LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City / Episode 8: An Angel and a Faerie Walk Into a Bar

Summary

LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City
Episode 8: An Angel and a Faerie Walk Into a Bar
Release Date: December 11, 2024

Hosted by Natalie Jean and Jackie Zebrowski, Episode 8 of LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City delves into the intricate world of Sarah J. Maas’s beloved adult science fiction series. This episode, titled "An Angel and a Faerie Walk Into a Bar," offers a comprehensive analysis of recent developments, character dynamics, and overarching themes within the series.

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I. Introduction & Setting the Scene

The episode kicks off with Natalie Jean and Jackie Zabrowski engaging in their trademark playful banter, blending humor with insightful commentary. The hosts establish a relaxed atmosphere, making complex narrative elements accessible to both devoted fans and newcomers.

Notable Quote:

• Natalie Jean [00:19]: “Welcome to Crescent City with your hosts, Natalie Jean and Jackie Zabrowski. Sometimes I like to hoof about the town. Sometimes I like to take my hooves on a walk.”

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II. Character Dynamics and Relationships

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the evolving relationships between key characters, particularly Bryce and Hunt. The hosts explore the tension and chemistry between them, highlighting moments that reveal deeper emotional layers and conflicting motivations.

Key Points:

• Bryce’s Trauma and Hunt’s Guilt: The episode delves into Bryce’s traumatic experiences, including flashbacks to violent encounters and the loss of her friend Danica. Hunt’s internal struggle and guilt over his role in Bryce’s trauma are examined in detail.

• Introduction of Juniper: Juniper's entrance into the narrative as a fawn adds complexity to the relationships, especially her interactions with Hunt and Bryce. Her role as Bryce’s cousin and confidante is explored, illustrating the intertwined fates of the characters.

Notable Quotes:

• Jackie Zabrowski [10:15]: “She just goes. And though I personally hate running, I get the feeling of just wanting to walk and walk and walk.”
• Natalie Jean [19:46]: “Hunt tries to explain that he doesn't feel that way anymore because she had that shocked reaction...”

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III. Plot Developments and Twists

The hosts meticulously unpack recent plot developments, including the bombing at the White Raven club and its repercussions on the main characters. They discuss the implications of supernatural elements intertwining with human conflicts, emphasizing the rising stakes and the brewing tensions between different factions.

Key Points:

• Bombing Incident: The sudden attack on the White Raven club serves as a catalyst for escalating tensions. Bryce’s paralysis and Juniper’s desperate actions highlight the immediate danger and the fragility of peace within Lunathien.

• Autumn King’s Intervention: The revelation of the Autumn King’s involvement introduces a formidable antagonist. His abusive history and vindictive nature pose a significant threat to Bryce and her allies, intensifying the conflict.

Notable Quotes:

• Jackie Zabrowski [34:34]: “Hunt has to leave to make this phone call and run.”
• Natalie Jean [45:03]: “You can't reveal, but there will be some stuff. Let's call it grease lightning, if you will.”

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IV. Themes and Symbolism

Natalie and Jackie delve into the recurring themes of power, vulnerability, and identity. They analyze how the characters’ struggles reflect broader societal issues and personal battles, drawing parallels between the fictional world and real-life experiences.

Key Points:

• Power Dynamics: The interplay between angels, faeries, and other supernatural beings underscores the complex power structures within the series. The hosts discuss how these dynamics influence character motivations and plot progression.

• Vulnerability and Strength: Bryce’s journey highlights the balance between vulnerability and strength. Her reluctance to rely on others and her internal battles are contrasted with Hunt’s emerging empathy and desire for redemption.

Notable Quotes:

• Natalie Jean [07:22]: “Countless.”
• Jackie Zabrowski [12:03]: “It gives us little hints into, like, him being maybe not a monster...”

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V. Host Insights and Personal Reflections

Throughout the episode, Natalie and Jackie interject personal anecdotes and reflections, enriching the discussion with their unique perspectives. Their candid conversations about topics like shapeshifting, personal trauma, and relationship dynamics add depth and relatability to the analysis.

Key Points:

• Shapeshifting and Identity: Natalie’s humorous take on being a shapeshifter serves as a vehicle to explore themes of identity and transformation within the narrative.

• Personal Trauma: Both hosts share their experiences with trauma and coping mechanisms, drawing parallels to Bryce’s character development and emotional resilience.

Notable Quotes:

• Natalie Jean [48:08]: “I'm experiencing dancing right now. And yes, I'm sorry for everyone. I did have to take off my hooves for a little bit...”
• Jackie Zabrowski [72:25]: “Everyone's got their genitals, have their own feelings.”

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VI. Future Speculations and Anticipation

As the episode approaches its conclusion, Natalie and Jackie speculate on upcoming plot twists and character arcs. They express excitement for future developments and tease elements that will likely intrigue listeners, encouraging continued engagement with the series.

Key Points:

• Unanswered Questions: The hosts highlight lingering questions about character backstories, especially concerning the origins of the Autumn King and the true nature of the Oracle’s prophecy.

• Upcoming Conflicts: Anticipation builds around the impending war and its potential impact on Lunathien, setting the stage for intense confrontations and alliances.

Notable Quotes:

• Jackie Zabrowski [50:23]: “There's no way, right? Right.”
• Natalie Jean [54:26]: “Because you know, he loved when they didn't like each other.”

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VII. Conclusion

Episode 8 of LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City offers a multifaceted exploration of Sarah J. Maas’s intricate narrative. Through engaging dialogue, insightful analysis, and personal anecdotes, Natalie Jean and Jackie Zabrowski provide listeners with a deeper understanding of the series’ complex characters and evolving plotlines. Their passion for the material shines through, making this episode a must-listen for fans eager to delve deeper into the world of Crescent City.

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Stay Connected:
Subscribe to LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City on SiriusXM Podcasts+ or Apple Podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. For more insights and discussions, visit lastpodcastnetwork.com.

Transcript

[Natalie Jean]

Welcome to Crescent City with your hosts, Natalie Jean and Jackie Zabrowski. Sometimes I like to hoof about the town. Sometimes I like to take my hooves on a walk.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The human thumb sticking out is really disturbing.

[Natalie Jean]

What are you talking about? I'm a shapeshifter, so I'm partially humanoid. Natalie.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So you have all hoof hands but the top of your thumb.

[Natalie Jean]

All thumbs. Which actually. Isn't that all of the best about being a human and a hoofster?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Opposable thumbs.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. So you've got thumbs. You've got the hooves. So that my paws don't hurt when I walk on the hot cement. Although I don't know if a fawn shape shifter does do that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't think so.

[Natalie Jean]

Maybe they wait until they're on grass so that their thumbs don't get warm.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But is she. Wait, is she a shifter or just a. I don't think she's a shifter.

[Natalie Jean]

She's not a shifter. She's just a fawn. Yeah, but then why. I guess my brain. She is humanoid fawn. Yes. So she never can shift into a full fawn?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, because it's spelled F, A, U, N, which is its own creature.

[Natalie Jean]

Like a foun.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes. Not a fawn, like a. I guess. Is that how it's spelled, too, for babies?

[Natalie Jean]

I think that's infant.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Wait, no, no. A fawn is called baby.

[Natalie Jean]

I'm not gonna. Yeah, I call them little bitches is what I call them.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

A deer fawn is spelled F, A, W, N. This is a phone.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay. I'm one. Oh. I'm one of the class of lustful R gods, represented as a man with a goat's horn, ears, and legs and tail. How dare you? Dictionary.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, it was. What I've read is that a satyr and a faun sort of became confused with one another in mythology.

[Natalie Jean]

We were talking about that with Mr. Tumnus a couple episodes ago, and we.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Now kind of perceive fauns to be gentle, sweet, frolicking creatures.

[Natalie Jean]

Fauns are usually quote, shy woodland creatures rather than the drunk and bolsterous satyrs of the classical Greeks.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes.

[Natalie Jean]

Is what the Internet says. And I feel like that's very judgmental against me and my kind, but I guess I will take it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, well, I think you don't shift. I think you are always just half human, half goat.

[Natalie Jean]

That means I can't sing. My hooves will come out tomorrow at your bottom dollar that my hooves will come on out. I'm also making Annie jokes because I love an Annie wig. On. Even though it's not red. But I'm feeling a little. I guess I' It's a good ship.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You do. It is a little Shirley Temple.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Except for the hooves.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. They didn't make her do that one thing. She had to do a lot. Shirley Temple actually kind of made it out okay. Of all the child.

[Natalie Jean]

She's taking uppers and downers though, right? Was she taking sidewinders?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, she. She managed to be like, pretty level headed. And she became an ambassador, I think, at one point, but one of the only child actors who wasn't just run through. I don't know how or why.

[Natalie Jean]

Good for her.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I wish we could ask her.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I guess, you know, seance though, if you want to do a seance and bring her back. I was like, where is she?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I hope she's okay. My grandma was obsessed with her and would dress me like her all the time and made me get a perm as a child.

[Natalie Jean]

I feel like this is trauma that we need to unpack. I just.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I feel bad for my grandmother because I did not look like Shirley Temple and was not really super cute at that age.

[Natalie Jean]

You know who I identified with. I loved the movie. I think of anything. I am definitely giving Curly Sue.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I actually feel like you should be her for Halloween.

[Natalie Jean]

For Halloween. And then I make Jeff be Jim Belushi to be. Please, Jeff, please. And then my crotchety new daddy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, you can have. You have to call him dad and daddy all night.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, dad. But I have to say it with an. With a tude. Because Curly sue had a tude.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, she was a street. She was a street. Street rat.

[Natalie Jean]

Go ahead, say it. Street rat. You know, you wanted to say street rat. She was a street rat.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I was trying to remember the other word. Ragamuffin.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, oh, yeah, Ragamuffin. You know, like what? They used to have the ragamuffin parade.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, remember?

[Natalie Jean]

That's a real thing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Remember we talked about on page seven?

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, yeah. And they would just parade. It used to be ragamuffin day. And they would parade those creepy kids in their creepy old school Halloween costumes about the town. But not Curly Sue. She ain't got no costume and that's why she's so upset.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, that's not why we're here today.

[Natalie Jean]

No, we're not talking about all the characters that happen to have curly hair that I feel like, oh, my God, what happened to your hooves? I have to use a computer. Maybe she is a shifter. I Have to use the computer. I was sitting here trying to use my hooves to use my pet. The notepad. What is this? Pad, pad, mouse pad, pad, pad.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They need to make hoov safe.

[Natalie Jean]

Hoof accessibility. I am upset that I cannot use my laptop. And you know what? I don't shift you fucking Mac laptop. All right, what do I need a PC? Maybe I can use my hooves on a PC.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't think so.

[Natalie Jean]

No, probably not. I think it'd be difficult.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Can you tell who I am?

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, you are an angel. You are Shafar. Char. Yes, I'm sure I did say Jafar. Like Jafar, though, which is. I'm just saying sjm, if you want to change it to Shafar so that everyone thinks Jafar, I wouldn't be upset.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I keep.

[Natalie Jean]

You're the sexy one, though. You're the sexier of the twins.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I keep accidentally typing Bruce when I'm writing Bryce, and I feel like a gender bent Bryce needs to happen.

[Natalie Jean]

Ooh. Okay. I hear you loud and clear, Natalie. And I can provide that for you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Haha. Okay. I also need to top this off by saying I. I lost. I found an interview where SJM says Lunathion is based on a bunch of cities and it does not list Philadelphia as one of them.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God. Does that hurt your spirit?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, because in my denialism, it still is Philadelphia. Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay, that's great. So here in this world that you are now my head canyon. Yes, In Natalie's head canyon, which we are all trapped inside of. Yep.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Countless.

[Natalie Jean]

It is definitely Philly, so just go with it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I'm sure. Also, at this point, when this episode is released, I've been sent like a hundred times. That video being like, it's not Philly, idiot. But now I'm.

[Natalie Jean]

Anyone would call you an idiot, Natalie.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah. No one ever.

[Natalie Jean]

I think it's nice that you were supposing and isn't that what a researcher is supposed to do?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, the power of imaginations.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. So you're welcome to everybody for giving you the gift of. Maybe Lunathian is based off of Philly.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yep, it is. Here in this room.

[Natalie Jean]

See, this all. It's all perspective, guys. It's all in how you'd say it to yourself so that you make yourself feel the best about all of your choices. Denial ain't just a revolt in what won't even say the country.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Why?

[Natalie Jean]

I don't know. I guess it was like. Because it was. I was making a joke about denying it and. Oh, you Were denying. Yeah, it just. It didn't work. And sometimes, you know, guys, you miss 100% of the chances you don't sometimes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Take, and you gotta.

[Natalie Jean]

You gotta roll with it. Even if it's sometime times. Doesn't make any sense.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And you guys have to listen to it because we're talking into microphones.

[Natalie Jean]

With one hoof. With one hoof. What is she to do? She's a. With one hoove.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That would be a little bit inconvenient.

[Natalie Jean]

But, yeah, you know, I guess I just wobble around the town and then my other. Stronger.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, you can dig with the one side.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, I can always dig. You give me one hoove, and I'll dig all the way through the earth.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Do you think you. Do you think Jeff would want to try a hoov job?

[Natalie Jean]

I. You know what? Shockingly, no. But I think it's just because it does have a gap, and I could, like, use it in between, like, my lobster claws, and that's for sure. I could definitely do something with that. I think it's more if it's fabric hooves. I think it's one thing. I think hoove hooves might be a different thing altogether. Yeah, it might be painful. And I guess you could lube it up. There's got to be hoover lube out there.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Hoover lube. If not, let's. Let's produce.

[Natalie Jean]

I guess there's one way to make it happen, guys. Who vloob. All right, I guess I'm ready to talk about what's happening in the show.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I started this by writing Micah, Micah motorcycle. Turn the key and watch him be an asshole.

[Natalie Jean]

Wow. See out the gate hitting him out of the park. Natalie.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So we just learned alongside Bryce that the angel that evening.

[Natalie Jean]

It's just weird that you said that, because the other day Jeff uses phrase. I'm trying to remember it correctly. It's like, yeah, and if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle. And he said that like it's an old timey phrase. And I was like, what did you just say? And I really like it. Of like, yeah, that could happen. But also, yeah, like, if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I guess I've never heard that.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Really? I love old timey phrases, though.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I do. I. It does make me think of the Wayne's World scene where she says, yeah, and if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its ass while it walked.

[Natalie Jean]

And then.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And then Wayne asks her where she learned English, and she said, college in the police academy movies. All right, now we're back to Lunathien. And we just learned in the last episode, in the last scene, that Bryce. We learned alongside Bryce that the angel that evening that she saved was Micah.

[Natalie Jean]

Bump bark angel.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She had no idea. Remember, the Krystalos was ripping that one angel apart. Right. And she just thought it was some random angel.

[Natalie Jean]

You'd think they'd be a little bit nicer to her for saving an archangel's life, wouldn't you?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, no, because they didn't want her to know. He didn't want to. Yeah, she hunts, like, a little bit. Like, oh, no, did I just cause myself great troubles?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, because of course, they don't want anyone to know that they actually could be hurt.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right? So Bryce is shocked. And beyond that, she's angry that they kept this from her. She demands to know why. And Hunt informs her that it was primarily because Micah didn't want to be seen as vulnerable.

[Natalie Jean]

Makes sense. Oh, that makes sense. An archangel man being an archangel man, I guess.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, toxic.

[Natalie Jean]

Not like this beautiful Shahar over here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you.

[Natalie Jean]

She would never.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, she's dead.

[Natalie Jean]

She only leads the rebellion. But she had to die to lead the rebellion.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She had to die. So she. So basically, he describes that he didn't want to be seen as needing to be saved by a, quote, half breed. Bryce challenges Hunt with that word. So Hunt doesn't say that word, but Bryce is like, oh, he doesn't want to be seen being saved by a gross half breed, huh? And Hun tells her that his team never uses that word because it's a slanderous slur. And he's like, basically saying to her, that's not how we talk.

[Natalie Jean]

Which also sidebar. Slip, slip, slip. Really, really cute. It gives you a little tiny insight into Hunt and how he does care about what other people think. And it's actually really funny. You.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes. It gives us little hints into, like, him being maybe not a monster, because he has a lot of things on the side of monster. You know what I mean? Like, he has to kill people and.

[Natalie Jean]

Stuff all the time, but he's got beige flags in there. I'm seeing him. I actually got into an argument this morning with my old, like, my forever best friend because she read this first book and she's like, I understand what you like, what you would like about Hun Athelar. I just don't think he's my kind of guy. And I'm like, but we're best friends. What do you mean? Yeah. What do you mean? She's Like, I just feel like he's too aggro. Like, it's not my type. I'm more of a Cassian. I was like, I mean, yeah, I'm also more of a Cassian, but, like, why do we have to choose either or?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I can see her not choosing Hunt, though.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. To add too aggressive, too much. Like, too much of the alpha hole that Bryce talks about.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right.

[Natalie Jean]

But then if you keep reading Madeline. Yes. I'm yelling at you through the podcast that you're probably going to listen to that you should keep reading.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She is going to, right?

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, she's going to. Oh, yeah. She just got lost in the other smut things because she started reading smut around the time when we started reading.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I didn't actually know that.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, dude. She's, like, far into it now and she's like, I know, but, like, I enjoyed it so much. I just. I'm, like, on the smut train. And I get it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I get that for her. So Hunt says he. They don't speak like that. But, you know, the writings on the wall, that's how Micah feels. And he was attempting to avoid, quote, embarrassment about being saved in that way.

[Natalie Jean]

You're fucking welcome, Micah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. And they engage in an argument after that. Bryce is furious that she was kept from this information, and Hunt sort of mocks her by suggesting she wants. Oh, do you want to meddle for your actions? Like, why do you care? This disgusts Bryce, who just really wanted to know if the angel survived. As they argue, Hunt lets it slip that Bryce is on his personal suspect list. And Bryce understandably explodes.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Hunt tries to explain that after the reaction that he just saw to the body, because they just went to that crime scene, if you'll recall.

[Natalie Jean]

Don't worry, guys. I figured out a way to get two of my human fingers out of the hole so I can keep my hoovon and be able to scroll on my computer. So in case you guys were worried.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I was, but this is also more upsetting.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, with the two human fingers is more upsetting.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. Like, it's like ripping out. Help me. Help me.

[Natalie Jean]

Let me be a human, please. That's my fingers being worms begging for help.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's cute. So he tries to tell her that he doesn't feel that way anymore because she had that shocked reaction at seeing the body at the right scene. They were just that. And she almost fainted. And he's like, I don't believe that anymore. And it's like, you know what? It's a little too little Too little, too late. Okay. She tells him to, quote, get the out of her sight. He seems to realize that he's pushed her too far. And though he can't really fully leave her alone because of his duties, he launches into the sky, leaving her reeling and distressed.

[Natalie Jean]

God, that would really help out. Like when you're having an argument with someone if they could just be able to like fly away for a little bit. Could you imagine you just fly somewhere else just for like five minutes so I can have a moment and I don't have to look at you for a second.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I wish.

[Natalie Jean]

Right? Just fly up to the top of another building. Let me have my Batman moment and stew. Yeah. I've got a stare. I've got a brood. Yeah. I don't. I feel like I can't properly brood without being able to fly.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, but that you can't. If you're not sitting on an eve, how are you supposed to fully bruise?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I'm supposed to gargoyle out. What the hell else am I supposed to do?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, God, I wish.

[Natalie Jean]

And this is sick coming from a woman that is sitting here with a tail on that nobody can see. Just to be in character. Should I see you guys got to see how much I look like a.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Deer in a chair.

[Natalie Jean]

Wait, why a duck?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But why?

[Natalie Jean]

I just want everyone. Because I don't always feeling it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh. I guess cuz. Well, she's not actually. She's A fawn is not a deer. It's a goat. So you can make goat sounds.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, I'm sorry. I guess this is all very. Is this upsetting to the fawn community?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Which kind of fawn founds.

[Natalie Jean]

I guess. I guess this is not upsetting to the fawn community, but it is upsetting to the found community. And I really apologize to everyone.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You need to make goat sounds.

[Natalie Jean]

I know.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

There you go.

[Natalie Jean]

Give me a can. Give me a can. I'm a goat.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, it's a little caffeine.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, it is. Yeah. A little ack. A little. I need caffeine. Well, I do have my caffeine here. And it is difficult to pick up with my hooves. But you know, I'll do anything to stay in character.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So much like when Jenny bailed on Forest, Bryce begins to run.

[Natalie Jean]

Whoa. Free bird.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She just goes. And though I personally hate running, I get the feeling of just wanting to walk and walk and walk.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I've definitely done that in my lifetime when I'm just trying to like, deal with things.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. I don't run anywhere. But I did that for, like, a year in New York, where I decided I was just too sad to even ride the subway. And I literally would leave everywhere, no matter where I was walking. If I had to walk across bridges, I would, I would just plug in my little ipod and I just would walk for hours.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Samesies, actually, all through Philly, I did.

[Natalie Jean]

That back to thank you, Philly, and thank you, Lunathian, and thank you, New York City.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She doesn't know where she's going, and yet we find her in front of the white raven. The view of it sends her into her trauma compulsion of looking at her last text with Danica.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, girl.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Her memories wash over her. And then we're back with the memory of whatever occurred between her and Danica that popped into her memory when she recalled killing someone. So we've gotten this little burst of this memory in the past where something happened whenever she was asked if she'd ever killed anybody and she said yes. She had this, like, flashback to this memory that we don't really know anything about yet. But this time we get a tiny more bit more context in her memory. This occurred during their final semester in college, and there's some kind of serious business going down, though we don't know where we are. Bryce is recalling being held by mystery men sort of the way you would be captured, almost like, by a cartel, where you're on your knees with your hands behind your head.

[Natalie Jean]

I just feel like, like, with the kind of things I was dealing with at this age group, this is not what I was dealing with. And I felt like what I was going through when I was in my early 20s was, like, hard enough.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Was as dramatic as this.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. And then you think about this, and, like, I guess it wasn't that difficult. Like, I, I, I was never, you know, you know, captured in this capacity. So I guess, you know, I got through with flying colors, you know, I.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Don'T think you were pursuing the same things as Bryce and Danica in college, however, because it seems like we don't know fully what happens, but it seems like they were trying to attempt some sort of major thing and it didn't go well.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, my projects were much smaller and more about, like, you know, podcasting in college. Well, not in college, but at least it came. That was more sketch time period. Yeah, but in my early, in my early 20s, I wasn't in college because I graduated college at 20. So in my early 20s, that was more of my time period to you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

More made sketches about being caught by a cartel.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we made yucks instead.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So the way that they're. They're being placed, it's the submissive position, and it usually means death is coming. Both she and Danika are bleeding, and Danika seems to think that this is the end for both of them in that somehow it's her own fault. I love you, Bryce.

[Natalie Jean]

Tears rolled down Danica's face and I'm sorry.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Bryce recalls it being the first time Danika has ever said those words. Why or how they got here is unclear right now. But while Danika seems resigned to their fate, Bryce only says, close your eyes, Danika. This could be perceived as a friend telling a friend to be at peace with their last moment. But that's not what happened. They both survived somehow, and we don't know yet. But I love this storytelling device, this recall of, like, a memory that gets.

[Natalie Jean]

Unspooled little fragments of memory.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, I love it because it does keep at least me really engaged being like, what happened? Tell me.

[Natalie Jean]

Continue the memory.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Then we're with Hunt's thoughts. Who has left Bryce be as much as he's allowed, which is to say he's in the sky, sort of following.

[Natalie Jean]

Her from afar, brooding the way we wish to brood.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He's mulling over how screwed he's going to be for revealing Micah's naughty little secret and wonders if Bryce is going to immediately tell everyone. So in this moment, he's mostly worried that he is going to be fucked.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, that he just fucked up.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He's got other worries, too. The young fae who was murdered yesterday, the one that he had interacted with, actually, outside of Luna's statue and her temple. He doesn't think it's a coincidence that they were there that night talking about the horn, and the next day there was a murder right there.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Where the cameras don't see.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Think about that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I have.

[Natalie Jean]

I bet you have.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He feels regret about his treatment of Bryce and of forcing her to go to the murder scene because he didn't think he. I don't think he deals with a lot of, like, deep, conflicted emotions with, like, you know, interpersonal relationships a lot. So I think he probably was just being very business only and realizing, oh, no, this is like a traumatized young woman.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, he doesn't really have the brain space yet for, like, friendship at this point. You know, it's like, up until now, he really didn't have the emotional bandwidth for friends.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. It wasn't like he was taking her there to be sadistic. It was more just like this Is. What do we look at bodies?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. We need to talk about this. You need to see what happened. And I think it was. Yeah, it was more in his brain. Rational. When it comes to the work of it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. I'm being a Hunt apologist.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, forever. I will forever apologize. I will deny. I will do anything for my big old Beastman made out of lightning.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So then we're.

[Natalie Jean]

Wait till the lightning starts. Oh. Oh, God. When he's like. When he's like.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You can't reveal, but there will be some stuff. Let's call it grease lightning, if you will. So he. He is also thinking of Shahar, wishing that she was there with him to help guide him, obviously.

[Natalie Jean]

Look at this beacon. I'd be like, I follow you into the dark. And he did, because he was captured.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. But she'd also be like, are you looking at this other girl? What the fuck, bro?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, dude, I thought we were forever. Forever. But you can't be if one. If you're mortal, you can't be.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Fucking talk about. I can't handle what happens. The third book.

[Natalie Jean]

Stop.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I can't handle it. While following Bryce from his sky position, he thinks about what he'll say as a form of an apology to her, only mildly, pathetically, checking his phone repeatedly to see if she messages him. Cute. Because he feels.

[Natalie Jean]

He feels bad. Yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But then she takes a surprising turn into the White Raven. Hunt lands and tries to barge in after her, which does not work. If you've never walked into a club.

[Natalie Jean]

Before, Hunt, even though you're sexy, you are scary enough to be stopped at the door.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. Especially because this is the hottest club in town and there's a line around the corner.

[Natalie Jean]

Cha. You think you just get right in? Don't think so.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He gets into a brief argument with the door guy, but then the butterfly shifter owner apparently greenlights him to bypass the long line. So there's a message from inside saying he's in. And he gets to bypass the long line waiting outside. Hunt himself isn't psyched to go into this den of iniquity. It reminds him too much of Sandriel's feasts and orgies that are only reserved for the rich in Panjira.

[Natalie Jean]

And you're. Don't get me wrong, Sandriel's real bad. But I would love to attend one of these feasts and orgy parties for the rich if I could be invited.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think the main issue for Hunt is that the people outside of those parties are literally, like, dying.

[Natalie Jean]

Starving and dying. Yeah. Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They're like, reveling in the suffering.

[Natalie Jean]

What, does he have a problem? Problem with that?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I guess so. I guess he's like a. He's got. Oh, he's got, like, ethics.

[Natalie Jean]

Fine. I'll be fine with it. Yeah, I guess it's bad to watch the rich just do all that. Let them eat cake or whatever.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Or whatever. Regardless, he spots Bryce and strides towards her, to her chagrin. So he makes a beeline for her as soon as he walks in. And she's not surprised to see him, but it's sort of. There he is.

[Natalie Jean]

There he is.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We learned that Juniper is here. Actually, it's me.

[Natalie Jean]

And I'm hooving about the town. I'm hooving about the town.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As a reader, that may surprise us because we know a little bit about what's going on with Bryce's personal relationships, but Hunt's not privy at all to this or any of her personal dramas. So he just sees Juniper while us as the readers. Like, oh, my God, Juniper.

[Natalie Jean]

Just this sexy. Ass. Ass.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He does. He. He mentions that she is very, very sexy. And she's a fawn who has curly hair and tiny curling horns and is considered incredibly beautiful. Dressed casually sexy in a mini skirt and tank top.

[Natalie Jean]

I'm just casually sexy. But I also happen to be a phone.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As we've sort of already discussed, fawns and satyrs aren't the same thing in this world or in Earth's mythology, but they are both human animal hybrids, so you even wrote it in here.

[Natalie Jean]

What? It's like you would think it about me, even though you didn't know I was gonna hoove about the town. Although I look really cute drinking my Waterloo sparkling water with my hooves. I'm just saying.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You do look very cute.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Bryce, who appears to be drinking a clear liquor out of a glass, is displeased that he's here and tries to get him to leave, but he's not having it. Instead, he. He barges in on girls night and sort of ingratiates himself to Juniper, and the two of them order a bunch of food. So Juniper and Hunt immediately are sort of like you. She's not fighting him. She's got, like, you want food? He's. Yeah, yeah, I'll eat some food.

[Natalie Jean]

She's just kind of nice to him, which Bryce, of course, is like, no, no.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But this is also, like, a marked difference, too. We're starting to see hunts more. Not human. Angel side.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. Yeah, yeah. His. You know, his, like, societal side.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, like, he's it's hard because every word is connected to being a human.

[Natalie Jean]

Human being a man. It's almost as if they try to keep us in a box with our dictionary. Oh, no. Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Get out of there.

[Natalie Jean]

To be human. Interesting.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I like to be outside the box with my words.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, very difficult when you do a podcast. Figure it out.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What did just say?

[Natalie Jean]

I don't know. Well, it is very unique and very beautiful. Very you, Natalie. I don't know if it would do well. As for you being a host of.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

A podcast, are you saying the numbers are going to be affected?

[Natalie Jean]

I'm sorry, I put. I'm putting you in a box right now. I'm founding you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I feel like I am aen.

[Natalie Jean]

If you know, you know, don't.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So Juniper and Hunt sort of have like an easygoing back and forth, and Bryce says she doesn't want any food. She's very irritated, but Hunt begins to goad her into eating since she is slamming that liquor down so quickly. Besides that, he's pretty sure she didn't eat breakfast, even though he was, quote, distracted by her wearing only a hot pink bra and panties, taking it upon himself to order Bryce food. And by the way, stalker over here knows what she wants because he's been able to smell her lunches on the other days. That's like a much, I think, cute.

[Natalie Jean]

But also, it's like his job right now is to watch her.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm saying it in a flirty way, but, like, he is being like a stalker, right?

[Natalie Jean]

Like, you know what I like for the lunch? You're crazy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Also, him just being like, I know she didn't have breakfast. Not that I'm, like, paying attention or anything, but.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I wouldn't know.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But I'm so mad. I hate that she just walks around her underwear. I hate it.

[Natalie Jean]

I will say I. I think that my husband does do this a lot, but he just knows that if I get too hungry, then the beast arrives. So I think that he always just usually like, you should probably eat. Anytime I'm about to eat, or I'm thinking maybe I should, he's like, yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You know you're about to fawn out.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Oh. Oh, yeah, man. I won't be hooving about the town, then I'm gonna be gnashing about the town, right?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So he does this. He does this thing of ordering food for her, and she's like, I don't want food. And she goes to drink more for drink, and he tries to snatch it out of her hand, basically to smell what she's been drinking. Which, of course, is water.

[Natalie Jean]

Water. Hunt, if you had just asked a question rather than assuming ass out of you and you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes, exactly. And we know she's not drinking anymore. But also, you know, Bryce is actually very thrilled at the chance to be morally superior.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, she is. Because she could have said at any of these points, when he is inferred that she is a party girl, she could have said like, you know, I haven't drank. I haven't been drinking. And you didn't even bother to ask. I like that she was waiting almost for a moment to be like, interesting what you assume, huh?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. She's sort of baiting this.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So it's also when we learn Juniper was the one who asked Bryce to join her. So she ended up jogging to the White Raven. Because Juniper reached out to her, which is good.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God. When somebody reaches out their hand, you gotta go grab it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, my God. She reached out her hand.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God, I'm the best. Hooping about the town.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She snaps at him that he should have figured out why she doesn't drink. Because he asks, what do you. Why aren't you drinking? And maybe she's like, maybe as the Amber Mortis, you should have figured that out, but maybe not, because you think I killed my best friend. Asshole.

[Natalie Jean]

Think about that. Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And he's sort of going like, ouch. That's rough.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. But again, you know, I will say he. Of course he's gonna make a lot of blunders because he's not usually thinking about the human side of emotions, of anything.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right.

[Natalie Jean]

And so it's like, I feel like this really is the first time he's ever even allowed to have the space to think about, like, actual emotions. Right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. But I also understand that this must be really particularly painful to Bryce, who was just beginning to come to trust Hunt a little bit and actually have somebody to talk to about all of this. And then he turns around and tells her that he thinks what all the other people think, that this is somehow her fault.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So that also I understand her anger.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Hunt watches Bryce.

[Natalie Jean]

I just play. I'm just a Hunt apologist. I'm forever.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, I get it.

[Natalie Jean]

You know, I'm with you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But Hunt watches Bryce get up and storm to the bathroom. June following her, and hears a guy's voice behind him. And the guy's voice is gloating that he's not the one that's in trouble. For once, it's rune runes appeared.

[Natalie Jean]

Prince of the Ball. Bear and Fae.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ruhn informs Hunt that the butterfly shifter had also reached out to him, that Bryce seemed upset. And Ruhn also wanted to make sure that she was okay after almost feigning at the crime scene. Because if he'll recall, run was also there.

[Natalie Jean]

Right. But also, it's cute that it is. I'm glad that she did. Does go back to the White Raven, because it is like their cheers. And like, when you're really upset and you go to your cheers, of course everybody's going to yell your name when you walk in the door. And they're all going to go, natalie, Natalie. And you go, yeah, I like to be with.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Why are you all talking?

[Natalie Jean]

It's just nice that the butterfly shifter was looking out.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. It seems like he is looking out for her all the time. And also, Hunt and Ruhn are looking out for her almost to the point where she's. I get why she feels smothered and everything, but they are being generally thoughtful to her in this moment, but she's just like, leave me alone. And they both watch the two ladies. June is. Is trying to calm Bryce from across the room. And Ruhn mentions that Bryce used to dance like Juniper, but she stopped after Danika died. So it's just Ruhn and Hunt looking across the room at these two ladies just, like, trying to, like, she's basically. Bryce is, like, trying to calm herself down. She's pissed.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And Hunt didn't know that she used to be a ballet dancer. And he chews on this information.

[Natalie Jean]

There's a lot you don't know about her, Hunt.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, he's going, oh, okay. She's not drinking. She had a passion that she really followed, but she lets the world believe she's this vapid party princess. Herm. He thunk.

[Natalie Jean]

Bryce. I just imagined him a loud. And it's like, that's not the sound that the umbra mortis makes. Anyway, Bryce looked toward the booth, and when she saw her cousin there, there were trenches of hell warmer than the look she gave Ruhn. Juniper tracked her gaze. Bryce took all of one step toward the booth before the club exploded.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, no.

[Natalie Jean]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What? I did not.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I didn't see this coming.

[Natalie Jean]

This is like. This is such an insane shock.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

At the start of Chapter 26, we're back with Bright, and she is reeling from the shock of what just occurred. I can say I'm extremely lucky. I don't know what experiencing a bomb feels like.

[Natalie Jean]

No, me neither.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's one second to the next, day and night, and that's what's just occurred. Somebody has bombed the club that they're inside of. And it's, of course, complete nutter chaos.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

All Bryce can feel is her reaching to shelter Juniper. And then just cacophony.

[Natalie Jean]

That shrill ringing wouldn't stop. It drowned out every other sound. Coppery slickness in her mouth. Blood plaster coated her skin.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She hears Hunt screaming at her to get up, but her terror and dread overrides his command. The thought that Juniper had also been killed in this moment has paralyzed her.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God. Can you imagine?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She has to go through a lot. She sees Roon lifting Juniper up. And as Bryce prepares to see the worst, Juniper punches her in the face. She screams at Bryce for trying to protect her from this attack when June has already made the drop and Bryce hasn't.

[Natalie Jean]

You've got to protect yourself, which is really brutal. I, I, you have to. It's also, it's a reaction, you know, she's just, It's a lot, it comes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Comes from the, the idea. Because Juniper is also traumatized, right?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So her reaction is because she knows that Bryce is much more likely to be killed in that moment. And so her saying, don't do that. You're an idiot. Like, stop trying to be a hero when I, I should be a hero myself. In this moment, from far away, Bryce hears them all arguing, but she can't think, can't move. Cut to Hunt's thoughts a short while later, they're at Ruhn's house, which is nearby, and Hunt is in no condition to fight about having to go into his enemy's home. This is his first time inside of the frat house, and he's taking it all in, including the giant painting of a face swallowing an angel whole on the beer pong table. Something that we, as the reader saw when Bryce first showed up at the house while Ruhn was super faded, if you'll remember.

[Natalie Jean]

But also fun for him. Not fun, but like, for him to see that in his perspective of what that is and what that means.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Obviously a big fuck you to angels. Right?

[Natalie Jean]

But it's also like, I feel like in my brain, though, and maybe I'm a rune apologist right now. I feel like it's one of those things that remember how much art, and I'm sure you went through this phase, all the art that used to be in my house when I was young and dumb and drunk was just shit I would find on the street that I would bring home when I was drunk.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Can't do that.

[Natalie Jean]

New York bedbugs Well, I mean, yeah, but at the time I didn't A, think about that or B, care. And I would just bring everything that I would find on my walk from the bar home. I would just drag it with me. And so in my brain I feel like, oh, Ruhn or one of the other frat dudes needed to make a beer pong table or like, needed to have something. You know, it's like they were like, ah, I found it. Is this fucking crazy? I don't know where it came from. Let me put it up in the house. Like, I feel like it's one of those. I think.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, I could see that happening. But I also think that they don't like angels.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I do know they don't like angels.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think it was pointed. I think that because they do directly.

[Natalie Jean]

Often feud with angels and they dislike angels.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Hunt did have a problem with archangels too. So I don't think it's like that far fetched for him to also understand.

[Natalie Jean]

It's just like I feel like in my brain, Rune knows it's not all angels.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Not all angels.

[Natalie Jean]

All right, you're probably right. I'm sure it's pointed. And I'm sure that I'm just an apologist.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, you're. He's allowed. He's has a lot. He's had a lot of bad run ins. Some. A lot of angels are really shitty.

[Natalie Jean]

No, but not all of them.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But he and Hunt have had fisticuffs.

[Natalie Jean]

I know. Yeah. And Hunt's a scary man. He's supposed to be a scary man. I'm sorry. Scary angel.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. Thank you. So they're all obviously in really bad shape in this moment, but Hunt is currently better off than Bryce. And he moves around the house gathering water and medical supplies. He laments over how in the right circumstances, his lightning can prevent a bomb from doing damage, but that there wasn't any space or time for it this night.

[Natalie Jean]

Whoa. I know that, like, let me have my own brain visions. But I've always been. I've always wanted to secretly be in a car that gets hit by lightning because apparently when you're in a car that gets hit by lightning, you can see the lightning like skitter over the outside of the car and then go into the wheels and then go into the ground because of the conductor system or whatever. And like, I feel like he would send out like a, like a big web of lightning around the entire building. And so that's. I just think about that. Like, man, I bet that would be really Cool.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Interesting. Because in my mind, I was seeing his lightning connect with the bomb while it's, like, in the air.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, just stop it that way. Oh, I like that. That probably makes more sense. I just, like. Like. I don't know. There's something about the lightning and.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, I. I know. I know, Jackie.

[Natalie Jean]

I also like weather. You know, I'm a weather.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I know you are. He pushes aside the need to immediately solve who planted the bomb there that night, because there are more pressing needs. Bryce seems to be in shock, but.

[Natalie Jean]

Also, I feel like that's really big, too, because I feel like even Hunt from a couple of weeks ago would be like, we need to figure out who just. But. But then you notice that he wants to attend to Bryce, who is in shock.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes. And this is the most gentle that we see.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, yeah. You wrote it, right? Yeah, it is. I love. I love it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

This could be, in part due to his guilt over forcing her to view the crime scene earlier. Or maybe he's just trying to coax her out of shock. Regardless, he gets on his knees in front of her and begins wiping off the blood and plaster that covers the nearly catatonic Bryce. Almost a mirror of what occurred the night of the murders. As he wipes her ears and checks for serious wounds, Bryce finally speaks. She explains in a daze, through a scratchy voice that Juniper is up for principal dancer in her ballet company and she doesn't want her to risk an injury. The part she doesn't say is that she doesn't seem to care about herself, to take her own body into consideration.

[Natalie Jean]

No.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He begins to tend to it, but.

[Natalie Jean]

After what happened with Danika, like, how could you? How wouldn't you always want to then go to protect her, your friends? Because you could never get over the guilt of not protecting them, even though she couldn't have stopped it. But, like, right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, yeah, for sure, that. But it also definitely feels nihilistic, like, I don't care what happens to me. He begins to tend to a gnarly gash on her knee, and the solution he pours on it causes her to jerk because it hurts her and it raises her skirt.

[Natalie Jean]

Hunt told himself he looked only to assess if there were other injuries, but the thick, angry scar cut across an otherwise sleek, unnervingly perfect thigh.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He's getting horny in the middle of this. Come on.

[Natalie Jean]

You know? But it's also, like, horny because he's realizing she's so much more. She's the sum of all of the paws.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, he's getting Horny for her mind.

[Natalie Jean]

Horny for her mind. Horny for her mind. But he does throw it in there. The seemingly unnervingly perfect eye.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. But he is mostly looking at the big scar because he instantly realizes this is the wound. Wound that he stapled together from the night of the Crystalos. And that she has not received treatment for it. In. In this world, in Midgard. She could have gotten that poison filled massive scar healed. But she hasn't for some reason. And what he mistook for her stupid shoes always causing her pain, was likely more so from this poorly healed wound.

[Natalie Jean]

Especially because again, as a dancer, I. I know what you can withstand with your feet. I. I feel like the heels would never probably be a problem because broke all your feet for dancing. Fun.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. No, it's so true. But you know, eventually heels can bother anyone.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. But I watch what you wear and I'm just like, how do I be a lady like that?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I can't teach you to walk in heels.

[Natalie Jean]

I don't know. I think I might be old dog. I think I'm old dog. New tricks. I don't think it works.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh yeah, you could. Whoa.

[Natalie Jean]

What if all of a sudden became a heels? I don't know if I've ever worn a pair of heels for more than 10 minutes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You would look great.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh yeah, I know. It looks good. I remember I had to stylist be like you have to wear heels while walking down the aisle because it's how you hold yourself in the dress. It makes you seem. You know, it makes you stand out in the way that you hold yourself. And it's like I got through the ceremony and then I had. They had to come off. I was like, I'm done.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, I didn't wear heels cuz I'm so much taller than Henry.

[Natalie Jean]

You guys are so cute. Oh yeah. You had those cool like thigh high Converse sneakers.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I went full 2009. I wore knee high white Converse.

[Natalie Jean]

Dude. They were awesome. They were awesome. And yeah, they looked a lot cooler than the Nike slides I put on for the rest of my wedding day.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh no, it was good.

[Natalie Jean]

You know, I'm a comfort shoe kind of gal. You're allowed. Thank you. Thank you. You.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So he's looking at this scar and he's thinking to himself, it's his fault. He's blaming himself for being so aggressive and thoughtless when he stapled her clothes like she was a soldier.

[Natalie Jean]

He was just trying to get it like so that she didn't die right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And I don't blame him, but I understand why he sees something that. Like this. I feel like that would be traumatizing, like, to see a big, severe wound that you caused and just be like, oh, my God, I did that to that person.

[Natalie Jean]

Right. Even though, like, he didn't. But he did do whatever, like, the. Like that helped it to heal poorly.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He was looking at her as. As, like a patient or a soldier and not as a person who was in need of care, essentially. Like, I have to keep you alive.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. And honestly, I mean, like, if someone stopped me from dying and. Oh, like, I. I wish you had done it better. Like, you know that Bryce doesn't feel that way.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I wish you had done it better.

[Natalie Jean]

You know, it's like I. You know that anyone that is saved from a situation like that isn't thinking that. So of course he has to feel that, because I'm sure any thought of Bryce would have about that she'd probably push away in her brain.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. When males are kneeling between my legs. Athelar, she said, they're not usually grimacing.

[Natalie Jean]

Ah, Bryce, you sexy bitch.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He realizes that he's been lost in thought, kneeling between her legs and leaning in to look at the scar on her high upper thigh. The umbra mortis actually blushes as he backs away because he is just staring at her crotch.

[Natalie Jean]

I would melt if I could make the umbra mortis blush. Oh, are you kidding me?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It seems, though, to have shaken Bryce from her fugue. But there won't be any more flirtation on this night. She asks who he thinks did this, and he honestly doesn't know, but he doesn't think it has something to do directly with their case. They sit with the knowledge that there is a war raging in other parts of the world and wonders if it will come to Lunathian as well. Noticing Bryce is still not doing well, he puts his jacket over her shoulders. Okay, Hunt, I see you.

[Natalie Jean]

He's making sure that she feels protected.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Natalie Rune enters the room and informs them that upon first analysis, it seems as though human rebels smuggled a bomb through a liquor delivery. Or a wine delivery, to be specific. Roon also informs them that the crate they determined was the culprit was branded with something in the surveillance footage. It's hard to make out in the video, but he thinks it might be a stamp of a horn. A horn, you say? Yes. This may very well be a warning sign to them and have something to do with them.

[Natalie Jean]

Great. Interesting.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So Hunt decides that they need to talk to Briggs in Prison to find out if he had something to do with it, calls Isaiah. He leaves to make this phone call and run.

[Natalie Jean]

I wonder if. If her hooves sweat as much as my hooves are currently sweating. Because these are some sweaty, sweaty hooves over here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think because the hooves are attached to the bone. Can't sweat.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, you can't sweat, man, I wish. You know what? I think I need to go see a doctor. Oh, imagine thinking about.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Can you imagine feeling sweat under your hooves?

[Natalie Jean]

I'm experiencing dancing right now. And yes, I'm sorry for everyone. I did have to take off my hooves for a little bit, but that is because they are starting to become actually wet to the touch.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Body horror much?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. The substance. Sorry, Zawi. I'm the demi.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You're the demi now, dog.

[Natalie Jean]

Goodbye. So I love that we have fused both of those in our brain, because the thing is, is that you think that, like. Oh, you guys don't say that all the time in your regular life, but we do, sadly.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Unfortunately for us. So as Hunt leaves the leaves to make this call, Ruin and Bryce are left alone. And there is more bad news. The Autumn King has discovered that he and Bryce are working in tandem on the horn and the demon. So the Autumn King didn't know about Run and Bryce teaming up, but now.

[Natalie Jean]

He does, and he's super over yourself.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He's. He can't. He literally can't.

[Natalie Jean]

Because, you know, he loved when they didn't like each other. He likes it better when there is discord and, like, upset. I feel like there are also just some, you know, daddy figures, Mommy figures that do that to kids to turn them against them so that they.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Like, it's instilling dissent in the family.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes. But he is. He's now learned, and he's pissed. So he has deemed it necessary to have Bryce watched 247 because she is a liability to him, and she's a weak little baby human, and he has to save face since she has become a part of his ho. His house. Bryce, feeling the usual disgust for her father, thinks about the small scar that he had left on her mother Ember's face back in the day.

[Natalie Jean]

One of the things that caused being you piece of.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, it's one of the things that caused Ember to flee while pregnant with Bryce.

[Natalie Jean]

Good for you, girl.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So this is us learning that the Autumn King was physically abusive to Amber.

[Natalie Jean]

We hate the Autumn King.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As if we didn't already. Yeah, man, do I want to get a flashback. I know I've already said this.

[Natalie Jean]

I Want. I want to get it at some point. I think we're going to get so.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Many questions about how they ended up together.

[Natalie Jean]

I think we're going to get it at some point. There's no way, right? Right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We have to. Anyway, Ruhn tells Bryce that he volunteered to be her live in Bodyguard.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God, another one.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And she says, oh, hell to the no, absolutely not.

[Natalie Jean]

Nope.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Runs her to pick her battles with their dad, and this is not worth the headache that would follow. She realizes he's probably correct and she's still quite in a daze, so she says, fine. He wants a bodyguard. Well, Hunt can come live in my house.

[Natalie Jean]

There you go.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Stay with me.

[Natalie Jean]

There you go. Big old thick bodyguard living in that living room. Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Huh. How convenient. So then we're with runes thoughts. Immediately following Bryce's proclamation, he is worried that Hunt is beginning to pick up on the fact that it's weird that the Autumn King is so focused on this random third cousin or whatever.

[Natalie Jean]

And I feel like for all the things that Hunt knows so quickly, that it is a little, you know, I feel like one of those things that maybe he just hasn't thought about that full. Maybe he is very smart and also.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They'Re not hiding it super well, but maybe he's just not even thinking about it.

[Natalie Jean]

Right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As Bryce peppers him with questions, Ruhn checks his texts from Tristan and Declan, who are frantically trying to get information on what happened at the White Raven that night. Right at the same time that Bryce is demanding to know why Ruhn was there at the club in the first place. He doesn't want to reveal he was checking up on her, so he says he was looking for her to ask to look through the antique shops and underground library. Bryce is like, what underground library?

[Natalie Jean]

Talking about I don't know, nothing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And he just said, like, just stop. I know it's there. Okay. Bryce balks. But then after a moment of thinking, she smiled and she says, yeah, sure, you can come into the library, but in exchange for that, you're going to give me Declan to help me with my cause.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, cyber boy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, because of course, he's the hacker of their little cyberpunk outfit.

[Natalie Jean]

Hell yeah, you've got to have one. It's like all of those, you know, like the CSI shows where you always have to have the one, like, quirky.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Mid size technological girl Matthew Lillard. Or wait, who was it in. What's the one with Angelina Jolie? Is it hackers?

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. I. I don't remember anything about that movie.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Though I guess they're all sort of hackers, right?

[Natalie Jean]

Isn't it? About all of them?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't know. I only know that like, flashes of images of the outfits.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Run agrees to this. And with that, Bryce and Hunt exit the house. Bryce, desperately wanting to return to her own dwelling, feelings as though Autumn King's watching.

[Natalie Jean]

Get out of my life.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. I don't know what he's. He's on. But as soon as they walk out, Autumn King calls Roon and berates him for involving Bryce and Hunt in their Fae business, in their fit, in their biz, F their phaseness, their face, fame, like company. He tells Run he better not let angels get their hands on the horn or else.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I just saw it.

[Natalie Jean]

You know, because like, it's the worst too. Because like, you know, he wants to make Daddy happy, but it's like, God, I would hate to make Daddy happy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Almost like he doesn't have an option to make Daddy.

[Natalie Jean]

He doesn't have an option. But I also feel like there's always like a no matter what. Yeah. No matter what relationship you have with your parent. Like sometimes I feel like the more distant and maybe now he'll be proud of me. That like, whether you think that way or not, that it is kind of a part of what focus. Like what you focus on. You know what I mean?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, maybe Daddy will love me.

[Natalie Jean]

That he love me now. I don't think he's gonna.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Nah. In fact, his father mocks and threatens him.

[Natalie Jean]

Awesome.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. As that's happening, Rune's thoughts drift to the Oracle's prophecy that he received and the lie that he told his father that day.

[Natalie Jean]

Whoa.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We learned through these thoughts that the Oracle's premonitions used to dictate entire kingdoms and wage unions. But in more current times, it became slightly more novelty than anything else.

[Natalie Jean]

I feel like now it's like going to like go get your cards read by someone.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. That's what it feels like. But Rune lied back then when he turned 13 and received that oracle's prophecy because he knew his dad wouldn't see it as a fun little. Oh, that's we. Oh, you got a fortune.

[Natalie Jean]

I do wonder too, that like, do you think he would have killed him if he knew that the line ended with him? Like, if he thought that he wasn't worth anything, that he wasn't going to provide him anything. I wonder.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

At the very least, he would have abandoned him in some way or something. Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Like kicked him out of the family.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

In Some capacity.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So at that time, as a kid too, he was only 13. He couldn't bear the disappointment that he knew he would face from his father, because certainly at that age, he's trying to.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God. Yeah. When you're in. In the house and you can't get away from him.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Chapter 27 is Hunt Watching Bryce as they walk home through the chaotic streets filled with sirens and confusion in the wake of the attack. And he notices that she is once again barefoot. And this is so many parallels to their first night together, because if you recall, she also didn't have shoes on when she was chasing the Crystalis.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, dude.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But this time, instead of it being this cold interaction, they're getting up close and personal. Hunt's moving in.

[Natalie Jean]

Baby, you got a new roomie.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Before long, they are at the luxury apartment building and she leads him up past the doorman. As they reach her front door, he asks her why she hasn't made the drop. And she reveals to him about her plan with Danika and that they had planned to do it from two years from now, which make makes her 25 in this part of the book, if for if you're keeping track. He thinks about how her scar is a form of punishment for this perceived failure of letting Danika die, quote unquote, and that he can commiserate in that sort of self punishment. Oh, though he doesn't say this out loud, he's just thinking it.

[Natalie Jean]

She continues, do we know about the shower yet?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay. Yes. All right, we do.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She continues. That Connor and Thorne were going to anchor them. Them. And that her and Danica were gonna go down the drop together. Which to me, in my mind, I thought when they were gonna do it together, that they were gonna anchor each other. That's how, like I imagine it. But actually what they were gonna do was take the plunge at the same time and have their friends anchor for.

[Natalie Jean]

Them so that they could go through it together and then come back up together.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As they make their way into the apartment, he gets his first real look at it from not outside a window. Window.

[Natalie Jean]

Either she or Danica had decorated it without sparing any expense. A white deep cushioned couch lay in the right third of the great room, set before a reclaimed wood coffee table and the massive television atop a carved oak console. A fogged glass dining table with white leather chairs took up the left third of the space, and the center third of it went to the kitchen. White cabinets, chrome appliances and white marble counters, all of it impeccably clean, soft and welcoming.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I always find visual descriptions of spaces help me read the story.

[Natalie Jean]

Very much so. And I think that it, like, I don't know why at first I was so taken aback of like, I feel like Bryce would not have an all white apartment. Like, that is just not how I see her. But the fact that it is set up for her by Danika, like that it was gifted to her by Danika in my brain, it makes more sense that it's like, I don't think Bryce would have specifically done that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I can see that. And I can also see the trying.

[Natalie Jean]

To make this as nothing as possible where she. There's no like. Like version of her or no part of her that's a part of the apartment. You know, I mean, like where she's separate.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I. For me, I saw it as a. She is trying to become everything that she was. Wasn't in the time with her and her friends.

[Natalie Jean]

Ouch.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So to me, I feel as though, yeah, maybe a little bit more of the second thing you said in my mind.

[Natalie Jean]

But it's like where she's nothing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She's trying to re. More. To me, it's more like she is trying to recreate herself from the ground up so that she lived in this loud, brash, colorful, dingy, like, you know, punk rock apartment. She's trying to go to the other end of the spectrum to be as far away from that version of herself as possible.

[Natalie Jean]

I think you're completely right. And as you were saying it, I realize it further and further that it's like, is that not what you do after a lot of traumas in your life? Of like, what if I just completely. What if everything I was led me to what happened? And what if I just completely got rid of that version of me?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Although I will say, when I'm at my lowest, cleanliness and sobriety are not usually how I would be defined.

[Natalie Jean]

But again, you know, maybe if you're trying to be the complete opposite. Maybe you would be if I came in and you had just suffered a trauma and the house was sparkling and everything was where it. I'd be like, Natalie needs to be carted away. We need to get. I'm just saying that we both live a life that is very busy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes.

[Natalie Jean]

And that, you know, stuff is a.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Lot of places a lot of the time.

[Natalie Jean]

We are not dirty people at all. But we are. We both have a lot of stuff. I always have stuff everywhere.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, also, we're wearing caution costumes and my house both. I covered in costumes, have to dress in costumes constantly. And so we wear like six outfits a day sometimes.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And so that ends up being quite a tornado of clothes.

[Natalie Jean]

It certainly does. Especially, like, for me. I only have. I have a closet, Jeff has a closet, but my closet is also my costume closet. So now I'm getting to a point. I'm like, I literally can never get more real clothes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, you have to wear only costumes in your day to day life.

[Natalie Jean]

So if I start dressing like. Like, if you see me with my hooves on in public, know why the hooves.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I feel like you don't have to wear hooves in public.

[Natalie Jean]

Why? They think it's kind of fun. And then, you know, like, I feel like. Then it's like I'm going through my. Like maybe they're my driving gloves and I'm going through my driving glove phase.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't know if that's super safe.

[Natalie Jean]

No, it's difficult to grip.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Your driving gloves are making driving a lot harder.

[Natalie Jean]

I wish I could access all of my fingers. If only I put him back on. Don't worry, guys. The hooves are back.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You are actually a shifter during this episode.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, see, I'm really. Well, I guess I'm not in character because I'm not being a found. I'm being a shifter.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But, you know, as she tells him this information about herself, about what she was going to do with Danika, he thinks about how sad his own drop was. Was. We don't know the full deets, but he recalls how his mom had just died and his anger had been a, quote, sour faced government employee. And that's rough.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As he rings, bounds through the room.

[Natalie Jean]

Imagine having to go through that, but with, like, someone at the DMV where they're like, all right, make the draw. Get down there. I got all the things. I got a whole line of people out here. It's like, yeah, just imagine.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's. Imagine like going through a hospital procedure with, like, all strangers. You know what I mean? Like, that's what it makes me think of. As Syrinx bounds through the room and attacks Hunt with puppy kisses, Hunt considers how close his own grief is to how Bryce is feeling and how, because her grief for Danika feels like his grief for Shahar, he asks if she and Danika were perhaps lovers. And me thinks maybe he's trying to gauge it for other reasons, but maybe I'm Craig, you know?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. He's just asking, you know, it's a. It is a very intense, intense friendship. And I, you know, I. I think the more that we're talking about Hunt and his relationships with other people that, like, he doesn't understand how I think yet, how you can love someone so fiercely and not be their lover. You know what I mean?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. And also not to stereotype girls and women, but I think sometimes their emotional, like their young best friend relationships can almost feel like love lovers. In certain ways, you become very intense and, like, attached to one another in that way.

[Natalie Jean]

Why? I was scared of women for so long. So it's like, what? I don't want to be vulnerable. You want to get to know me? Fuck off. Let's just get hammered. Which is apparently not how you make friends.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, that's definitely how you make friends.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, it's why I've got, you know, some good ones still, but, you know, I've created a lot more vulnerable relationships.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sure. Sometimes when you get older and. Or younger, it's like the 20s is when not, like the most drunk friendships happen. I feel like as a kid and as an. Like as a grown adult, older woman, you become more. Again having sober friendships.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. Yeah. It's nice.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's nice.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. We go out and get coffee and we still cry.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, sure. As she feeds Syrinx, she flatly tells him that her and Danika weren't in that sort of relationship, but that in fact, she and another person who was murdered that night, Connie Honor, were something. Something she's probably not really sure of, but she's alluding to that. It was of the romantic stripe.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Part of him desperately wants to tell her. He understands to tell her about him and what he's gone through, but he can't seem to get the words out before he has to ponder it too long. The phone rings in the apartment and he listens to Bryce's end of a conversation with her mom. Bomb one in which she fakes a happy disposition and lies to her mother about whether she was there at the bombing. No, no, no. Neither her nor Juniper were there. Mom, don't worry. Bryce then has to bat away a dozen questions when Bryce reveals to her mom that she has to go due to her having company in the apartment. So her mom's going like, who is it?

[Natalie Jean]

Hood? Yeah, what is it? What's happening over here?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She's like, nothing. Nothing's fine. Don't worry about it. I gotta. He watches her and thinks about how she keeps everyone away from her at arm's length, lies to mom, lets Juniper punch her in the face instead of explain why she did that in the first place.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Maybe they're both just like the other she tells him, pleads with him to help her solve this case. Not for Micah, but because not sold solving it is killing her. She doesn't believe him when he assures her that he will solve it. So he decides to let her in on some of his own private agony.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He tells her about the deal Micah has offered. He feels shame at himself to even mention that he was tasked with killing 2, 000 people in the first place.

[Natalie Jean]

He waited for her judgment, her disgust with him and Michael. Micah. But she angled her head.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's why you've been a bullish pain in the ass. She isn't horrified, just like she didn't cower when he looked at her that first time. This seems to affect him.

[Natalie Jean]

He couldn't help it. Then, even though she was bloodied and covered in debris, he looked her over every inch. And curve tried not to think about the hot pink underwear beneath that tight green dress.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Whoa. Hunt, there's a crisis.

[Natalie Jean]

Keep it in your pants, you know? But sometimes when there's there is a crisis, you do, like, immediately think about things that you do have control over. And I feel like that's why those thoughts come in, like, oh, all this big is happening. But also.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Actually, don't keep it in your pants.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He apologizes for thinking less of her and for being an hole. There's nothing wrong with being a party girl. I don't get why the world thinks that there is.

[Natalie Jean]

But she considered his words.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's easier for me when people assume the worst about what I am. It lets me see who they really are. She tells him he's not an which. Woo gave him butterflies in his tummy.

[Natalie Jean]

Over that man doesn't take it much. Huh? Like, oh, you're just not, like, the worst thing I've ever met. Whoa. But that also goes to show how little he thinks of himself and, like, what he thinks about. Like, everything that has gotten him to the place that he's in that he probably, you know, doesn't really like himself all that much.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I would say it's a positive sign that he doesn't like that he has to murder a bunch of people.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He gets the two of them fast food, which they both eat in exhausted sight. Silence before Bryce retires to her room and Hunt goes to investigate the guest room where he'll now be residing. So he actually, like, went and procured food for the both of them, which is very cute.

[Natalie Jean]

Cute.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Though he notes that the bed was big enough to accommodate a veneer when he walks into the Guest room. He consent that humans have mostly stayed here. He eyes the framed photo of Bryce's mom and step stepdad that he notices in the room.

[Natalie Jean]

That's a really good way to have nobody in your guest room ever. I think I should have a huge picture of my mom and dad in the guest rooms just so you can think about it before you start defiling my space.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, you don't want anybody.

[Natalie Jean]

No. In the house except for me. Actually, that's not true. I mean, have that. I say have that, but don't let me know. Yeah, I don't want to hear it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I just want to hear about it. I don't want to see any. Any mess.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't want it. Yeah. I don't want any lingering touches. Like you touch something and it's sticky. Like none of that. You know what I mean?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So he sees this photo of Bryce's mom and stepdad.

[Natalie Jean]

Like how loud your wings are. Your wings, just like. It's difficult, all right? With a tail and wings. It's difficult to be quiet.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's almost like we're causing more suffering for ourselves than we need to.

[Natalie Jean]

But no.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Through his observations, we learned that Ember has some different features than Bryce, including black hair. So her mom is not the red haired one. She got that all from the old Autumn King. But that Ember is a, quote, knockout in Hunt's words. We also learned that Hunt knows who her dad who stepped up. That is her stepdad is Randall. Randall Salago. He's stunned to see that the, quote, legendary war hero and sharpshooter is Bryce's dad. And he doesn't remember reading that in her file. So he knows Bryce's stepdad as like.

[Natalie Jean]

A war hero and like a human war hero, which is crazy, the fact that he survived and was that known?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right? And I don't think we've known through Bryce's vantage that that is what her stepfather really was.

[Natalie Jean]

No, we only know that Randall was.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Good to her right. His gaze lands on another framed photo in the bedroom.

[Natalie Jean]

It was a beautiful shot of two women, girls really, sitting on some red rocks atop a desert mountain, their backs to the camera, shoulder to shoulder as they faced the scrub and sand far below. One was Bryce. He could tell from her sheet of red hair. The other was in a familiar leather jacket. Jacket, the back painted with those words in the Republic's most ancient language, through love all is possible.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The other is Danika. Of course, he sees that Bryce's body is bandaged and Bruised under her T shirt in the picture. And that there's the notorious sword sitting next to Danika, one that he knows quite well. Sabine had lost it when searching for the sword following Danica's death. As in she freaks out trying to find it.

[Natalie Jean]

That's Sabine for you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right. But Hun can't mull over this for too long. He's too exhausted and is laid out before long. So Hunt's moved in, everyone.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, roomies, man. G thinking about roomies. I had a roomie I had a crush on once, and it was very difficult because they kept banging other people.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, I. I'm thinking of one. I also did.

[Natalie Jean]

He broke me for a while. And then I think it was after that that I was like, don't room with someone you have a crush on. That was something I learned from that experience. Definitely not, because it only hurts you further. Unless they fall in love with you, which that's great. And I think it would work. But in my case, that's a lot.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Because then you're already living together, which is intense.

[Natalie Jean]

And then you already jumped in.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

How do you date somebody once you're already their roommate?

[Natalie Jean]

I guess you go back to your separate room. I mean, I've banged a roommate before, but I wouldn't say I had like an unrequited crush because we just would bang when we would get drunk. But then we would go back to our separate rooms.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And you didn't have ever an issue with it?

[Natalie Jean]

No.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's good.

[Natalie Jean]

I was fine with those things. It was the other people that usually had a problem. But, you know, every person is different.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Every person has their own. Their own set of genitals.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you, Natalie. Every person does have their own set of genitals. And I say God bless it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Everyone's got their genitals, have their own feelings.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, they do. So go down and ask them first. Before you ask somebody on a date, always ask the genitals first. Just bow right down. Go, excuse me. I need to ask them a question. Excuse me. And go. Knock, knock, knock, knock. Anybody in there? Anybody in there? Wait for somebody to open up the zipper and see if somebody comes out so that you have somebody to talk to.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think a window is less gross than a zipper.

[Natalie Jean]

I don't know why you're going to have a window in your pants all the time, Natalie. I think you're going to get arrested. Please read up until chapter 33 for next week. This show is made possible by listeners like. Like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors. You can support our shows by supporting them. For more shows like the one you just listened to, go to lastpodcastnetwork.com.