House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)

Light burst from the star, and the caves shook again. They rolled and rattled and trembled—

The walls were buckling, and she had the sense that Hunt lunged for her, but fell to his knees as the ground moved upward. Stone crumbled away around them, burying Pelias’s sarcophagus, the corpses of the two newly dead kings, and all their other hateful ancestors below. It churned them into dust. Sunlight broke through, the very earth parting as Bryce and the others were thrust upward.

Sunlight—not gray skies.

They emerged in the hills less than a mile from the castle and royal city. As if the caves had been backtracking all this way.

And from the rocky ground beneath them, spreading from the star at Bryce’s feet, grass and flowers bloomed. The river from the caverns burst forth, dancing down the newly formed hill.

Sathia and Flynn laughed, and both siblings knelt, putting their fingers in the grass. The earth magic in their veins surged forth as an oak burst from Flynn’s hands, shooting high over them, and from Sathia’s hands tumbled runners of strawberry and brambles of blackberry, tangles of raspberries and thickets of blueberries—

“Holy gods,” Tharion said, and pointed out to the sea.

It was no longer gray and thrashing, but a vibrant, clear turquoise. And rising from the water, just as they had seen on the map Declan had found, were islands, large and small. Lush and green with life.

Forests erupted on the island they stood on, soon joined by mountains and rivers.

So much life, so much magic, freed at last of Vanir control. A place not only for the Fae, but for everyone. All of them.

Bryce could feel it—the joy of the land at being seen, at being freed. She looked at Ruhn, and her brother’s face was bright with awe. As if their father didn’t lie beneath the earth, lost forever to the dark, his bones to be eaten by worms.

It was only awe, and freedom, lighting Ruhn’s face.

No more pain. No more fear.

Bryce didn’t know when she started crying, only that the next moment Ruhn was there, his arms around her, and they were both sobbing.

Their friends gave them space, understanding that it wasn’t pure joy that coursed through them—that their joy was tempered by grief for the years of pain, and hope for the years ahead.

The world might very well end soon, Bryce knew, and they might all die with it, but right now the paradise blooming around them, this awakened land, was proof of what life had been like before the Asteri, before the Fae and the Vanir.

Proof of what might be afterward.

Ruhn pulled back, cupping her face in his hands. Tears ran down his face. She couldn’t stop crying—crying and laughing—with all that flowed from her heart.

Her brother only pressed a kiss to her brow and said, “Long live the queen.”





64


The land had awoken, and the Fae of Avallen were terrified.

Hunt tried not to be smug at the sight of the destroyed castle. The occupants and the town had been spared, but vines and trees had burst through Morven’s castle and turned it into rubble.

“A last fuck you from the land,” Bryce murmured to Hunt as the two of them arrived at a hill overlooking the ruins. At their far end, a group of Fae stood in apprehensive silence around the demolished building.

Beside him, Bryce thrummed with power—from Helena and her cursed bloodline, but also from whatever lingering soul-wound had healed the moment Ruhn had cut off their father’s head.

Hunt slid an arm around his mate’s waist, taking in the Fae who were gawking at the ruins, the island of Avallen—and the new islands surrounding it.

Bryce peered up at him. “Are you … okay?”

He was silent for a long moment, looking out at the landscape. “No.”

She pressed closer into his side.

His throat worked for a moment. “I’m some weird demonic test-tube baby.”

“Maybe that’s where you came from, Hunt,” she said, offering him a gentle smile, “but it’s not who you are—who you became.”

He glanced at her. “Earlier, you seemed to not like the person I became.”

She sighed. “Hunt, I get it—all the shit you’re feeling. I really do. But I can’t do this without you. All of you.”

His heart ached as he looked at her fully. “I know. I’m trying. It’s just …” He struggled for the words. “My worst nightmare would be to see you in the Asteri’s hands. To see you dead.”

“And avoiding that fate is worth letting them rule forever?” There was no sharpness to her question—just curiosity.

“Part of me says yes. A very, very loud part of me,” he admitted. “But another part of me says that we need to do whatever it takes to end this. So future generations, future mates … they don’t have to make the same choices, suffer the same fates, as we have.”

He would try to put his fear behind him. For her, for Midgard.

“I know,” she said gently. “If you need to talk, if you need someone to listen … I’m here.”

He scanned her face, pure love aching in his heart. Some of that lingering darkness and pain remained, yes, but he’d fight through it. And he knew she’d give him the space he needed to do so. “Thanks, Quinlan.”

She rose up on her toes to kiss his cheek. A sweet, soft brush of her lips that warmed the final numbed shards of his soul.

Then she surveyed the ruins once more, taking his hand as they began walking down toward their friends gathered at the foot of the hill. “I got the last piece of Theia’s power, but what now? How do we take on the Asteri? How do we get close enough to them to use the knife and sword and toss them through that portal?”

He kissed her temple. “Give it a rest for today. For now, enjoy being leveled up.”

She snorted. “That doesn’t sound like a strategy from the Umbra Mortis.”

“I can’t tell if that’s an insult or not.” He nudged her with a wing. “We’ve got some other urgent stuff to sort out first, Bryce.”

“Yeah, I know,” she said as they came to a stop among their friends. She addressed all of them. “Since this place can hold out against the Asteri, we need to get as many people here as possible. Without tipping off imperial forces.”

“The Depth Charger could help,” Flynn suggested. Tharion grimaced but didn’t object.

Lidia asked, “But how would they pierce the mists?”

Bryce lifted a hand, and in the distance, the mists parted—then sealed. “Didn’t you hear? I’m a fancy world-walker who can do this shit innately. Plus …” She gave a crooked grin. “I’m now Queen of Avallen. Wielding the mists is a perk of the job.”

“Of course,” Hunt said, rolling his eyes and earning a jab to the ribs.

But Ruhn warned, “The Fae won’t be happy to share.”

Bryce motioned to the ruins, the damage she’d unleashed, however unknowingly. “They don’t have any choice.”

Ruhn snorted. “Long live the queen, indeed.”

Declan gave a shout from up on the hill, and they all turned toward him.

“Whatever you did with those mists, Bryce,” Declan shouted, “I got service!” He lifted his phone in triumph, and then lowered his head to read whatever messages he had.

“Small victories,” Bryce said. Lidia and Tharion laughed.

The Hind’s amusement faded, though, as she turned to Tharion, as if drawn by the mer’s own chuckle. “You could hide here, you know. The Ocean Queen can’t pass through these mists unless Bryce allows it.”

“Hide,” Tharion said, as if the word tasted foul.

“The alternative is begging her not to kill you,” Lidia said, “and then doing everything she says for the rest of your life.”

“No different from the River Queen,” Tharion said. Sathia was watching him carefully—curiously. The mer shrugged, and asked Lidia baldly, “How do you live with it? Being at her mercy?”

Lidia’s mouth tightened, and they all pretended they weren’t listening to her every word as she said at last, “I had no other choice.” She looked to Ruhn, eyes bright. “But I’m not going to anymore.”

Ruhn started, whirling to her. “What?”

Lidia said to him, to all of them, “If we survive the Asteri, I’m not going back.”