#Review - Cold Curses by Chloe Neill #Fantasy #Paranormal

Series: Heirs of Chicagoland (#5)
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Release Date: November 14, 2023
Publisher: Berkley
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy / Paranormal

It’s all magical hands on deck for vampire Elisa Sullivan and her allies as they fight to save the Windy City from a supernatural onslaught, in the newest installment of the USA Today bestselling Heirs of Chicagoland series.

Elisa, the only vampire ever born, is hoping all can remain quiet in the City of Chicago in the wake of a destructive attack by an ancient demon who broke the city’s defensive magic. Still, she and her friends, including shifter Connor Keene, know they need to be ready for anything.
 
Everyone is working as hard as they can to repair the city’s wards, but unwelcome creatures are slipping through and Elisa soon finds herself caught in the middle of a magical turf war with roots that go back generations. She knows she will have to take a stand, but retaliating threatens to reveal her deepest secret...

Cold Cases, by Chloe Neill, is the 5th installment in the authors Heirs of Chicagoland series. It also appears to be the swan song for the series as well which is unfortunate. Elisa Sullivan, daughter of Merit and Ethan Sullivan of Cadogan House, is the only vampire ever born. She’s engaged to shifter Connor Keene, the son of the local pack leader Gabriel Keene, who has been forced to fight for the right to become the next Apex of the North American Central Pack.  

Elisa, who is also Chicago's associate Ombudsman along with Roger, Petra, and Theo, with help from Gwen Robinson of the Chicago P.D., fight to protect their city from an avalanche of demons who were released in the previous book when wards were broken by an ancient evil. Elisa, Connor, her best friend Lulu Bell and Alexei Breckenridge, who have apparently moved to another level with their relationship, have several fights on their hand on more than one front, while Lulu's parents, Mallory and Catcher Bell, are working to repair Chicago’s wards.

IF you didn't know before, you know now that Elisa has a second consciousness within that she battles for control. A remnant of the spell that bound a supernatural creature into Merit's beloved Katana 20 years ago that also bound Elisa to Merit to give birth to the first ever born vampire. Only Connor and a few others know Elisa's secret and now it appears that Monster desperately wants to unite once again with Merit's blade. Meanwhile, for the first time in 20 years, Merit and Ethan are once again ready to put their house in harms way to defeat the evil that is taking over the city. 

Working with the Chicago PD, and well as other organizations, Houses, and the Pack, as well as a visitor from another pack, Elisa and company end up putting out literal fires and stopping more destruction from the hell raisers all the city. It also seems someone they know, and once saved Elisa's life, has decided to be take all the available magical power and become the top dog in the supernatural fight. It's all hands on deck in this series finale that doesn't disappoint in action, romance, sarcasm, and family dynamics.

*Thoughts* Elisa is very goal-oriented, dedicated, and puts others first. Kind of like Merit. She also tends to use sarcasm against fear. Connor is dedicated to protecting his pack, but tends to put Elisa in front of his own battles to become Apex. Their relationship has always been fun to read about since they are both strong willed and will do anything to protect family. The interesting part of this story is the strong involvement of Merit, Ethan, Paige, Mallory, and Catcher defeating the villain, as well as watching Lulu finally come out of the shadow of her mother to stand on her own.

ONE

Aclaw swept across my face, and I felt the hot breath of hell. The monster had arrived.

I shook myself awake and stared into the eyes of my One True Enemy, who sat on my chest like a succubus. Sleek and black and glaring at me with unabashed loathing.

"Rawr," she said.

"What?" I asked, trying to make sense of my surroundings. "And why?"

"That, Elisa, is a cat," said the wickedly gorgeous shapeshifter currently in human form beside me. Connor Keene's hair was dark and wavy, his body toned and muscles taut. One strong arm was slung over his eyes, and a smile curved his very kissable mouth. "I'm surprised you didn't know that."

He might have been my future husband, but I gave him a look nearly as gnarly as the one I'd given the cat. "Why," I began again, with admirable patience, "is it this cat and why is it in this house?"

"Nothing to do with me," he said. And gave Eleanor of Aquitaine an arch look. "Cat, why are you here?"

Eleanor of Aquitaine (not Eleanor or Elle, unless you wanted scratching) belonged to, or owned, Lulu Bell, my roommate and sorcerer. But we weren't in the loft Lulu and I shared; we were in Connor's town house. Only Connor "lived" in the town house, but we'd all taken up at least temporary residence there recently. Me, because he was my future husband. Lulu, because she was my bestie and I wanted her safe. Alexei Breckenridge, because he was Connor's best friend and Lulu's (boyfriend? friend? friend with benefits?) something or other. He'd stayed over at the town house during Chicago's most recent supernatural disturbance and hadn't yet left.

And now, apparently, we'd added the damned cat.

At my apparently rude question, said cat jumped off the bed and slunk into the bathroom.

"Demon visitation complete," I said. At least until she made it into the closet and began running through our clothes like they were a joint car wash and scratching pad.

I glanced at Connor. "How are you feeling?"

He rolled his shoulder, testing. "A little sore, but I'll manage." Connor was the son of the North American Central Pack's current Apex, Gabriel Keene. Connor had already taken down three challengers in his effort to ascend to Apex when his dad retired. And they kept coming.

"Nothing tonight, right?"

"Nothing tonight," he said. "You?"

"Depends on the actual demons," I said.

I was a vampire born into Chicago's Cadogan House and an associate Ombudsman, one of Chicago's human-supernatural liaisons. Less than a week ago, we'd sealed away Andaras (aka Rose, aka Eglantine, aka "Rosantine"), the first demon to enter Chicago in two hundred years. While she was no longer a problem, she'd triggered two of the wards in the city's Victorian-era magical defense system. We were still trying to get the apparently single-use wards online again, and keep the city from being overrun by demons walking through the literal gap in our defenses. A few demons had made it through already; we were battling them as we found them now and sprinkling copious amounts of salt-a new addition to the Ombud operating procedure-across Chicago. We hadn't had a night off since we'd brought the House back, and we were basically on call until the problem was resolved.

In addition to their penchant for troublemaking and violence, Rosantine had temporarily sent Cadogan House and its inhabitants-including my, Lulu's, and Connor's parents-into another dimension. Did not enjoy; did not wish to repeat.

Connor pulled me against him, enveloped me in warmth and magic and . . . him. "Just give me one minute," he said. "And then you can yell at the cat."

I snorted. "One minute," I said, and smoothed a hand over his chest. He made a satisfied sigh and closed his eyes. There were shadows beneath them-faint, dark crescents brought on by too much magic and too much physical exertion.

"I know you don't want to stop until you've claimed the throne," I said. "But if you need to stop before you can do that, it's fine. We will find a different way to be."

He was quiet for a moment, then smoothed a hand over my long, wavy hair. "A different way?"

"Well, we could join the circus. You could be the strong man in those little glittery shorts. I'll do the trapeze. We'll live out of an RV and eat take-out Chinese."

"That's quite a plan."

"Maybe better as a backup situation. In the meantime, continue kicking their asses."

"That's the plan," he said, and kissed my forehead.

The bedroom door, already cracked, was pushed open fully by the sorceress who stepped into the doorway. Her gaze searched the room, but she ignored us-entwined as we were.

"Your minute is up," I said.

"Her Highness is in the bathroom," Connor announced. "Elisa scared her off."

"Lulu," I said-a question, a declaration, and a curse in two syllables.

"She was getting lonely," Lulu said, moving into the room. There was a lot of feisty spirit in that petite frame, and an apparent skill at old magic-the bloody, potentially evil kind. But the paint-spattered white coveralls, rolled up at arms and ankles, mitigated the effect. She was an artist first, a sorceress second. And until a week ago, a completely nonpracticing one. Demons had changed everything.

Lulu was currently working on a mural in Hyde Park, not far from Cadogan House.

I narrowed my gaze as she strode to the bathroom, where something made a clunking sound. "What did she destroy?" I called out.

Lulu emerged, the cat sitting queenlike in her arms. "Here, or there?" she asked with a smile.

My stare didn't change. "What did she pee on at the loft?"

"Let's just say, if pee was gold, we'd both be rich. And I hope you didn't like those pink sneakers."

"You're both very entertaining," Connor said, rolling over to reveal the smooth curves of muscle across his back. "But maybe you could entertain somewhere else?"

With impeccable timing, Alexei stepped into the room, bagel in hand. Silently, he looked at us, then at Lulu and the cat, then chewed. Like Connor, Alexei was tall and strong, with pale skin and dark blond hair. Alexei didn't talk much; he was a man of quiet loyalty who said much with his piercing hazel eyes. And knew how to back up a friend.

"And you brought her here why?" I asked.

"We can't leave her alone at the loft forever," Lulu said. "And with the demons out there, who knows how long we'll be camped out here."

"I'll deal with the demons," I said. "And your parents are working on repairing the broken wards." Lulu's parents were powerful sorcerers.

"I know. I was just saying. Nobody expects it to be immediate. Freaking demons."

"Freaking demons," Connor and Alexei muttered in unison.

Lulu stroked Eleanor of Aquitaine, who purred beneath her paint-stained fingers. While that cat wanted nothing to do with me, she plainly loved Lulu. And it wasn't my style to break up a family.

Resigned, I sighed and looked at Connor. "Your house, your rules."

"I don't have a problem with it," he said, voice muffled from the pillow. "She actually likes me."

And that stung a little. "She can stay," I told Lulu. "Just keep her out of this room. And any other room in which I might make an appearance."

"That's most of the house." Lulu's voice was flat.

"Is it?" I asked as innocently as I could manage.

My screen buzzed, and I plucked the thin rectangle of glass from the side table.

"Work," I said, and even the cat went silent. Work rarely delivered good news an hour before I made it into the office.

"Elisa," I answered. "And you're on speaker with a demon cat and the sups who enable it." This was not the time for video.

"Roger" was the caller's response. Roger Yuen was the Ombudsman and my boss. "I'm on with Petra and Theo." They were my coworkers. Petra, an aeromancer and light conspiracy theory enthusiast, and Theo, a human former cop and my partner.

"How is Eleanor of Aquitaine?" Petra asked, and the cat actually rowr'd a response.

"Good girl," Petra added.

"What's happened?" I asked, trying to steer my evening away from the resident demon.

"We aren't sure," Roger said. "A burst of magic was reported during the day. Looks like around three o'clock in the afternoon."

"Reported by whom?" I asked.

"We've gotten calls from nymphs who called it a 'magicky bass drop' and from a representative of the river trolls who called it a 'big loud.'"

"Checks out," Connor murmured.

"How did you get 'burst of magic' out of that?" Lulu asked, moving closer to the screen.

"ComEd," Roger said. That was Chicago's power supplier. "They recorded a power surge at the same time. There are also complaints about satellite and telecom services going down. None of it lasted for more than a few seconds. Most of the complaints went to the mayor's office, and they were routed back to us."

Connor had grabbed his screen, and I guessed he was sending a message to the Pack to see if they'd experienced anything.

"Was it a demon?" I asked, my heart beating a little faster.

"Not that we've found. The guards didn't see any activity at the wards. And there were no reports of anyone actually seeing anything. Just feeling it or its effects."

"Well, there was the UFO sighting," Petra said. "But we're pretty confident a UFO did not land on Soldier Field in order to steal children." She paused. "Because aliens are more interested in tech than bio, really."

"Hmm," I said noncommittally. "What about the fairies? They're magically powerful. They'd almost certainly have felt it." And maybe their bristly queen, Claudia, would have some insight about what it was.

"Haven't heard from them," Roger said. "But that's not unusual."

"A few Pack members-those who were awake-felt it," Connor said, reading his screen. "No one can say what it was or where it originated. They just felt a sudden burst of energy."

"Something with the ley lines?" I wondered. Three of the world-spanning lines of magical power ran through Chicago. The city's demon wards were powered by cornerstones-big bespelled stones that got their energy from the ley lines and, in turn, helped regulate them.

"What could have affected them?" Theo asked.

"I don't know. Demons? Sorcerers?" I asked, looking at Lulu.

"You're asking if they could affect the ley lines? I mean, I'm not an expert, but I don't know how they could. Ley lines are pure power. I don't think sorcerers could sway them much. And if they'd done something, some kind of spell, I think we'd have felt it."

"So what should we do?" I asked Roger.

"Maybe it's nothing," Roger said. "Just a hitch in the lines because the demon wards were recently triggered. But if it's something more, I don't want it getting worse. I'm thinking patrols around the city. Maybe we won't find anything, but at least we'll have done our due diligence. Wait-you have that dinner tonight, don't you?"

Connor and I were scheduled to have dinner with his parents to celebrate our engagement.

He'd apparently asked for my father's permission despite his seemingly casual proposal, and we'd shared the news with my parents just after he'd proposed. Neither my mom or dad had been surprised, but they had been supportive and thrilled to welcome a shifter into the family.

"We can be late," Connor said.

I looked at him. "You're sure?"

He nodded. "Dinner won't matter much if demons overrun the city."

"I mean, we'll still have to eat," I murmured, but took his point.

"We can be late," he said again, this time with a smile that had me melting a little.

"Connor and I can start here," I said. "We'll talk to the fairies." I'd also need to send a message to my informant. Jonathan Black was half-elf, half-sorcerer, and an attorney with mysterious clients, at least some of whom were criminals. He'd tried to kill me; he'd also saved my life. He was an enigma.

"Petra and I will start here," Theo said, "although my arm would probably not be hella effective against arrows right now."

"Hella deflective, anyway," Alexei offered, chewing.

The first demon had triggered the ward that had broken Theo's arm, but a fairy had put an arrow through his leg. He was human, but as brave as they come.

"Sounds good," I said. "Want me to check with the Houses? They won't have been awake, but they may know something."

Chicago, with its three ley lines, collected sups like kids collected comics. It was home to four vampire Houses.

"You take Cadogan and Washington," Theo said. "We'll take Navarre and Grey."

"Got it. And we'll let you know if we find anything on our end. Stay safe out there."

"Same," Theo said. "But immortality probably gives you an advantage there."

He wasn't wrong.



The breakfast party was disbanded. Alexei took the last bite of his bagel downstairs; Lulu followed him. While Connor showered, I checked in with my parents at Cadogan House and Uncle Malik at Washington House. He wasn’t my actual uncle, but my dad’s former Second at Cadogan House, and I’d grown up with him and his wife.

Neither House, unfortunately, had anything to offer regarding the magical burst. They'd been unconscious during the day (being vampires), and the human guards who watched over their Houses hadn't felt or reported anything. I also sent a message to Black and didn't get an immediate response, which wasn't especially surprising. He operated on his own schedule.

Then it was my turn in the shower and dressing for a night of who knew what. Connor opted for his preferred jeans, T-shirt, and boots combo; I went for jeans, boots with a stiletto thin enough to double as a weapon, and a couple of thin, layered shirts to combat the coming fall chill. I pulled my long, wavy blond hair into a topknot-the better to fight with-and offered my attention to the second consciousness inside me.

There were two of us in here. In addition to me, my body housed a remnant of the spell that had bound a supernatural creature into my mother's katana two decades ago-and that had bound me to my mother, allowing her to give birth to the world's first vampire child. Lulu's mother, Mallory, had created that spell. The creature, called the Egregore, had been created by a sorcerer named Sorcha Reed. She'd been killed by her creation.

I called the remnant "monster," and its presence was a secret that only Connor knew the full truth about, as I hadn't wanted anyone else-particularly not Aunt Mallory and my parents-to know that I'd been contaminated by Sorcha's magic. Or feel guilty about any of it.

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#Review - Dawnbreaker by Jodi Meadows #YA #Fantasy

Series: Salvation Cycle # 2
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Publisher: Holiday House
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Epic

The king is dead. The world is lost. Long live the queen.

The thin membrane of magic separating the human and demonic planes has been destroyed. Nightrender, the immortal warrior of the gods, must find a way to rebuild it, but Hanne—the serpent girl, always too cunning to be trusted, too hungry for power—has become High Queen, and is too consumed with ambition to cooperate. Meanwhile, Rune—married to Hanne, but in love with Nightrender—is lost in the realm of demons after a disastrous battle, wandering alone in a  twisted landscape of mercury seas, black-glass spires, and winds blowing ash … In this second and final installment of the Nightrender duology, the circle will close, and the world will be saved—or burnt to a cinder.  

Jodi Meadows Dawnbreaker is the second installment in the authors Salvation Cycle duology. In the middle of nothingness is the continent of Salvation. Reality bends easily here. Villages disappear. Forests burn forever. Pockets of inconsistent time are everywhere, their boundaries strung with yellow ribbon. And the three kingdoms of Salvation (Caberwill, Embria & Ivasland) have been at war for a thousand years. But the greatest threat is the Malice, an incursion from the demon plane slowly tearing its way through the world's weakest seams. Seams that--once split--will lead to the total unraveling of night and day, light and dark, life and death. 

Key characters: Rune Highcrown, Johanne (Hanne) Fortuin, and Nightrender. As the story opens, Rune is in the unfortunate position of being stuck in the Malice alone, and tormented by Daghath Mal, the Caged King. Rune's only hope is the feather that the Nightrender gave him as her soul shard which allows him to stay alive and hope for a way to escape. Later, after Rune returns home, he learns that Hanne has been kidnapped and is now charged with treason and will likely die for her actions. Regardless of everything Hanne has done, there is still hope that she will understand the errors that lead her down this path.

Meanwhile, Hanne Fortuin, married to Rune, but in a loveless marriage that was supposed to benefit Embria and Caberwill, is hated by nearly everyone, including those of her own home of Embria who are rebellion against her family. They blame her for the devastation that turned men into cattle, and destroyed valuable resources. The fact remains that Hanne has done some grotesques things in the name of peace. But, when you dig deeper into what happened to her when she was a child, you understand that she has been a tool for a power evil that can't be defeated easily.

Nightrender, the hammer of the gods, an immortal warrior more weapon than girl, was created to be a powerful weapon against Daghath Mal, but she can not defeat or kill him. If she does, she will end up taking his place. But if she can find a weapon which nobody has seen in over 400 years, there may be a way to survive the upcoming battle and save the world. Nightrender is not a fan of Hanne by any stretch of the imagination. And, when Hanne makes a devastating mistake that seems to be the opening for a major disaster, it leaves Nightrender to clean up her messes. The connection between Nightrender and Rune has grown leaps and bounds since they first met, and Rune learned that he was her soul shard.

*Thoughts* It is fair to say that Hanne gets a whole lot of deserved hatred, but when the veneer is slowly peeled away, and we learn of her past and what happened to her, it gives readers a better understanding. She is a good person overall, but misguided by those who were supposed to love and support her. For years, she has been guided by a voice in her head who she thought was a God. There is a hint that Hanne may like a character from the previous installment, but that relationship is not explored. 

The book end on what appears to be a cliffhanger as one of the characters is battling for their very lives trying to maybe find a new future that she can make up for her mistakes, while the other two are enjoying peace. It is very hard to find anything to complain about when it comes to Rune. He tries to understand Hanne's reasons for what she did, and still finds a way to use her in the final battle. He is firmly in love with Medella, and their future seems to be bright.  

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#Review - Court of Claws by Briar Boleyn #Fantasy #Romance

Series: Blood of a Fae # 2
Format: Kindle, 401 pages
Release Date: June 30, 2023
Publisher: Starwater Press
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Fantasy / Romance

Bound to a man she hates more than she ever thought possible...

Everything Morgan Pendragon knows and loves is gone as she wakes in the dangerous court of the Siabra. The man she was falling in love with is dead, and in his place is a man she barely knows. Surrounded by liars and knives in the dark, all Morgan wants to do is run the other way but Kairos Draven is determined to keep her by his side.

As Morgan and Draven's lives become even more irrevocably entwined, little do they know the sins of the past are coming for them both…

Court of Claws, by Briar Boleyn, is the second installment in the authors Blood of a Fae series. Morgan Pendragon wakes up to find that she is half way around the world from Camelot in a place called The Court of Umbral Flames, bound to a man, Draven Kairos, who has returned home after a 20 year banishment for taking revenge on the man who killed his loved ones. One that is ruled by a people known as Siabra and a Queen Regent who loathes the very fiber of Morgan because she is Valtan Fae. 

This story is a bit different than the first installment in that some of the story is told by memories thought forever forgotten and flashbacks, including right from the beginning of the story. 150 years ago, a strange plague has started to affect all of the Fae children of Valtain. In an effort to save her, a mother makes a difficult choice to save her youngest daughter and leave her family behind. 150 years later, Morgan was given a mission to find a powerful sword known as Excalibur in order to help King Arthur defeat his enemies. 

After traveling a long distance, Lancelot catches up to them, only to be taken away by an attack by deranged children. Whether she is alive or dead, is unknown. During the attack, Morgan was severely injured and Draven, Prince of Claws, made a choice to save her. Morgan is now in the Siabra Empire, on the continent of Myntra, and a very long way from home and her brother Kaye. Because of what Draven did at the end of the first novel, Morgan is bonded to Draven, and must play a part as Prince's paramour in order to not gain more attention from the Queen Regent.

The first part of this book gets weighed down by Morgan's hatred of Draven for what he did to her even though she is alive. For Morgan, losing Lancelot, or not knowing if she is alive or dead, weighs heavily on her. The other part of this story is a competition between 12 contestants to see who will be named the next King of the Siabra. This includes Draven and a bunch of cut throat individuals who want to see him fail spectacularly. The other issues is that Morgan seems to be having true dreams which gives readers that final piece as to who she really is, and why the flashbacks are so important.

*Thoughts* This is a curious story with some interesting characters like Beks of Noctasia who is a human with magic; Rychel, who is Draven's sister trying to find a way to cure the plague that hurt so many children; Sephone, the Queen Regent who may be in an alliance with Draven's cousin, and rival Avriel; and Lyrastra who is not only a contestant in the games which is contested in 3 parts, but also a woman who is as mysterious as she is dangerous. There is one storyline that I am disappointed that was not wrapped up and that pertains to Rychel. This book once again ends on a cliffhanger after Morgan once again feels as though she has been betrayed, and wants to find a way back to Camelot to help save Kaye and her people from Arthur.

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#Review - Reborn: The Daughter of Ice and Moonlight by Katerina Martinez #Fantasy #Romance

Series: The Daughter of Ice and Moonlight # 3
Format: Kindle, 195 pages
Release Date: October 26, 2023
Publisher: Katerina Martinez
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Fantasy / Romance

I have come back to Arcadia, but all is not as it should be.

An impostor sits on Windhelm's throne, and calling herself Queen. I don't know where my parents are or what's become of them. I don't know where my brother is, or if he's even still alive. And in less than two weeks, Fate itself will hunt me down and end my existence as if I wasn't meant to exist in the first place.

This is it.

If I don't figure out how to fix the mistake I made, Arcadia itself could fall and become something entirely monstrous. I just wish I knew where to start.

Reborn, by Katerina Martinez, is the third and final installment in the authors The Daughter of Ice and Moonlight series. After being stuck on Earth for what appears to be a year trying to discover a way to fix her errors, Amara Wolfsbane is given 13 days by Fate's hunter to fix her mistakes, or she will die. Mistakes she made by not wanting anything to do with the Royal Selection, and trusting an old crone who took memories of her away from everyone in Arcadia.

Upon arrival back in Arcadia, Amara and her fate bond mate Valerian discover that something has gone terribly wrong. Someone by the name of Malys Wolfsbane sits on the throne of Windhelm. Amara's parents have been exiled to where, we don't know, after discovering the truth. The forest of the moon children has been destroyed, and her brother Radulf, Alpha of the Moon children is missing, likely with the Frost Giants, and his pack has disappeared to parts unknown. 

Monstrous beings called Souldirge appear to be hunting Amara and Valerian, and if that weren't enough, Amara's three aunts from London, Earth (Pepper, Evie, and Helen) have decided to travel to Valerian to help Amara find a way to defeat Malys and get her parents back from exile. Malys should be very familiar to anyone who read the authors Coldest Fae series featuring Dahlia and Cillian. Once upon a time, a witch snubbed Amara's family after Dahlia made her a gorgeous dress by her own hands. 

After she refused to pay for the dress, Malys's reputation was destroyed by a certain Dark Prince from Windhelm. In retribution for her loss of reputation, Malys tries to create her own form of reality in which she is Queen and everyone else is beneath her feat. Even though Malys seems to be 2 steps ahead at all times, it appears Amara may have an opening. Malys spell is slowly unraveling, and the more people recognize Amara, the less power the evil witch has.

*Thoughts* Disappointing. That is my world for this final book in the series. Disappointing that nobody knows what happened to Dahlia and Cillian. Disappointing in that the author tries to explain away her ending and misses the mark completely. We do learn more about Valerian in this book which is a good thing. Valerian is a Hunter, thus he knows how to take down monsters like the Souldirge which gives him a fair chance of winning the Royal Selection. And, since the author doesn't exactly wrap up all story lines, we will never know the truth about what happens after Amara wakes up in a new reality.

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#Review - The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber #YA #Fantasy #Romance

Series: Once Upon a Broken Heart (#2)
Format: Hardcover, 416 pages
Release Date: September 13, 2022
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Romance

The fiercely-anticipated sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller Once Upon a Broken Heart, starring Evangeline Fox and the Prince of Hearts on a new journey of magic, mystery, and heartbreak

Not every love is meant to be.

After Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, betrays her, Evangeline Fox swears she'll never trust him again. Now that she’s discovered her own magic, Evangeline believes she can use it to restore the chance at happily ever after that Jacks stole away.

But when a new terrifying curse is revealed, Evangeline finds herself entering into a tenuous partnership with the Prince of Hearts again. Only this time, the rules have changed. Jacks isn’t the only force Evangeline needs to be wary of. In fact, he might be the only one she can trust, despite her desire to despise him.

Instead of a love spell wreaking havoc on Evangeline’s life, a murderous spell has been cast. To break it, Evangeline and Jacks will have to do battle with old friends, new foes, and a magic that plays with heads and hearts. Evangeline has always trusted her heart, but this time she’s not sure she can. . . .

  "Conceived in the north, born in the South, you will know this key because she will be crowned in Rose gold hair. She will be both peasant, and princess, and a fugitive wrongly accused and only her blood will open the Arch."

 

The Ballad of Never After, by Stephanie Garber, is the second installment in the authors Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy. After all the heartache and betrayals from Once Upon a Broken Heart, here we have Evangeline working again with Jacks as a last resource to lift the curse that was bestowed upon Apollo. Eva is such a naive and confused character. She goes from promising to never help Jacks open the Valory Arch, to doing what needs to be done in order to help Chaos open the Arch so he can be free and break the curse on Apollo which leads to another curse. 

 

As a reminder, the Valor's were the first royal family of the Magnificent North before they were allegedly murdered for unleashing a monster on the populace. According to legend, there are 4 stones that are needed to open the Valory Arch. One for Luck, One for Truth, One for Youth, and One for Mirth. While Apollo and Eva are cursed, he attempts to kill her, while she tries to find the 4 stones alongside Jacks who she hates, and she loves. She just can't decide whether to trust him, or stab him in the heart like Donatella did.

 

Evangeline is the epitome of "character who does nothing at all and has everything happen to them. She's been betrayed by her stepsister Marisol, used and abused and mislead by Jacks, loved and hated by Apollo, almost killed twice by Apollo's brother because of her blood, chased after by a newly turned vampire who she once loved, Luc, and betrayed by a Fate who she thought was her friend. She isn't aware how many people don't want her to succeed in her mission to open the Valory Arch to free Chaos who goes by another name. 

 

Then, of course is the dig into Jacks history, and whether or not he can truly find true love without killing anyone else. There is also this curious letter than Eva writes in the beginning of this story that still hasn't been explained. The other question that remains unanswered is why Jacks eats so many apples, and why they turn colors? You know what this story could have used? Another POV from say Apollo, who I hate, or Jacks, who I am confused over, but think that he's the best option to save Eva from her own mistakes.

(Thoughts) The banter between Eva and Jacks likely saved my rating for this book. It was like watching two cats hiss at each other without actually attacking. The ending of this book was, in my opinion, unnecessary. It reminds of that time when a certain author killed off one of her main characters (Tris) because she felt like it. Although I have no choice in finishing this series to find out what really happens next without reading any spoilers, I thought this ending was mean spirited and unkind, and yes, Eva got under my skin in this book. It felt as though she was getting attacked, or injured, or being bitten, oh wait, oops! Anyway, the ending was one of the more brutal and heartbreaking endings I've read in the more than 10 years I've been reviewing books. 

 

1


There is a door deep inside the royal library of Wolf Hall that no one has opened for centuries. People have tried to set it on fire, break it with axes, and pick its lock with magic keys. But no one has so much as left a scratch on this stubborn door. Some say it mocks them. There is a wolf’s head wearing a crown emblazoned on the door’s wooden center, and people have sworn the wolf smirks at their failed attempts, or bares its sharp teeth if a person even comes close to opening this unopenable door.

Evangeline Fox had once tried. She had pulled and tugged and twisted the iron knob, but the door would not budge. Not then. Not before. But she hoped it would be different now.

Evangeline was very good at hoping.

She was also rather good at opening doors. With one drop of her willing blood, she could undo any lock.

First, she needed to be sure she wasn’t being watched or followed or stalked by that deceitful, apple-eating scoundrel whose name she wouldn’t even think.

Evangeline checked behind her shoulder. Her lantern’s ocher glow chased the nearby shadows away, but the bulk of Wolf Hall’s royal library stacks were nebulous with night.

She fidgeted nervously, and the lantern flickered. Evangeline had never been afraid of the dark before. Dark was for stars and dreams and the magic that took place in between days. Before losing her parents, she had constellation-watched with her father and listened to her mother tell stories by candlelight. And Evangeline had never been frightened.

But it wasn’t actually the dark or the night that she feared. It was the spider-thin prickle crawling across her shoulder blades. It had been with her since the moment she’d stepped out of her royal suite on a mission to unlock this door, in the hopes it would lead her to a cure that would save her husband, Apollo.

The uncanny sensation was so subtle, at first she let herself think it was merely paranoia.

She wasn’t being followed.

She’d heard no steps.

Until …

Evangeline peered into the library’s dark, and a pair of inhuman eyes stared back. Silver blue and brilliant and broken-star bright. She imagined they shone just to taunt her. But Evangeline knew that even if they sparkled now, even if these eyes lit up the dark and tempted her to lower her light, she couldn’t trust them. And she couldn’t trust him.

Jacks. She tried not to think his name, but it was impossible not to as she watched him saunter out of the dim, indolent yet confident and handsome as ever. He moved as if the night should have been afraid of him.

The tingling of her shoulder blades slid over her arms, an unsettling caress that went down to her one remaining broken heart scar. The wound stung, then throbbed, as if Jacks had sunk his teeth into it again.

Evangeline clutched her lantern like a sword.

“Go away, Jacks.” It had only been two days since she’d had the guards remove him, and she’d hoped he would have stayed away longer—forever would have been ideal. “I know what you did, and I don’t want to see you.”

Jacks shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. His smoke-gray shirt was loosely tucked in, with sleeves shoved up lean arms and buttons missing at the throat. With his tousled hair now golden instead of seductive midnight blue, he looked more reckless stableboy than calculating Fate. But Evangeline knew she could never let herself forget what Jacks truly was. He was obsessive and driven and entirely without morals or conscience.

The stories said his kiss was deadly to all except his one true love, and as he’d searched for her, he’d left a trail of corpses. Evangeline had once been naive enough to believe that meant the Prince of Hearts understood heartbreak because his heart had broken over and over as he looked for love. But now it was crystal clear—he was the one who did the breaking, because he didn’t know how to love.

Jacks spoke softly. “I understand if you’re upset—”

“If,” Evangeline cut in. “You poisoned my husband!”

Jacks lifted his shoulders in an insouciant shrug. “I didn’t kill him.”

“That’s not something you earn points for.” She fought to keep her voice from cracking.

Until then, Evangeline hadn’t realized that a part of her still held on to a sliver of hope that Jacks was innocent. But he wasn’t even trying to deny it. He didn’t care that Apollo was little more than a corpse, just as he hadn’t cared when Evangeline had been turned to stone.

“You need to stop holding me to human standards,” Jacks drawled. “I’m a Fate.”

“That’s exactly why I don’t want to see you. Since I met you, my first love was turned to stone, I was turned to stone, then I was turned into a fugitive, multiple people have tried to murder me, and you poisoned my husband—”

“You already said that one.”

Evangeline glowered.

Jacks sighed and leaned against a nearby bookshelf as if her feelings were the emotional equivalent of a sneeze—something to be gotten over quickly, or avoided simply by stepping out of the way. “I’m not going to apologize for being what I am. And you’re conveniently forgetting that before we met, you were a sad orphan with a broken heart and a wicked stepsister. After I stepped in, you became the sweetheart savior of Valenda, married a prince, and became a princess.”

“Those things only happened because they served your twisted interests.” Evangeline seethed. Everything he’d done for her was just so that he could use her to open the Valory Arch. “Children treat their toys better than you’ve treated me.”

Jacks’s eyes narrowed. “Then why didn’t you stab me, Little Fox? The other night in the crypt, I threw you a dagger, and I was close enough for you to use it.” His gaze sparked with fresh amusement as it lowered to her neck. To the exact place his mouth had lingered three nights ago.

She blushed at the unwanted memory of his teeth and tongue on her skin. He’d been infected with vampire venom, and she’d been infected with stupidity.

She’d stayed with him that night to keep him occupied so he wouldn’t feed on human blood and become a vampire himself. He hadn’t, but he’d fed on her sympathy instead. Jacks had told her the story of the girl who’d made his heart beat again—Princess Donatella. She was supposed to be his one true love, but instead of filling that role, Princess Donatella had chosen another and stabbed Jacks in the chest.

After hearing that story, Evangeline had started to see Jacks as the sympathetic Prince of Hearts that she had first gone to for help. But Jacks was all broken without any heart. And she needed to stop hoping that he could be more.

“I made a mistake that night in the crypt.” Evangeline banished the blush from her cheeks and looked straight into Jacks’s inhuman eyes. “But give me another chance and I won’t hesitate to stab you.”

He smirked, flashing dimples he didn’t deserve. “I’m almost tempted to test that claim. But you’ll have to do more than wound me if you wish to get rid of me.” Jacks pulled an intensely white apple from his pocket and started tossing it. “If you really want me out of your life forever, help me find the missing stones and open the Valory Arch. Then I promise you’ll never see me again.”

“As much as I’d love that, I’m never going to open that arch for you.”

“What about for Apollo?”

Evangeline felt a sharp stab of pain for the prince and another flare of anger for Jacks. “Don’t you dare say his name.”

Jacks grinned wider, looking oddly pleased by her anger. “If you agree to help me, I’ll wake him from his suspended state.”

“If you actually believe I would do that, you’re delusional.” Her first bargain with Jacks was the start of this entire mess. There would be no more deals with him, no more partnerships, no more anything. “I don’t need you to save Apollo. I’ve found another way.” Evangeline lifted her chin toward the sealed library door. It was still half-covered in shadow, but she swore the crowned wolf’s head grinned as if it knew that she was the one who’d finally open its lock.

Jacks took one look at the door and chuckled, quiet and mocking. “You think you’ll find a cure for Apollo in there?”

“I know I will.”

Jacks laughed again, darker this time, and took a cheerful bite of his apple. “Let me know when you change your mind, Little Fox.”

“I won’t change my—”

He was gone before she could finish. All that lingered was the echo of his ominous laughter.

But Evangeline refused to be nettled. She’d been told by an old librarian that this door led to every missing book and story about the Valors. Although the North’s first royal family was human, it was widely accepted that they all possessed remarkable powers. Honora Valor, first queen of the North, was said to be the greatest healer of all time. And Evangeline had very good reason to believe that among the stories on the other side of this door were tales about her healing, which hopefully included a way to bring someone back from a state of suspended sleep.

Evangeline pulled out her dagger, a jewel-hilted blade with a few missing gems. It was actually Jacks’s—the same one he’d tossed at her the night they’d spent in the crypt. He’d left it behind in the morning, and she still wasn’t sure why she’d picked it up. She didn’t want to keep it—not anymore—but she hadn’t had time to replace it yet, and it was the sharpest thing she owned.

One prick of the dagger and her blood welled red. She pressed it to the door and whispered the words “Please open.”

The lock instantly clicked. The knob easily twisted.

For the first time in centuries, the door swung open.

And Evangeline understood why Jacks had been laughing.


2


Evangeline stepped through the door, and the ground beneath her crumbled as if her slippers had found crackers instead of stones. It was rather like her hope: rapidly disintegrating.

This room was supposed to hold shelves of books on the Valors, answers to her questions, a cure for Prince Apollo. But there was only a wheeze of cloudy air, wafting in swirls around a dramatically carved marble arch.

Evangeline closed her eyes and opened them as if she could blink the arch away and the precious books would appear in its place. Sadly, Evangeline’s blinks did not contain magic.

Still, she refused to give up.

In the Meridian Empire, where she was from, this arch would have just been a decorative curve of carved rock, large enough to frame a set of doors. But this was the Magnificent North, where arches were something else entirely. Here, arches were magical portals built by the Valors.

This arch had mighty angels clad in armor carved into the columns, like warriors on opposite sides of an eternal battle. One of the angels had a bowed head and a broken wing; it looked almost sad, while the other appeared angry. Both had their swords drawn and crossed over the center, warning away anyone who might wish to enter.

But Evangeline wasn’t just anyone. And if anything, the forbidden nature of the arch made her want to look inside even more.

Maybe this arch was a gateway to the books and the cure that she needed for Apollo. If the old librarian was right about this room containing all the stories on the Valors, perhaps the angels were protecting the books from the story curse so that they would stay uncorrupted. Maybe all she needed to do was press her blood to one of their swords and they would politely step aside to let her enter.

She took another step, feeling a hopeful thrill as she pricked her finger on the dagger once again and pressed her welling blood to one of the angels’ swords.

It lit up like a candle. Glowing gold veins spiderwebbed across the stone swords, the angels, the entire arch. It was bright and light and magical. Her skin tingled as the dust on the arch floated up and sparkled all around her like tiny bursting stars. Air that had been cold was now warm. She’d known she was meant to enter this room, to find this arch, to open—

Suddenly, the breath whooshed from her lungs as the thought triggered the warning Apollo’s younger brother, Tiberius, had given her: You were meant to open it. Magic things always do that which they were created to do.

And Tiberius believed that Evangeline was created to unlock the Valory Arch.

She staggered back, hearing the memory of Jacks’s laugh again. This time it didn’t sound dark at all. It sounded amused, entertained, happy.

“No,” she whispered.

The stones still gleamed with gold threads that wove around the columns. She watched as they spread across the top, lighting up a series of curving words that had not been visible before.

Conceived in the north, and born in the south, you will know this key, because she will be crowned in rose gold.

She will be both peasant and princess, a fugitive wrongly accused, and only her willing blood will open this arch.

Evangeline’s blood ran cold.

These were not just words. This was—she didn’t even want to think it. But pretending would not erase or change anything. This was the Valory Arch prophecy, the one that Jacks had manipulated her to fulfill. Which meant that this wasn’t just another arch. This was the Valory Arch.

Panic replaced every other feeling.

It shouldn’t have been possible. The arch was supposed to be in pieces. Although there were two conflicting tales about the Valory’s magical contents, everyone had agreed about one thing: the Valory Arch had been broken into pieces and hidden across the North to keep anyone from knowing what the prophecy was and to prevent anyone from putting the arch back together.

“No, no, no, no, no…” Frantically, Evangeline tried to wipe her blood from the stones before Jacks or anyone else could discover what she’d done. The angels hadn’t changed their pose, but she feared that any second a door would appear behind them or they would move aside. She spat and scrubbed with the sleeve of her cloak. But the glowing arch didn’t dim.

“I knew you could open the door.”

The scratchy voice was too old to belong to Jacks. But the sound of it stopped Evangeline’s heart all the same.

“My apologies, Your Highness. I see I’ve frightened you again.”

“Again?” She turned.

The man in the doorway was almost as small as a child, but far older than Evangeline, with a long, silver beard that held threads of gold, which matched the burnished trim on his white robes.

“You…” For a moment she remained too nervous to form words. “You’re the librarian who first showed me the door to this room.”

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#Review - Chaos Terminal by Mur Lafferty #SyFy #Mystery

Series: The MidSolar Murders # 2
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Release Date: November 7, 2023
Publisher: Ace
Source: Publisher
Genre: Science Fiction / Space Opera

Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, and fled to outer space to avoid it…but when one of the new human arrivals on a space shuttle is murdered, she’s back in the game.

Mallory Viridian would rather not be an amateur detective, thank you very much. But no matter what she does, people persist in dying around her—and only she seems to be able to solve the crime. After fleeing to an alien space station in hopes that the lack of humans would stop the murders, a serial killer had the nerve to follow her to Station Eternity. (Mallory deduced who the true culprit was that time, too.)

Now the law enforcement agent who hounded Mallory on Earth has come to Station Eternity, along with her teenage crush and his sister, Mallory’s best friend from high school. Mallory doesn’t believe in coincidences, and so she’s not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. It’s the story of her life, after all.

Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. Between her fugitive friends, a new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind, and the alarmingly peculiar behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory’s deductive abilities are strained. If she can’t find out what’s going on (and fast), a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur.…

Chaos Terminal, by Mur Lafferty, is the second installment in the authors MidSolar Murders series. Mallory Viridian's talent for solving murders has ruined her life—and even driven her to space—in this speculative take on the classic mystery series. When she was 8, Mallory was stung by an alien species known as Sundry (hive-minded, wasp-like aliens), giving her the ability to be drawn towards pockets of high probability of Murder. Yet, murder has followed her to the sentient space station called Eternity where she is now a reluctant detective helping people find lost items, stolen things, and of course, solving murders.

 

The leader of Eternity is Mrs. Brown. Brown killed two men in self-defense when she was a young woman, and a few decades later, she had murdered her second husband. She'd killed him in self-defense, but then had tried to cover it up. Coincidentally, her case was the first murder one Mallory had ever solved. Mrs. Brown went to prison for ten years. Currently she is connected to Eternity like Mallory is connected to the Sundry. Mrs. Brown may now be the most powerful human in existence. Mallory is tasked with taking care of things while Mrs. Brown is gone, which is a huge ask, considering the chaos that ensued when Eternity’s former host was found murdered.

 

Alexander (Xan) Morgan is a human who is connected symbiotically to Eternity's daughter Infinity. Xan is a fugitive from Earth, but some actually think he is a hero. Xan and Mallory are best friends, and after Mrs Brown leaves Eternity to head to a planet known as November for training, Mallory leans on Xan for help while awaiting a new ambassador from Earth whose arrival triggers more chaos and lots of trouble for both Xan and Mallory, including yet another human murdered. 

 

Tina is an alien species known as Gneiss along with Stephanie and Ferdinand, and is the apparent new Queen of the Prison Planet Bezoar. Gneiss are giant, rock aliens that can take infinite forms as they mature or eat the bodies of the dead. Gneiss communicate through vibrations, and can do so across the entire space station. Curiously, Tina warned Mallory that something was really wrong with Eternity, but the warning was ignored because she said things were going Cuckoo. It appears yet another alien species has invaded the station, and with a new shuttle expected to arrive soon, this is really bad timing. 

 

To make matters worse for Mallory, the shuttle contains a contingent of people who she knows very well. North Carolina SBI agent Donald Draughn, the man who made Mallory’s last years on Earth a living hell, has come to Station Eternity. Her high school crush Parker Valor is also here. (She can’t believe she didn’t remember Parker! She had such a huge crush on him in high school, but Amy wouldn’t let her get close). Mallory’s best friend from high school, Amy Valor, who is allegedly here on Eternity studying quantum physics. And, the new ambassador & WNBA star Jessica Brass who comes out with surprises of her own. 

 

Mallory doesn’t believe in coincidences, and so she’s not at all surprised when someone in the latest shuttle from Earth is murdered. It’s the story of her life, after all. Only this time she has more than a killer to deal with. A new threat arising from the Sundry hivemind which leaves them nearly wiped out of existence, and the alarmingly peculiar behavior of the sentient space station they all call home, even Mallory’s deductive abilities are strained. If she can’t find out what’s going on (and fast), a disaster of intergalactic proportions may occur.… 

 

*Thoughts* Station Eternity did all the hard work of establishing all the main players like Mallory, Xan, Amy, Stephanie, Ferdinand, and Adrian. Please consider starting with that book first. This book is not like the first book. This book kind of puts Mallory off screen for a large chunk of the story, while the author does a repeat of certain characters and their pasts which led them to arriving on Eternity and causing huge problems for Mallory and everyone else on Eternity. One of the positives is that Mallory has accepted her fate, and her connection to the Sundry, so maybe now she won't take them or her abilities for granted. In the end, I ended up downgrading my review because there were way too many people who the author chose to give parts in the story to. Mallory is the main character, ergo, she should have had more story lines and participation.  

 

 

1

Sense Enough to Come
in Outta the Rain

A sentient space station should have perfect temperature, Mallory Viridian thought. This has got to be far below freezing. When the station imitated weather, it should be Los Angeles weather, not Pluto's bloodred snow. And when it was helping a resident, it should produce a pleasant flat walk, or even something downhill, not an uphill, snowy, windy trek that gave one frostbite.

The fact that there could be people aboard the station who wallowed in frigid, bloodred snow like a pig in slop, she refused to consider.

It was possible, she thought, squinting through the crimson swirls, that the massive space station was just in a bad mood.

Red snow stung the exposed skin on her face. Her ears ached. She shoved her hands deep into her jeans pockets and shivered. Her destination lay at the top of a freaking mountain-a fabricated mountain-inside a cave, also fabricated. She wanted to rest, but the risk of dying of hypothermia on the way felt very real.

She probably should have put on a coat, but she hadn't thought she needed it. The station took care of its residents. Why would she suddenly need to travel through a deadly storm to go to a meeting?

This isn't worth it.

When Mrs. Brown calls, however, you answer. The tiny woman had a steel spine and a personality that filled a room, yes. And she was more than capable of protecting herself and those she loved with deadly force, sure. But she was also the human host who had a direct connection with the station itself, so when she asked to speak to you, you answered.

The cave loomed ahead, a dark cut in the harsh red drifts all around her. She was almost there. Probably. She didn't know what she'd do if it wasn't there. This was a great place for someone to lure her to an ambush. Or, more likely, according to her experience, lure her to watch someone else being killed, giving her a new murder to solve.

Her fingers and toes tingled with the beginnings of frostbite, and Mallory gritted her teeth around her rubber oxygen breather to keep them from chattering. How much damage would Eternity allow her to suffer? And good Lord, why? Would she let Mallory die here? Mallory didn't think so, but she wasn't entirely sure.

Almost there.

Station Eternity liked her, that much she knew. She probably wouldn't let Mallory die of hypothermia. Eternity's whims overrode everything-except, perhaps, Mrs. Brown's own whims. Mallory wasn't entirely sure how the symbiotic connection worked. Mrs. Brown didn't seem to know much either.

The snow got deeper as she got closer, until she was pushing through knee-deep powder with a crusty layer of bloodlike ice on top. She gritted her teeth and pressed on, the muscles in her thighs hot and threatening to turn to loose rubber and then seize into a massive cramp. What is going on? Am I being punished?

The cave opening shimmered in front of her and then appeared much closer than it had been previously.

Inside, Mrs. Brown paced, hands on her hips.

"I guess you took the long way around?" she demanded.


Mrs. Brown had sent her a message that morning. Mallory had been going through the list of new clients to her detective agency, dismayed at the lost items, the stolen items, and the requests to find incomprehensible things for aliens-including, apparently, a lost day.

Reading a message from Mrs. Brown asking to see her that afternoon was at least something she could understand and be interested in doing.

Mallory wasn't too fond of solving murder cases, but it was what she knew, and she hadn't known how, well, boring it would be to do other detective work. Or, admittedly, how difficult it would be to investigate alien crimes done to aliens by aliens.

The weird thing was that Mrs. Brown had requested that Mallory meet her in a place she had never visited on the station. After getting the information, Mallory approached the wall terminal and pulled up a complex 3D map of Station Eternity. She had a bizarre impulse to rotate the map to look for a secret port that she could torpedo and blow it up, à la Star Wars. She shook her head to clear the connection; she had no desire to blow up Eternity. Where would she go then?

Like the Death Star, Station Eternity was the size of a small moon. Unlike the Death Star, it had no planet-killing ability (that she knew of, anyway).

Mallory moved the station around until she found a small glowing dot. "Now, where are you?" she asked, trying to puzzle out the map. She ran her finger over about three-fourths of the sphere, dulling the brightness. The dot lay amid a large open area on the station, one of the places that tried to mimic various planet biomes to give the illusion of home to visitors. This one looked extremely hostile for humans and-

"Oh, come on, red snow?" she said aloud. "Is that even a thing? Can I survive that?"

The globe spun in front of her, mute. After a moment, an image of Pluto popped up, along with a paragraph about the red methane snow in the Cthulhu region.

She shook her head. "Methane atmosphere and red snow? I can't survive on Pluto."

Another image popped up of a full-body protective suit. She rolled her eyes. A suit? She wasn't going into total vacuum or anything.

Eternity wouldn't kill her. She grabbed a jacket and an oxygen breather from the closet by the door and headed out.


Mallory put the last of her strength into galumphing through the snow to the cave. As she reached it, her legs gave out and she collapsed onto a dirt floor beside a campfire.

Mrs. Brown strode over to her and stood above her head, looking down. She looked slightly ridiculous in a big puffy coat and a homemade knitted cap. "Well?" she asked.

Panting, Mallory didn't move, just glad to be out of the wind. The fire's heat penetrated faster than a normal campfire would have, underscoring that, despite the exhaustion and the frigid temperatures, the station kept her as cold or as hot as it wanted to. She slowly sat up.

"What do you mean?"

Mrs. Brown frowned. Her light brown skin creased further and she pulled her cap off. Mallory sat back, sliding away from her a little bit. Mrs. Brown was a tiny prim grandmother who was also a three-time murderer-or a three-time self-defense killer, depending on whom you asked. She had been visiting Eternity with her granddaughter when the station's last host had been murdered. The station needed a host to communicate with its many residents and visitors and was in shock and distress after the murder. Mrs. Brown had stepped in to take over before the station could tear herself apart and kill everyone on board in a panic.

Mrs. Brown was always perfectly pleasant to Mallory, despite the two of them having a "history," as Mrs. Brown liked to call it. She was polite and proper, and Mallory knew she would suffer zero fools. She defended herself and her loved ones with deadly efficiency, and she both inspired Mallory and scared the shit out of her.

"I mean that the station is making this frozen hellscape for us to meet in," Mrs. Brown snapped, gesturing to the weather outside the cave.

"You didn't instruct her to do this?" Mallory asked.

"I hate snow, why the hell would I do that?" She glared at Mallory. "Why aren't you wearing a suit?"

"I- Why are you asking me? Can't you ask the station?"

"The station is saying that everything is fine," Mrs. Brown said. "She just said we had to meet here. She won't tell me why."

"Why did you want to see me?" Mallory asked, scrambling to her feet. "Maybe that will shed some light on the issue."

Mrs. Brown bent over and a tree stump rose from the floor to fit exactly where her butt landed when she sat back. Mallory shook her head in wonder.

"I wanted to tell you I was leaving for a bit, and I'm taking Infinity."

"You couldn't tell me this in your office?" Mallory asked. "Or mine?"

"I asked Eternity to give us a place where I could talk to you in private," Brown said, gazing out at the blizzard.

"What do you mean, private? How is this more private than any other room?" Mallory asked.

"Unless you squirreled them away in your pockets, the Sundry couldn't have followed you here, correct?" Mrs. Brown asked, referring to the insect-like alien that made up a hivemind that had taken a marked interest in Mallory.

"Oh. You're right," Mallory said. No insect could fly through that frigid methane nightmare. "But why keep stuff from them?"

"I don't know. Eternity suggested it. When I ask her why, she says everything is fine." Mrs. Brown shook her head. "I'd say she sounds like my grandmother when she was angry, but Eternity has never shown passive aggression before. I wanted you to know I was leaving, Eternity didn't want the Sundry to know, so this cave was her solution."

"Won't they know when you leave? They know pretty much everything that goes on around here."

"They won't know where I'm going," Mrs. Brown said. "Eternity felt strongly about this."

"That's so weird," Mallory said. "So where are you going?"

"A planet called November. Apparently it's an area of the galaxy where the sentient stations are born. I need to go there to learn more about all this." She gestured vaguely to the walls of the cave. "It's not just a matter of learning more about her. Eternity is still acting sickly after that disaster from a few months ago. I don't have the understanding to fix everything, so I'm heading to November. They tell me I can learn more about host relationships when your best friend is the size of a moon."

Mallory's gut sank. "Won't Eternity freak out again if you leave?" The scars, both internal and external, were still fresh from when Eternity's host had been murdered. In a confused panic, she had killed or injured many people unfortunate enough to be in her way. The thought of what the station would do if she lost another host terrified Mallory.

"Not if you help," Mrs. Brown said. "While I'm gone, Eternity will take a little nap." Seeing the look on Mallory's face, she smiled. "Oh, don't worry. Her life support and other necessary functions will be just fine, but she won't be able to communicate much. I need someone to look after her. I need you."

"You're hiring me to babysit a space station?" Mallory rubbed her forehead. "There has got to be someone else aboard who's got more experience with all of this. Hell, Xan would be better than me. Why don't you ask him?"

Xan was like Mrs. Brown; he was a human connected symbiotically to Eternity's daughter, the sentient spaceship Infinity. Both humans had deep mental and emotional communicative experiences with the aliens, which Mallory envied. She, too, had a symbiotic relationship with an alien race, but it wasn't nearly as healthy.

"I need Alexander for something else," Mrs. Brown said primly. "I want you for this."

Mallory shook her head vehemently. "No way. I don't know how your relationship works, or even how the station works. All I know is what goes wrong when she loses her host, and it's very bad."

"But she's not losing me. I'm going away for a bit, and then I will be back. She'll be asleep, mostly." She cocked her head curiously. "You really don't know why I'm choosing you?"

Mallory shrugged. "No, honestly."

Mrs. Brown clasped her hands together like a preschool teacher about to tell a story to a wiggling class. "Something's off with Eternity. The need for this cave, and saying 'it's fine,' and worst of all, wanting to steer clear of nosy insects tattling to their hivemind. She can't tell me what's off. So, I need someone to watch over her and keep the Sundry out of it."

"Why is she suddenly worried about the Sundry? I thought they got along," Mallory asked, extending her hands to the fire. The cave itself was quite warm, but her fingers were still red with cold.

"You don't seem to have done any research regarding the Sundry's role in the universe," Mrs. Brown said. "This surprises me, considering your experience with them. In fact, I thought they would have told you themselves."

The Sundry. A brilliant, complex hivemind that had come to Earth when Mallory was eight and stung her, giving them a human's eyes to look through, and giving Mallory an inexplicable ability to be drawn toward pockets of high probability of murder. She had left Earth because she was tired of murders, but it seemed that death had followed her to Eternity. On Eternity she had learned about her connection with the Sundry, which had explained her curse/gift a little better. But she hadn't agreed to the connection, and the hivemind terrified her. She had touched it mentally only a few times, and the deluge of data had been overwhelming. So, while Mrs. Brown and Xan had friendly connections with the station and a ship, Mallory was symbiotically connected to a scary hivemind of bugs she was allergic to. Not the ideal relationship.

"Communicating with them isn't fun," she said grimly. "And I can't really trust them. They don't see me as an individual; I'm just another sensory input device."

"Mallory," Mrs. Brown said in her patient-grandmother voice. "Sometimes we have to do what we don't want to do in order to learn things. You have a direct line to a near-omniscient hivemind. Don't ignore that because they were mean to you."

Resentment flared inside Mallory, but she knew that reacting would sound petulant. "If you're so eager to get access to the hivemind, why not let them sting you?" she asked lightly.

Mrs. Brown smiled. "Because I have you." She waved a hand as if hurrying the tense moment past them. "And I have enough to deal with connected to Eternity. And about her, she'll be mostly asleep. She'll keep life support going, and the elevators, monorail, atmosphere, water reclamation, energy; all of that comes from involuntary systems, like our circulatory systems. Think of it like watering a plant while your grandmother is out of town on a cruise."

Yeah, a three-time-murderer grandmother whose plant is a giant station that is sustaining thousands of lives, no biggie.

Mrs. Brown had killed two men in self-defense when she was a young woman, and a few decades later, she had murdered her second husband. She'd killed him in self-defense, but then had tried to cover it up. Coincidentally, her case was the first murder one Mallory had ever solved. Mrs. Brown went to prison for ten years. Currently she was technically breaking parole by living aboard Eternity, but humans were desperate to ally with alien races, and, ex-con or not, Mrs. Brown was connected to a sentient space station. The station and everyone on it would be quite upset if humans extradited her, so the federal prison system concerned themselves with just about any problem rather than appeal to bring her home. Mallory figured this made Mrs. Brown the most powerful human in existence.

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