House of Earth and Blood

Bryce and Hunt next go to question Sabine. If she lies about substituting the video footage from Luna’s Temple, they will know she is their thief. The duo receives a hostile reception at the wolves’ den in Moonwood. Connor’s younger brother Ithan is especially angry since he knows Bryce betrayed Connor with another man on the night when his pack got slaughtered. All the embarrassing texts from Bryce’s phone that night were published in the papers, giving the wolves plenty of incentive to hate her.

Sabine meets with the two, still demanding the return of Danika’s missing sword, which Bryce refuses to surrender. When questioned about the night of the theft, “Sabine hissed, ‘Danika wasn’t at the temple that night. She had nothing to do with the Horn being stolen’” (420). Bryce and Hunt now know that Sabine is not only lying but complicit. 

After meeting with Sabine, Bryce and Hunt mull over a strategy to catch her in the act of summoning the kristallos. When nothing occurs to either one, they go about their duties for the day. Hunt ponders how badly Bryce was treated in the press and by the wolf pack after the disaster. “He hadn’t realized how rough it’d be on Quinlan, even knowing Sabine hated her. He hadn’t realized the other wolves had it out for Bryce, too. He should never have brought her. Should have gone himself” (428).

Hunt agrees to meet with his fellow soldiers for a beer and makes Bryce promise to stay put in the apartment. She consents but grows restless. An hour later, she’s roaming the streets. Hunt gets word from another angel and goes to find her. Bryce is wandering through a garden in the Five Roses district when she and Hunt are suddenly attacked.

The kristallos charges out of the bushes and strikes Hunt first. Bryce is stunned by the sight. “She’d never seen anything like it. Anything so unearthly, so primal and raging. Her memory of that night was fogged with rage and grief and drugs, so this, the real, undiluted thing” (440).

When the creature bites him, Hunt loses his lightning magic. He eventually breaks the demon’s neck, and Bryce shoots it for good measure before Hunt dismembers it. Micah arrives on the scene and turns the creature’s remains to ash. He’s very concerned about keeping the attack out of the papers. Hunt and Bryce explain their theory that Sabine sent the beast after them. Micah demands more proof before accusing her.

Ruhn appears later and has a conversation with the medwitch who treated Hunt’s injuries. She says the venom secreted by the kristallos has the ability to negate magic. This might explain why the wolf pack couldn’t defend themselves from it.

Hunt flies Bryce back to the roof of her building. The two begin to kiss when they are interrupted by the arrival of Sabine, bursting through the door and holding a gun.

Hunt tries to shield Bryce from Sabine. The latter tells them to stop the investigation. When they accuse her of changing the video feed and stealing the Horn, she is shocked. “Hunt didn’t dare lower his gun. Didn’t dare let go of Bryce. Not as Sabine said, cold and joyless, ‘I was protecting her. Danika stole the Horn’” (451).

Sabine denies sending the kristallos after Hunt and Bryce. She says, “Everything I did was to protect my daughter. My reckless, arrogant daughter. Everything you did encouraged the worst in her” (453). This is the reason why she hates Bryce so much.

Bryce tries to understand the reason for Danika’s actions. She says, “Danika must have taken the Horn to keep them from getting it. They killed her for it, but they must not have found it, if they’re still using the kristallos to search for it” (458). She continues to mull over the problem for days.

Meanwhile, Ruhn has learned a few interesting facts that he shares with the other two. His medwitch friend tells him about a new drug that provides synthetic healing magic. It has become widely available, and such an item might be used to repair the Horn. Ruhn also talks about a dagger that was forged at the same time as his Starsword. A Fae prophecy says, “When knife and sword are reunited, so shall our people be” (458). The knife has been lost for centuries, and Ruhn dismisses the idea that it has any bearing on their case.

Later, Tharion sends a messenger with a report of bodies found in the river. They show two distinctly different sets of injuries. Bryce theorizes that more than one type of demon was summoned from Hel. She says to Hunt:

These wounds aren’t the same. The kristallos wanted to get at your heart, your organs. Not turn you into a—a heap. Danika, the Pack of Devils, Tertian, the acolyte and temple guard—none of them had wounds like this. And none had this venom in their system (464).

Bryce believes the only way they can get to the bottom of this puzzle is by summoning a demon themselves to answer their questions. She uses the obsidian salt that she bought at the Meat Market to summon Aidas, the Prince of the Chasm. Much to Hunt’s surprise, Bryce knows this Prince of Hel and has met him before. He appeared to her in the form of a cat on the day she had her catastrophic reading from the Oracle.

Aidas denies that anyone in Hel has summoned the kristallos. Hel itself is a separate planet and has its own affairs to run. He talks about beings from other planets or dimensions which might be interested in traveling through the Northern Rift. When Bryce pleads with him for information about what killed Danika, he says, “Run the tests again. Find what is in-between” (472). Later, Bryce learns from her Fae contacts that there were other forensic tests that they were forbidden to run by the Autumn King.