House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City Series)
House of Flame and Shadow: Part 2 – Chapter 42

Bryce couldn’t help but be impressed that Hunt, Tharion, and Baxian held their shit together until they got back to a cabin barely big enough to fit all of them, let alone so many egos. She certainly had a Hel of a time with it.

But as soon as the door shut, absolute chaos erupted.

“What the fuck—” Hunt exploded.

“Are you all right—” she started.

“The home world of the Fae?” Tharion demanded at the same time Baxian chuckled, “That was epic.”

Tharion sank onto one of the bunks, his normally tan skin pale. “Only you would tangle with the Ocean Queen, Legs.”

Baxian said to the mer, “Confined to the ship, huh?”

Tharion winced. “I’m fucked.”

Bryce turned to Hunt, who was leaning against the door he’d shut. She arched her brows at her mate, at his too-calm expression. She knew that look. He was no doubt debating how soon he could kick everyone out and fuck her senseless.

Her toes curled in her sneakers, and she gave him a wink. Hunt rolled his eyes, a corner of his mouth kicking up despite himself.

She hadn’t failed to see that glimmer of darkness in his gaze, though. Whatever had happened to him while she’d been gone, it had left a mark on the inside, too.

But they’d talk about it later. Bryce asked, “Where’s Ruhn?”

“With Lidia,” Hunt said quietly.

“Lidia?”

Baxian nodded, sitting beside Tharion, his black wings gleaming like raven feathers. “Yeah. She got us all out. She’s, uh … a bit worse for wear. Ruhn’s been watching over her.”

Bryce’s chest tightened. “Will she—”

Before Bryce could finish, the door blasted open. Hunt’s lightning was an instant crackling wall in front of her.

But Bryce let out a low sound of joy when she saw Ruhn panting in the doorway, her brother’s eyes wide with shock.

Then they were hugging and laughing, and such joy poured from her that her starlight glowed brightly, casting stark shadows in the cramped room. “Bryce,” he said, grinning, and the pride in his voice had her throat closing up. She grabbed his hand, unable to come up with the words, but then she saw his arms.

His tattoos were in ribbons. Like his skin had been split open so deep—

Her starlight winked out. “Ruhn,” she breathed.

“All in one piece,” Ruhn said, and glanced to Baxian. “Again.”

“I don’t want to know what that look means,” Bryce said as Baxian winced apologetically.

“You really don’t,” Hunt said, sliding an arm around her shoulders and guiding her to the bunk opposite where Baxian and Tharion rested. He sat close enough that his thigh pressed into hers, and went so far as to drape a wing over her. Like he’d never let her out of his sight again.

She breathed in his scent, his warmth, over and over again. The most wonderful things in the universe.

Ruhn blinked at Bryce, as if not convinced she was really there. “I’m not hallucinating, right?” he asked.

“No.” Bryce patted the bed beside her.

But Ruhn lingered by the door, his face grim. “It kills me to say this, but I can’t stay long.”

“What happened?” Baxian asked.

“Lidia woke up,” Ruhn said. “And, ah … she had some surprises to share.”

“So,” Hunt said to Ruhn in the stunned quiet five minutes later. “Your girlfriend has … kids.”

Bryce’s mind reeled from all her brother had said.

Ruhn only lifted baleful eyes to Hunt. All right: no teasing. She let out a low whistle. “How the Hel did Lidia hide it? When did she even have these kids?”

Baxian said ominously, “I think the better question is whether they’re Pollux’s.”

“They didn’t have wings,” Ruhn said tensely. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“She’s all right, though?” Bryce asked. She owed the female everything. Everything. If there was anything she could do to help her—

“She’s sleeping again,” Ruhn said. “I think the run upstairs drained her.”

“Adrenaline fueled it, probably,” Tharion mused.

Ruhn’s eyes went hazy, worried, so Bryce supposed Hunt did him a favor when he changed the subject. He turned to her. “Okay, let’s hear it. How the fuck did you get onto this ship? How did you replace us?”

To distract Ruhn, she could play along. “I told you: I teleported.” She met Hunt’s eyes, registering the love and pain there, and said quietly, “You’re my home, Hunt. Our love spans across stars and worlds, remember?” She smiled slightly. “I’ll always replace you.”

His throat worked, no doubt recalling that he’d said those same words to her before she’d jumped through the Gate in the Eternal Palace. But he dropped her stare like he couldn’t bear it, and asked, “Where did you teleport from?”

Fine, then. She’d give him some space to sort out his shit. “From dear old Dad’s house. Where he thought he was keeping me hostage.”

“He thought?” Ruhn demanded.

Bryce shrugged.

Hunt threw her a bone this time. “Can you explain what you said to the Ocean Queen in there? About the parasites in the water and the Asteri?”

“What else is there to say? They infected the waters of Midgard with it. It’s in all of us. It forces us to make the Drop, otherwise it sucks away our power.”

“Excuse me?” Ruhn blurted.

Bryce sighed. And explained it again.

All of it, this time—from the start. Arriving in the other world, being held in the dungeon. Escaping and traveling the tunnels with Azriel and Nesta. Then what she’d learned in that secret chamber: of the world of the Fae, of the Daglan, of Theia and Fionn and Pelias, of Silene and Helena, of Hel’s assistance. Of claiming Silene’s power, and how her own starlight now felt different. Then the encounter with Vesperus and stealing Truth-Teller from Azriel.

It took an hour to explain it all, though she omitted any mention of the Mask or the Trove. The fewer people who knew about them, the better. When she got to the part about how she’d been able to zero in on Hunt and jump right to him, his eyes gleamed, so full of love that her chest ached.

Ruhn had been silent through all of it, though his phone buzzed frequently while she spoke. She had a feeling that he was getting updates from someone about Lidia’s current state.

Hunt leaned forward, bracing his forearms on his thighs. He exhaled a long breath. “Okay. That is … a lot. Just give me a moment.”

Bryce absently rubbed at her chest, the eight-pointed star scar there. She said quietly, “Tell me what happened here. Please.”

Bryce needed a minute when they finished.

Ten minutes, actually.

She left the room with a quiet “I’m so sorry” and then she was in the hall, stomach churning, breath stalling—

“Bryce,” Hunt said from a few steps behind, boots thudding on the tiled floor.

She couldn’t turn to face him. She’d left them, and they had suffered so much—

“Quinlan,” he growled. His hand wrapped around her elbow, halting her. The hall was empty, its window overlooking the crushing black sea beyond the glass.

“Bryce,” he said again, and gently turned her. She couldn’t stop her face from crumpling.

Hunt was there in an instant, wrapping her in his arms, wings folding around them, surrounding her with that familiar, beckoning scent of rain on cedar.

“Shhh,” he whispered, and she realized she’d begun crying, the full force of all that had happened to him, to her, crashing down.

Bryce slid her arms around his waist, clinging tight. “I was so worried—”

“I’m fine.”

She scanned his face, his silver-lined eyes. “Those dungeons weren’t … fine, Hunt.”

“I survived.”

But shadows darkened his face with the words. He bowed his head, leaning his brow against hers. That hateful halo pressed against her skin. “Barely,” he admitted. She tightened her arms around him, shaking. “The thought of you kept me going.”

He might as well have punched her in the heart. “You kept me going, too.”

“Yeah?” The love in his voice threatened to shatter her heart. “I knew these smoldering good looks would come in handy one day.”

She laughed brokenly. Lifted a hand to his face and traced its strong, beautiful lines.

“I’m sorry,” he breathed, and the pain in the words nearly knocked her to the ground.

“For what?”

He shut his eyes, throat bobbing. “For getting us into this mess.”

She pulled back. “You? You got us into this mess?”

He opened his eyes again, his gaze bleak as the sea beyond the wall of windows at their backs. “I should have warned you, should have made us all think before we jumped into this nightmare—”

She gaped. “You did warn me. You warned us all.” She cupped his cheek in a hand. “But the only ones to blame for any of this are the Asteri, Hunt.”

“I should have tried harder. None of us would be in this situation—”

“I’m going to stop you right there,” she said hotly, laying her palm on his chest. “Do I regret the pain and suffering that you all went through? Solas, yes. I can barely think about it. But do I regret that we took a stand, that we are taking a stand? No. Never. And you couldn’t have stopped me from starting that fight.” She frowned. “I thought we were on the same page about doing what needs to be done.”

His expression shuttered. “We were—are.”

“You don’t sound too sure of that.”

“You didn’t have to see your friends carved apart.”

The second the words were out, she knew from his wide eyes that he regretted them. But it didn’t stop them from hurting, from pelting her heart like stones. From sending her anger boiling up within her.

But she stared at the black ocean pressing against the glass, all that death held a few inches away. She said quietly, “I had to live with the terror of possibly never getting home, never seeing you again, wondering if you were even alive, every second I was gone.” She glanced at him sidelong in time to see something cold pass over his face. She hadn’t seen that coldness in a long, long time.

The face of the Umbra Mortis.

His voice was chilled, too, as he said, “Good thing we both made it, then.”

It wasn’t a resolution. Not even close. But this wasn’t the conversation she wanted to have with him. Not right now. So she said blandly, turning from the wall of windows, “Yeah. Good thing.”

“So we’re really headed to Avallen?” Hunt asked carefully, letting it drop as well, that Umbra Mortis face vanishing. “You ready to deal with King Morven?”

Bryce nodded, crossing her arms. “We won’t accomplish anything against the Asteri if I can’t learn what that portal to nowhere is and how it could possibly kill them. The Autumn King suggested that the Avallen Archives have a trove of information about the blades. And as for Morven … I just spent a few days with one asshole Fae King. Morven won’t be any worse.”

Hunt shifted on his feet, wings tucking in tight. “I’m down with the plan and all, but … you really think there’s anything in the Avallen Archives that hasn’t already been discovered?”

“If there’s any place on Midgard that might have clues, it’s there. The heart of all things Starborn. And that’s where the Autumn King said he read about the portal to nowhere in the first place.”

“I’ll take whatever edge we can get, but again: King Morven isn’t exactly friendly.”

Bryce glanced down at her chest, the star-shaped scar barely peeking above the dip of her T-shirt. “He’ll welcome us.”

“Why are you so sure?”

She reached a hand into the interior pocket of her black athletic jacket. With a flourish, she pulled out her father’s notebook. “Because I’ve got the Autumn King’s dirty little secrets.”