House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City #3) by Sarah J. Maas

Yeah, the Fae here had been no better than the ones in Nesta’s world.

They walked for hours and hours—miles and miles. There were occasional stops, alternating who took watch, but sleep was difficult.

The ghouls lurked in crevices and alcoves all around, scraps of malevolent shadow. They hissed with hunger for warm blood—and in abject fear of her starlight. Only someone with the Starborn gift—or someone under their protection—could survive here.

The Starsword pressed on her back; the dagger dug into her hip. They burdened each step, locked in some strange battle to be near each other that intensified as she got farther into the cave.

Bryce ignored them, and instead tracked the carvings on the walls. On the ceilings. Brutal images carved with care and precision: Merciless, unending battles and bloodshed. Cities in ruins. Lands crumbling away. All falling into that river of starlight, as if the Starborn power had swept it away in a tide of destruction.

“I have a question.” Sathia’s voice echoed through the tunnel. “It might be considered impertinent.”

Bryce snorted. “Didn’t you know? That’s the motto of Team Caves.”

Sathia increased her pace until she was at Bryce’s side. “Well, you don’t seem to want anything to do with the Fae.”

“Bingo,” Bryce said.

“Yet you’re here, bearing our two most sacred artifacts—”

“Three, if you count the Horn in my back.”

Sathia’s stunned silence seemed to bounce through the cave. “The … the Horn? How?”

“Fancy magic tattoo,” Bryce said, waving a hand. “But go on.”

Sathia’s throat worked. “You bear three of our most sacred artifacts. Yet you plan to … do what with the Fae?”

“Nothing,” Bryce said. “You’re right: I want nothing to do with them.” The carvings around them only strengthened that resolve. Especially the ones of the pegasus slaughter. She glanced sidelong at the female. “No offense.”

But Sathia said, “Why?”

This really wasn’t a conversation Bryce felt like having, and she gave the female a look that said as much. But Sathia held her stare, frank and unafraid.

So Bryce sighed. “The Fae are … not my favorite people. They never have been, but after this spring even more so. I really don’t want to associate with a group of cowards who locked out innocents the day demons poured into our city, and who seem intent on doing that again on a larger scale here on Avallen.”

“Some of us had no choice but to be locked in our villas,” Sathia said tightly. “My parents forbade me from—”

“I never let something being forbidden stop me from doing it,” Bryce said.

Sathia glared, but went on. “If you … if we … survive all this, what then?”

“What do you mean, what then?”

“What do you do with the sword and knife? With the Horn? Let’s say your wildest hopes about the Asteri come true, and we find the knowledge here or in the archives to help defeat them. Once they’re gone, do you keep these objects, when you want nothing to do with our people?”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t keep them?”

“I’m asking you what you plan to do—with them, and yourself.”

“I’m changing the motto of Team Caves,” Bryce announced. “It’s now Mind Your Own Business.”

“I mean it,” Sathia said, not taking Bryce’s shit for one second. “You’ll walk away from it all?”

“I don’t see much of a reason to hang around,” Bryce said coldly. “I don’t see why you’d want to, either. You’re chattel to them. To the Autumn King, to Morven, to your dad. Your only value comes from your breeding potential. They don’t give a fuck if you’re smart or brave or kind. They only want you for your uterus, and Luna spare you if you have any troubles with it.”

“I know that,” Sathia answered with equal ice. “I’ve known that since I was a child.”

“And you’re cool with it?” Bryce countered, unable to stop the sharpness in her voice. “You’re cool with being used and treated like that? Like you’re lesser than them? You’re cool with having no rights, no say in your future? You’re cool with a life where you either belong to your male relatives or your husband?”

“No, but it is the life I was born into.”

“Well, you’re Mrs. Ketos now,” Bryce said, nodding back at Tharion, who was watching them carefully. “So brace yourself for all that entails.”

“What does that mean?” Tharion demanded.

But Sathia ignored her taunts and said, “What are you going to do to the Fae?”

“Do?” Bryce asked, halting.

Sathia didn’t back down. “With all that power you have. With who you are, what you bear.”

Hunt let out a low whistle of warning.

But Bryce seethed at Sathia, “I just want the Fae to leave me the fuck alone. And I’ll leave them the fuck alone.”

Sathia pointed at the Starsword on Bryce’s back. “But the prophecy—when those blades are reunited, so shall our people be. That has to mean you, uniting all the Fae peoples—”

“I already did that,” Bryce cut in. “I connected the Fae of Midgard to the ones in our home world. Prophecy fulfilled. Or were you hoping for something else?”