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

Back in his humanoid form, Ithan sat across from Bryce and Hunt in the grass, unable to get words out. Hypaxia, seated beside him, gave him space to think.

Beyond Bryce sat Ruhn, Flynn, Dec, and Tharion—and Lidia and Baxian. Along with a female who was apparently Tharion’s wife and Flynn’s sister.

Some crazy shit had happened. Ithan knew that. But they didn’t offer any explanations, instead waiting for him to get into why he’d come here. What had happened.

His throat became unbearably tight.

“I …” They were all staring at him. Waiting. “I need Sofie Renast’s body.”

“Well,” Hunt said, whistling, “that wasn’t what I expected to hear.”

Ithan lifted pleading eyes to the Umbra Mortis. “Jesiba said King Morven has the body—”

“Had the body,” Ruhn amended, crossing his arms. His tattoos looked like they’d been put through a paper shredder. Ithan had noticed that immediately upon seeing his friends, upon hugging them all so tightly they’d complained about his grip. Ruhn went on, “The body is now technically Bryce’s.”

Ithan shook his head, not understanding.

Hunt drawled, “Morven is dead, and Bryce is Queen of Avallen.”

Ithan just blinked at Bryce, who was watching him. Carefully. Like she knew something had—

“The Meadows,” he blurted. Had they heard about it here? Had they—

“We know,” Flynn said.

“Fucking bastards,” Tharion murmured.

Bryce only asked Ithan, “How bad?”

Ithan couldn’t talk about the small bodies, so many of them—

“As one might expect,” Hypaxia answered grimly, “and then some.” Heavy silence fell.

“Whatever took you away from helping the city,” Lidia said, eyes on her sister, “must be important indeed. Why do you need Sofie’s body?”

Again, they all looked at him. And he couldn’t contain his misery as he said, “Because I fucked up.”



* * *



It all came out. How he’d found an alternate heir to the Fendyr line, freed her from the Astronomer … and then killed her.

None of it was news to Tharion, Flynn, or Dec. But judging from the way Bryce and Ruhn were glowering at the trio … Apparently, they had forgotten to mention this information in the chaos of the last few days.

How they’d forgotten to mention the thing that had literally shredded apart Ithan’s life was beyond him, but he didn’t dwell on it. He plowed on to the part of his story that was news for all of them: How he and Hypaxia had attempted to raise Sigrid. And now the Fendyr heir was a Reaper.

When he reached the end of his account, they were all staring at him wide-eyed. No one more so than Bryce, who hadn’t said anything when he’d spoken of an alternative to Sabine, someone Danika might have liked.

Ithan finished, “So if Sofie’s body is intact—”

“It’s not,” Bryce said quietly.

Something crumpled in Ithan’s chest as he met her whiskey-colored eyes.

“Morven’s castle collapsed,” Bryce said sadly. “Sofie’s body is underneath tons of rubble, even if it is intact.”

Ithan put his face in his hands and breathed hard.

Flynn put a consoling arm around his shoulders, squeezing. “Maybe there’s another way—”

“We needed a thunderbird,” Ithan said through his hands. There was no fixing this. No undoing it. He’d brought this upon an innocent wolf, upon his people—

“Look,” Bryce said, and the gentleness in her tone almost killed him. She blew out a long breath. “An alternate Fendyr heir would have been amazing. But …”

Ithan lowered his hands from his face. “But what?”

Hunt’s eyes flashed at Ithan’s snarl. But Bryce didn’t back down as she said, “We have bigger problems right now. And time isn’t our ally.”

“I killed her,” Ithan said, voice cracking. “I fucking killed her—”

But Athalar said to Hypaxia, “Rigelus collected some of my lightning—for a similar purpose, I think.” Bryce started, as if this was news to her. “Are you sure it wouldn’t help with Sigrid?”

“It might be worth a try,” Hypaxia admitted, “but I don’t have any of the supplies I’d need to contain your sort of power.”

Ruhn’s head lifted. “Like a bunch of crystals?”

They all turned to the prince, but he was looking at Lidia. The Hind explained, “We found a cache of them in the archives.”

Ruhn added, “Rigelus used one to grab Athalar’s power in the dungeons. Would it work for you, too?”

Hypaxia nodded slowly and said to Hunt, “I wouldn’t require much.”

Bryce glanced around at the others. Ruhn took her meaning and motioned to his friends. “Come on. Let’s grab those crystals from the archives. Hopefully it’s still standing.”

Flynn, Dec, Lidia, Baxian, and Tharion—his wife in tow—headed down the hill with Ruhn. Only Tharion glanced back, just once, his eyes full of pity. Like the mer understood what it was to have fucked up so royally. To regret.

But Bryce grabbed Ithan’s hand, bringing his attention back to her. “What’s done is done, Ithan.”