It’s not good | The Serpent & The Wings of Night

[Music] hi my name is Rachel and today I have read another Romany book we're going to talk about The Serpent and the wings of night by Carissa Broadbent a romantic e taking book talk by storm that's some are calling in a court of mist and fury knockoff about a human girl raised by a vampire adoptive Daddy and she enters a competition with other vampires to be granted A Wish by the goddess of death which sounds great in theory I wish it had been executed Ed well sadly this book drained me of Life much like the vampires it's about I tandem read this on eBook and Audi book I actually bought the audio book I regret to tell you I don't think that that was worth my money I wouldn't even say it would be worth having on shelves as a cover by because if you look at this cover it's so odd if you like take a close look at it nothing is really connected there is something snake adjacent there is something dripping there is something that looks like metal none of it is actually identifiable though so I do feel like I wasted my money buying the Audi book and wasting money is something I'm trying to be more conscious about something that's helping me do that is today's sponsor which is rocket money rocket money is the all-in-one personal finance app that helps you cancel subscriptions lower your bills and manage your money better I'm using rocket money to cancel unwanted subscriptions actually when they reached out to me I was like yes yes I have I I need help particularly there was one that I was trying to cancel well lucky that they offered to team up with me because it turns out that I was paying for more stuff that I didn't realized that I had not cancelled which is embarrassing so now I have a little extra money to hopefully use to buy better books rocket money safely and securely identifies recurring charges and it cancels unwanted subscriptions for you you can even cancel from within the app which is what I did with just a couple of TAPS no need to worry about customer 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for free and thank you so much to Rocket money for sponsoring today's video and for helping me cancel that Food Network Magazine subscription that I didn't realize I had okay let me give you the synopsis of the serpent what the The Serpent and the wings of night I keep wanting to call this Serpent of wings of night and that's incredibly wrong I will say that this is a book that I can only assume that 14-year-old me who was listening to an ungodly amount of Evanescence would have loved now I will tell you what I've done for you human or vampire the rules of survival are the same never trust never yield and always always guard your heart the adopted daughter of the night born vampire King orah carved her place in a world designed to kill her her only chance to become something more than prey is entering the kajari a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself but winning won't be easy among the most vicious Warriors from all three vampire houses to survive or is forced to make an alliance with a mysterious rival everything about rain is dangerous he's a ruthless vampire an efficient killer an enemy to her father's crown and her greatest competition yet what terrifies arah most of all is that she finds herself oddly drawn to him but there's no room for compassion in the kajari war for the House of Night bruise shattering everything that Ariah thought she knew about her home and rain May understand her more than anyone but their blossoming attraction could be her downfall in Kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love nothing is more deadly than love it's like uh it's like saying I don't believe in fairies you're just dropping dead as soon as you fall in love no actually wait that's that's not a terrible idea for a book The Serpent and the wings of night is the first book in a new series of heart-wrenching romance dark magic and bloodthirsty Intrigue perfect for fans of from blood and Ash and a cord of thorns and Roses ah so it's in the cob title okay I have not read from blood and Ash yet so I can't make the comparison um I'll try to draw some comparisons between ACC cordum and M and fury or quar of Swords roses and this but the from blood and Ash comparison which is actually about vampires in a way that a quar of M and fury is definitely decidedly not um I I can't make the the from blood and Ash comparison I am planning to read from blood and Ash this year I have somehow escaped reading Jennifer L armant trout books and Colleen Hoover books up until this year for some reason this year is the year where I decided why not do that that great idea even though I know that I'm probably not going to like them curiosity killed the cat the cat is me okay I am back uh I had stuff going on so I did not get to finish filming this but I'm back to finish it and I have a bajillion pages of notes great my notes is about as long as you would expect for a book that is way too long for no reason I want to be clear though this is not the worst fantasy romance that I have read There are certainly worse ones in fact I think fourth wi is much worse than this but I still think that this needed quite a lot of work despite a lot of work must have gone into it for it to be so overwritten real quick before I begin uh the World building in this is atrocious I'm going to try to explain it to you as best as I can but it's confusing and I think if I remember correctly the first time I ever saw a review for this book the complaint was about the World building which is tremendously undercooked it's Roar as Gordon Ramsey would say I'm going to give you beginning of the book's trigger warnings and then I'm going to explain how this vampire house is set up is okay beginning of the book says the book this book contains subject matter that might be difficult for some readers including violence torture off page flashback of rape uh where specifically it's a consent withdrawn rape scene self harm emotional abuse slavery and references to sexual abuse I'd also say there's a little bit of Gore in here but other than that that about covers it the setup of this is that there are three there is a Pantheon of gods then and the vampires which the goddess of is Naia are split into three houses the house of Knight House of blood and House of Shadow do I have a understanding of why they are separated or what that separation means no and within the house of Knight which is where our main character resides despite being human allegedly she is the adopted daughter of a heage vampire which I guess is an ethnicity not really sure and then on the other side of this are the rishan both are in the House of Knight whatever that's that means but they are Rivals they are enemies they are foes so that's it the rishan versus the heage currently the heage are in power and her adopted daddy is the he heage Heir and uh she is the adopted daughter of him so she has no hope of becoming his Heir unless the goddess niia who is the mother of vampires grants her a wish to become the heart bonded to her dad so that she can become the heir to the Hiag Throne does that make sense no that's about where I was so we start out and her uh home is she's a little girl this flips between first person and then you get interludes of third person so we start out in third and it says somewhere buried beneath the charred be beams and crumbl stone the girls family likely lay crushed beyond recognition or perhaps their ravaged bodies have been left out in the night taken by Predators just like the ones that stocked the child now looking down at her with interest that a hawk afforded a rabbit I don't really understand this scene especially knowing what happens in the end this is going to be full of spoilers so I'm just going to spoil this for you now if you don't want spoilers I suggest you don't listen to this there's your warning since some people think that I don't do enough to like warn you that my hourlong rant reviews are spoilery this does not make sense to me because they by the end it seems to be saying that they were sent there by their King who is not just her adopted Daddy but in fact her biological father I think I don't know for sure the ending was a little confusing so he shows up the heage king did not utter a single word he did not need to the moment he made his presence known all of his Warriors fell into silence he was not the physically strongest vampire he was not the fiercest Warrior nor the wisest Sage but they said he was blessed by the goddess nixia herself and anyone who had ever met him would swear it to be true so he walks up to her and he sees her she spits in his face and he calls her a little serpent it's very clear she doesn't trust him because she he's a vampire and she is not and he's like good you shouldn't trust me because the king of the heage vampires conqueror of the House of Knight blessed of the goddess naaia and one of the most powerful men to have walked this realm or or the next saw a fragment of himself in this child and this is why he chose to keep her alive except this is this is this is not what happened because at the end it seems like he went there to go pick up his biological kid I don't know I'm confused hundreds of years later historians and Scholars would look back upon this moment I hope that they'll be less confused than I am this decision that one day would topple an Empire what a strange choice they would whisper why would he do this why indeed after all vampires know better than anyone how important it is to protect their hearts and love understand is sharper than any steak ooh vampire verbiage part one duck yes this does that Twilight thing where we talk about times of the day but also like moons and yeah this is sort of Twilight it's more Hunger Games I know a little bit about from blood and Ash and it is a little bit derivative of from blood and Ash but it's very Hunger Games with like random scenes from Accord toist and fury kind of spliced in there and some of them feel too identical to scenes from Accord toist and fury we'll get there probably in a couple hours chapter 1 she's hunting what is she hunting vampires cuz apparently she can get away with that I don't really understand this but whatever some might find it stupid for me a human to hunt at night when I was at a considerable disadvantage compared to my prey some would some would find that to be stupid I sure do the vampires didn't care to clean up after themselves here in the human districts of the house at night humans were supposed to be safe here within the walls of the Kingdom citizens if inferior ones weaker than nightborne in everywhere so this is setting us up where the humans are weaker so they get prayed upon by the vampires but then she goes and murders the vampires that are praying upon the humans but then nobody sees seems to like be looking for these people that she's murdered and I don't hate the idea of a human girl running around and you know killing uh vampires and stuff I mean I certainly like the falconer series a lot even though probably mediocre but something about it is just my jam but I just don't really understand this because her dad's in charge is it that her dad's in charge so she gets away with it I don't really know sometimes I would catch Risha and vampires instead but that was a bit more challenging their feathered wings were harder to puncture and I had refined that technique the step was important and that what that's why it came first so apparently the only difference between the rishan and the heage of the House of Night is that the rishan have feathered wings and the house of KN kage people have different kind of wings I don't know I guess so she coats her blades with something called Davin d h a i v i n t h seems a bit much a fast acting paralytic potent though short live and she always tells her prey don't look away because her dad taught her look your prey in the eyes when you stab them and then right off the bat in chapter 1 we start getting uh dropped hints that she had a runin with a boy who she killed because he was a vampire I'd see the beautiful face of the boy in the darkness a boy I'd love once very much and exactly how it looked when my knife slid into his chest vampires were the children of the goddess of death so it was a bit funny to me that they feared it just as much as humans did and the difference between humans and vampires is they are they live longer and also their blood is darker than human blood but humans also have magic Powers I guess at least she does I don't know I don't know if the other humans do this feels like insulated in a way that doesn't make sense to where we're seeing way too much of just her on her own and I don't understand the rest of the humans now this and and you could make a case that like all right she's never met a human but she has in fact we're about to go talk to one she talks about humans as if they are so different from her and I just feel like having read the end now looking back at this it's pretty heavy-handed she's looking at a house full of humans who she you know saved from a vampire because apparently the humans are not very safe in their safe areas they were like me and yet I could find nothing in common between us I was disgusted by all my own human flaws and yet another part of Me Maybe the part that remembered I had once lived in a house just like this long to venture closer I wasn't a vampire that much was abundantly clear every second of every day but I wasn't one of them either this just feels really heavy-handed because by the end you find out she is neither vampire nor human she is half vampire but we don't do any work to establish whether this is a thing so I'm confused it just sort of came out of nowhere I wore only plain black clothing that attracted little attention and allowed me free range of movement I didn't even wear anything bright as it would draw unwanted eyes H this sounds so familiar who am I thinking of who am I thinking of who am I thinking of I mean to be honest I'm thinking of like literally every fantasy protagonist ever wears all black but specifically like in this setting with this setup I'm thinking about her the humans I had seen in the slums this morning were nothing like me and the vampires that surrounded me even less so only Alana lingered somewhere in between just like I did so what we're going to do is we're going to establish that she has a friendship with this old woman named Elana I think she's old and then we're going to kill Elana immediately after like the next scene that we see Elana in she gets ripped apart by vampires so this felt very very lazy in that we we only introduced this woman so that we could bring her up throughout the rest of the book as like the only human Touchstone that this girl has despite the fact that she sometimes has memories of her human mother I didn't realize then that Alana was even among humans somewhat unique and Elana gets paid to have quote handsome men suck on my neck all night my younger self would be thrilled so she gets paid to let vampires suck her blood most voluntary human blood vendors of which there were few were killed within a year of starting work I Knew Too Well exactly how little self-controls vampires had when hunger was involved and she tells Elana I want you to leave because the kajari The Hunger Games The Hunger Games The Hunger Games get cuz vampire okay she wants Elana to leave and go somewhere safer because the kajari is coming The Hunger Games and she doesn't want her anywhere near this she thinks that it's going to be dangerous and Alana is like you want me to leave when the most exciting event in two centuries is about to happen on my doorstep no sweetheart I'm not doing that so we're just setting her up to die that's her entire existence is just person to be killed so Elana what so orah Ora Oria can have a uh emotional moment and Elana is seemingly the only person in the world she has to care about other than Vincent her adoptive Daddy I had no family here whoever was in that house with me when Vincent had found me had been killed if any distant relevant relatives remain they were trapped somewhere I couldn't reach at least not until I won the kajari so she's hoping to get the power so that she can find her Human family she doesn't seem to really wonder about her Human family very much in a way that makes sense to me like it just seems to be sort of like a I want to rescue them but she doesn't think about them like on a personal level despite having some memories of her mother which is odd and then there was this line that said Alana says you're sweet prickly but sweet in an acidic sort of way like a pineapple a pineapple what a ridiculous word knowing her she probably made it up okay all right sure Elana says I don't want to watch you become one of those vampires it would be [ __ ] boring so we're establishing that Alana is cool chapter 2 we establish that she is 23 years old which finding out later that the love interest in this is 9 years older than her in human years and then obviously he's a vampire so he's a bajillion years older than her in every way I am weirded out I am 30ish and I would never date a 23-year-old hardest past I'm sorry but you're too young for me she goes and talks to her dad he calls her an insolent brat this man who is afraid of nothing was afraid for me his human daughter raised in a world decide to kill her until the kajari a tournament with the ability to change everything until I won and it freed me or I lost and it damned me the interesting thing about the kajari is that it seems like it's set up so that you cannot win unless you have I mean certainly she would not have made it through the kajari without the guy the love interest so it just seems sort of like she was destined to fail unless she met him so her dad didn't really set her up for success I'll tell you that and here we get the first word drop of uh something called aerus Aeris among the most powerful of nightborne vampires magical gifts and the rarest pure energy said to be derived from the stars manifesting as a blinding black light capable of killing instantly at full force I have tried every which way I am very literal and my brain really wants to picture everything exactly how it's being laid out for me so I cannot picture what a blinding black light looks like like the first thing I'm thinking of is the dark saber but I don't think that's correct because the black part is not the blinding part and I know I'm getting fixated on this but I can't help it this is how my brain works when I'm reading books something cannot be black and white at the same time it's like being wet and dry at the same time it can't be a blinding black light it doesn't make sense I want it to make sense so bad I'm trying to wrap my brain around it and I can't do it anyway aery is very powerful asteris asterisk whatever so all this to say uh Aeris exists and Vincent can use it and so can the love interest rain who's going to come up do you want to guess how rain's name is spelled there's an H in it so they talk about the trials and how she needs to use Magic Vincent had tried over the years to teach me how to wield magic I could make a few little Sparks pathetic compared to the lethal skill of a vampire magic user from the house of KN or any other I'm really confused about who gets magic and who doesn't I don't feel like it was explained does every human have magic is it that if you live in like Nia as lands you have access to light magic I I don't know we do explain the creation of vampires since the goddess naaia created vampires more than 2,000 years ago since before then even some some even claimed the two sects had wield waged constant War so the sects being the heage and the rishan they are heage well her daddy is and the upcoming love interest is a rishan Rons have feathers that's the distinction so the start of the kajari the trials The Hunger Games he says the star could be anything she likes it to be dot dot dot unexpected she mother of night Shadow blood mother of all vampires the goddess n a yes I I caught that thank you so they are going to a party before the kajari starts and it says Vincent didn't usually allow me at these types of events for obvious reasons he and I both understood that a human in a ballroom of hungry vampires is a bad idea for everyone involved on the rare occasion that I did go out into vampiric society I attracted flagrant attention today was no exception and I'm like okay Bellis Swan faite we get it all right cool the contestants are supposed to give a blood gift so basically like you know slice and give some blood over to nixia to Signal their entry into the kajari Vincent is talking about the people in uh the room with them he says one is uh Byron and Monte the worst blood lust I've ever seen he'll go after you but he'll be so stupid about it that it should be easier for you to use that against him this is very like you know Hunger Games figuring out your opponents before you actually get into the arena and it works I'm not complaining it's just I'm making the comparison and then we introduce ibraim which I don't understand this character's purpose whatsoever not even a little bit I found Ibrahim across the room he was a young vampire barely older than I it was a story too common to be tragic about 10 years ago when Ibrahim was on the cusp of adulthood his parents had pinned him down removed his teeth and hobbled his left leg I didn't realize what I didn't realize then was that vampires lived in constant fear of their own family immortality made a succession made succession a bloody Bloody Business even Vincent had murdered his own parents and three siblings to gain his title vampires killed their parents for power then crippled their own children to keep them from doing the same it satisfied their egos in the present and secured the future I don't really know that it does secure the F this is hard because this is not humans this is vampires uh and they live forever so I understand like not wanting your kids to kill you and take over but then again like what do you do if there's a coup how can you really cement any power especially without an air I don't really know she sees Vincent's new vampire of the go what what vampire of the head of the vampire guard J mean and she says that only three women have held the title of Captain the head of the guard in the last three years so she approved of just mean being in the position on principal alone and like if if you think that this is going to like have a conversation about like oh women being you know treated like crap in society it doesn't do anything of substance it was just sort of thrown in there and then we see him the love interest and of course this is a fantasy book so the way we introduce them is always very similar he stood at the opposite side of the ballroom far beyond all the debauchery of Dance Floor his back to me stared at one of the many paintings that Adorn the wall I couldn't see the details from the distance but I knew a painting well and it's a painting of a rishan vampire falling and it's supposed to be like symbolic cuz he's a ran he was tall taller than even most other vampires yes that's how you know he's the love interest and Broad he wore a deep purple jacket cut tight against his PR frame frame Jesus Rachel a bronze sash wrapped around his waist that too was a little off his style was similar to the bright silks that all other n vampire nightborne wore but blah blah blah his hair was dark red nearly black fell across his shoulders in rough waves an unusual length neither the flowing nor cropped Styles favored by the house of Knights Court I could count on one hand the amount of nightborne vampires from Beyond srage that I'd met he glanced over his shoulder directly at me his eyes were rust red striking a striking enough color to be visible and it just goes on like explaining him so this is is that you know you found the love interest is when you have several paragraphs explaining what the guy looks like her and her dad Vincent are talking about the kajari again she asked him about his time of the kajari because he won at the I think the last one or maybe several ago I don't know this is the 21st and they happen like every couple hundred years he says to her death isn't frightening when weighed against an insignificant existence those words hit me unexpectedly hard because what existence was more insignificant than this living in constant fear hobbled by my own blood and my human weakness I could never be anything that Way fighting so hard to survive that I could never do anything never could never be anything of Worth to to people who had nothing but me so she's talking about other humans so she feels like connected to other humans but I don't know something about this just feels underdeveloped as well and he tells her you don't have to do this my little serpent I realize only now that perhaps I never told you that and I'm like what do you mean you're only realizing it now wasn't this your idea I'm so confused I looked down in my hand the delicate silver ring on my right finger a simple band with a black diamond so small it was no bigger than the band itself I'd had it in my pocket when Vincent found me as a child I like to think it belonged to my mother he said I would have found them for you her family if I could I hope you understand that a pain rang out in my chest I didn't like to openly acknowledge my own hopes that made me feel stupid childish even more so to hear Vincent reference them out loud if I ever had an excuse if there was ever a rebellion so he's saying that he had no way of going into that territory and finding her family for her 20 years ago Vincent had pulled me from the wreckage in the wake of a horrible rishan Rebellion the city I left behind or what remained of it was deep in rishan territory the only recent reason why Vincent had entered it at all decades ago was because the uprising had given him license to but now that territory was protected by niia my father had no reasonable excuse to invade and find my family if any of them had survived likely not whoever had been in that house when Vincent had found me had not survived but had there been others did I have anyone out there searching for me this is sort of the last time she asked this question and even when she meets people from the area she doesn't really think to ask around despite like having that ring and you know maybe using that as a way to find her family this would be my wish from niaki if I won the kajari to become Vincent's corate his heartbound a corus bond was a powerful thing virgin on legendary only granted a handful of times in history and only forged by nixia herself it would strip away my Humanity making me a vampire without the risks of turning which most often ended in death and it would bind my soul to Vincent her his power becoming mine and mine becoming his I would become the most power one of the most powerful people in the house of Knight one of the most powerful people in the world she then offers her blood offering to niia which will officially like have her enter the competition naaia mother of ravenous dark womb of night of shadow of blood I give you Ora of the nightborne she is the daughter my heart gave me just as my heart made me your son her presence in the kajari is the greatest gift I will ever offer you save perhaps for her Victory she says AA Sera take my truth is what that means apparently then she wakes up and she realizes that she's not in her room this was it the kajari had won what begun ah [ __ ] I already [ __ ] it up part two full moon we already on we have how many parts in this we are on chapter four it's an interlude so in part in uh third person we hear about how when Vincent first brought her to the castle he says you are not safe not in this Castle not in this room you are prey in a world of predators I will never hurt you but I am the only one who will make you that promise and keep it I will never give you false safety or kind lies but I will teach you to wield those teeth of yours so it explains how she got to this new place by saying ni aia's magic was powerful and inexplicable all right we'll just all right she could Spirit us away all right that's all right fine so the Moon Palace is where she is now this is where we spend like quite a chunk of the book it existed solely for this competition it wouldn't have been touched for a 100 years oh 100 years every competition got it and she realizes that people are screaming had humans been dropped in the palace too as prey distraction I didn't know whether to be horrified or secretly grateful that they would draw the vampires blood lust this makes me confused about like how little she knows about vampire Society doesn't she have to get out of vampire Society in order to go into the human districts how do you what have you been doing for like 15 years who have you been talking to how do you know so little about the world around you the vampire sounded abnormally animalistic even by the standards of a blood lless frenzy I was very very lucky I was alive right now she tries to call her uh Magic to her fingertips which is light releases only a single spark dissipates into smoke she grabs her daggers so she's running around this Moon Palace I have no [ __ ] clue what this place looks like um the only thing I could picture was like some sort of amalgamation of a a palace plus like the stuff and color scheme on this cover which I really do not like the cover because it's nothing it's just like a bunch of like vague images like it's sort of a flower it's sort of maybe a cast like like an iron fence something's dripping I don't I don't [ __ ] know there there's a part of a snake I have been told that this is not in fact an AI cover but certainly not a good one anyway so she's at this Moon Palace and it says she grabs her dagger I'd heard stories that the Moon Palace was a magical mysterious Place blessed or cursed by naaia herself Vincent told me that hallways moved and rooms shifted that it had a way of putting you exactly where you did or didn't want to be depending on your luck that day so like the stairs in Harry Potter she says if you let me survive this niia I will make this kajari the most interesting and glorious performance for you in a millennium I told the goddess silently you are going to be so [ __ ] impressed I swear it it was fine in my opinion I'm not a goddess but whatever so she hears a scream and it says that she recogn izes it I recognized it as the voice that affectionately called me a little brat punctuated by a husky cough from years of incessant cigar smoking my mind emptied except for one name Elana the old lady Elana was in the palace Elana was in the frenzy a guy comes up behind her and says they're dead they're dead little human and if you go after them so are you she stabs him in the leg he says IX is [ __ ] tits I is apparently a goddess Yanks out her dagger runs she runs to a greenhouse I would need to survive here for another hour but the moment it arrives arrived Dawn arrived the greenhouse would be the safest place I could possibly be so she exits the greenhouse she notices that the Moon Palace has in fact shifted around which sort of adds to like my confusion about what it looks like and then she says Elana she finds Elana she didn't even look human anymore didn't even look like a corpse she just looked like me I recognized her only because I had known her so well once as a child I watched a pack of wolves rip apart a deer they were starving everyone and everything was starving back then so this is like her life before the vampires well being adopted by one at least they didn't even wait until that poor thing was dead before they tore it to pieces that was how vampires acted in blood lust that was what they had done to my friend she's like you were supposed to leave you stubborn stubborn old [ __ ] she had made a tiny tiny part of me believe that there was another version of a human life than the one I lived now as I stare down at her corpse I thought you said she wasn't a corpse I thought you said she looked like me all of her vivacious tenacity snuffed out the fragile remnants of that belief shattered there was no other version of humanity Elana should have been more afraid we only spent one scene with this woman so this is not making any emotional impact on me as the reader whatsoever a rean Vampire comes up to her she stabs him in the chest immediately she's just killing folks already I returned to Alana and fish through her Pockets first I pulled out a familiar bald up scarf I stared at it lump in my throat then I returned for her box of matches she never went anywhere without them her skin was so dry skin her body was so dry skin so papery this is really confusing I don't understand how the matches still work I thought she was a lump of meat are we talking dry meat is she [ __ ] beef jerky but you said she wasn't a corpse m so confused come Nightfall a call Rang out through the halls of the Moon Palace and a smoky thread of Shadow comes to like collect each one of them I know you don't the message was obvious I was being summoned the summons had been sent to every contestant and then she says I realized what I hadn't during the day the bone the floors were made of shattered bone and teeth and I'm like how do you if they're shattered then how are you how are you able to detect that I mean if they're completely shattered okay so 50 contestants most of were clearly House of Night and even split between heage and rishan based on those who had their wings out but I counted about 10 members of the House of blood and 15 of the House of Shadow I don't know what house of Shadow or House of blood people look like or what the distinction is between the three houses most ignored each other though bloodborne vampires remained close together in a tight pack that made sense I suppose no one else would have them wait what's a bloodborne vampire is that a vampire who isn't burn how did I did I miss something what's a bloodborne God damn it I don't understand so then they see a tall thin man with a bald head and wand skin stretched over his skull he wore simple black robes and a sash across his body that bore three sigils a moon a mask and a weakening woman the symbols of the Three Kingdoms of niia the church was independent of the three vampire houses operating across all ni aia's subjects as a nebulously powerful and mysterious Force more powerful most powerful and mysterious of all was the minister himself minister is spelled m i n i s t a e r which was new for me he was said to not even be a living being anymore but merely a flesh vessel for Nia's will this to me sounded like [ __ ] I don't really understand that and religion is hard for me to understand in books I've come to figure out because I have a hard time since I grew up uh in Assemblies of God uh Evangelical Christianity I tend to like view religion as like one thing and it's hard for me to to it's hard for me to unless it's like very clearly spell SP out for me it's hard for me to understand like religion and I don't feel like this was very spelled out so I don't really understand like how it affects your day-to-day life and I also don't understand like how people can have differing ideas if you're growing like this growing up like this sequestered and the church oper I don't know I don't really understand the religion all that to say if niia needed a flesh V flesh vessel which she probably didn't this one didn't seem like a wise choice and her adopted daddy Vincent is also there simply revealing his and his Mark served as a warning I am stronger than any of you I stood where you stood and won it was odd to see Vincent flaunting his power so brazenly but maybe it shouldn't have been surprising rulers of the House of Knight House of Knight often killed the kajar victors rulers of the house wait is naxia cool with that she just lets so she this whole trial and then the rulers of the House of the night just kill them that's allowed that's fine I'm confused you know what I'm also I'm still confused about the fact that our main character ARA Aria she goes into the human districts and kills vampires and gets away with it I'm still confused about that part I felt a bit naive for not realizing e earlier Vincent's other selfish reason for encouraging me to enter the kajari if I went it meant these people wouldn't win and there's absolutely no one in this world not a single soul that V Vincent trusted except for me you are correct that is very naive of you good G they explained that the kajari now begins it will continue for the next 4 months of 4month long Hunger Games when you made your Oaths you gave our mother your lives your dark mother our lives what you gave our dark mother your lives there you go you gave her your blood you gave her your soul and she shall keep all three even if you survive the trials a part of you will always belong to her yeah until they get killed by some nightborne ruler I guess I don't really understand there will be five trials each designed to pay tribute to the story of our goddesses escape from the clutches of the white Pantheon and rise to power I actually think that that's a cool idea all these trials are named after the phases of the moon which less cool idea full moon trial the waning trial the half moon trial the Crescent trial the new moon trial I'm sorry I can't hear new moon without thinking Twilight each trial will take place 3 weeks after the prior and all I'm thinking is how long is this going to take for the entire length of the kajari you shall reside here in the Moon Palace you may leave its walls between Sundown and sunrise if it pleases nixia but you must always be within its doors come Dawn the Moon Palace provided shelter food water until it didn't it provided safety until it didn't and the rule is you may defend yourself against aggressors however the goddess appreciates the gift of blood within her trials what the hell did that mean it says I scanned the room in confusion the wording was unhelpful yeah um having finished the book I still don't understand what that meant but okay Vincent and Co leave and it's just the Hunger Games contestants now and one guy walks in and he's like my brother they [ __ ] killed my brother and first question why would you enter a trial to the death a tournament to the death with your own brother and then be upset when your brother died you knew one of you wasn't going to make it out this doesn't make any sense she looks at this guy and she's like oh I realized that his eyes look just like the ones that had stared into mine last night as I slowly sank my knife into his heart this is the brother of the guy she killed last night when she was at Alana's uh beef jerky body remember the redhead guy that we had a long ass description of that would be rain [ __ ] Ash Raj which the names in this are interesting he said oh please it isn't our fault that your brother was such a [ __ ] idiot he got himself killed before the tournament even started Clint she's like it's him the man I had seen at the feast I recognized him right away because here just as he had at the ball he stood out as markedly different than any other vampire everything about him seemed rough and unfinished right down to the way he held himself with an untamed threatening ease Stark in contrast to The Elegant vampire Beauty ah yes because typical vampires are like you know Edward Cullen we need like a rough and rugged we need a you could say we need somebody more like a Jacob to be the love interest in this and she looks down at rain [ __ ] Ash Raj's leg and she says there it was the bloody bandage wrapped around his thigh right where say a short human girl might have plunged a dagger when trying to break out of his grasp I love that we highlight in this sentence that she is shorter than him and we are going to spend the whole book talking about how [ __ ] huge this man is because it would not be a fantasy romance if we didn't make the man extra extra large so rain is like I'm going to kill that guy and the guy's like you can't kill here you heard the minister he said you can't kill until the trials the blast shook the room I gased the air yank from my lungs in one dramatic pulse pitch black consumed me followed by blinding white wait so is asteris Pitch Black and then blinding white because that makes sense but you said blinding black earlier and that doesn't make sense rain let Clint's very very dead body slide down a wall into a wobbly boneless Heap on the ground I couldn't bring myself to speak that was [ __ ] aerus so rain has the special special power good for him so Vincent her Daddy had told her there is a meeting place that I want you to meet me it's private we're going to be meeting and she thinks about things on the way there right questions she's asking herself how did Vincent know about this place had he met someone here when he was a contestant in his own kajari 200 years ago did he have well a Vincent someone who had trained him guided him a member of the family he had killed in his rise to power those are four questions that you could have asked him any time do we have a reason why she has never asked these no she doesn't even think about oh yeah and I couldn't have asked him previously because for what reason he raised you for what the last 19 years 15 years how long have you been with this guy you didn't ask him basic questions about [ __ ] like this when he told you about the meeting place you didn't ask him questions like this okay what do yall even talk about so he is at the meeting place and he gives her two weapons I couldn't find words they were short and delicate designed for dual we wielding as I preferred they were impossibly light for their size the blades curved gracefully polished black steel with red marks etched into the flat long swirls of decorative smoke and Stark staccato glyphs locked in a dance the hilts silver toed with two interlocking moons welcomed my hands as if they had been waiting for me my entire life I'm going to tell you as a reader that's a lot of words and um I just don't they all went right over my head I'm so sorry I'm just going to pick her whatever the [ __ ] I want the weapons were the epitome of the deadly Artistry of the nightborne were were known for wielded only by the most esteemed of House of Night Warriors hundreds and hundreds of hours of craftsmanship had gone into these I thought that we were going to have at some point a conversation about how maybe like the heage and the rishan were at odds because like they're weapons crafters and they're you know I don't know maybe have a rivalry over that no I don't know why they have a rivalry at all no doubt several generations of nightborne Kings rolled in their graves to think of such a weapon wielded by an adopted human girl I felt as if I was tainting these simply by touching them they're yours Vincent said I won't tell you to be careful or right I won't tell you because I know you are I taught you to be resilient clever fast focused vicious you must be all of it now we have no room for weakness or missteps and he tells her the blood what the blades hold poison and you refill it through the hilt so I don't really know how that works but I'm just going to ignore it Vincent doesn't say I love you to her no one had ever said those words to me at least not that I could ever remember but he communicated it a thousand ways over the years most of them coded in death I love you here's how you stay alive here's how you make sure that no one can hurt you for vampires that was The Ultimate Gift except doesn't say I love you so she leaves it says I rounded a corner and nearly ran into a wall no not a wall a person oh it's the love interest if it's a huge man it's got to be the love interest rain's features were strong almost unpleasantly so like each held too much personality to be combined in such a way while time left marks on humans in Vampires it simply standed away Perfections leaving them with beauty is finely honed as a nightborne blade we've brought it back around with the comparisons I know where you were you were visiting the nightborne king that's you isn't it his human you're very famous you know even in the Borderlands a real curiosity I shouldn't engage I could practically hear Vincent's boits in my ear think about what you have to gain from an interaction the answer is usually nothing I want an apology for stabbing me especially given that I could have turned you over to your victim's brother and didn't because you did kill that bastard didn't you she threatens him he's like I ask for an apology and I get threats yes because in fantasy that is how we flirt and listen I'm not complaining I like I like threats via flirting what flirting via threats in fiction let me pass or what or I'll stab you again how much higher so instead of in his leg little up upwards up from the legs you get it it's his dick he's talking about his dick she leaves and the shadow that summons them appears again everyone had taken the last day to prepare contestants were armed with new freshly cleaned weapons some wear protective sigils at their throats or etched into the armor itself magic would be an ugly surprise in the ring I'm really confused about the sigils thing I felt like that sort of came out of nowhere I don't know if she can use the sigils she does have magic somehow I'm not sure how she has magic if every human has magic can the humans also use the symbols or are those vampires only where do the sigils come from is there a book somewhere can I get a reference please is bloodborne vampire just mean the house of blood is that it I think it is I think bloodborne just me I don't think it means actually like born I think it means bloodborne as in House of blood she sees a bloodborne vampire except it says I never met a bloodborn vampire before but I'd heard that red marks on their skin signaled the end stages of a curse if it was true this woman was far along the next step would be insanity and beyond that well people murmured about what the house of blood's curse did to them this is not plot important to this book at all in fact until I read back over it I forgot that there was a curse on the bloodborne the house of blood people at all and she thinks about the half moon trial that's coming up where it was the only trial structure that was the same every year in which contestants would need to fight in teams or his partners and half the field would be eliminated you can almost say that they need to form a group like the careers for for you know this Hunger Games only a few now remain notably set back from the rest of the group me several members of the House of Shadows known for their staunch Independence this is like the only the only thing I know about the house of Shadows is their staunch Independence great thanks and ibraim so Ibrahim only gets brought up to talk about how how he was like maimed by his family like they took out his teeth damaged his legs so he can't walk properly so this gets brought up and then it like that's the only thing he exists for and I did not understand what the point of him was so again we have a trial so now Ibrahim is going to come into the picture for the same thing he does throughout the entire book The Last to reach the great room visibly limping on his mangled foot okay so again the trials represent a different part of the Goddess ni aia's story which is part of the reason why I gave this book two stars instead of one I think that that's a really cool idea the first trial usually represented Nia's departure from her home in the white Pantheon the Moon Palace simply disappeared they are now in the Coliseum thousands upon thousands of Spectators are watching and screaming and they have to fight a bunch of demons I'd only see a demon in real life once and I had been so injured that I barely remembered it even that horror had been nothing compared to these they moved on all fours hairless and dark gray with blacken veins that pulse beneath their skin serrated black claws CA two long fingers on hands made for grabbing and killing so they sort of sound like they sort of sound like werewolves so the Coliseum splits into smaller rings and and she gets uh trapped in a circle with a few folks a shadowborn magic wielder which doesn't everybody wield magic I don't know why we need to emphasize that and Rain puffs of Shadow filled the enclosure as the shadowborn magic wielder unleashed the full force of her magic fragments of Darkness wrapping around demon Limbs and throats to little effect the demon flinched where rain had hit another demon so she notices that if you hit one demon in a certain part another one will Flinch it was blood magic sloppy and unrefined yes but blood magic all the same I don't understand the Magic in this at all I don't understand why some people have light magic versus blood Magic versus Shadow I and I I I I guess that that would be from the houses but do they present differently in different ways or just everybody have the same magic and on top of that what is blood magic exactly does that just make like demons is that it so she notices that the demon makes a noise and it says it did almost sound like a voice the these were not just demons these were demons that had once been vampires bloodborne cursed vampires so the house of blood the vampires from the house of blood turn into these things these demons okay so this is sort of that scene from the end of The Hunger Games the book not the movie where in the book she notices that the muts that they are fighting have been integrated with DNA from former contestants and this happens again throughout the book Transfiguration I knew this curse made bloodborne vampires something terrible in their final days but but nothing like this so these had been changed created were they linked somehow just feels like it's veryy Hunger Games she gets shoot uh shot in the leg with an arrow rain rips a demon off of her they work together cuz they notice that if you stab one in the same place and they all yeah so they fight their way out and an archway appears that leads them back to the Moon Palace so first trial over and they see Ibrahim who was remarkably still alive and fighting a faint rickle what rickle wrinkle flitted across rain's brow in an expression that oddly resembled concern and I realized why when I followed his gaze to his friend she was wielding fire not the white dark power of night fire a uniquely nightborne gift no this was fire my lips parted in shock Fire magic was the domain of at roxus the sun god a member of the white Pantheon I'd never seen a a vampire wielding magic that was not born of Nia's dark arts let alone magic in the domain of her greatest enemy I didn't know a thing was possible me neither and to be honest Hest I'm a little [ __ ] confused so there's another god named atris atrox who has fire magic and if even if you are a daughter of niia or you know a vampire a descendant of niia you can wield the magic of another God even though that's her greatest enemy I don't I don't know I don't understand how like if this person who we're talking about was to win wouldn't I actually be like [ __ ] you rain goes and talks to her and he's like who are you going to Ally with for the Half Moon trial and he's like you should Ally with me and Misha my friend Misha the one who wields the fire why because you impressed me full [ __ ] you haven't said a single true thing since you stroe in here so I'll be honest for both of us I'm a human we both know that makes me the weakest one here you have your pick of 50 stronger vampires you could ally with and you expect me to believe you want me you beat Warriors that outclassed you many times over tonight you and I we worked well together didn't we and I like an underdog [ __ ] I'm curious about you can you blame me everyone is Vincent's little human princess kept in a glass Palace where everyone could look but never touch are you missing your Glass Castle princess I would like to be in a Glass Castle so I could get away from this dialogue cuz it's not great Vincent can't help me in here I doubt that very much and she says Ah Vincent it was about Vincent what was about Vincent what the [ __ ] okay I mean doesn't everybody hate Vincent if they're rean okay and she's like all right be honest he's like okay yeah I want to Ally with you cuz we work well together but also you'll be kill easy to kill when the half moon is over but until then no will come to you I can promise you that she says no tempting offer because the half moon trial was 6 weeks away and he's like do you really think you'll survive another night here I could smell you even from the East Tower and let me tell you you smell [ __ ] delicious thank you it's peppermint you need to stop that bleeding fast oh yeah she's wounded by the way I did not like that he was pushing me into this so forcefully the reasons he had given me didn't warrant that which made the ones he didn't far more concerning she says no he says as you wish which is not the last time he says that which feels like all right we're saying as you wish a lot calm down Wesley calm down so she goes to see Vincent at their secret secret spot and hopefully get some like healing potion from them from him from for her wound that she got that's pretty bad and she's like getting really [ __ ] over by it there's no way that he wouldn't be here not when he had witnessed the battle and seen my in injuries but the minutes tick by and Vincent did not come so she gets attacked by somebody who was half feral moving in Jagged lurches mouth Twisted into a snarl and Claws digging deep into my shoulder as I fought him back I plunged my dagger into his chest not hard enough the blade didn't make it through [ __ ] I was so weak and Rain shows up and he's like well that didn't take long part three how many [ __ ] parts are in this book I mean it's long but not long enough to Warrant like a bajillion Parts like nothing has happened either how are we in part three when barely anything has happened we have another interlude in third person the keeps the king keeps his new adopted daughter carefully sequestered from the rest of his bloody world he gives her everything she could possibly wish for within the confines of four walls I know my parents are gone she says but there must be others like me you found me in the western regions of the House of Night ran territory right maybe someone is still there looking for me and he's like you have a home here little serpent I don't know why he calls her a serpent to be honest with you everyone wants to kill me here I found you in a place called Salen a far away District on the other side of the house of Knight's borders but even if you had family living there area I could not find them for you that's rishan territory and as the heage king the leader of the House of Knight I can't go there unprovoked then I can I'll go he's like no you're a human and he she's like okay then turn me he he's like you can't go there because it's dangerous for a human but then she does go places all the time so I don't know I don't really understand then turn me make me like you I read all about it I can't do that either Ora why not because you are far too precious two and three turnings end in death that's more than half I would not risk would not take that risk with your life I'm like wait we are in I mean [ __ ] chapter 12 and we're just now learning that two and three turnings end in death I feel like that is pertinent information that should have been given to the audience way sooner 20 3% in and the reason she can't be turned is because she you know has a two-third chance of dying all right there is one way you could One Day become just as powerful as me with a gift from a goddess and that's how he convinced her to do the kajari I saw rishan Wings much less than I saw hiah ones and never any as uniquely colored as these talking about rain's Wings because he's the special special and Misha the fire wielding girl is like oh good H you're awake I'm Misha so excited to finally meet you and this person comes on page and immediately is just basically more from aatar and of course we have to tie this back to Elana the old lady who died because otherwise Elana's purpose was meaningless which it indeed was I couldn't shake the sense that she did remind me of someone not a vampire but a human she reminded me of Elana sure Misha had none of Elana's biting Edge but she had that same loud Unapologetic flare she was unabashedly colorful so she was loud and that reminds you of Alana that's it okay and rain is like give her a Sun damned minute before you talk her to death Misha which is very Reese telling more to back off oh my gosh they both start with the same letter Reese rain Moore Misha my God and she says those bloodborne shits he tried to rip you to pieces didn't he and she notices that Misha says thank the gods not the goddess interesting and I'm like isn't that heresy okay rain says I have a gift for you to welcome you to our little family cuz she's officially joining their little unit in order to you know do the half Moon trial a man's head is the gift the guy who attacked her so then somebody shows up mad that this guy is dead and her name is Angelica it was the human I know it was he was out of his mind went after her in the greenhouse of all places and this woman has an axe so she's an angry woman with an axe so this just sort of feels like you know Joanna I'd rather kill her in the trials than kill her here as for you the glare settled on rain you're lucky it's not your time yet remember right now exactly how lucky you are she lowered her Axe and stocked away she goes and talks to her dad Vincent again I need an ally for the half moon and rain's a good one he is a rishan so are nearly a third of the contestants in there think about why aishan would want to get close to you Ora you so then her and Rain have a argument and she she's like what does working with you look like by your standards following you like following your orders because I don't want to be like physically close to you cuz you're a vampire and I think you're disgusting and also super hot I'll work with you but like from 10 ft away and and he's like what do you not understand about this Ora we are going to be thrown back into that ring in one day one day we've trained together for more than a week and I'm still not totally convinced that you're not going to stab me again the minute we're in there maybe I will maybe it'll be more satisfying this time do women say that to you often He barked a laugh I'm sure you're proud of yourself for that one I was actually oh erase erase just highlight and erase it's too cringy take it out even during training I never let him get this close he was only three strides away two of his oh two of his oh because we have to definitely diff differentiate that three steps for her is only two for him cuz he's so large that was how much larger than me he was thank you for reiterating he wore a linen shirt that clung to his body sweaty with the exertion of the last 6 hours of exercise highlighting each swell and dip of his muscular form his hair was bound but over the hours strands of it had escaped and now plastered themselves to his face and neck I couldn't decide if he looked more or less intimidating this way more because he looked a little bit unhinged or less because I appreciated all these unpolished things more than I appreciated any other aspect of his it keeps going but I will spare you we are allies you need to let me get close to you close of you you're afraid of me no I wasn't I told myself fear did not exist fear is just a collection of physical responses I'm not going to hurt you how close do I have to get without splitting you open to make you believe that so he gets too close to her and she says back the [ __ ] up I slam my palm against the hard muscle of his chest the burst of magic Blinded Me deafened me white blue blue consumed my vision my back smashed against the wall rain went flying across the room and the flare of light faded just in time for me to see the window shatter and he went kening through the glass I's tits how did I do that so he is Wing so he's fine and he's like you are being a [ __ ] about trusting me and yet you've been hiding that power I didn't I don't know how the hell I just did that but I didn't need to know any of them that I wasn't aware of my own abilities give them yet another weakness to take advantage of and he's like I don't know how I ever thought that this was going to work me neither to be honest you were probably thinking with your dick let's be serious you don't know how to give a [ __ ] about a single person other than yourself just like all the rest of them the nightborne princess living up in Vincent's Castle probably taught the whole [ __ ] world belonged to her is that what he promised to you because just like him learn how to double cross all the right people and this whole shitty dead world will be yours is that way you think you have waiting for you and he's she's like oh am I supposed to fall into a p pile of gelatin at your feet typical ran trash look at where that kind of entitlement got your people before you speak that way about my father woof Misha darted between us all right all right everyone is angry that's enough she goes to meet her dad he wasn't there he rarely meets her he only meets her less than half the time and when he did he was distracted something big was happening even though he refused to tell me what it was she goes back to the apartment that she's living in the apartment inside of the palace that she's living in with Misha and rain and Misha is talking to her and says do you think that nixia was scared back then when she was going through all the [ __ ] she was going through Ora says she was a goddess Misha says barely in the beginning a nobody and so young I paused niia at this point in her story was only one of countless powerless Offspring produced produced by the white Pantheon not only a lesser goddess herself but the child of one oh it's like that 30 Seconds to Mars quote got it but that was 2,000 years ago and ni AI was staggeringly powerful powerful enough to defy the white Pantheon on her own powerful enough to give an entire continent her gift of vampirism and civilization of her followers and powerful enough that all the O betrays now lived and died and loved and sacrificed at her feet forever I'm to be honest I forgot entirely what the overr are so that's not good so basically Misha's point is that niia is probably lonely despite you know trying to keep herself safe and sure she isn't afraid anymore but she's probably probably awfully unhappy don't you think so what we're doing here is beating us over the point that uh you don't want to end up like like nixia and be awfully unhappy so Ora should trust rain so that she isn't lonely and unhappy so all right great just absolutely force it down my throat so then we hear rain and Misha having a conversation and Misha says that that was definitely too much rain says she should be able to take it that was her taking it well not like that not taking it by me th be throwing me out of [ __ ] window and that was you taking it idiot this is probably why this stuff's being compared to aord of mist and fury because a cord of mist and fury is basically Beauty and the Beast and whenever Beast gets chastised by like Mrs pots or whoever for being too hard on Belle is being so difficult is when like gets chastised for being too hard on Farah and then this is this is the same setup so I think that this is specifically why this book is getting uh compared to aist and fury it's like very specific scenes like this so trial number two a maze this was a maze I touched the uncut Stone and looked up at the strange ceiling with new insight it was the underside of the Earth because this was intended to mimic the journey to the underworld naaia had wandered for weeks after Escaping The Realm of the Gods before at last finding her way to ais's territory uh I forget all of the Gods in this besides ni AIA because they're just sort of like mentioned in passing and they don't really have a ton to do with the plot I know there's a trxus which is the Sun God but it's kind of hard to keep up so I'm guessing that Allis is like the underworld God and once again because it's a trial you know who we have to bring up ibraim I looked at Ibrahim understanding settled over us at the same time the door would not remain open without weight on the stone but it needed to be dead weight because whoever was left there wouldn't be able to make it to the other side alone he gave me a weak lopsided smile revealing scarred gums I wouldn't be here if I wasn't here to win he said somewhat apologetically before he hurled a [ __ ] star at me this was what ibrahim's parents after all had been so worried about he'd been a quiet child but he was also an innately talented Warrior so they did everything they could to make him a less efficient killer they ruined his legs they tore his wings they took his teeth so once again this gets reiterated to us again but they couldn't take away his use of magic which unfortunately was very very good she uses her poison blade on him it starts dissolving his skin it ate at my head hand to where his blood drip down she drags him over to the slab drops him on the stone he's dead weight so she's able to exit he'd live though miserably and even more maimed than he was before but he Liv and she's like H I can't leave him like that I have to put an end to that but before she can bring her blood down the ground shakes and she sees a bunch of humans including a child where did these people come from there were no human children in the inner city of cage did she come from the human districts why was a child here so in the trial she tells rain to save the child he does they all get out well some people in the trial die but they are all a bunch of people who I can't name and afterwards she's like where's the girl he takes her to see the little human girl who are these people where is this a home for children who don't have anyone else took me a while to find the right place I couldn't locate her family I thought maybe they could I swallowed they would not find This Girl's family she didn't have a family anymore that's a fairy tale I said he let out a sour humorless chuckle you really just never don't ever let up do you you never accept a win and she reveals to him that she has been killing vampires who have been going to the human districts and killing the humans and he's like oh that's fine the ones you're killing they deserve it they'll never stop otherwise and she says but they're vampires and he says yes is it that unbelievable that I have respect for human life I used to be one of them and she's like oh so you're a turned vampire he says yes it had never occurred to me that raid could be turned and yet so much now made sense the usual ragged Edge to his appearance has decided unv sense of humor and the performances the constant performances like he had something to prove like he had to learn how to wear different faces how long have you been doing this killing vampires I don't know I lied a few years she's like 6 months 2 years 14 days and she's like no Vincent does not know he says it's admirable Ora what you did in the ring what you do here and I'm sorry for my behavior before the trial I was think of thinking of things that had nothing to do with you I was having a bad day oh my God not the bare minimum she goes and talks to Vincent why were there humans in the trial she asks him the trials are not under my jurisdiction that isn't true excuse me you do not execute the trials but they are under your jurisdiction and the humans are citizens of the House of Night there are there are protections there should have been protections and he's like protections their lives belong to niia just as mine does just as your does and if this is what she wanted for them and AR is like children she wants children for her entertainment human life should not be worth so little little there's a reason why humans are protected within their districts all of our lives are cheap Ara human vampire even those of the Gods wait what you think your God's life is cheap I'm confused at least the vampires died for something we all die for something vampire and human and she starts to say I'm human and it says I so rarely spoke that word to him never said it out loud it would like it was some dirty term that neither of us wanted to acknowledge so this is written weird I was confused about this because she just said the word human several times in fact she says it all the time but what she means is saying I'm human so I think this should have been worded a little differently where she's like I rarely spoke that word to him in reference to myself and he's like you are not like them it never would have been you she tells him by the way I can do magic now it doesn't make sense I've never been able to do anything like that not even when you were training me and he's like we always knew you had talents we did when did we talk about this I'm confused we maybe he did maybe I was a bit skeptical but I never thought I could do anything like that I've never done this before magic is an unpredictable force and your life has changed dramatically these last few weeks wait so do drastic Life Changes bring out the the magic is that it I'm confused I'm not a vampire I'm not one of Ni aia's children how could I have wielded that kind of power from her Arts wait hold on so no other humans have magic is that what this is saying you offered your blood to nixia you offered her your life that offering does not go unrecognized and many have been able to build pro powers that traditional wisdom said they couldn't but other humans what I thought of Misha and her Flames a vampire wielding the power of at trxus yeah but that's a vampire do humans have magic or no help me part four Half Moon her and Rain decide that they're going to in their off time because they have a lot of off time remember this is a 4mon trial in their off time they are going to hunt vampires who go into the human districts great I still don't understand how they get away with this like it's not a bad idea I just want to know how they're getting away with it cuz like the vampires are in charge so okay we had learned each other's fighting styles and learned to leave openings to accommodate each other it took non-stop work so this is like a shorthand for we're learning each other and we are starting to become more than allies wink wink so one day they come back from hunting and they realized that the the Moon Palace is on fire there's Demons Inside the Moon Palace and they see that Misha is surrounded by demons and they think that she is dead so Ora is now able to like really tap into her power which she calls night fire and which I guess it's always called night fire I don't know I don't really again I have no idea the magic is so [ __ ] confusing so she Taps into her night fire she fights off the demons Misha got like very hurt ARA killed four demons Jessamine shows up the captain of the Guard woman and says be careful with him talking about rain he's pretty but he's still a ran they take rain away four vampires died in this attack on the Moon Palace Vincent's General Jasmine shows up and is like I'm taking your ginger boy in for questioning so they request that Misha be allowed to leave The Hunger Games because you know she got literally gutted and they're like no request denied even though she's literally on her deathbed and it was particularly denied by the minister ni aia's you know hand in the world so Vincent and ARA meet up and she's like you know who did this who did this attack on the palace and he's like it was bad people it was the rishan they're so evil and bad to us heage and it just made like blatantly [ __ ] obvious that Vincent is keeping things from her and she says that she's sick to her stomach over how Vincent is and how she can't trust him she's never felt this way before so rain is gone for questioning but before he left he was like the rean did not attack the Moon Palace that's a lie and he says [ __ ] niia which again you are in a trial to request something from niia and you're saying [ __ ] nixia that seems like a bad idea Misha is Delirious so our main character has to use the only healing potion that she has left on Misha to help her and that's going to [ __ ] her later and like Misha is completely Delirious so Misha is saying I called and he didn't come Ora is like oh rain yeah he'll be back it's fine and Misha literally says that she's not talking about rain but for some reason we're doing that thing where we do in fantasy books where it's like let's make our main character aloof even though the answer was just given to her she's obviously talking about somebody else but ARA is like she must be talking about rain she just said she wasn't and Vincent is like you should just kill Misha and Ora is like for what purpose and also can I have rain back I kind of need a partner for the half moon trial and he doesn't seem to care much about her needing a partner for the half moon trial which doesn't make sense because it feels like he's setting her up for failure but by the end of the book you know that he wasn't so why he didn't let every opportunity be like do this do this do this this is your best chance of survival rather than her like doing stuff and him being like no that's stupid don't do that why wouldn't he like be like no don't don't align with rain here's another person who you can trust I know them they won't kill you but Vincent despite wanting her very much to be in this trial so that you know he can further his line and use her for that doesn't take every opportunity to make sure she wins whatever it doesn't make sense so then she goes to the minister herself to be like hey Misha can't compete in this trial she literally got sliced open so help us out and he's like perhaps an offering of blood would suffice to compensate for the Lost blood offering of the contestant and she says okay take my human blood the minister made a strange sound she extends her wrists and give she gives him her blood his eyelids fluttered lust pure lust rain comes back and she realized that he got absolutely like torn the [ __ ] up in questioning this happened because I refused to reveal my wings oh yeah they can hide their wings willy-nilly and he tells her do you know what Misha was trying to do when we found her she was trying to call up on at trxus her magic fail and she couldn't get it back she was there with those demons and that [ __ ] night fire begging her God for help if she died there the last thing she heard would have been his silence I told her it would happen I it hurt her every time she used that magic and I told her I [ __ ] told her that one day he would stop answering that the god of sun wouldn't keep allowing one of Nia's children to draw upon his power but she just and so they talk about like the burns on Misha's arm so apparently the magic it it it's able to be W wielded by her because she before she was turned into a vampire she was a priestess when she was a human missionaries come to preach to [ __ ] vampires and that's when it happened whoever turned her just left her there to die probably figured he had a nice little Eternal slave if she lived and at least got a decent meal out of it if she didn't decided he she was too much trouble when he got she got sick and left she didn't even know what he was doing to her sometimes I'm ashamed to call myself one of them so they start doing this thing where they say to each other tell me one honest thing one honest thing arah do you want a different partner for the half moon trial you could find one people died in the attack they left left Partners behind I would understand and she's like no you're hot that's not what she says but like come on let's be serious there's nobody else who the [ __ ] else is she going to align with we certainly haven't introduced enough characters I mean for a second there I was like maybe ibraim but no Misha is leaving she you know gets her pardon from the minister drinking Ora's blood then the next trial happens and she wakes up to rain's voice in her head not in her ears breathe Ora both of us we need to we need to calm down all right for a moment I questioned Insanity I felt a sh shiver of Ry Amusement of my spine a wordless soundless chuckle and it was such a bizarre sensation it sent me spiraling again you're not alone in that princess a mind bonding the potion oh yeah they were forced to take a potion it must have been a spell it would take rare powerful magic to forge a temporary Bond like this but I suppose Nia's church had all the resources to make the impossible possible I guess I don't know we're just throwing magic in here willy-nilly now there's potions so they're in cells but they're separated but they use their mind link to get out of it but I'm not sure like if you don't have a partner then who are you mind linked to nobody I guess and they fight their way out just like nixia fought her way out of captivity part five Crescent Moon the young woman thought she was in love or something like it to be young and in love is an incredible thing it teaches one so much except this is not talking about rain this is talking about the vampire dude that she fell in love with that sucked her blood and made her even less likely to trust vampires so she started having feelings for this vampire dude whose name I don't know if we ever even learned to be honest he's really just there to make it so that look at this thing that happened to aray that made her not trust vampires and this is a rape scene [Music] [Applause] [Music] so he was gentle at first when he first began to move swells of pleasure mingled with the remnants of pain with each stroke slow a buil young woman turned herself over to it and thought that she would never never feel anything this good ever again so I just hate this I hate that every time sex in books happens it's the greatest sex to ever sex and then the next partner is even better the greatest sex to ever sex I'm just tired when did the first Spark of fear come when did that little voice in the back of her head whisper wait something is not right perhaps oh actually reading back over this is a little triggery perhaps it was when she tried to sit up seize control but he forced her back down the sharp edge of his fingernails opening little bloody wounds on her Flesh Blood lust understand is a terrible thing I'm fine I'm good his teeth were deep in her throat as she thrashed he was stronger than her his her powerlessness was noose ready to strangle her she grabbed a silver candelabra smashed it over her Lover's head he uh comes out of like this confusion realizes what he does what he's done he's horrified she runs to her dad he wraps her up in a blanket he tell she tells him what happened and it says he made a decision in that woman the in that moment the young woman did not know it not yet so that's when Vincent made a decision and I was like oh what's the decision going to be and the only it just ended up that the decision was he's going to make Ora kill that guy oh okay well that's not that's not that big of a deal to be honest with you she goes and talks to Vincent and he says something's bothering you and she's like yeah I saw what you did to rain he's like who rain my Ally you told me you wouldn't break him he's like oh nothing about him seemed broken he did well in that trial you guys were just in by the way Ibrahim also made it out of the trial but while killing his partner and at this point I'm still like why are we focusing on this guy at all it's very confusing like he just get popping up but I didn't understand what like the importance was of his his story and I thought maybe he's going to win and like all of this will be for a reason no so they get ready for a party and she gets to the party and her dad is there and that's why that's when they have this conversation like oh I don't think rain got broken per se it's at this point when she should have been like I feel like Vincent is not who I thought he was and I need to start asking everybody around me now that I have even more people around me I need to start asking like pertinent questions so that I can understand like and make sense of these questions that I'm starting to have build upon these questions get a better understanding of who her dad is but we're a little busy flirting give me one honest thing rain ashr I've lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries seen some [ __ ] travesties but one of the biggest ARA is that anyone who taught me who taught you you should become anything other than what is that anything anyone taught what oh one of the biggest travesties is that anyone taught you Ora that you should become anything other than what you are exactly what you are so he's like don't change our bodies were nearly flesh the smell of him surrounded me it hit me with that element of it hadn't Oh it hit me what that element of it hadn't been able to place was he smelled like the sky okay I didn't move couldn't move my finger still brushing his skin as his hand lifted to my face I let him touch me too let the immaculate rough brush of his knuckles caress my cheek his thumb lingered slowly M moving over the curve of my mouth it was there in his eyes that I found the truth that should have broken me yes we could kill each other here we were offering ourselves to each other but neither of us would so basically like ooh we could kill each other but we won't cuz there's trust now I'm not afraid I didn't noticed my lips had curled until his thumbs moved tracing the shape of a smile as if it was something worthy of reverence are you going to kill me ARA I didn't run didn't move instead I lay my palm flat against his chest and at this point I was listening to this on audiobook at this point I sort of Tandem read this and at this point I was like I bet you anything she's going to say not today she didn't she said not tonight but I guessed you guys have to start making conversations that I haven't already heard before I'm begging they go and visit with Misha she's like Misha was a friend to me I'm like Misha was in like two scenes what are you talking about and instead of like actually building these scenes we do this thing where it's like when we saw Amisha I didn't speak much I just listened which was fine with me these were two people who were utterly comfortable with each other I think we should have had the conversations because the conversations would have one lend itself to Ora asking pertinent questions and then we get them in the individual character's voice which not only builds uh like answers that ARA is naturally should have but also builds like the character in and of itself that we're having a conversation with instead we just like pass through time not just time but like fullon conversations that were opportunities for us to build so as they're leaving um he leaves the room first and he runs into some people that only come up twice and they're obviously going to be more important in the next book which is something that oh I hate when I can see that coming Vil is on his way now Caris was saying even bringing his new wife if you can imagine that a human or was at least so vampires can marry humans so can vampires marry humans and just make half vampires why why are we not asking that why why haven't we answered that already and they realize that she's there and they're like she should not be here she's a friend rain said no she isn't she's a friend Cura and you need to remember that that was something I'd never quite heard in rain's voice before command you should see it rain what he's done to genra and Isa you should see how many people he's killed genra and Isa ran cities one was even close to the district that I've been born in Salon the the one that might still hold some of my bloodline okay so like naturally at this point you should be putting two and two together that they're talking about Vincent and instead she's just like whoop goes right over her head how how are you this [ __ ] aloof they call her Vincent's [ __ ] a human [ __ ] and he's like do not speak about her that way and he's like I'm sorry about my pals curra's wife is in Salon she's scared for her these are uncertain times oh there's gayness in this love that for me gay side character all right Salon the mention of the name made my chest ache sympathy followed by something more bitter I too worried for Salon I'm from there Salon that's where Vincent found me in the human districts it was when he was putting down a rebellion I'd like to go back one day see if anyone that knew me is still there family or whoever I don't know and at this point I thought oh he's going to offer to try to get her information no who are they Caris and Cura and I'm like that sounds so close to Caris voria from ember in the ashes that this is throwing me off and he's like they're friends maybe a better term would be old colleagues I wouldn't want to drink a beer with them but I do trust them colleagues was that the right word Cura had apologized so quickly even when she clearly was begrudging it did you command them rain seemed a bit startled by that yes I did when a long time ago we were uh private guards of a sort this gets explained later but I'm still confused about it I don't I don't really understand the politicking that's going on here okay so they go back to the Moon Palace and they get locked into the Moon Palace they get locked in the Moon Palace which means and the Moon Palace is not refilling food and stuff which means that they cannot get any resources and he's a vampire so when he runs out of blood it's going to be bad right some of the vampires here had not had any blood since the feast 4 days ago rain moved a dresser in front of the door that night on the fifth day growing in desperation one of the hi's contestants tried to fly up to the top of the tower and smash through the upper window he gets completely eviscerated another week pass like just like days upon days are passing and it we're just being told that like within a few paragraphs of each other this book just like flies through time but then still is way too long it's Bonkers and she realized he's out of blood at some point like several days into this you told me you had enough I did have enough that doesn't look like enough the Crescent trial will be happening any day now it's fine I'm fine I should go somewhere else a different apartment there's no reason to yes there is you know there is I hope you know by now that you don't have to worry about that I always have to worry not with me even with you especially with you because you make me feel at ease aw after everything you're still afraid of me I'm not a [ __ ] animal Ora give me a little more credit than that you aren't an an animal but you are a vampire I would hurt you ARA and she's like eventually we're going to have to hurt each other because we are finalists in The kajari she leaves and he's like I'll see you at the next trial then she has a memory from when she was a kid mama was whispering hurriedly get that Lantern off right now you knew they'd come you knew I was scared too but I thought I should never be afraid and slipped from the covers and I walked very very softly to the window and she says the sky is just full of vampires Ora my mama said my name in a way that she did when she was frightened Ora get away from and then she wakes up tree surrounded me tall sparse and narrow only a few needle tipped branches near their tops so she's like where the [ __ ] am I and this is the Crescent trial it had to be we weren't in the Coliseum we weren't even in cage at least not any part that I'd seen so she sees vampires in absolute blood lust and they're going after a deer and each other like animals and she realizes that the deer carcass that they are eating is making it worse poison trapped prey nixia had starved them and now she offered them tainted gifts that they would be powerless to resist and she's like oh [ __ ] if rain eats that deer carcass he's going to die she finds him his stare was hard and glassy a streak of harsh Moonlight fell across one side of his face and his eyes were even rder than usual she's like snap out of it or I'll stab you he snaps out of it welcome back we're in a trial the animals are poisoned I don't know what the objective is everyone who drinks is going insane we have to get the [ __ ] out of here let's go he is hurt he's starving vampires could heal extremely quickly but he wouldn't be able to if he didn't get blood you know who's got some blood Ora does I guess vampires can't drink other vampires blood even though vampires do have blood now what happens if a vampire drinks vampire blood I have no [ __ ] clue so they're in a cave and she's like we have no choice and starts taking off her clothes and he's like no no you know and she's like no you said it yourself we do not have any choice and instead of just like hunting and finding a normal animal she's like nope suck my blood out of me what are your Alternatives you die in the sun you die a Mindless beast from poisoned blood or you die before the sunset's here doing nothing and I'm not just going to sit next to you while you die rain and he's like you think I don't know what this means for you and so he figured out that previously a a a vampire had tried to you know kill her sucking her blood out and obviously it happened like during sex I don't think he knows about the during sex part but he knows about the you know the guy and she's like I'm surprised that he'd pieced together a portrait of my past from every moment of anger or fear I let slip through my walls I should have been surprised his fingertip caressed my throat in sadness at the scar there so he's like all right come here and lean over me so she sits in his lap which good for her we love a woman on top but of course it says it wasn't perfect I was so much shorter than rain that even with the extra height of his lap I needed to push myself up and he'd have to Crane my his neck to reach mine I know I know he's huge I know you're super tiny I know I've been told please stop it's not going to stop and she he has her set up so that she has like her dagger in her hand like aimed at his chest in case that he goes too far and he's like it won't hurt much but you might feel and she says I know horny that was what he was trying to explain to me vampire Venom had an overwhelming effect on human prey the biological intent was to make them soft and pliable sometimes that presented as a muddled intoxicated Haze as it had with The Minister's bite given his age the location of the bite and my distaste for him but more commonly it manifested as intense arousal ah yes so if he's old you're not going to get horny okay got it so it's involuntary unless he's old his tongue rolled against my skin as he took that first swallow one languid slow movement I imagine that this is what it would feel like inside me too this deep and all-consuming unmistakable hardness formed beneath me and trust me yes if you were wondering of course his dick is the biggest dick to ever dick because this man is a wall of a human I didn't want to stop I wanted to give all myself to him and the most frightening part of all the part that would have scared me away if my logical mind had been functional at All In This Moment was that it wasn't the Venom know all of this had already been there simmering this was only what made it bubble over I didn't mean to say his name didn't mean to throw myself against him starving for as much of his body as I could get selfishly taking every inch of that hard length between us against my core Stars exploded over my vision his name fell from my lips in a gasp every muscle coiled and then released that was an orgasm if you didn't catch that he pulled away his chest was rising and falling heavily beneath the Press of my palm when he met my eyes the sight of him cut through the haze of my desire he looked like a man undone so he sucked blood out of her neck and she came on his lap all right good for them honestly his lips parted and I kissed him before words could come out my blood tasted like warm iron but there was it was nothing compared to the way he tasted he smelled like the sky I don't know what that means he tasted like falling oh God what is this Stephanie Garber his lips met mine like he'd been waiting his entire life for the kiss and had known exactly what he'd do when he got it we kissed like we fought together responding to each touch each Movement we understood each other by now no that's enough he panted you don't even know ARA the things I thought about want doesn't even [ __ ] cover it I have a list but I want you to want those things too you not the Venom they fall asleep she wakes up he says did you know that you snore spoken with the Casual lilt of our usual banter on the surface but I heard the note of awkwardness between us between it that sentence was awkward you actually don't need to tell me that it was spoken with the Casual LL of your usual banter that was implied so they're still in the trial by the way and this trial is about how naaia tore apart the deadlands looking for her lover but she was too late by the time she reached him her husband had been decapitated and left to rot which is [ __ ] brutal the story of nii is my favorite part of this and they realized that Vincent has wiped out half a million people in a city the city that she originally came from the one full of her possible family uh they fly back to the Coliseum and the minister is there and he says you two get to progress onto the final trial congrat ations and he says the there has been a change the new moon trial will not take place in 3 weeks it will take place tomorrow what that was unheard of that's definitely true for this book normally we do just we jump past several weeks at a time and this next part is confusing they ask why and he says naxi recognizes there is no certainty that cage the city they live in will exist in 3 weeks and I'm like okay okay so Vincent has been killing folks and bodies ly the college ium walls propped up on stakes and they are all ran and their wings have been cut off and they are like laid in front of them so part six new moon we go back to third person and this is the part where Vincent has Ora kill somebody for the first time and it's that guy who was sucking her blood out while she was engaging in sex with him she tried to get him to stop and he didn't this was rape he's afraid as he should be I told you the night I brought you here that I would teach you how to wield your teeth and I've upheld that promise now it is time that I teach you how to bite the heart is the easiest way straight through the chest this is a dangerous world this is what it takes to survive strange that girls so often are told that the loss of their virginity marks a threshold between girlhood and Womanhood as if it fundamentally Alters them in some way it was not the sex that changed the girl forever not the blood that spilled between her thighs that shaped her the blood that spilled over that marble floor though those are the stains of one in on one's innocence That Never Fade so The Virginity was the murder okay her and Rain get into an argument because Vincent is obviously a murderer of rishan and humans and Ora is like no that's my daddy rishan lives human lives what the hell are those words to him why is it so hard for you to believe because I was going back for them I didn't mean to say it out loud but the words were too close to the surface ready to spill forth because he knew when I became his his corate I was going to go back and he knew a [ __ ] corat Bond you were going to become Vincent's corate and marching a salon to liberate your human kin you were going to bind yourself to him so you could go be a hero you're too smart for this ARA do you know how many humans were left in Sal almost none because your father had been taking them just like he took all of Sal's resources for the last 20 [ __ ] years rishan territory was protected he couldn't protected it says rain fat but I decided to make a fart noise oh my brain I'm so tired like the human districts are protected he sent you into the kajari with the promise of being a hero all so he could [ __ ] use you that's what this is for you cannot possibly be this naive giving you his power and taking yours making a deal with a goddess so you can never hurt him never act against him and sending you into this depraved sess pit to do it what a saintly loving father daddy issues and she's like no he had taken me in when he never had to he cared for me when nobody else did he made me stronger version of myself even when I didn't want to be he had turned me into something worth fearing and he had loved me he killed all of them they were nothing but tools or obstacles it didn't matter what he promised you what he told you that's the truth you need to ask yourself some hard questions why is he afraid of you ARA what does he get from this so she goes to her dad's house castle and she tells Jasmine the head of his guard you better go get my [ __ ] dad right now I want to talk to him she gets in a fight with Vincent and she's like who are your people are they the ones whose ashes are in that City those were my people he's like I did what was right for my kingdom Salon is a part of your kingdom half a million people and I could have been one of them it could have been me it was never going to be you and she's like that could have been my family he's like family what does that word mean that you were yanked from between human legs you don't even remember them and if they had lived they would not remember you perhaps they'd be grateful you were gone what would you have been to them another unwanted child to keep alive or maybe another lost agreed when the world inevitably crushed you he grabbed my wrist dag dag dragged me down the hall that Overlook the feast Hall except the feast plates are untouched because instead the Warriors had been feeding on humans there were a dozen in that room alone some lying on the table heads Ling barely conscious a few clearly drained slumped discarded against walls how long had he been doing this I wanted to deny it wanted to pretend he didn't see it I didn't see it this brutality was so much worse than anything i' had witnessed in this Castle before but it made sense didn't it how does one feed one of the biggest armies in the world how does one keep morale up when waging an endless war how does one not ask these questions before this didn't you have like a like an answer that was given to you that like did away with these basic questions okay these aren't people they are livestock you would never have allowed yourself to be one of them because you are better than them I made you better now I will tell you what I've done for you don't pity them they are less than you she says you lied to me says I indulged your childish fantasies knowing one day you'd grow past them except you didn't teach her to grow pass them why do you want me to be your corate because I wanted you to feel your greatest potential I wanted you to be strong I want you to be powerful and I want you to be my daughter in every sense because you are more like me than you have ever been like them little serpent she says today I'm ashamed of that ashamed I give you everything I made you all that you are I could have killed you many said I should have and you say you are ashamed of me my God he sounds like my mother-in-law what would you rather be then if you don't want to be my daughter do you want to be my enemy instead is that what you prefer definitely sounds like my mother-in-law she says let me go he realizes what he's doing he has like a a purple brw left a purple bruise on her arm and he realizes you know that he's hurting her he lets her go he's horrified she runs away her and rain go out hunting vampires again cuz again they can just get away with that she goes up to one that's hurting humans and she just stabs and stabs and stabs and in her brain she's like I hated them I hated them I hated them she's like don't look at me like that rain don't look at me like you pity me you think I pity you I don't pity you ARA I just think you deserve better I know what this is and I'm not doing this with you if you want to get kicked out of the kajari because you don't make it back to the Moon Palace Before Dawn fine I'll let you good it'll be easier for you maybe you deserve the win more than I do anyway why do you care why do I care why do I care are you a [ __ ] fool orah I wasn't expecting the desperation in his voice like he was pleading for help he scoffed or maybe I am no we both were I achd for him and I was so so tired of loss I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him aw who said romance is dead rain met my kiss with so much fervor that I found myself questioning which one of us had moved first you walked up to him it just said that you just kissed him what do you mean claiming my lips top and then bottom thank you for making sure you told me the order of operations that was nice of you I pressed my hand between us down his abdomen down to the stiff length of him pressing at his pants careful princess why because I don't want to [ __ ] you for the first time in an Alleyway 3 ft from a pile of entrails aw romance this is different than the frost Queen's Blade though where they do in fact kill a guy and then [ __ ] a puddle of his blood Different Strokes for different folks literally even if embarrassingly a part of me wanted him so much that I would have done it here just to bury myself in a different Primal pleasure first blood then sex oh so it is like the frost quink blade got it we'll probably die tomorrow I said show me something worth living for so he flies her from the human District to the Moon Palace stealing kisses along the way as they fly which at least they didn't [ __ ] in the sky like reys and Farah so thank God they head back to their apartment in the Moon Palace his hands were so large that the pressure of his fingertips ventured agonizingly close to the core of my need I don't need to know how large he is it's been said I'm good I got it I kissed him then slid my hand down over his chest over his abdomen over his length mother he was big I don't I don't know how many times I need to tell you that I I get it the beauty of him stopped me short I never realized just how much red was in his hair or in his wings which were still out I touched them without thinking prompting a sharp inhale from rain they were softer than I imagined they might be he gently pulled my H hand away we'll save that for another time does it tickle he chuckled in a way so this is incredibly similar to a scene from aord aist and fury like way too similar um and I think this and the other scene that I mentioned is probably why this got compared to a cord toist and fury his sight landed at the Apex of my thighs there it is of course his nostrils flared his eyes went hard I wonder if he could sense it smell it how much I needed him oh for God's sake can't believe I didn't Ora is this is this your first time so he doesn't know that the guy who sucked her blood out um was her first time and she's like no he's like oh is that when you got the she's like yes why they didn't have this conversation beforehand I don't know okay and she's like I'm not some naive virgin sure my last sexual experience had ended poorly but a girl could do a remarkable amount of experimentation on herself good for her good for her normalize it I just want you to know that you are in control and we can take all the time we need to make sure you're ready and then it says caressing the length of my slit ending with a pause at my [ __ ] that had my Hy [Music] bucking listen I don't mind the word [ __ ] but the the word slit has got to go it has to go I demand never to read that again no he goes down on her he says you taste better than your blood she says his name he says say that say that again when you come for me at the first touch of his silken skin to my wet folds no this this and slit have got to go both of them just erase Chuck it trash I would beg for you I would I you have [ __ ] destroyed me ARA do you know that man this is intense for the first time he was so much bigger than I was used to stop I know I know I know thank you this was going to end me it was going to [ __ ] annihilate me my gosh his thrusts were deep and vicious pistoning in and out of me with a force that left me incoherent pistoning pistoning I feel like that is I really feel like that's anachronistic I don't feel like piston I don't feel like piston fits here I think it's anachronistic pistoning he's like she's like say my name when you come he says ARA a bunch of times um they both finish and he's like staying her name good for her good for them I guess they only have a few more hours until the kajari until the last trial and it says I'm not ready for death just yet maybe I maybe after I watch you come one more time I will be everybody's so horny she wants to know more about him now because they're about to die probably you told me before that you have a lot of people relying on you rain smile faded I do who I'd rather have more sex than this conversation yeah no [ __ ] the man who turned me was a very powerful person when I was a human I was a guard and I took a job securing a trade ship from pacai to tarima our boat was too small to be making a journey that long he got caught in a storm it flung us right into the shores of the House of Night snared on ni aia's hook I was mostly dead by the time I found him I'd seen a lot of death even then but when it's breathing down your throat it's different when he asked me if I wanted to live what kind of a question was that I was 32 years old of course I [ __ ] wanted to live I had a life a wife a child coming a lot of future to live for I was willing to do anything for it I wasn't the only person he turned not the only vampire he took he had tastes all right he was very very old and once someone has been alive for a better part of a millennium it gets hard to find something exciting in the world fulfilling their various hungers gets difficult entertaining those they seek to influence keeping their attention gets difficult people become nothing more than sources of amusement and when they're that powerful when they have that much control over every living being you don't have any choice but to let them do what they want to you I'm not sure what this is implying precisely he was some sort of slave I don't know if it was a sex slave or what by the guy who turned him I don't I don't really know and ARA is like well I hope that guy's dead and he's like oh there she is which is the thing he says to her regularly whenever she gets like spicy the guy that turn him nessing in his wife every bit of a prisoner of him as I was the only thing we had in common was him but he was our entire lives so that was enough together we were able to craft something that was just ours she was the first kind vampire I'd ever met just a good decent person and through her I met others it just changed everything I traveled to human lands realized I could pass if I was careful but after a while I think I was running they were with me everywhere him reminding me of everything [ __ ] up about the world her reminding me of all the good I had abandoned in it and then when I came back to oit trus I found Misha those 70 years with him had been bad but I met a lot of good people people who were suffering too people that nessin was trying to care for even when she was drowning rishan people who were now more trapped than ever I don't think those responsibilities were mine for a long time Misha disagreed she forced my hand entered the kajari first knew I wouldn't let her do it alone I am so confused I don't I don't understand he felt in like charge of the people that that guy turned I guess I don't know so they go to the challenge the final trial where one of them will inevitably die the minister wished us luck ushered us through Ibrahim went first he could barely walk his wings hung down behind him broken dead weight he got beat the [ __ ] up and Angelica goes in they go into this trial and each of them get separated to fight something she is in a little mini Coliseum inside of the big Coliseum with three figures and she realizes that these are the bodies of dead vampires reanimated like The Hunger Games thing again to look like gods that niia had to fight off so one of them is atrox so it's like this fake atris that wield son it's I the goddess of sex and fertility shooting arrows at her and then kashmar the god of Seduction art Beauty and beauty and music that is like singing songs I guess but it's like songs that hurt you one of our own Fallen Rivals D dragged back for one final fight so it's definitely like the bodies of people she fought before she fights them off she wins and then she gets back into the regular Coliseum she sees Vincent he was in the front row standing alone in his box the chair there designated for him but he wasn't sitting instead he stood against the the rail clutching it I was so ready to hate him I wanted to hate him I could hate Vincent the king who slaughtered whatever family I had left who had overseen the torture of my people who had relentlessly killed and destroyed but how could I hate Vincent my father who looked at me that way my anger made everything certain and easy my love made everything complicated and difficult I think this this is fairly well written I think that this is fairly good written Daddy Issues moment so that's fine I was two strides before Ibrahim before I realized the laughter they were laughing at him Ibrahim managed to ready his bow but his hands were trembling so bad that his fingers kept slipping from the string he would never be able to draw it she walks up to him and he said you pity me and she says no maybe we were the same both of us had been raised in a world that had hobbled us both of us learned to fight twice as hard to make up for everything we weren't both of us had everything to hate and she tells him don't stop fighting [ __ ] them don't let them mock you give me a fair fight and I'll give you a fair death and he says to her I'm glad it was you and she slides his blade in her blade into his heart and I'm just so confused what the [ __ ] point of ibrahim's existence in character was that's it that's it he existed to be like in these trials struggling just to get killed by ARA okay so the last three people standing are Angelica rain and ARA Angelica again is the one with the axe who is basically like Johanna ARA is about to die at Angelica's hand she looks at rain and she realizes that he's looking into the crowd he was staring pass me into the crowd at what I couldn't make sense of that expression desperation and anger as if pleading with someone and hating every SE second of it this gets explained later but I'm still a little bit confused by it I would die fighting but then something strange happened the strike did not come when I expected it instead Angelica faltered her gaze lifting briefly to the stands watching she let the blood magic slip and my body was already moving and my newly freed muscles were already leaping and my blade was already buried in Angelica's chest I threw myself against her with such force my blade hit her heart on the first try and she Whispers good luck before she dies so her and Rain have to fight to the death you're holding back she says so are you he said her blades at his chest he whispers there she is which is you know the thing that they say and he's like end it maybe rain yanked my wrist maybe he drove that blade into his own chest or perhaps My Vampire Heart won the battle after all because I felt the blade slip slip slip felt the breast bone felt the muscle tear and I felt that blade go into my heart as I slid it into rains I had won rain was dead The Minister's voice echo through the K through the arena the 21st kajari has its Victor bow before our mother of the ravenous dark ni AIA naaia stood before me she was not a person she was an event so I like the way that the gods are described how you know it's sort of like awe inspiring my daughter Ora of the House of Knight you have fought hard and well tell me my Champion what might I grant you as your gift and she's like you're grieving I know grief I know what it's like to lose half of one's Soul she reflects on how Vincent loves her the only way he knows how at the edge of a blade she thinks about what she needs to do and she says I wish that rain had won Vincent's face went white ni aia's laugh sounded like the shifting of of Fates I looked up rain was alive he sucked in a great gulp of air hello rain Ash RJ my nightborne son Victor of the kajari rise my son and tell me how I may reward your Victory now I don't know what she thought was going to happen when she said I wish rain had won um she never asked rain what are you going to do if you win so that was really stupid she could have just wished him back to life but okay so she says to him it's been a long time even fate did not know if I would see this face again rain says likewise something was not right tell me my son what is your prize 200 years ago you came to the place and granted the winner of the kajari a wish you sealed away the power of the rishan night born King I wish for that power I wish it for be it to be restored to the ran Airline I wish for it to be restored to me she says I wondered when this might happen your wish is granted rain ashr turned heir of the rishan king so the heage realizing that now there's a rishan Heir and they're going to be in a fight for power start backing out of the Coliseum he now has an air Mark just like Vincent has an air mark and Rain approaches Vincent you don't even know who I am do you we met 200 years ago the day you took power and opened a river of blood in this city the day you slaughtered your own family and every rean man woman and child Within These Walls the day you killed everyone you thought even had a sliver of a chance of taking the ran Airline and challenging you for the House of Night well you missed one rain looked at me and for a minute the hate on his face was replaced with profound tortured regret they fight Vincent's body flew back against the wall with enough Force to turn bones to liquid I did not look away as I watched rain kill my father Vincent was alive but very L I'm so sorry my little serpent I was going to I was going to tell I love you I loved you from the first moment so many mistakes in the end never you so he is dead we don't know what he was going to tell her rain shows up and says he's gone arah she starts to fight him he says breathe orah come back to me please he said this like he cared like he [ __ ] cared I hated him I was ready to die for him and he killed my father and he lied to me at the sight of rain's pain of the skin on his cheeks slowly scorching made me draw in a g gulp of air he made a weak smile you're safe dimly I recognized Caris watching us nearby sword in hand and Cura his Pals not far behind him when did all these people get here my chest hurt my neck hurt [ __ ] Cara step Ste closer she's a [ __ ] air she's got a air tattooed now too cuz Vincent just died and somehow she's now the air part seven night not a phase in the moon just a time of day I wasn't Vincent's daughter not by Blood he never even turned me kill her Cara said right now no rain said I have better plans for her I took Vincent's Kingdom I took his life I took his title and now I will take his daughter I'll make her my wife keep her clo where I can keep an eye on her and I'll make sure it hurts when I [ __ ] her just like it did when he raped Our Queen 200 years ago what okay too far how much more interesting than death for her there can be no other heage air as long as she lives and I'd happily make her my little slave forever just as Vincent was happy to make the ran his the rean were slaves but I thought he just killed them outright I'm confused maybe I'll even prop him up so that he can attend his daughter's wedding okay Joffrey chill out I hate you I spat at rain and he says there she is stop saying that that's enough now so they get back to her room at the castle where she grew up and he she attacks him like an animal he's like I have so much to explain to you if you'll let me just stop fighting me and she's like why stop fighting you to make it easier for you to rape me and he's like I had to say that to save your life the man who turned me was neculai vasaras King neculai oh okay so it was a king all right I betrayed him the day that Vincent won the kajari I arranged for Vincent to get the king the keys to his strongholds handed over everything he needed to destroy every [ __ ] Kingdom in exchange for the safety of the Innocents he never met me in person never knew my name never saw me but I knew it was all going to fall apart I just thought maybe I could pour some oil on the fire burn it faster and keep it from taking all of us with it I hated it all that much okay I'm so confused I got the [ __ ] out before necula could figure out what I'd done thinking I had arranged for the safety of those who needed it I tried to get nessin to come with me she wouldn't so I left her behind I left them all behind trusting Vincent's word and we know how that worked out all I know is that nessin was the last of us to die I wasn't neul's blood relative not born but turned I thought airs could only be born and I was content to let the entire bastard line of them die out but in the absence of a born Heir apparently a turned one counted so you can be an heir if you are turned by somebody you're considered their Heir I didn't even want to come back to this Castle too many bad memories so Vincent sealed away the ran L's power and he ruled And I Ran So the kajari was to you what it was to Vincent I said a path to steal a crown and she's like also why is the house of blood here the bloodborne people and he's like it takes manpower to win a war eror no the heage were never going to go down without a fight and even if I killed Vincent and he knew that too he's been careful to to whittle down the ran population over the last couple centuries if I was going to do this I needed Warriors and Septimus knew that Septimus has come up in like two scenes maybe and he's pretty forgettable but I guess Septimus is in charge of the House of blood one favor he told me and the force of the House of blood was mine I told him to go [ __ ] himself I thought we would have enough and Septimus framed the ran for the attack on the Moon Palace that hurt Misha and then let the rishan take the blame for it ARA I was let ready to let it all go for you do you know that I was ready to let my kingdom fall for you you should have let me stay dead and they're like wait so how are you air also it must be a mistake I don't know how I'm just human you've tasted me you would know wouldn't you if I wasn't maybe half human you did taste different I just thought it was because of how I feel about you a you taste funny cuz I like you I can't be he found me he just found me why was Vincent there that night because it was a rebellion but why did he go to that house now she's not now she's having to be led like a horse to water asking the pertinent questions that are blatantly obvious I don't know it was was just fake what was it that he said to you as he died I was going to tell you Vincent had said if I was Vincent's daughter and he knew who I was why would he keep me at all why wouldn't he kill me so she is Vincent's biological daughter I guess we will find the answers we'll do the wedding and she's like I'm not marrying you he's like um yeah you are if you're not my wife you're my enemy and I can't justify letting you go I feel like Vincent said something like that earlier if you're not my daughter you're my enemy chill out not you becoming the thing you hate what a [ __ ] hypocrite you are you who was so appalled by Vincent's bonding rain flinched he knew I was right good thing you freed us from that Tyrant everything looks so much more peaceful now doesn't it he's like you are going to marry me because I can't kill you I tried I can't and a world without you would be dark and I've already inflicted enough pain without committing that [ __ ] Injustice too so let me save you so the wedding ceremony is performed literally in her room he does his vows but she refuses to say I give you my heart when it was done I was married to the king of the nightborne I had lost my aut my name my blood I had lost my country but at least I kept my heart she sent him away saying I'd like to be alone J Meine the captain of the guard under her father who's now Dead shows up knocks on her glass and she tries to open the window but it shatters like she breaks the window and she's like huh am I stronger now than I was before that's odd maybe it was my newly acknowledged vampire blood so if you acknowledge your vampire blood it makes you stronger is that it and jasine tells her the military is waiting for me beyond the walls I only follow whoever is the heage air which is you so you're in charge now so I'm going to follow your orders and she tells her okay Retreat I don't know anything about this I don't know how to lead people just Retreat for now I don't know what the [ __ ] we're going to do and in the end her now husband rain says are you going to kill me Ora and she says I thought maybe and she says not tonight the end um well this is sort of just messy World building and it's just fine like it's okay it it has some fun stuff in it um I really like the niia stories but other than that I just find this to be sort of like underdeveloped there's really no Side characters that ever got fleshed out I don't understand the magic at all I kind of understand the religion I don't understand the politics hardly at all I don't really know what differentiates these people I don't know how she was allowed to kill so many vampires and get away with it I understand the air process I just I it's fine it's it's just it's sort of fine I just have a lot of like not as many unanswered questions as fourth wi so like at least that everything now gets judged by okay was it as bad as fourth wi though do cuz I have like pages of unanswered questions about the lore of fourth wi and this I have a few I don't feel like all the banter was bad some of it was deeply cringy but it could have been so much worse uh rain as a love interest is sort of like an amalgamation of other love interests you've seen but he's sort of like if we're comparing to this this to the Hunger Games he's sort of like nice in the way that Peta is and I will always have a soft spot for pea so at least that on the other side of that though I feel like this had some like blatant pieces of The Hunger Games just sort of pasted in there and it's like all right you can kind of see kind of see the fingerprints everywhere so let's let's lay up on that make your own [ __ ] so this is fine I guess it's not great uh it's not as bad as fourth wi so I feel similarly to this I would say that this is not quite as and this this wasn't great either I would say it's not quite as good as the frost Queen blade but definitely better than fourth Wing so it's somewhere like this is the worst Serpent and wings of night is a little bit better and then Frost Queen's Blade is better than the both of them but still not great so we're going to find a fantasy romance that I do love this year I swear to God as far as vampires go I haven't read from blood and Nash but I think that with the particulars around rain I think that this is similar to from blood and Nash so I assume that if you like from blood and Ash you will probably write like serpent wings at night again I have not read any Jennifer El trouts L Armen trouts so I don't know for sure but what I know about them seems like you might like one if you like the other so okay that was also my first cus of Broadbent so maybe maybe it's up from here you know what I feel like this is trying to do it's not underworld like it's vampires it's not underworld but it was certainly trying to be wasn't it nothing will be underworld sadly all right leave your comments and questions down below thank you so much for watching see you next time bye are they the ones whose ashes are in that City those were my oh my God oh my God you scared the [ __ ] out of me oh my hello it's trash can Rachel and I'm just here to say thank you for being a friend to my therapy bills patrons and those are Alexander Britney bitney Cammy Choco's waiting for Not all men podcast Chris 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Channel: Reads with Rachel

Views: 59,989

Keywords: ACOMAF, ACOTAR, Emmmabooks, Polandbananabooks, Jesse the reader, Daniel Greene, The serpent and the wings of night, Rhysand

Id: ZqAK5ESZAsw

Length: 111min 38sec (6698 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024