Chapter Fifty-Five

Summary

• Bryce wakes up in her own bed and realizes Hunt must have carried her there. Hunt is asleep in the guest room. Bryce finds messages from her brother, Ruhn, assuring her of his willingness to help her."
• Ruhn apologized for their disagreement years ago, Bryce became emotional and uses his words against him. Then she pushes him away from her life. She was unsure whether her actions were impulsive. The argument between her brother and herself made her feel anxious and scared. She feels guilty about Ruhn never questioning why she’d pushed him away after their argument.
• She is encouraged from her brother’s messages, so she decides to make coffee and go for a morning run. She responded to Juniper’s message about missing her dance class. Juniper was frustrated and upset with Bryce.
• Hunt surprises Bryce with breakfast and thanks her for her earlier assistance. There seems to be some sexual tension between Bryce and Hunt, but it is interrupted when the food starts to burn.
• At work, Bryce gets a call from Jesiba. She rushes to meet the sorceress, who has a new creature from the northern icy seas in her library’s tank, a nøkk, which terrifies Lehabah. Bryce fails to persuade Jesiba to find the creature a new home.
• Viktoria has found something synthetic in the horn sample Danika stole. It is a drug which combines organic, magic, and technical natures. Everyone who had contact with it had this synthetic material on them.
• The synthetic drug is discussed by Bryce and Hunt with Ruhn, who had received research about it and is reading through it to find out more. The drug includes obsidian salt, which raises suspicion about whether it could be used to summon demons.
• Bryce decides that they need to find out who in the Meat Market is selling the drug as she believes that might lead them to whoever killed Danika.

• The characters, Hunt and Bryce, discuss going to a dangerous part of the city known as the Meat Market to find answers related to a drug. Hunt tells Bryce to first take the opportunity to talk to her living parents, citing it as a luxury he wishes he still had.
• Hunt shares with Bryce the story of his mother who worked tirelessly as a low-ranking angel to provide for him, only to end up murdered for false rumors of her wealth. He expresses his bitterness that not one of the powerful angels his mother worked for cared to investigate her death, leading him to become a foot soldier for someone named Shahar.
• Bryce sympathizes with him and agrees to make a video call to her parents that evening. Together, they clean her apartment in preparation for the call, with Bryce taking humorous pictures of the process and changing Hunt's contact name to "Bryce Is Cooler Than Me" on her phone.
• Hunt contemplates the case they are working on and the consequences of not solving it, such as being sold back to a being named Sandriel. He also reflects on how much he's learned about a different life he could've had without his halo and slave tattoos.
• Bryce offers to open a bottle of wine for some 'liquid courage' as they prepare to video chat her parents, but the moment is interrupted by her mother's voice questioning why Hunt would need liquid courage.