House of Sky and Breath

Bryce exits the hall so she can teleport to Hunt. She notices another door, its handle gleaming, and decides to investigate. She is in the Asteri’s main archives, lined with door after door. She finds one named "Dusk," and realizes this might be connected to "Dusk’s Truth," the project Danika was working on. Inside is a round table with seven seats around it. The walls are covered with paper maps of solar and star systems, many unknown to her. As she reads the text next to the maps, it becomes clear these are the Asteri’s notes on planets they conquered, enslaved, and discarded. There is a map which says Iphraxia. Iphraxia was conquered in A.E. 680 and lost in A.E. 720 because “denizens learned of our methods too quickly … evacuated” (756). Midgard was conquered in A.E. 17003 and is described as an ideal world for colonization. Hel was lost in A.E. 17001 and contains “mighty creatures of night” (758) who saw through the Asteri’s lures. Bryce realizes all of official history is a lie. The Asteri are predatory creatures who colonize worlds to use their organisms as bio-fuel. Midgard was the world they chose to lure in magical creatures from different worlds. Since magical creatures produce more fuel, the supply for the Asteri on Midgard would never run out. The Asteri enslaved humans, the original inhabitants of Midgard. The Princes of Hel chased the Asteri to Midgard and tried to warn people of their true intent. The rifts kept Hel away, but “for fifteen thousand years, Hel had never stopped trying to find a way back here. To free them from the Asteri” (759). Bryce now tries to locate the Asteri’s home world through the maps, but the voice of Rigelus says she will not find it, because even they Asteri have forgotten their home planet.

Meanwhile, Ruhn races down the halls to find Day. He runs into Mordoc, who knows his scent well. Mordoc captures Ruhn. At the lab, Cormac begins to kill the scientists and engineers indiscriminately. Pippa bursts on the scene and shoots Cormac. The injured prince asks Tharion to get out and begins to gather his fire power. Tharion realizes Cormac is on a suicide mission; he never intended to leave the lab alive.

Rigelus appears to Bryce on video chat. He tells Bryce the Asteri have a right to nutrition. She cannot blame them if their source of energy is inconvenient to others. Rigelus planned for Bryce to come to the Crystal Palace all along. He wants her to open the Rifts, using her star power and Luna’s horn. The Rifts were closed by Theia and her daughters, who had learnt the truth about the Asteri. Theia’s people had been slaves to the Asteri on their home planet, had rebelled against them, and killed the siblings of Rigelus. Theia wanted to stop the Asteri from revisiting other worlds and luring more beings to Midgard. By shutting the rifts, Theia also closed off access to Hel, her biggest ally.

Rigelus was the one who ordered Micah to kill Danika. Danika had to be killed because she had realized the shifters were Fae, though not the same kind as Bryce. The Asteri indoctrinated the shifters long ago to believe they were not Fae and turned them into their servants. Had the shifters realized they too were Fae, they could have united with the Vanir against the Asteri. Bryce’s Fae home planet is a land infused with magic; the Starborn line hails from an island on this planet in which there is perpetual twilight or Dusk. Project Thurr was the name of the project in which someone other than Danika had come close to discovering the Asteri’s truth, a long time ago.

To prevent the Asteri from using her to open the Rift, Bryce decides to run and teleports to Hunt. She finds Hunt bound with gorsian manacles, having been caught by the Harpy.

Five Asteri, except for Rigelus, arrive at the lab. Cormac begins to build his power so he can explode. He erupts into a ball of fire and consumes Pippa and the mech-suit. Tharion runs from the scene as he has to submerge himself in water soon. Tharion gets half a mile away when the entire lab explodes, Cormac inside it.

Ruhn, Bryce, and Hunt are all brought to the dungeons. Mordoc tells them he has been following Ruhn and the others for a long time on the orders of Rigelus. Hunt’s scent is different from that of any angel Mordoc has known. The Harpy arrives on the scene and approaches Ruhn to torture him. Just then “something golden and swift as the wind barreled into her side and sent the Harpy sprawling” (769). It is the Hind, come to their help. Her scent appears familiar and lovely to Ruhn.

Ruhn addresses the Hind as ‘Day,’ and she replies ‘Night’. The Hind/ Lidia Cervos is Agent Daybright. Her scent had seemed familiar to Ruhn from the very beginning because she is Hypaxia’s half-sister. finally realizes that Day is the Hind/Lidia Cervos. Lidia and the Harpy fight. Lidia kills the Harpy and unlocks Ruhn’s chains. She had tried to warn Ruhn that the Asteri knew of their plans but was interrupted by Pollux, her lover. She could not have warned Ruhn outright as that would blow her cover. Her cover is absolutely vital to the rebellion. The Hind did not kill Sofie. Using the enchanted white stones, she had summoned the Ocean Queen’s ship to rescue Sofie, as she had called it to save Bryce’s group.

As Lidia hears Pollux approach, she asks Bryce to attack her to maintain her cover. Pollux arrives at the scene and hauls Bryce off Lidia. The Hind hands Bryce the key to their manacles before that. Catching Ruhn staring at Lidia, Pollux kisses her forcibly. Ruhn realizes he is sadistic towards Lidia. She has endured a relationship with him so she can keep supplying intel to the rebels. Ruhn is angry with Lidia for killing so many people, but he also feels extremely protective of her. Pollux says the prisoners must come with him to Rigelus. Bryce knows Rigelus has no intention of letting her leave the palace alive. That is why he was comfortable giving her so much information. She has not been able to share the information with anyone, and therefore must escape so she can save the world.

Bryce, Hunt, and Ruhn are taken to the throne room, where Hunt’s and Shahar’s severed wings are still displayed on the wall above the Asteri’s thrones. Rigelus sits on a throne, appearing to be a teenage Fae boy. Bryce can see a quartz gate at one end of the room. Baxian and Mordoc join Lidia and Pollux. Rigelus informs Bryce that Cormac is dead, though his unidentified companion (Tharion) escaped. He also reveals it was him that came to Bryce’s apartment disguised as Aides and who sent the Reapers after Bryce and Ruhn. What’s more, Celestina has been reporting on Hunt to Rigelus. Hunt is shocked, but thinks Celestina betrayed him in exchange for Hypaxia’s safety. When Bryce calls the Asteri parasites, Rigelus silences her so she cannot leak information about their true nature to the others. Rigelus taunts Ruhn that he will summon his father here so he can burn him with his fire, as he used to when Ruhn was a boy. Ruhn wears tattoos to hide the scars of his father’s abuse. Bryce inwardly swears to avenge her brother. She offers cooperate with Rigelus if he lets Hunt and Ruhn go.

Rigelus accepts Bryce’s offer. He wants Bryce to lead the Asteri to the world from which she came. The star on her chest is a beacon to that world, which is why it glows in the presence of Fae with bloodlines from her world, such as Cormac. Her ancestors overthrew the Asteri in this world; and the Asteri want revenge. Bryce hugs Hunt who tells her their love is “stronger than time, greater than any distance. I will find you again. I promise.” She bids goodbye to Ruhn. Ruhn mind-speaks to her to take the Starsword as she goes. She is to go to Hel, instead of her home world, and bring Hel’s armies back. Bryce has secretly opened everyone’s manacles. On Ruhn’s signal, she grabs the Starsword and blasts Rigelus with starlight. Hunt too shoots him with lightning, temporarily disarming him. Baxian attacks Pollux. Bryce notes the Hind is unconscious on the floor. Bryce runs towards the quartz gate so she can open a portal to Hel. Rigelus recovers and runs after Bryce. Hunt continues to shoot lightning to power Bryce, lighting up her horn. Bryce teleports to the Gate and blasting light from her star mark, portals out, just as Rigelus reaches her.

Hunt is captured again. He is gagged and bound with gorsian stone, as are Baxian and Ruhn. The Hind seems to have recovered. Rigelus takes Hunt before the Gate and tattoos a thorny halo around his skull, a ritual which drains away Hunt’s power. Hunt sinks into darkness and pain, screaming for Bryce.

Bryce is surprised to see Hel has grass and mist. She gets up from where she has landed and notices the Starsword near her. She is in a lawn in a beautiful city. Just then, a man’s voice speaks to her in an unfamiliar language. A winged beautiful man with scarred hands hauls her to her feet and blindfolds her. His eyes widen when he sees the Starsword. He takes Bryce and the sword to a room in a house. Bryce keeps demanding to see Aidas as her home world in in grave danger. The man places her in a comfortable chair and Bryce tears off her blindfold. She is in a beautiful, aesthetically decorated home. A group of people come to see Bryce. Bryce can tell they are Fae, some of them winged Fae. To communicate with them, Bryce uses the only other language she knows, the ancient language of the Fae. “Is this Hel?” Bryce asked again in that old tongue of The Fae (797). A dark-haired woman replies in the ancient language that no one on this world has spoken this language in 15,000 years. The world is not Hel. Bryce has no option but to beg the people for help. She tells them her name. A man, whom Bryce notes resembles Ruhn, tells her his name, which is Rhysand. (Rhysand is one of the chief characters of Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series).

Outside the Astronomer’s building, Ithan gets the news that Ruhn and Hunt have been captured by the Asteri, Bryce vanished, and Cormac dead. A shattered Ithan breaks into the Astronomer’s den and pleads with the wolf mystic to wake up so Ithan can take her away. She opens her eyes.