryce and Ruhn continue their conversation. Despite their mutual dislike for their father, neither sibling believes the Autumn King summoned the kristallos. The two form an uneasy alliance because Bryce is still angry at her brother for calling her a “half-breed slut” during their argument years earlier. He says he didn’t mean those words, but Bryce retorts, “You might dress like you’re a punk rebelling against Daddy’s rules, but deep down, you’re no better than the rest of the Fae sh**heads who kiss your Chosen One ass” (242).