Crescent City: House of Earth & Blood Part 1

On today's episode we jump into The first half of House of Earth and Blood. This is the first installment in the Crescent City Trilogy. These books are quite large so we will be doing covering this book in parts 1 & 2. Join us as we break down this book and discuss our favorite scenes!

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Be advised, this content is not appropriate for younger viewers. These books may contain depictions of sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence. We urge listeners to regard the trigger warnings at the beginning of the video before continuing!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey guys, welcome to A Novel Affair, the bookish podcast where we kiss and tell about our torrid

(00:13):
affairs with fictional characters.
So grab a drink and get ready for some pure unadulterated fun.
Today we are discussing the first of three novels in Sarah J. Moss's most recently published
Crescent City trilogy, House of Earth and Blood.
And this is the first of two episodes on this book if you're joining us via podcast.

(00:40):
And remember to get the in-depth uncensored version of our review.
Be sure to check out our podcast and learn about all of our favorite scenes, especially
the steamy ones.
Just look for the link below.
So I'm really excited about this one.
This is one of my favorite series.

(01:01):
And Sarah J. Moss, the author, is probably only unknown to you if you've been living
under a rock.
She is most well known for A Quarter of Thorns and Roses or Akatar, as we will likely refer
to it.
And also the Throne of Glass series.

(01:22):
The popularity of A Quarter of Thorns and Roses, it's been like the gateway drug for
smut, romantic, you know, a lot of people just getting back into reading again.
And because it's so overdone, I think I'm glad we're doing Crescent City because it's

(01:44):
a different, newer, and it's only three books.
But it's three really long books.
So Destiny is...
800 page books, to be clear.
Destiny's getting a trooper with me on this one.
Really quick, there's no trigger warnings in her books, but out of complete responsibility

(02:08):
and just as a reference, this series contains drug use, drug abuse, torture, murder, terrorism,
and slavery.
So that's not the kind of trigger warnings that we usually have.

(02:32):
They're usually some weird kink off the wall that's in there, but these are just, you know,
your standard rated R trigger warnings.
Yeah.
Usually we end up with like sexual trigger warning.
Yes, exactly.
This one is not about the... the trigger warnings on this are not about the sex, to be clear.

(02:57):
And this is a slow ass burn.
So I am going to go ahead and just own up to that one right up front.
Yeah, I'm at 400 pages and not nary a pickle.
Okay.
I knew that was coming.
I knew.
I knew.
And I knew I was going to pay for it.
It's...

(03:18):
I fully accept any and all complaints for that.
It drives me nuts too.
But I also like it.
So the plot is good enough to make up for it, but...
Agreed.
My dark romance self is starting to get impatient with it.

(03:39):
Understood.
So the genre, I actually was just a little quick search on this.
Did not know this was a specific genre, but it is a galactic empire science fiction.

(03:59):
It's also...
I had never heard of that genre, but it's... it sounds like it fits it so well.
Yeah.
Well, and when I hear that, I think Star Wars.
But I'm like, I mean, I guess this could be Star Wars-y if you... in a Sarah J Maas kind
of way.
But it's also...
It made me think of Cowboy Bebop.

(04:20):
Yes.
Oh, points for that reference.
Points for that reference.
It's also obviously an action adventure romance.
And it is in a limited third person perspective.
So we do get the point of view of two different characters, but it's written in third person.

(04:44):
I don't normally like third person.
I know you really don't normally like third person, but I...
I struggle with it.
I really liked the way this is done because I'm not completely outside of the character's
thoughts.
Yeah.
It's more of like a grammar thing than a point of view thing in this book.

(05:08):
For me, there's like a disconnect with third person because I'm not reading it like as
myself, like you do with the first person.
But again, it's one of those books where the plot is so good, I can overlook it.
It just took me a little while to get into the third person headspace.
Yes.
And speaking of taking a while to get into, I want to talk a little bit about...

(05:36):
Before we get into the plot summary or any of that, I want to talk a little bit about
the world building and just kind of do a recap and lay out what are we working here when
it comes to time and space and all that.
Real quick, I do want to say because dear God, the freaking world building terminology dump

(06:04):
bomb that is dropped on you in the first 60 pages.
It was like trying to learn Russian.
It's a lot.
It is a lot.
So I did manage to find a Reddit forum where this girl kind of did exactly what you did,
where she broke down the terminology and the world building to better understand it.

(06:28):
So when we post this video, I'm going to link that in our Instagram posts for that week
so people can actually find it and help because I struggled with it.
Yes.
I had to keep going back and Googling things like, what was this again?
Yes.
I'm on track now.
400 pages in, I'm on track now.

(06:50):
I love Reddit for that.
I love a good fandom Wiki.
I love a good Reddit forum.
And this world is very parallel or referential to the Roman Empire.

(07:12):
It is not set in an ancient time.
It's actually set in a modern time.
But it's very reminiscent of their societal structure.
So it's interesting if you kind of, and it doesn't, you know, Moss has not said that,

(07:37):
but if you look at kind of how things break down, there's that social kind of commentary
that you can kind of see.
So starting with that, we are set on the planet of Midgard, which is, could be argued to be
Earth.
It is an Earth like planet.

(07:59):
We're in a contemporary world.
So there's technology, there's cars, there's cell phones, smartphones, electricity, all
of that.
So like we're not in Akatar world where they're like, they don't have plumbing and like, you
know, that sort of thing.
And the population of this planet is both human and veneer.

(08:23):
And veneer is the term that she uses to refer to any magical being.
And all of the magical beings that live on Midgard are actually migrated here from other
worlds through these dimensional rifts.
And they're like wormholes or portals through space.

(08:46):
And so at different points, different races of veneer have come over.
So there's archangels, angels, fey, shifters of different types.
We have wolves, but there's other types of shifters.
There's also vampires and river spirits, and then there's people or beings with elemental

(09:11):
magic.
So and again, this overview at the beginning is not going to be all encompassed, but I'll
explain anything that comes up that's like a new, you know, reference if need be for
the plot.
So the protagonist, the overarching protagonist in this series is the Asteri.

(09:38):
15,000 years ago, seven Asteri, which are a powerful elite race, come to Midgard and
they take over the planet.
And they're like incredibly powerful, magical, more so than there's no fighting them or over

(10:00):
powering them.
And even though humans were on this planet first, they are at the very bottom of society.
They have no voice in their own government.
They're treated like animals, basically, in terms of the way lesser beings.

(10:20):
Yes, absolutely.
And slaves are a thing here, like people and certain magical creatures are literally bought
and sold.
So there's definitely that is kind of the most obvious reference to like a Roman type

(10:43):
society.
And so magic.
So the entire modern civilization structure that's built there, it runs on a power source
that they call first light, which is actually magic.
Any magical being or veneer, when they come of age, they go through a ritual called the

(11:09):
drop and in the drop, they come into their full power.
And that is the point where they become immortal.
So they stop aging at that point.
So usually once you know, a veneer is like a full adult, and they can choose to do it
whenever they want.
But that's when this happens.

(11:31):
When they do the drop, a portion of their power is siphoned off that very first burst
of magical power is siphoned off and donated like to society to power everything.
And that's why it's called first light.
And the drop confused me for a while.

(11:53):
They just kept mentioning the drop, but there was no details on the drop for like 30 pages.
And I was like, what the hell is this?
And as we get farther into it, when they talk about the actual mechanics of the drop, it's
even more, it's even more to wrap your mind around.

(12:15):
So we won't even, we don't even go there yet.
And within Midgard, there's a couple continents that get referenced.
Tangiera is a continent, it's a different continent than where this takes place.
And Valbara, which is where we are in the city of Lunathion.

(12:38):
And as a comparison, think of Lunathion as like New York City.
It's a big metropolis.
It's actually on the, on the seaside.
And it's divided into like New York is divided into boroughs, Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan,

(13:02):
Queens.
So is Lunathion.
I'm glad you made that comparison because the whole time I was reading it and like referencing
back to the map, I was like, yeah, this, this feels very New Yorkie.
Yes.
And that's probably another reason I love it so much because I love New York.
But something that can be confusing also is that Crescent City is the same thing as Lunathion.

(13:27):
It's like a nickname.
So like we call New York the Big Apple.
And it's just because the river that goes through Lunathion shaped like a Crescent the
way it comes through the city.
So it's just a nickname.
But the districts in this city are really divided by race, not entirely, but mostly.

(14:01):
So you've got the central district business districts, and that's like where the primary
seat of government is the governor, who is an archangel.
There's an archangel in charge of each territory in this world.
And so then you've got Moonwood, which is the wolves.

(14:23):
The prime of the wolves is what leads Moonwood.
And Five Roses is the Fay district.
So the Autumn King rules over that.
The meat market is actually kind of a melting pot of it's not a race specific territory,

(14:46):
but it's ruled over by the Viper Queen.
And they make a quick reference to it in these 40 chapters that we've covered today, but
I'm going to go ahead and say, so the Viper Queen has a specific venom that is addictive.
And so when somebody goes to be like in her mafia, for lack of a better term, they have

(15:12):
to drink her venom and they immediately become addicted to it.
So they're like all incredibly loyal to her because they are addicted to her venom.
It made me think of true blood.
Yeah, I could see that.
I could see that.
The vampire blood in the show was addictive and used as like a drug.

(15:34):
Yes.
Okay.
And the meat market is also kind of what it sounds like.
You can get anything, drugs, people, sex, whatever.
It's kind of like an underbelly type area.
The old square is like a historic downtown area.

(16:00):
That's where the Oracle is and is kind of in charge of that area.
And that is kind of an area that beholdens back to like the ancient times of this area
before the Vanyar were there and they had temples, all this kind of stuff.

(16:21):
The Bone Quarter is actually, it's ruled over by the Underking and it's like where the dark
creatures and magic and all of that is.
And then the House of Many Waters or sometimes referred to as the Blue Court is the actual

(16:47):
part of the city that's underwater in the river.
And that's ruled over by the River Queen.
And then Aspidel Meadows is the human district and they don't have a leader.
They have absolutely no representative in government.
They're so oppressed that they don't need one.
Well, yeah, they wouldn't even be referenced.

(17:12):
Okay.
So one thing I want to explain too is that the kind of law enforcement government structure
is something you have to kind of understand because this is a murder mystery.
We're immediately thrown into solving a murder.

(17:33):
And the Triari is what they call their like military, which is led by the governor.
And those are made up of angels.
And then you have the city law enforcement, which is called the Ox or the auxiliary.

(17:54):
And there is a Fae Ox and there is a Wolf Ox.
And they are like your city police versus the angels are like the National Guard, basically.
So that's all like perfectly crystal clear, right?

(18:22):
It's so much information just thrown at you.
Most of it isn't immediately explained.
It's just using the terminology without the explanations, which is why it feels like you're
trying to learn a new language without knowing the language.
Yes.
And this is I've seen so many funny TikTok videos or memes about when you're at the beginning

(18:46):
of a fantasy and they're speaking basic gibberish.
This is like that.
You're just dropped right in the middle of it.
Yeah.
I feel like you should know.
Yeah.
Like you miss something.
So I totally yes, agreed.
So in this world that I've just described, we our main character is Bryce Quinlan.

(19:09):
She is half Fae, half human.
And she is immediately devastated by the murder of her best friend Danica Fendier, who is
a wolf shifter.
And through a series of circumstances, she is forced to team up with the governor's personal
assassin, who is a fallen angel named Hunt Athelar.

(19:33):
And they are charged with finding the person responsible for Danica's murder.
They also have to help find an ancient magical artifact that was stolen days before her murder
and is to believe to be connected to the murders somehow.
Both Bryce and Hunt have suffered a devastating loss in their past.

(19:57):
And this is you kind of see them.
They're forced to kind of cope with their own trauma and their own shit as they learned
how to work with each other and try to put all the pieces together to try and solve this
murder and obviously stop them from continuing to happen.

(20:19):
And this is such a unique blend of like types of stories, because normally in a Fae fantasy
or typical romanticy, you're dealing with a prince and an heir and the one true like,

(20:43):
and this is very like modern current like law and order, who done it type thing.
So I really like that it's not like every other series and in that way.
But I have been waiting for you to read this book for so long that I'm just really excited

(21:06):
that we get to talk about it.
And I'm very curious about what you think about these characters.
Before we cast the book, I am just going to say that Bryce Quinlan is my spirit animal.
I am her and she is me.
I love her so much.
I completely relate to her on so many levels.

(21:29):
And there's a lot of characters that I feel like are great, powerful, like Farah in Akatar.
She's a badass, but we are not the same.
And so I enjoy how much I relate to this main character.

(21:56):
Yeah.
And I love the name Bryce.
So let's cast the book.
Well, that being said, yes, Bryce Quinlan is you.
Yes.
I mean, there are so similar, so many similarities that as I'm reading, I'm having to mentally

(22:24):
disconnect your face from hers in my head because sometimes it makes it really awkward.
But you're who I picture.
I know you so well.
And it's so similar to her that that's just what popped into my head when I was reading
it.
I'm trying to get your image out before I reach the part of the book.

(22:51):
That's valid.
That's valid.
So I did not cast me as Bryce because I figured I wouldn't be quite that self centered.
But let's trade off character by character.
And I'll start.
I would cast Isla Fisher as Bryce and as a reference, Isla Fisher was in Confessions

(23:17):
of a Shopaholic.
She's in Wedding Crashers.
She's been in more recent stuff, but she's also who I would pick to play me if they made
a movie about my life.
So it is still a little bit self centered.
I had actually thought about her too, like as Bryce, you're who pops into my head more.

(23:43):
But that is a really good comparison, especially because I even went and looked at the fan
art side by side with Isla Fisher.
And there are very similar looks and vibes between the two.
Agreed.

(24:05):
So who did you pick for your Bryce?
I picked you.
Yay.
Because you're legit like who I picture as I'm reading it.
But again, I'm trying to like move out of your face.
Okay.
So then you go first, who did you cast for Danica?

(24:29):
I thought of like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.
Like the vibe just just very badass, very vengeful, very smart ass one liner comments.
Like yeah, that's what I felt it was.

(24:50):
That's a good one.
So that makes me question if I chose the right one.
So I have I am I'm going to change my mind.
So I'm calling an audible.

(25:11):
I would cast Scarlett Johansson in a very black widow sort of way.
I thought about her in what's that what's the movie?
Where you take the drug and you unlock like 100% of your brain.
Lucy atomic something.

(25:31):
She has like the short blonde hair.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's not Lucy.
It's another one.
But I've seen it.
I know exactly what you're talking about.
Yeah.
It my thought about her to my original was Jennifer Lawrence because of her sense of
humor and her just general like, I don't care what anybody thinks or I'm going to be very

(25:54):
real about this.
But she's not very actiony.
And I feel like Danica would be actiony.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, who did you choose for hunt?
So this is going to shock no one.
I mentally read hunt as my husband, but since none of our viewers are going to know him,

(26:23):
I choose Tom Hardy.
Oh, that's yeah, that's good.
I think he would just do a wonderful job.
Yeah, that's that's a good one.
So in tell me yours in my head.

(26:48):
Okay, so picture this.
All right.
We're going to take Henry Cavill's body.
Of course, of course.
And we're going to we're going to slap Damon Salvatore's head from Vampire Diaries and

(27:10):
his personality on Henry Cavill.
Okay.
Well, just for the record, that's what we're doing.
All of Destiny's book boyfriends are different versions of Henry Cavill.
It could also be the Aranke dude.
Yeah, that's true.
Him too.
That's okay.

(27:31):
I have two options here.
Today it was Henry Cavill.
Yeah, with Damien Salvatore's head.
I'll take it.
I'll take that all day long.
Building a book boyfriend.
Okay.
So what about so my next character and I want you to tell me yours first is Micah Domitus,

(27:52):
which is the governor archangel.
I chose Brad Pitt, but Brad Pitt from Interview with a Vampire.
Okay, like the young Brad Pitt with like the long hair and all that.

(28:12):
Yeah, so but still kind of mysterious and yeah, I picked Russell Crowe.
I feel like he would play.
I can see a good bad guy in this or asshole, I guess I should say.

(28:35):
So rune Danon, it's our last one for this book.
I'm going to pick more characters because we have a ton of characters to choose from.
But I'm excited about mine because I really hit the nail on the head when it comes to
what I vision like this is matches my vision perfectly.

(28:56):
And it's Jared Leto.
You can see that that's who I picture and I have a little bit of a crush on rune Danon
just a little bit.
He is definitely my we listen and we don't judge.

(29:18):
And it's weird because he's related to Bryce.
So you know, whatever, it's fine.
What about you?
OK, I chose the guy from TikTok.
He usually does like all of the resand audios.

(29:41):
He's always in like the the button up the black button up with the hair.
We're going to put a picture like right right here.
OK, perfect.
Because I can't remember his name, but I know who he is.
And I have a feeling a lot of book talk girls are going to be like, I know exactly who that
is.

(30:01):
I do.
I know exactly who you're talking about.
But, you know, I go.
That's who I pictured as him.
I go hard for resand.
I do.
So are you ready to get into it?
Into it into it.
Oh, boy.
It's so much.

(30:22):
But yes.
OK.
So we start out.
Bryce works at Griffin Antiquities, which is a magical art gallery slash antique shop,
very high end, owned by a sorceress, Jezeba Roga.
And she has in this Griffin Antiquities, there's a secret library of forbidden magical books

(30:50):
hidden in the basement.
And so part of Griffin Antiquities is protecting that library.
No one's supposed to be allowed down there.
And she has two little sidekicks who I love, Lahaba, who is a fire sprite.
And she is actually so cute, actually owned by Jezeba because she's the fire sprites were

(31:19):
their citizenship status was taken from them in a previous conflict.
And so they are actually all slaves.
And so Lahaba owns.
I mean, Jezeba owns Lahaba.
And she's a sassy little little fire sprite.
And I love her.
And then they have a pet chimera, which is named Syrinx.

(31:47):
And I think he's way more sentient than like a dog.
But he definitely fulfills like this pet role.
And he's pretty adorable, in my opinion.
The way that I saw it was like if you take a trained monkey's brain and put it in a dog,

(32:12):
because it's smart in the way that monkeys are incredibly smart, but very much acts like
a puppy.
Correct.
It just wants love and pets and treats.
Yes, 100 percent.
OK, so Bryce is at work and we meet Bryce's BFF, Danica Fendir.

(32:36):
And she is the leader of the pack of devils, which is a small group within the larger pack
of the Wolfshifters.
And they are a law enforcement.
They're in charge of law enforcement in Moonwood, but also across Lunathian at large.

(32:58):
And we find out in this first scene that they actually recently got drunk and got matching
tattoos on their backs.
And they say, through love, all is possible.
And it's written like in this ancient, fancy language that Danica found online, because
she thought that would make it less cheesy.

(33:19):
And I love that.
And the reason that Danica is there is she tells us she's about to go and deal with an
issue that's come up.
She had previously caught and captured a human rebel terrorist.

(33:44):
And his name is Philip Briggs, and he is set to be released from prison.
And she's about to go to the city council and protest his release with the city district
leaders.
So that just kind of sets up like kind of the environment that we're dealing with.

(34:08):
So that night when Bryce gets home, she shares an apartment with Danica and the entire pack
of devils are all camped out in the apartment.
It's pack night.
They're hanging out, eating pizza, watching TV.
And Danica is not having a good day.
She was not able to prevent them from releasing Briggs from prison.

(34:31):
And on top of that, her mother, who's also her boss in the hierarchy of the wolves, humiliates
her at the council meeting because she-
In front of everyone.
Yes.
By blaming Danica for the deaths of these two college students who were killed a week

(34:54):
prior to where we're at in the story, Danica was on watch near Luna's temple and these
two college students were killed.
There was a power outage.
And during that power outage, Luna's horn was stolen from the temple and these two college
students were killed.
And because Danica was on watch, Sabine, you know, basically blames Danica for it.

(35:21):
She's not having a good time.
She's actually eating all the pizza and not letting anybody else have any, which I totally
get.
Honestly, I was comparing myself to her at that point.
I was like, yeah, that would have done the same thing.
After a bad day, I could definitely sit there and eat all the pizza and not let anyone else

(35:44):
have it up spite.
Yes.
And also eat my feelings.
Yeah.
I do that one every day.
We also meet at pack night.
Danica second in command.
His name is Connor and he's a hottie and he has had a thing for Bryce since they met whenever

(36:09):
they were all going to Crescent City University together.
And he has started asking her out, trying to convince her to go on a date.
They've always had a chemistry and she's been keeping him at arm's length.
She knows that if they do date, it's going to be a whole thing.

(36:34):
It's not going to be casual.
And she's so she hasn't really been ready for that.
So they're kind of in this like cat and mouse dancing around it.
And she actually she's also good.
She's also very much like a free spirit, independent woman.

(36:55):
And she also recognizes that like the Feynman and the werewolf men, the shifter men and
all that.
They definitely have like an alpha drive to women and controlling them.
And she's not going to be having that in any shape or form ever.

(37:17):
Her term of her term for this is alpha holes, which I love that term.
I love it.
And she definitely resists the thought of that you're mine and nobody else can look
at you and all of that.
She's super anti that and then ends up texting Connor and agreeing to go out with him on

(37:42):
Saturday.
So she's in this little last moment of like, I just broke up with Reed.
I need to make myself feel better.
And this is my last kind of hurrah before me and Connor finally give into like this,
whatever we've had.
So she did what exactly what 23 year old Tara would do.

(38:06):
She calls her friends Juniper and Fury and decides that they need to go party and have
like a night out.
So Juniper is a fawn and fawn shifter and she is a professional ballet dancer.

(38:30):
And Fury, we don't know what Fury is and it's not polite to ask.
So Bryce doesn't ask, but she is a famous professional assassin feared by everyone.
Yeah, she's a mercenary.
Yes.

(38:50):
I had a hard time trying to picture Juniper.
I had to Google fan art because my imagination just for some reason made it look so cartoony
and cheesy.
And I was like, I know this is not how it's supposed to look.
Yeah, I also have a hard time envisioning because she's a fawn, but she's got like a

(39:17):
humanoid form.
Yeah.
So she's got hooves.
Right.
So I'm like, OK, but how far do the hooves go?
Yeah.
And how does she dance with those?
So I had to Google the fan art to see how other people envisioned it because it just
wasn't clicking in my head.
I completely agree that it's a weird one.

(39:39):
But they basically go to the White Raven Club and they are doing all the party drugs, drinking.
She actually hooks up with somebody in the bathroom.
And this was her text to Danica where she's like, I just hooked up with a line shifter
in the bathroom.
Don't tell Connor.

(40:00):
Like 23 year old Tara right there.
Whoops.
And the night kind of goes on and we don't really it kind of fades into her.
Not really, you know, she's super, super high.

(40:22):
And next thing we know, she is stumbling home from the club and I can't even.
This part cracks me up every time she gets to her building and she's like the code.
The code.
I have a code to my building.
What is my building code?
And it's just so funny to me because like been there.

(40:43):
I loved how in that part she's mentally thinking like can't call Danica because she's going
to be mad that I got this wasted without her.
Yeah.
She's like thinking about how like all the people would be mad at her.
She's like, so I got to think of the code, the code, the code.
Yes.

(41:03):
Danica had pack night and so she wasn't going to leave them on pack night.
But she does say in the text messages leading up to it, she goes, do not have fun without
me.
I love that.
Because I, it's fair.
So she does get into her house and she finds that Danica and her entire pack have been

(41:31):
viciously murdered, like shredded, like they're in piles all over the apartment.
Almost unrecognizable.
Yes.
And as she comes in and discovers this, a demonic being of some kind, like a monster,
bolts from the apartment.
So what does she do?

(41:52):
She breaks off a table leg and chases after it.
Barefoot.
Yes.
And don't know where her shoes went.
She took them off on her walk home because she was struggling.
That's right.
And I know that from personal experience, not necessarily because I know them so well.

(42:17):
But she does catch up with it and it's attacking an archangel in the street.
And she basically fights it off and calls for help, which is ultimately saves this archangel's
life.
And...
But not before it slashes the shit out of her leg though.
Yeah.

(42:38):
Like cut an artery.
That's pretty good.
And she calls for help and then she collapses.
And the help that she calls for is, you know, the triari is going to be who's showing up.
And so when the next scene, she is being held at the Comitium, which is kind of their like

(43:05):
central governing building.
And we meet Isaiah Tiberian and Hunt Athalar.
And they are two angels who we learn had previously participated in a rebellion against this existing
political regime and the rebellion failed.

(43:27):
And so they are now enslaved to serve the archangels for all eternity.
And Hunt Athalar is the governor Micah's personal assassin.
And he's famous throughout this world because he has the power of lightning and that's an

(43:48):
extremely rare power.
And his killing skills, as well as his lightning, have earned him the nickname the Umbra Mortis,
which means the shadow of death.
And it's such a cool name.
Such a cool name.
Big fan of that.
Love it.

(44:10):
But basically they are on the other side of the interrogation glass watching another of
their associates try to interrogate Bryce about what the hell happened.
But she is totally in shock.
She's not speaking or responding to them and they don't really get any answers from them

(44:32):
and ends up being released.
And Hunt kind of steps in because she's clearly not in any condition to be dealing with this
right now.
And so Hunt actually shows her a bit of, you know, common decency by getting her out of

(44:54):
there.
I thought what they did to her to try to get her to talk was so horrible.
I mean, they read back all of the messages from her and Danica that night, but then they
played the recording, the audio of her friends being ripped to shreds.

(45:15):
Right like 20 minutes after all this shit happens.
Yeah, this is not great interrogation technique.
I'm going to be honest and no, it just sent her into a spiral.
Like what did they think was going to happen?
Yeah, it's not go well.
But it also kind of shows you how things are handled in this environment, which is to say

(45:40):
not great.
Do whatever necessary.
So she it looks like when we first arrive here that, oh, like she's going to be detained.
They're going to think she had something to do with it.
But we they get the order to that they have to release her.

(46:02):
And I think mostly because they need to hold someone responsible, but also because he had
just been released right before the murder happened.
They end up re-arresting Philip Briggs and charging him for Danica's murder.
Yeah.
I mean, it makes sense.

(46:23):
She's the one who arrested him.
And then the day that he gets released, they all end up dead.
So it it really did fit.
So we only are with Bryce for a couple days after the murder.

(46:47):
And then we are fast forwarded 22 months.
And this first section that we just covered is part one.
It's called the hollow.
And then in this fast forward, we're in part two, which is the trench.
And we are 22 months after these murders and we see Bryce and she is at the White Raven

(47:16):
again.
But this time she is there to have a meeting with a client.
She may have also hooked up with somebody in the bathroom again.
Force of habit.
I hate it when that happens.
She's got a pattern.
OK.
Yeah.
She clearly enjoys sex, which good for her.

(47:44):
Whatever you want to do, whatever makes you happy, whatever makes you happy.
She is there.
She's meeting up with a client of of Jessabas and she's closing the deal and he's a vampire
named Maximus Tershin and he's a total sleazeball.
And basically they close the deal and he's coming on to her like wants some perks with

(48:07):
his business deal, which Bryce is hot.
And Rune Danon shows up and basically scares off Maximus Tershin, which Bryce is not like,
oh, thanks for saving me.
She's like, what the fuck are you doing here?
And we don't know the backstory, but we can tell immediately that they are not on good

(48:31):
terms.
Here we actually learn that Rune is not her cousin.
He's her half brother.
They have the same dad.
So we learn her biological father is actually the autumn king.
And she, as the illegitimate daughter, is not claimed publicly.

(48:57):
And so that's why they tell everybody that they're distant cousins.
Which she also prefers it that way.
She doesn't want to have anything to do with the royals or the politics of all of it.
She just wants to live a normal freaking life.
So she's like, yeah, we're cousins.
Leave it at that.
She is fine with it, but it's shitty because the whole reason the autumn king wants it

(49:21):
this way is because she's half human.
Yeah.
Which, I mean, his own fault.
He's the one that did it with a human.
I know, right?
Like he's like, he's an infuriating character.
I hate him.
He's the worst fucking annoying.

(49:42):
And Rune does the protective thing and wants to make sure that Bryce makes it home.
And that's how we learn that Bryce now lives in a luxury apartment that Danica owned that
Bryce didn't know about.
And it was left to Bryce in her will.
We also kind of see here that like everything is not as it seems with Bryce in the terms

(50:10):
of the public perception of her because she has a drink at the bar, but we know she has
not had any alcohol since the murder.
So it's been 22 months, but she lets people think that she's drinking and plays it off

(50:30):
like she's drinking just like straight hard liquor.
She lives in this.
She prefers when people have like this skewed perception of her and who she is.
And she lets it be that way because then people underestimate her.
And she gets to see what kind of person they are by jumping to those conclusions rather

(50:51):
than asking.
Absolutely.
And speaking of which, we now meet or are back in the point of view of Hunt Athelonar.
And he's living his triaree life.
And Micah has offered Hunt the chance to earn his freedom by carrying out the same number

(51:17):
of kills as angels and archangels that were killed in the rebellion that he was part of.
And all of the lives that he took and also inadvertently his soldiers took.
Yes.
So every angel on the opposing side of his that died, he has to pay back the death for

(51:40):
a death.
Which is 2217.
A whole lot.
So I mean, it's a good thing he's going to live for hundreds of years, but true.
But as a marker for the pace that he's going in four years of service with Micah, Hunt
has murdered 82 people.

(52:01):
So while that's a lot, it's not a lot when it comes to 2000 people.
So we kind of see that he is has been through a lot of shit, a lot of trauma, a lot of loss,

(52:21):
and he does not have a bright prospect for his future in terms of he's going to be in
his situation for a while.
And granted, this is the most freedom he's had since the rebellion ended.
He is allowed to leave the continuum and walk amongst the streets and eat normal food.

(52:45):
I mean, he's not being imprisoned 24 seven in a dungeon being tortured.
So he does have some semblance of freedom compared to what he had with Sandriel.
Correct.
And it's really just because Micah is like not a regular slave owner.
He's a cool slave owner.
So he like slave owners, a slave owner.

(53:06):
Yeah.
He gives them kind of a almost an illusion of autonomy.
So then we jump to we actually meet the autumn king and this is runes father and Bryce's
biological father.

(53:27):
And he has summoned rune to meet with him because he wants or he's tasking rune out
with finding Luna's horn.
And we find out a little bit more about it here.
It's a fae it's a fae relic and it was in the goddess of Luna's temple and it was stolen

(53:48):
right before Danica's murder.
And his reason that he gives for wanting rune to find it is he wants to kind of bolster fae
status prior to the summit and kind of restore back because he feels like they were made
a fool of by this being stolen like right out from under them.

(54:14):
And the autumn king is super shitty and condescending to rune.
But we find out that rune inherited the gift of the light of the starborn fae.
And it's a special power that not everybody has his dad doesn't have it.
So there's some saltiness going on there.

(54:37):
And but he just has a little bit of it like he asks him to use some of the starborn light
and it takes like all of them just to have like a tiny little spark.
But he has it which is better than nothing.
He also has his mother's fae abilities for shadows and mists versus his father's fire

(55:02):
fae abilities which also pisses the king off which I love because like.
And I'm so glad you said that because rune is our shadow daddy.
And I'm so I'm so like torn because obviously like hunt and Bryce are really our main main
characters but like I love rune and I love his story and I think he's totally hot in

(55:28):
my head and his shadows seem really cool.
I'm just prior to reading this throughout all of book talk of the sound the audio of
rune Danin crown prince of the barbarian thing was huge like millions of times.

(55:53):
And so when I went into this book I thought he was going to be the main character because
not once did I ever see anybody mention hunt.
Yeah that's interesting and I don't know if I've actually heard that audio now I'm going
to have to go track it down.
It was everywhere on my feed like earlier this year I think I don't know how I ended

(56:15):
up in it because from fantasy isn't usually what comes up on my book talk it's usually
dark romance.
Yeah yeah yeah.
But it did and to the extent that I thought the book was going to be about him I never
once saw hunt I had to go back and read the summary because I was like is not the main

(56:36):
character and he's not it's hunt it's hunt and Bryce.
I will say though.
Oh it kind of threw me for a loop.
These side characters get very full story arcs.
So although runes not the technical main character we're going to follow him as a main character
if that makes sense.

(56:57):
Runes image is very rebellious bad boy.
He is not walking around like Prince Harry like doing a clean cut like heartthrob thing
although he probably is a heartthrob but he's got piercings he's Mr. Spike tear leather
jacket type situation.

(57:19):
Yeah half his head is shaved you know earrings up all the ears which he's got fake ears so
yeah that's a lot of ear for a lot of earrings.
And oh by the way rune is also told to keep Bryce from doing anything embarrassing during

(57:40):
the summit which you just like get to see why Bryce hates him so much and really pissed
me off during this time whenever rune points out like in his inner monologue that the king
only ever refers to his daughter as that girl or the girl.

(58:02):
I was like you smug bastard.
Seriously I mean that's that's fucked up he not once has ever said her name.
He also informs rune in this same conversation that he is to marry the new witch queen so

(58:25):
the previous witch queen died her daughter has is taking her role as queen and he's like
oh by the way y'all are gonna get married because he's trying to make political moves
and right off the bat rune is expected to produce an heir for the Dan and bloodline

(58:53):
witch gag.
So that's kind of one of these side stories that is essential to what's going on with
Bryce in general but we get back to Bryce and Hunt and their new partnership and Hunt

(59:19):
has taken up basically where he's like not with Bryce in her apartment he's like posted
up on the rooftop across the street and or like flies like above her whenever she's walking
like to and from work and she's not about this and so she does everything that she can

(59:40):
to resist this protection detail or just to fuck with him and I absolutely love it she
parades around her apartment in her underwear just to make him uncomfortable with the windows
wide open.
Yes except like I think he wanted to watch whatever was on TV and she just like shut

(01:00:03):
the curtains.
That was the first night she realized that he was there and she shut the curtains and
she gets a phone call from him not even knowing how he got her number and he's like open the
windows I want to watch TV and it's like a soap opera type thing or reality TV show and
he's like it's better than nothing.

(01:00:26):
But basically Hunt is also not a big Bryce fan at this point because he basically sees
her as a very pretty much what she lets people believe about her that she's a party girl
and he thinks she's a spoiled rich brat basically.
Because of her apartment which she didn't even buy.

(01:00:47):
And the chimera.
She only gained from death.
So one of the things so he is expecting her to like follow his orders and she is she goes
for a run she goes and gets her nails done she is completely in his eyes blowing off

(01:01:11):
how serious this task is.
And she even which also puts her on his suspect list.
He's like this is too nonchalant.
Correct.
So she actually gives him the slip.
And I loved this part.

(01:01:31):
I she is a lot smarter than he gives her credit for so I think that's why she's able to get
kind of the jump on him a few times.
But the reason she shakes him is because she wants to go talk to Rune.
So then Hunt is furious that Bryce is in his view been dicking around all day and and that

(01:02:00):
she you know escaped him and all of this instead of spending time on what he asked her to do.
And this is when she decides to go ahead and let him know that her manicurist is Maximus's
girlfriend and she went there to get more information about this alleged friendship

(01:02:23):
between him and Danica and kind of see like what was going on with him right before he
was murdered.
And she actually her his girlfriend says no like he was not friends with Danica because
she would have known about it but also she figures out that the only mutual acquaintance

(01:02:43):
that both Danica and Maximus had was the Viper Queen and she's already kind of suspicious
of what the Viper Queen had going on because the Viper Queen is shady.
So from this argument outside of Rune's house that Bryce and Hunt have she jumps on her
scooter and goes directly to the meat market and it's not exactly a safe part of town and

(01:03:07):
Hunt is just like trying to keep up at this point.
And she snuck out to go to the meat market and he followed her sitting there.
And she marches right into this shop and starts negotiating the purchase of contraband obsidian

(01:03:30):
salt which is illegal and it's like a black salt which is used to summon demons from hell.
Very powerful demons.
This is a moment where we get another little nugget of information about hell and they

(01:03:51):
explain hell was severed from them by time and space but still accessible through the
twin sealed portals at the north and south poles.
The northern rift and the southern rift respectively.
So when somebody's using these salts to summon a demon they're actually pulling them through
these dimension wormholes that connect to hell.

(01:04:19):
I liked this concept.
It's interesting right?
Like I the hell in this storyline is pretty fascinating.
Yeah it's different for sure.
But we actually get to see Bryce ask for help for the first time and she actually invites

(01:04:41):
Hunt inside from his post outside at the office at Griffin Antiquities and she asks for help.
She's like I'm really struggling with this.
And we get to see Hunt have some empathy because he can understand he's been through some traumatic

(01:05:01):
stuff and so he kind of starts by like start with the happy memories or what's something
that was really good and kind of leads her into being able to actually make this list.
And I love that Lahabah is loving her some Hunt.

(01:05:25):
She is fan girling over the Umber Mortis.
Sassy little trash TV watching.
Just firecracker almost literally.
And she's like super tiny too.
She's like the size of his hand.

(01:05:47):
Yes she's a tiny little sprite and I loved how Hunt flirts with her and makes her feel
special and like oh it was like my favorite.
That warms my heart so much and I think it was like totally intentional.
It was so cute.

(01:06:07):
But we do find out during this interaction the event that caused Bryce and Rune to have
a falling out and clearly they were younger and clearly it was like a heated argument
but Rune calls her a half-breed slut.
And accused her of flirting with all of his friends.

(01:06:29):
Yeah.
Which she probably was.
Which we do later.
I know she does.
Yeah she probably was.
But like so.
That's what I have to say about that.
Yeah she was a kid.
She was a kid.
So that's when we're like oh because up until this point I remember thinking that Bryce
was kind of being a brat towards Rune but then you find out what he did and I'm like

(01:06:51):
oh yeah no you're right.
That's not cool.
Totally unwarranted.
As a younger sister to an older brother I had crushes on my older brother's friends
when I was little.
Like I'm pretty sure we all did.
All of my friends had crushes on my brother.
I mean did them no good because he's gay but.

(01:07:12):
But the point is there's no reason to call somebody a half-breed slut okay.
However he does seem to be extremely remorseful that he said that and it was like a thing
that he said in a heated moment that I think was about something else really.
I don't think it was really about that but the very next thing that happens is there's

(01:07:38):
actually another murder and it's another body that has been ripped apart by the Kristalos.
So Hunt basically forces her very brutishly to go to this crime scene even though she

(01:07:59):
doesn't want to go she's not ready to see it because they're so similar to what happened
to Danica and the devils.
But he basically forces her and she lets him force her but she actually I think has a panic
attack and almost collapses and has this really painful flashback to the night of Danica's

(01:08:21):
murder and Rune is also there due to his law enforcement involvement and kind of is protective
brother of Bryce with Hunt like why would you bring her here like she doesn't need to
see this and I think Hunt he plays it off he does not feel he doesn't act like he feels

(01:08:45):
bad in this moment but I think this is one of those like big dumb oaf moments where he's
like oh yeah you probably you probably sad about that huh.
Yeah he regretted it after the fact like come on he didn't want anybody else to know that
he regretted it.
Oh yeah he's totally being the tough guy about it.

(01:09:08):
Hunt then you know I think is looking at these horrific crime scenes and he asks Bryce about
the night of Danica's murder and like how did she survive the Kristalos and it cracked
me up because he says something like how did you get away and she was like I was chasing

(01:09:30):
it like I was trying to catch it like it's not it didn't get away like or I didn't get
away it got away kind of thing which cracked me up but he accidentally let slip in this
interaction about how she got away that Micah was the archangel that she saved in the street

(01:09:51):
that night because she didn't know and nobody would tell her and she's furious that this
was intentionally kept from her because they didn't want Micah losing face that a half
breed saved his ass.
Yeah which is utterly ridiculous but yeah and she's just like big mad and does the one

(01:10:19):
not even for the reasons that you would think she's mad about it yeah yeah she's mad because
she spent so much time trying to track him down in hospitals to make sure that something
she did that night helped saved a life you know actually contributed to something positive
throughout that entire event and nobody decided to tell her that yeah that dude lived you

(01:10:46):
saved the governor's life.
Exactly and she ends up going to the White Raven and she is meeting up with her friend
Juniper and Hunt being who he is goes follows her inside and basically sits right down with

(01:11:07):
her and Juniper sure enough right after that Rune shows up because he was actually tipped
off by the club's owner that his sister was there and Rune's supposed to be like managing
Bryce right now apparently and poor Bryce is like can the two of you just not like what

(01:11:29):
the hell and right in the middle of all of that the club is hit with a bomb.
Bomb explodes.
The whole club is like in chaos and they are all physically okay.

(01:11:52):
Bryce actually protects Juniper and Juniper's mad because Bryce hasn't made the drop and
put herself at risk.
I thought this part was really funny because Bryce you know jumps on top of Juniper to
protect her and then Juniper gets mad because she's made the drop like she would have she
hasn't.
She would have been fine yeah.

(01:12:12):
Yeah and in her anger of Bryce putting herself in danger for her she punches Bryce in the
face.
Yeah.
Yeah it actually it's pretty funny.
I was like dang a little contradictory here but alright.
Yes but essentially I thought it was hilarious.

(01:12:35):
Where the white raven is is pretty close to where Rune lives so Rune is like get Bryce
out of here and he takes her there to like kind of tend to her wounds.
Bryce allows herself to be a little bit vulnerable with Hunt at this point and he's there kind
of patching her up because her ears are bleeding from the blast and so she's like kind of out

(01:13:04):
of it but as he's tending to her wounds he notices that Bryce never had the wound on
her leg healed from the night of Danica's murder and we've learned he in the span of
this one event he learned figured out at the white raven that she's actually not been drinking

(01:13:27):
or partying for the two years since the murder which he didn't realize.
She's been drinking water.
Yeah it's been water not liquor.
In a vodka glass.
Yeah and then he finds he because he had made a comment at some point before about you know
I'm sure she went to a medwich right away so she didn't have a scar because she's you

(01:13:48):
know vain like that.
Yeah and he's consistently aiding his words at this point.
Yes I'm like Hunt get it together but he actually was the first on scene that night when it
happened and he's the one that stapled her wound closed.

(01:14:10):
Yeah he feels some guilt for that.
Yeah because he basically.
For being such a man about it.
Well he field dressed it like he would like a soldier in battle and didn't think anything
of it but now it's clearly like and he also realizes it still hurts her.
And at this point he realizes that she's like still punishing herself for the night whereas

(01:14:38):
this whole time he thought you know she was very flippant about it and he says something
there's a quote here he says he understood how it not on bones and blood and the very
soul of a person how nothing could ever make it right how cutting out the alcohol and the

(01:14:59):
drugs how refusing to do the things she loved the most dancing still couldn't make it right.
And it's just like this profound kind of comment on grief that this is her self punishment
all of this depriving herself basically of anything that helps her heal or move on or

(01:15:21):
makes her happy.
He can relate to that feeling but he hasn't really had a chance to move on because of
his circumstance but they do relate to each other here in this new like deeper way.
I will say up until the point where he noticed the scar where he was like addressing her

(01:15:48):
ear and like lightly touching her leg like to get closer or whatever and he ends up like
between legs.
Yes.
My dark romance brain was like are we about to get something?
Are we about to get something exciting and then it went into like this like very somber
melancholy scene and I was like so close.

(01:16:10):
Yeah because you start to see him notice her physically and there's like a lingering touch
and she makes a joke because he's kneeling between her legs because he's dressing her
wounds when he notices the scar and then he realizes the scar is his fault and so he's
like making a face and she's like he's just staring at it.

(01:16:31):
Yeah and she's like normally when men are kneeling between my legs they aren't grimacing
and that's really all we get there.
Just a tease.
Find out Bryce has not spoken with Fury since the night of the murder and out of the blue

(01:16:54):
Bryce decides to call her and she actually picks up this time and Fury tells her that
she has been hired to kill whoever bombed the White Raven.
So that's kind of another mystery that needs to be solved here in this story.

(01:17:19):
To be clear up to this point we now have the demon murders.
Yes.
We have the Lunahorn.
Yes.
And now we have the bombing.
The bombing.
Correct.
Just so we're all keeping count here and it's just one travesty after another okay.
It is.
And bodies are still dropping.

(01:17:40):
Correct.
Everything you're saying is true.
Just so we're all tracking here.
So then we have Rune he comes to Griffon Antiquities because he wants to search the super secret
hidden library for more clues on finding the horn.

(01:18:00):
And Lahaba, woman after my own heart, now is also in love with Rune which again super
cute.
So at this point Hunt is going to be staying in Bryce's guest room versus on the rooftop

(01:18:23):
across the street so that he is more readily after the bombing there's like not only their
connection has steepened so she's like softened towards him but also there's a more urgent
need for him to be like right there if she needs him.
So they decide to go by the Comitium and get more of his clothes and belongings because

(01:18:46):
he's going to be staying in the apartment.
And this is when they stumble onto Sandriel and this is the first time that Hunt has seen
his reminder his lover's murderous twin since she traded him to Micah.

(01:19:07):
And when Hunt is confronted with her he freezes like literally freezes up and at the point
where his like trauma response almost becomes like disrespectful and he's going to like

(01:19:28):
create an issue Bryce jumps in and pulls her little Bryce stunt where she basically starts
snapping pictures and doing like a selfie and tries to play it off.
It tends to be a vapid party girl.
Yes tries to play it off like Hunt brought her so that she could see the archangel that's

(01:19:50):
in town.
And Micah obviously doesn't buy that but it kind of saves space in the like public setting
because there's a ton of people there because they're having some kind of like ceremony
or greeting or some kind of event to welcome them to the city.

(01:20:14):
And they're all bowing.
Everyone is bowed except for Hunt and Bryce.
So precarious situation but as they're about to leave Micah the most powerful man in the
city asks Bryce out and she's like not interested.

(01:20:35):
Yeah.
Which I love.
And it's made clear that it wasn't like a malicious rejection or a gloating rejection
it was just a simple I'm not interested.
Yeah.
I like that that was added in there because it's like it speaks to Bryce.
She's not just going to reject just to be cruel.

(01:20:56):
But she's just she's honest.
She's not going to accept just because he's rich and powerful.
Exactly.
So all of it speaks to Bryce.
And Hunt is like realizing that he's in way over his head with Bryce because she's kind
of fearless.
She thinks on her feet she is the kind of friend that will jump in and like put themselves

(01:21:22):
out there to help their friend out.
Yeah.
But because of this little stunt that gets pulled that kind of embarrasses Micah he to
kind of remind Hunt of who he belongs to and where he ranks in this situation he calls
him to actually perform another assassination.

(01:21:44):
I'd also like to point out that in the beginning when he originally assigned Hunt to the protection
duty of Bryce and struck up the deal that if he can do pull this off he you know only
has 10 kills left.
He also stated that Hunt was to keep his dick in his pants if he'd like to keep it.

(01:22:08):
Correct.
So we're already not on a good track here because things are becoming kind of obvious
amongst the two of them.
Like publicly people are noticing that there's something there.
Yeah.
And they're spending all this time together but they can't exactly announce to everyone

(01:22:29):
what they're working on.
Yeah.
So in moving along in their investigation as a way to try and find out more about the
horn Hunt goes to visit the Oracle and he goes to go by himself because both Roone and

(01:22:50):
Bryce had a horrific experience with the Oracle when they were teenagers and so they're like
ah you are on your own with that buddy.
So Hunt goes to the Oracle and she tells him basically the thief intends to repair the

(01:23:11):
horn and open the northern rift to allow the princes of hell to return to Midgard.
That's not freaky and ominous at all.
She can't tell him anything about who that is though.
She can only say that that's their intention which doesn't sound good.

(01:23:31):
I'm really curious if she actually knows and just doesn't want to say.
She seems kind of like drama-y.
We never can tell with these Oracle types.
Like the Oracle types in any series they have to be super vague and all rhyme and riddle-y
and it's just I don't know why it always has to be that way.

(01:23:55):
I'm getting serious surreal vibes from Actar.
Yes for sure.
For sure.
Yeah.
So.
Just the start of the pot motherfucker.
In a very un-Oracle like move in my opinion she actually offers to reveal not just Hunt's

(01:24:22):
future but also to tell him about her vision for Bryce and in a very gentlemanly move he
declines but he actually also doesn't want to know his future either which I don't know
if I have that kind of self-control.

(01:24:43):
It shocked the Oracle for sure.
She was like really you don't like people come from all over this world to come to me
to find out their future and you're here and you don't.
No.
I'm good.
So the last thing she says to him though all ominous like is do yourself a favor Orion

(01:25:08):
Athelar keep well away from Bryce Quinlan and I love that we find out his real name
is Orion and nobody calls him that.
Hunt is the nickname that his mom gave him but Orion the constellation is the hunter
and so love that.

(01:25:32):
Because of Hunt's interaction with the Oracle Bryce actually volunteers her story to Hunt
about her own encounter with the Oracle and it says when the Oracle looked into her smoke
she screamed clawed at her eyes.
I heard later she went blind for a week.
So I laughed so hard because I was like that would so be my luck like I would go Oracle

(01:26:00):
all like excited to hear about my future and they're like gnashing their teeth and clawing
their eyes out like my future would be so heinous.
That the Oracle would want to claw out its eyes and go manic.
But we also get a little bit more of her like history with her dad the Autumn King is that

(01:26:27):
after this happens rumors of this happening get back to her father who was expecting you
know some like grand prediction and he feels like this is a disgrace to their family somehow
and sends her back to her mom and basically this is when he's like no I'm not claiming

(01:26:50):
you publicly.
Which it didn't help that also when she went to do the test or whatever to see how much
magic she would have it pretty much said that she'll have little to no fey power.
She's for all intents and purposes human and he was like you know gross goodbye.

(01:27:18):
So this is like even more depth to Bryce and how she became this strong independent I don't
need no.
Anybody authoritative figure in my life.
And understandable we then go to hunt has arranged for the two of them to actually meet

(01:27:43):
with Briggs in prison and they want to talk to him about if his people were involved in
the bombing at the White Raven.
And he actually kind of we get to see up close and personal what happens to anybody that's

(01:28:04):
considered a threat to the existing political regime.
Because he's being tortured every day and then completely healed back together so that
they can start all over the next day.
And which I would like to say you probably don't know this because you didn't watch

(01:28:24):
supernatural but that is the entire gist of hell in supernatural is that when you go down
there they put you on the right they tear you apart and at the end of the day they put
you back together to do it all again the next day.
For however long and then at a certain point they'll offer you the chance to get off the
rack and be the one that does the truth.

(01:28:45):
And that's how demons are created.
And this whole this whole interaction kind of shed some light on what hunt went through
because he was considered like an enemy of the state when the rebellion that he was a
part of failed and he was tortured like this and then healed so you kind of get even more

(01:29:07):
of a up close like he didn't know what day it was.
Whenever they they come in to see him.
And Bryce finds out that this is kind of what hunt went through too.
Like not just the reader but Bryce did and she starts to start starts looking at hunt
a little I don't want to say sympathetically but I guess more understanding.

(01:29:35):
Yes.
Yeah well and as they're leaving hunt kind of gets in his own head about his basically
he feels like he's no better than Briggs and Bryce says to him Briggs is a bad person.
He might have once gotten into the human rebellion for the right reasons but he is a bad person.

(01:29:57):
You aren't you will never be end of story.
So again Bryce saying this to kind of help him but also kind of reveals how she sees
him and is seeing him and it's another kind of little inch forward and the thawing of
things between each other and like building kind of a friendship.

(01:30:20):
So the very next place we go with them is they actually go to a shooting range in Moonwood
where they are looking for Rune and his his two sidekicks who were also part of the Ox
and they're doing target practice which is why they go to the shooting range.

(01:30:41):
She knows this is where they do target practice but we get to see a little bit of Bryce's
combat skills that she was taught by her stepfather and gets to.
I loved this part.
She gets to demonstrate her sharpshooter skills which Hunt does not see coming but loves.

(01:31:07):
I liked when they challenged her when the boys challenged her to it and she shoots and
then he's like you only made one and the other guy's like no she didn't she made all three
and then for Hunt to do what he did I was like oh match made in heaven.

(01:31:31):
Yes so he matches her accuracy but we get to see this moment where this is something
that in this very patriarchal like male-dominated society most of the men that Quinlan encounters
are intimidated by this and put off by this with her and so it says she interprets his

(01:31:54):
actions to mean it says I see you Quinlan he silently conveyed to her and I like all
of it right back at you her half smile seemed to say.
So and it's kind of a sexy moment because he's definitely turned on by her gun skills.
I was turned on by his I mean he's staring her in the face as he's setting up the gun

(01:32:20):
and messing with it and I'm like the eye contacts I oh the intimacy and it's like the gun thing
the violence the we need therapy of it all you know yeah there's something about it I

(01:32:41):
got a little snippet from my dark romance in there yep made me happy and while they're
there they actually get a call that another murder has taken place so things are escalating
quite a bit and before they go there's another moment where Bryce is already kind of she's
like I need to go for me like I want to go to the crime scene but she's feeling anxious

(01:33:05):
again and this time instead of like brutishly just forcing her to go he actually like walks
her through a breathing technique that he uses to manage the anxiety and it's a cool
moment where one I love that authors are including some of these because sometimes if that's

(01:33:26):
the only way you hear about it but like it works for you like love that yeah but also
we get to see again like they're definitely starting to realize how much they have in
common that they didn't even realize yeah so they're finally starting to see each other

(01:33:49):
past the circumstance yes and like really see each other yeah as human beings well not
human beings you know but you know what I mean yes absolutely so this time the victim
of the murder is a guard from Luna's temple who was on duty the night that the horn was

(01:34:12):
taken and they go to the crime scene and Bryce is the one that notices there's a pattern
in the location of all the murders they are all connected to an invisible grid of ley
lines that run beneath all the city's major streets and from my understanding of a ley

(01:34:33):
line it's like a power source like a path in the earth a power pipeline that energy
flows through and I just want to say one thing okay yeah yeah this is the third person the

(01:34:55):
third person okay to die who was on duty the night at the temple that the horn was stolen
why are we not putting people under protection why are we not looking at like a list of people
who were there that night and putting them under protection that's an excellent question
I didn't even think of that but yes that would have been smart versus just letting people

(01:35:19):
get murdered shredded like they're piles of flesh and meat yeah which is like I think
she describes it as like a big mass of pulp yes she uses the word pulp and it's very descriptive
and disgusting all at the same time so seems like they should be looking at a list of all

(01:35:45):
the people and then like putting them under protection under lock and key you would think
I mean maybe one would hope so she asks hunt to have someone in his unit check for temperature
drops in the vicinity of each crime which would indicate a demon summoning and I find

(01:36:06):
it interesting that in this world hell is cold not hot so the lower you get into hell
the colder it gets to the point where it's like not a survivable cold to the normal being

(01:36:28):
so they would be able should be able to detect a drop in temperature anywhere a demon was
summoned that's the book I was trying to there's another book where hell is cold kingdom of
the wicked yes like an ice right yeah which I like it I just like the it's a different

(01:36:50):
it also makes sense because I hate the cold so bad yeah I we're Texas women and we're
tiny we can survive and health we can be comfortable we still might ask for a heated blanket you
put us in the cold in the snow no no I'm gonna die yep I'm gonna pass exactly I'll be good

(01:37:12):
I promise just don't make me go to the cold hard pass so okay so Sabine swapped out the
footage so they think maybe Sabine stole the horn in order to get go for a power grab maybe
to weaken Micah's whole hold on the governorship and try and like get a boost in her own like

(01:37:42):
power and control it's also theorized that she's doing all of that alongside Sandrill
where they're gonna like team up to make this happen for the both of them which wouldn't
be out of the realm of possibility for Sandrill as we well know at this right but decent theory

(01:38:04):
they also think if Danica saw her mother take it Sabine might have killed Danica to cover
it up because there really was no love loss between her and her daughter they did not
get along lots of lots of issues there the night that had happened and they were interrogating

(01:38:26):
Bryce Sabine shows up and her first concern is the sword yes not not the fact that her
daughter just died yep yeah and still she still only cares about the sword to this day
two years later Sabine is the worst I want to pull her hair out horrible horrible we

(01:38:52):
get to back to hunt and Bryce they are at their headquarters at the Comitium and one
of hunts team members is a race named Victoria who actually was the person interrogating
Bryce the night of Danica's murder but we bitch that played the audio yes but I don't

(01:39:23):
think any of them not letting it go yeah I don't think any of them realize that Bryce
does remember that it was Victoria and hunt there that night but yeah she was able to
detect temperature fluctuations in the areas where the Kristallos was summoned and its

(01:39:44):
signature could be detected all over the Wolf District of Moonwood looking for someone or
something so we end this chapter on Bryce's like well I guess we know what we're doing
tonight which is going to Moonwood which they also shared another moment here because I

(01:40:11):
think Bryce was like rattled or something well leading up to this they were on the walk
and he says that he will never love another like he did his ex that died so yes he's like
puts his hand on her leg under the table right like yeah to like calm her to comfort her

(01:40:38):
but and Victoria notices yeah and Victoria's got like it written all over her face like
hunt what are you doing like no sir yeah but it also confuses Bryce because he just told
her that even whenever he's like hooked up with other people he's still thinking about

(01:41:00):
his law Bryce is like okay now I'm confused because there's been a lot of hints but maybe
I read them wrong and I'm like can relate have been there signals for sure yeah but
that is a wrap for part one of Howl's Birth and Blood yes that's a mouthful as always

(01:41:28):
thanks for listening we hope you enjoyed our take on this very non-speak so far book we
will see y'all next week a novel affair where we will be discussing part two of House of
Earth and Blood be sure to like and follow us on social media and hit that subscribe

(01:41:49):
button before you go we'll see y'all soon