House of Sky and Breath

At the Crescent City Ballet (CCB), half-Fae and half-human Bryce, her mother Ember Quinlan, and stepfather Randall Silago prepare to watch a dance recital by Bryce’s best friend Juniper, a faun. Fae are humanoid creatures who occupy high status in Midgard hierarchy. They have superior physical strength and senses and a gift for magic. They have pointed ears and possess special gifts, such as harnessing the power of stars (like Bryce), fire, and shadows. Bryce has newfound celebrity because she has recently been revealed as a Fae Princess and a Starborn with the ability to wield starlight, the most potent power in Midgard. A star-shaped tattoo on her chest is her mark, and it flares with light whenever Bryce experiences heightened emotions or is in the presence of another powerful magical being.

Bryce awaits Hunt, an Angel who is second-in-command at Crescent City’s (Lunathion) 33rd Battalion, a force of soldiers. Angels are winged magical creatures, who tend to have a dubious reputation because they rebelled against the Asteri 15,000 years ago. Hunt was one of the chiefs of that rebellion and was sold into slavery as a soldier for that transgression. Most angels now work as soldiers for the Asteri. Bryce and Hunt have strong feelings for each other but have decided to wait until the Winter Solstice, four months away, to consummate their relationship. The handsome Hunt’s arrival sets Bryce’s heart aflutter. The group watch Juniper’s performance, trying to ignore the stares of the audience. Hunt and Bryce are an odd couple because Fae usually consort only with their kind. Additionally, Hunt has a violent past as the Umbra Mortis, the shadow of death, who was forced to wreak havoc under the command of his previous archangels.

After the ballet performance, Bryce and Hunt attend a party at the house of her half-brother, the Crown Prince Ruhr Danaan. Bryce and Ruhn are the children of the Autumn King, the cruel leader of the Valbaran Fae people (Randall is Bryce’s stepfather who brought her up; Bryce regards him, rather than the Autumn King, as her father). Ruhn’s quarters are crowded with “Fae and shifters and people of all Houses” (41). Shifters can shift between animal and humanoid forms but are not regarded as Fae. Many shifters, like angels, work as the Asteri’s guards and soldiers.

At the party, Bryce and Hunt feel an electric attraction towards each other and rue their decision to wait to be intimate. Bryce is happy to see her gentle friend Juniper deeply in love with Fury Axalar, a mercenary fighter of unknown origin. Although Bryce loves her group of friends, she still misses Danika, the childhood friend and alpha wolf who died in House of Earth and Blood. Meanwhile, Hunt gets an email from Isaiah, the first-in-command at the 33rd, that they will soon be welcoming the archangel Celestina as Governor. In House of Earth and Blood, Bryce and Hunt killed the sadistic archangels Micah and Sandriel. While Micah was the Governor of Lunathion, Sandriel was the Governor of the northwest quadrant of Pangera, the Midgardian continent in which the Eternal City is located. The Eternal City is the seat of the six Asteri. Compared to other archangels, Celestina is low-profile. Hunt cannot find any bad intel on Celestina, which makes him suspicious of her. Given his experience with archangels, Hunt is wary of working under one again. Bryce reminds Hunt that after Micah’s death, he is free, and Celestina cannot order him to do anything against his will.

Ruhn Danaan’s sexual encounter with a faun at his party is interrupted by his friend Flynn. Flynn tells Ruhn the security system around the house has picked up an anomaly. As Ruhn heads downstairs, a portal opens around the front door, and a familiar golden-haired person surrounded by shadows steps inside. Bryce and the others tense, and the tattoo on Bryce’s chest begins to glow.

The new arrival is Cormac Donnall, the Crown Prince of the Avallar Fae people and cousin to Bryce and Ruhn. Cormac and Ruhn know each other, but this is the first time Bryce is meeting Cormac. Cormac dramatically announces that he is here to meet his bride, Bryce. The Autumn King and Cormac’s father have arranged a match between Cormac and Bryce. By archaic Fae law, Bryce, an unmarried woman, is bound to obey her father. Bryce dismisses Cormac, and he leaves. The group discuss Cormac, who once competed with Ruhn for the precious Starsword, a weapon infused with star power. Ruhn won the Starsword, but acknowledges that as Starborn, Bryce has an equal right to it. Bryce is more concerned with finding a way out of the betrothal with Cormac. Ruhn promises to study Fae law for a loophole to help her. Bryce and Hunt leave. When they reach her apartment, they find the wolf-shifter “Ithan Holstorm, bleeding all over her pale wood floors” (69).

Tharion Ketos, Captain of Intelligence for the Istros River Queen, has been tasked with looking for the body of Sofie in the House of Many Waters. Because Sofie is a thunderbird, even her corpse might be of value, though the exact nature of the River Queen’s interest in Sofie is unknown. Tharion, a mer who attains humanoid form on land, hates his task. He is trapped under the River Queen’s rule because he is betrothed to her daughter, whose virginity he took 10 years ago. Tharion’s submersible—this world’s version of a small submarine—detects lead blocks at the water’s floor. Sofie was tied to lead blocks and drowned by the Hind. However, the chains around the blocks are open, suggesting Sofie either escaped or someone else took her body. The River Queen now bids Tharion to look for Emile because Sofie might have escaped to find her brother.

Ithan has been badly beaten up by his Pack and kicked out. Perry Ravenscroft, the Pack’s omega, took pity on Ithan and brought him to Bryce’s house. Because Ithan, a shifter, is a magical being, his wounds heal fast, but he is still in bad shape. Ithan was thrown out of the Pack by Sabine, the leader of the wolves, for praising Bryce’s role in the attack on the city in the Spring. Sabine, Danika’s mother, hates Bryce. Ithan is the younger brother of Connor, a wolf whom Bryce dated in House of Earth and Blood and who was killed in the attack on Crescent City. Ithan and Bryce have a complicated history. Though he helped Bryce during the attack, he has mistreated her in the past.

Bryce asks Ithan to stay over and share her room. Hunt is jealous. Bryce tells Ithan that Danika helped her make her Drop, which won Bryce immortality. Ithan misses his brother Connor and tells Bryce that Connor considered her a mate. A mate is a serious term for wolves and Fae, indicating a soul-bond deeper than marriage. For Angels, mates can be sexual or marriage partners in the usual sense.

Ruhn and Cormac are with the Autumn King, discussing the match between Cormac and Bryce. Ruhn argues against the forced match, but the Autumn King tells his son, “Bryce will come willingly at the marriage altar […] As will you” (86). Ruhn is betrothed to Hypaxia Enador, the daughter of the witch Queen Hecuba. Ruhn and Hypaxia do not love each other and have secretly agreed to a marriage of convenience. To his surprise, Ruhn learns Hypaxia’s lineage is even more unorthodox than he thought. Not only is she the daughter of a witch, her father was a necromancer, a sorcerer who could raise and speak to the dead. Hypaxia has inherited his gift. Hecuba had another daughter, “sired by a shape-shifting stag” (87). This daughter is known to the world as the Hind. Because she didn’t inherit her mother’s witch gifts, the Hind was handed over to her father’s people.