LPN Deep Dives: HOSAB / Episode 11: It's fine you'll like it

Summary

LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City

Episode 11: It's Fine, You'll Like It

Release Date: August 19, 2025
Hosts: Natalie Jean & Jackie Zebrowski

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Episode Overview

In this episode of LPN Deep Dives: Crescent City, hosts Natalie Jean and Jackie Zebrowski deliver their signature blend of irreverent humor and close reading to Chapters 17–21 of Sarah J. Maas’s House of Sky and Breath (HOSAB). This episode is packed with intense character developments, major plot reveals, and, of course, a heavy dose of sexual tension as the book’s main players spiral deeper into rebellion, espionage, and romance. Natalie and Jackie also riff about cosplaying, their own “deep lore,” and unleash their alter egos—including Jackie’s new Fae persona, Rebecca Lita.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Shifting Identities & The Art of Cosplay

• The hosts open up discussing their evolving styles and personalities (“What if I choose to be relaxed instead of high key all the time?” – Natalie, 04:07), relating it to characters’ growth in the book.
• Costume banter: Jackie’s creation of Rebecca Lita—a stinky, Fae divorcee from “Pitts Guard”—becomes an ongoing gag, paralleling side characters in Maas’s world and illustrating the fun art of headcanoning (07:04).

Recapping Major Plot Points

• Chapter 17 kicks off with Bryce, Hunt, Ethan, Therian, Rune, and Aidas all packed into a tiny apartment, reeling from the recent info dump provided by Cormac.
  • The tension of too many “throbbing men” in a New York-sized apartment gives plenty of comedic banter (13:40).
  • The significance of Danika’s sword—technically supposed to be with the wolves—is exposed when Hunt lets slip that Bryce has it (14:11).
• Bryce’s Determination: Despite high stakes, Bryce insists on returning to her job, contrasting her sense of responsibility with the more aimless men around her (17:17).
• The hosts emphasize the impossibility of keeping secrets in this world—“Even in Fae world, nobody can keep a secret” (17:43)—and riff on their own inability to be spies.

Emotional Fallout & Trauma

• Hunt’s Internal Spiral: Hunt panics at being dragged back into espionage after finally tasting normalcy (19:27). Natalie draws parallels to real-life emotional spiraling and the trauma of being “tethered to reality” by loving someone (20:54).
  • “When you have a thing to love, a person to love, that brings this whole other world...This is both a gift and a prison.” – Jackie, 20:59
• The hosts analyze whether it’s “better to never open yourself up”—relating Maas’s romantic drama to broader ideas of vulnerability and singlehood (21:16).

Steamy Tension & "Alleyway Throbbing"

• Hunt and Bryce have a charged alleyway scene, wrestling with fear about their fate—and the decision to stop waiting for Winter Solstice to get together (29:10).
  • “She’s decided she ain’t waiting... Love this.” – Jackie, 31:16
• The hosts and guest actors provide a dramatic, steamy reading of their climactic moment, delighting in the “romance boner” (30:17) and the surprisingly physical writing—“He could have sworn the fucking world spun out from under him at the taste of her.” – [Hunt as read by Mike Lawrence, 78:04]

Revelations & Character Flaws

• Ethan’s Perspective: Left alone after Bryce departs, Ethan receives the devastating news from Therian about who killed Connor—a gut punch since he wasn’t told earlier. Discussion of trust, loneliness, and wolf biology as a metaphor for delayed emotional maturity (33:29, 35:18).
  • The hosts poke fun at Ethan’s youthful stupidity but sympathize with his isolation: “His wolfiness cries out for a pack that just doesn't exist right now.” – Jackie, 34:35

Discovery of Danika’s Secret Papers

• A comedic mishap (Ethan breaking the coffee table with a sword fight reenactment, 46:18) leads to the accidental discovery of Danika’s hidden, redacted research papers questioning the true nature and vulnerability of the Asteri (55:12).
• The phrase “Dusk’s Truth” surfaces again, deepening the mystery and tying back to Sophie and Danika’s emails (58:16).

Ruhn & Cormac’s Pool Hall Espionage

• In a pool hall, Rune and Cormac negotiate an alliance. Cormac reveals the loss of their “point person,” Sophie, and asks Ruhn to use his secret “mind speak” to contact Agent Daybright—formerly Sophie’s covert contact with potential access to the Asteri (63:31).
  • “If you aid the cause, you could save thousands. But if you get involved, you’ll be aiding in deaths too—because that’s war.” – Jackie, 67:18
• They explore ethical ambiguity: Cormac is loyal to the mission, but distrusts certain extremist members, showing that there is no monolithic “good guy” in the rebellion (68:58).

Humor, Meta-Commentary & Tangents

• Throughout, the hosts infuse absurd humor:
  • Ongoing jokes about pool sharks, the hypothetical dangers of wolf emotional immaturity, and allegories with real-life family drama and trauma (43:41).
  • References to their own family: “I feel like middle school and high school...specifically, [Florida] fucked me up in a lot of ways.” – Jackie discussing what makes a “hometown,” (77:09)
  • Riffs on Kissin’ Cousins diner, fake names, and using comm crystals for “deodorant in Pitts Guard” (71:23).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Picking Your Battles:
  “It’s the life of intel. You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. But I would be—that’s why I’d be really bad at being a spy. No one asked me to be.”
  – Natalie Jean, 17:56

• On Emotional Trauma:
  “When you have a thing to love, a person to love, that brings this whole other world...This is both a gift and a prison. Because now I’m constantly afraid that you’re going to be hurt.”
  – Jackie Zabrowski, 20:59

• On the Alleyway Scene:
  “Well, since we’re dabbling in some seriously dangerous shit, now’s probably a good time as any to admit I don’t want to wait until Winter Solstice.”
  – Bryce (read by Jackie), 30:44

• On Character Loneliness and Trust:
  “His wolfiness cries out for a pack that just doesn’t exist right now. And so even though he’s feeling the shock...he feels a little betrayed that no one filled him in.”
  – Jackie, 34:35

• On Ethical Dilemmas in Rebellion:
  “If he will aid the cause, he could save thousands of lives. But Ruhn also knows...if he gets involved, he’ll be aiding in deaths, too, because that’s war.”
  – Jackie, 67:06

• On Handling Embarrassment:
  “You break a chair or two in your day, and, man, you think you’re gonna die of embarrassment, but you don’t. You just keep on keeping on.”
  – Jackie, 49:08

• Alleyway Makeout Reading:
  “He was going to kick that wolf out of the apartment immediately. Hunt twisted, pinning her against the wall and her mouth opened wider on a gasp. He swept his tongue in, tasting the honeyed spice that was pure Bryce.”
  – Hunt (read by Mike Lawrence), 79:21

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Timestamps & Segment Highlights

• [13:40] – The entire crew debates packed apartment logistics & the fate of Danika’s sword.
• [17:43] – Why no one can keep a secret in Fae world (or Maassverse in general).
• [19:36] – Hunt’s panic attack, fear of returning to war, and blue wing jokes.
• [22:57] – The emotionally charged and surprisingly comic alleyway scene.
• [32:16] – Ethan and Tharion’s heart-to-heart, Ethan’s sense of betrayal.
• [46:18] – Ethan’s embarrassing coffee table mishap leads to the discovery of Danika’s research.
• [55:12] – Revelation: Danika’s papers question if the Asteri are truly “undying stars.”
• [62:40] – Pool hall meeting: Cormac and Ruhn debate rebellion ethics, mind speak, and the mystery of Agent Daybright.
• [78:04-80:00] – Dramatic, erotic reading of Hunt & Bryce’s alleyway scene by guest voice actors.
• [81:34] – Closing, with reading assignment: “Please read up until Chapter 22 for next week!”

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Tone & Structure

Natalie and Jackie maintain a playful, self-aware, and deeply affectionate tone throughout, blending pop culture tangents, personal anecdotes, and insightful analysis of character motivations and world-building. The mood alternates between heartfelt discussion of trauma and loss, gleeful dirty jokes, and genuine fangirl excitement for Maas’s blend of romance and epic fantasy.

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For Next Time

Reading Assignment:
Chapters 22 and onward will be covered next week, promising even more intrigue, sexual tension, and possibly some answers to the mounting mysteries of House of Sky and Breath.

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In sum:
This episode is both a hilarious, highly quotable romp and an incisive deep dive into some of HOSAB’s most emotionally and politically dense chapters yet. Even if you haven’t read the book, the camaraderie and comedic chemistry of Natalie and Jackie—and their occasional profound insights—make this episode a must-listen for fantasy fans and pop culture aficionados alike.

Transcript

[Natalie Jean]

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[Jackie Zabrowski]

If you're nasty and you can too.

[Natalie Jean]

Join us in spring of 2026 at the Dreamers and Readers Festival. A three day event chock full of choose your own adventures. Multiple fables, fashion shows, photo shoots, hoteez Everybody.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

At least 15 different events at the otherworldly Gaylord Texan resort that you can customize to make the perfect trip fit your Fantasy Dreams.

[Natalie Jean]

Visit fantastiquecollection.com and use our code Faybayes at checkout to receive $10 off of any of these events.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Dreamers and readers Night one and two.

[Natalie Jean]

Mythical Creatures, Masquerade, Fantastique, Starfo Ball and the Farewell Fae Bash.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Not only that, but if you use our code faybays at checkout for those events and you will receive an exclusive swag bag from the Weeknd.

[Natalie Jean]

I'll do anything for a swag bag.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Natalie Sword. Give it to me.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, that's right. Use our code Faybase F A E B A e [e-mail] to get your $10 off of any of these events.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Dreamers and readers Baby, I cannot wait for this.

[Natalie Jean]

Gimme gimme.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Give me that swag.

[Natalie Jean]

Welcome to Crescent City with your hosts Natalie Jean and Jackie Zabrowski. I think it's because I was thinking about pulling Athea together and then I was like I have been trying to battle the wig, my Bryce wig that I purchased and I've battled it, I think fairly well today.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Looks great.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Beautiful. I feel like you're not happy with your look and you look very pretty.

[Natalie Jean]

You know, I just think that sometimes I know People want. It's like, I am a pale goth bitch, and I forget sometimes until I get in front of a camera how pale I am.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Girl, you're beautiful. What are you talking about?

[Natalie Jean]

Well, it's also, you know, I grew up. I've got that beautiful brown Italian skin, so I was like a rampant tanner growing up. Like, I like to be very tan. So this is really only in the last, like, eight years.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, it's like you're having, like, still.

[Natalie Jean]

And also every, you know, seven, eight years, you change. And I have been really working on what's new Jackie gonna be. Have you thought about this maybe, or that are just like, maybe she's relaxed. Oh, okay. Like the next seven years. What if I'm just relaxed?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, you were just doing a. You were just doing a personal. It's. You can be relaxed. You just were choosing not to be.

[Natalie Jean]

Right. And. Yeah. So now it's like, what if I choose to be relaxed instead of high key all the time? Then maybe that would be like, a fun way to try life.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Like, everything's gonna be all right.

[Natalie Jean]

I guess. Yeah, like, but like, more like the meet Joe Black quote.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Which one?

[Natalie Jean]

That was when Brad Pitt did do the Jamaican accent when he said everything gonna be all right. And I think about that moment too many times.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Parrot head.

[Natalie Jean]

Sure. Jimmy Buffett.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

It's what everyone's been waiting for me to turn into more of a bird woman.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You're not bird enough. You've not been bird, like, enough for the audience so far.

[Natalie Jean]

I should, man. It's like, I feel like I'm not aggressing with my head enough.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Egregious. Oh, like. Is that what you mean?

[Natalie Jean]

Aggressing? Aggressing, yeah. I should be like, oh, I think it's because I can't properly. And I feel like I should, at this point, know how to properly headbutt someone. And I feel like, you know how you shouldn't.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's not good for you.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, but it's a good thing to know. I mean, you know, at this point, I've had four concussions in my life, and I think that it's like, it's pretty rattled in there.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

The best thing you can do for a headbutt is if somebody has you from behind you and they're trying to hold your arms. Like, you know, like, if somebody runs up to you and alley and grabs you from behind, you can back your. Go back into their nose. Always go up into the nose if.

[Natalie Jean]

You need to, because the nose goes into the brain.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, it'll It'll debilitate somebody real quick. That's why I can't get up there.

[Natalie Jean]

Because I feel like I'd have to do a running jump to do a head of it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Was it tall?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You have to go. You have to go for the. No, you have to go for the.

[Natalie Jean]

Nuts and go for the nuts, man. I just watched that King of the Hill episode. Oh, I don't know. You did?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Wait, did you start watching the new ones?

[Natalie Jean]

I want to, but they actually Hulu did like a compilation of like their like favorite King of the Hill episode. So I was just bashing through that before watching the new king.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We watched the first two. It was really fun and they were good. I enjoyed them.

[Natalie Jean]

I got a soft spot for King of the Hill.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I love King of the Hill.

[Natalie Jean]

So good. And this is coming from someone that has been made fun of of like you sound like Bobby Hill that I've gotten for most of my life. And also that is a very accomplished voice actress. So thank you very much.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Wow. And also, that is a woman, isn't it? Yeah. So what? What's the problem?

[Natalie Jean]

Yes, go and tell that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I can't believe you're not curious about who I am.

[Natalie Jean]

I. I'm. I am very curious as to who you are. I am. Man, I'm. I'm thinking about it and you could be anybody's. You know, you're not so efficient, you. Ears. Who's got the ears? Who's got the ears?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You won't be able to guess because I won't. Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh. Because it's very. It's hidden. Do you want to tell me?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I created a character.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, you. Okay, so I really will never guess. Okay, well, what is the character you created?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She is. Her name is Rebecca Lita.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She is.

[Natalie Jean]

So she's smaller than the other Rebecca's.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, she's more princess like. Oh, but like she was named. She's not. She comes from pretty lower middle class Fae family. She's divorced.

[Natalie Jean]

Is she from Faye. Pittsburgh.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She's Pitts. Pitts Guard.

[Natalie Jean]

Pitts. I guess it would be Pitts Guard. Yeah, sounds like. So you're from a land of deodorant. Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, you know, not a ton of people wear it in Pittsburgh. They probably could use a little bit more.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, if I remember my time at Kennywood. They also don't like to drink water either. But I don't think that's.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's so true.

[Natalie Jean]

Against when I, you know, when I.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Took you to my favorite theme park ever Because I grew up. Well, it's amusement park. Let's be clear. It's an amusement park because I grew up by it. In what Was that? Probably, 2016. I hadn't been in a while. And we didn't know or realize when I was younger that they don't have water fountains or ways to buy water.

[Natalie Jean]

They don't sell water at the amusement park.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I have gone since and they do.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, did someone write a letter? Did someone say, hey, this amusement park that's been open for generations, could you get some water?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well over a hundred years.

[Natalie Jean]

Especially because they were selling booze in spades.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And Pepsi.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Oh, we drank Pepsi all day. But we were all so brutally hungover that I kept. Remember I kept dry heaving the Pepsi. I guess at that point it's wet heaving, but it was just into whatever trash can after almost every single roller coaster. And that's how you enjoy a theme park.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So let's you blend right into Kennywood. Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

So you're stinky. You're a stinky Fae.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Stinky Fae that. She can't help where she was born.

[Natalie Jean]

You're right. You're right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She got divorced. Now she is back at the pool hall, which we're getting to.

[Natalie Jean]

Is she slanging drinks?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She would know. She was really good at pool.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay. And then shark husband. How dare I.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Her husband didn't want her to go to the pool hall anymore because he didn't want men looking at her.

[Natalie Jean]

And it was cut off his face.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He got their divorce now and she is trying to find herself again.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And she's in the background of the scene with Cormac in room.

[Natalie Jean]

And Rebecca Lita's getting her groove back.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, she's. She's trying. We're going to. We're not sure if she's going to yet, but she's taking a first step.

[Natalie Jean]

Rebecca Lita, jump a little. Yeah. Rebecca, I know you're not a Bruce fan.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm. I'm a neutral on him.

[Natalie Jean]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say you're neutral. You're neutral.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I appreciate his politics generally, which I think is good. Right?

[Natalie Jean]

And all those thick, wet juiciness of them.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't ever think about his body. Oh, I don't ever think about it.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, we think about him getting underneath that car. Yeah, baby, I don't know. Be your daddy tonight.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Really work on it.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, he's always working on a cab. I doubt that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I should have been there though. That was a good idea because I was looking there's all guy characters in these chapters.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And I didn't want to put on a guy makeup because I have to do an interview for my other show immediately after this.

[Natalie Jean]

I didn't know. Honestly, I thought today might be a double Bryce day. You never know.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Bryce does not have brown hair. Oh, you mean you got. We're guessing.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guessing. You coming in? I thought maybe you would be coming in as a Bryce, since we are gonna be. I mean, at least getting thrust.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Forgot about Thea.

[Natalie Jean]

Getting thrusty in an alleyway.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Done Thea today. All right, well, I know what I'm doing next time.

[Natalie Jean]

Look, you're not doing the Internet.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Not every episode's gonna be an A plus costume.

[Natalie Jean]

What are you talking about? Look at my. My wonk ass star that I drew on myself. And then I realized, Natalie, I have not been complime you. Our breasts are out. Our breasts are out today. Yeah, I. Wow.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You just badanga your own boobies.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, man, I love badangan. Don't you slap at them every once in a while?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, sure.

[Natalie Jean]

Gotta slap at him. I.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right there.

[Natalie Jean]

They're the drums of the chest.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They are the drums of the body.

[Natalie Jean]

They're begging.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What were you gonna say? You're gonna compliment me?

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God. At having to draw this star on you? Because I feel like you've done this every time. Do you have like a pattern or something?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, I just got a free. I free ball it.

[Natalie Jean]

I was like, trying to freeball it, but got a free ball it upside down. Yeah, it's fine.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But like, it looks like an eight pointed star.

[Natalie Jean]

It's there. You know, don't look too, too hard at it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's a. It's. You have to.

[Natalie Jean]

That's why the tits are out. Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, you do. It is a white thing you put on your chest.

[Natalie Jean]

Gold. Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You don't necessarily. You have to be a little careful because otherwise it's gonna look like something else happened, you know?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Wow, what an explosion it would be. And that would definitely be a hunt size explosion right there.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He would. I hope you remember all of the information we learned last episode, because it will be a huge percentage of your final grade.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, I'm ready for it. Oh, is there any way I can get any bonus points? Professor Rebecca Lita.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, I'm a teacher. I didn't think she was a teacher, but maybe she is.

[Natalie Jean]

Professor Rebecca Lita.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay, I'm a. Maybe I'm a gym teacher. Oh, maybe a gym teacher.

[Natalie Jean]

Wow. With it. With your tits. Out this.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, I'm at the pool hall right now. This is not for office.

[Natalie Jean]

Ah, gotcha, gotcha.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

This is me trying to re establish myself after he finally left the house.

[Natalie Jean]

You're Faye Sharkin.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay, so we learned a bunch about Thea from Aidas, the prince of the chasm in hell in the form of a cat, which is how he can appear in Midgard. And we learned about Cormac being part of Ophion as a. Just a refresher.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You're welcome. Chapter 17.

[Natalie Jean]

Another thickie. We're in the. Oh, baby, this is. If you thought there was lore last time you. Let's get in and get ready for some alleyway throbbing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, we're not going to be the ones giving it to you.

[Natalie Jean]

I'll be thinking about it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You won't be thinking about the one that we record probably too often.

[Natalie Jean]

No, I won't be.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Chapter 17. We're in the aftermath of the apartment where everyone's heads are spinning with the new information. As much as our heads are spinning. The room is surprised when Bryce says she's going to go back to the archives. Her job. Because we just got this info dump. All of these different guys are in her apartment. We got Ethan, Therian, Rune, Aidas, Hunt. I think that's everybody.

[Natalie Jean]

And everybody's packed in there. You know, it's not a huge apartment. And just like keep thinking about these big throbbing men. I'm just thinking about throbbing men. And I wanted to be little.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sorry, man.

[Natalie Jean]

We have to press up against each other.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, New York apartment.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Just crammed in there.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. And also I'm still thinking about how did she get all of the blood off of the white couch?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Spells.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I guess. Ah, cleaning spells. God damn it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You know, they up. They charge up. Like they upcharge those things so much for sure, because you need them. So what? You're not gonna pay for it.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So they're all in there crammed together, nipples touching, and they're trying to process all this information they just received. But Bryce is like, I gotta to work. Unlike most of these bums in the apartment, she has a job. She gives Hunt a glance and he knows to follow her towards the door. She thinks smugly how she doesn't even need her brother's fancy mind talking to communicate with Hunt. Before she walks out the door. The group all ponders over all that Cormac has revealed and whether it could have anything to do with Project Thur or Dusk's Truth, both titles or names or something from the email exchange between Danika and Sophie that we have access to now. Nobody knows. Though Hunt lets it slip that Bryce has Danika's sword still when he is cautioning her to take it to the archives with her. So he kind of like, tells Bryce, well, if you're going to the archives, at least take Danika's sword with you. And that was a little bit of a news flash to some of the people in the room. Like Ethan. Bryce sort of pushes past that information. It's not like. Because, of course, if you recall, that's supposed to be the. In the wolves hands. Technically, yes.

[Natalie Jean]

According to the wolves.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

According to Sabine, at least. Because the prime seems to like Bryce, so maybe he doesn't mind. Oh, we should have.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, he too old. Over there, we.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, we have the sword.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank God. Thank God. I just. It's just. What would I. How would I protect myself? Thank you so much, Adam.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, there she is.

[Natalie Jean]

Good. And now I can properly drink my coffee.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ah. My. Ow. Ow. No, Jackie, hold. No.

[Natalie Jean]

This is how good I am at being Bryce Quinlan. I can go. I snap at. I snap at. Is that how they use a sword?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

You still. I will never hurt you, Natalie. She keeps squinching like I'm a hitter. I'll never hit you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I just feel like it could accidentally occur.

[Natalie Jean]

It's very light. If it were heavier, yes, very much. I could very easily hit you, but it is almost made out of foam.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, no, it's not.

[Natalie Jean]

I'm sorry. It's the.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's the sword.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you wolves, you better come dig it for me.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So they're all packed in. In this tiny apartment with that sword swinging around. Oh, boy. Certainly never seen a documentary like that before.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, right? So, sword's a dick. Whenever I need to send roses that are guaranteed to make someone's day, the only place I trust is 1-800-flowers.com with 1-800-flowers. My friends and family always receive stunning, high quality bouquets that they absolutely love. Right now, when you buy a dozen multicolored roses, 1-800-flowers will double your bouquet to two dozen roses. To claim this special double roses offer, go to 1-800-flowers.com Pandora that's 1-800-flowers. Com Pandora.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's not like Ethan's mad for Sabine, of course, but, you know, he's, like, surprised that she stalls the. The sword. They all agree together to not breathe a word about everything they've just learned. And Bryce and Hunt head towards the street, which, of course, they're going to tell people because even in fey world, nobody can keep a secret.

[Natalie Jean]

Nope.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Even if it's, like, kind of vital to people being alive, they just are going to keep telling people. So, you know, you can't help it. It's a part of the condition of consciousness. You got to tell secrets sometimes. And somebody you know.

[Natalie Jean]

It's the life of intel. You got to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. But I would be. That's why I just be really bad at being a spy. No one asked me to be. I will not hold it. And I don't deal well with pain. So I know everyone keeps asking me, like, what can I trust you with? And I'm like, nothing. Don't even trust me with your chewy fruities and near me, because I'll eat them up. Yeah, I wanna eat them all up.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Wow.

[Natalie Jean]

And my belly's gonna hurt.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You're gonna throw them up and then nobody gets them.

[Natalie Jean]

No, I will eat it again.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You think Ethan does that?

[Natalie Jean]

Of course, horse, he does. There's no way. And he goes, whoa. Second dinner. And then he eats it again. And then he. Afterwards, like, why did I do that? Not supposed to do that anymore.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, Ethan.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, you've done it again.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You bumbled it.

[Natalie Jean]

I love eating my puki pizza with Bryce.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

She sort of, like, passes by. The whole, like, Ethan's shock at the sword, you know. So they're all agreeing not to speak to each other. They're all agreeing not to speak to other people about it. And they're gonna. And then Bryce and Hunt head towards the street. We're with Hunt's thoughts right now, and he's feeling a bit of despair over this turn of events that they're being thrust back in after hundreds of years of servitude. He had, like, three months to just be a citizen before being pushed right back into espionage. So he's panicking. He's having what I would call a bit of a panic attack, which is utterly fair.

[Natalie Jean]

I spiral when my plans change. You know what I mean? I can't imagine thinking of having to go back into a rebellion war and, like, get all this intel, especially when specifically they were just told, just stay out of it. Just stay out of it. All you got to do is stay out of it. We won't bother you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He hasn't even gotten milked yet.

[Natalie Jean]

Nah, dude, man. The cock blocking is real, y'. All. You think that none of spiraling has to do with how blue his wings are? Yeah, his wings all blued up, man. That would be horrible. And everyone knows it's like, oh, yeah, ain't getting milked, huh? And he's just like, oh, stop looking at my wings.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Do you think if an angel or Faye gets blue balls, like you can scent that on them? Oh, yeah, the stoppage.

[Natalie Jean]

They're all stopped up. Yeah, you got to uncork that wine. So he's.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He's beginning to. To panic in these moments. He. His thoughts are the horrific battlefields that he's seen in his life. And the fact that now the thing that love, the trap of love is you have something to care about. It's sometimes easier when you are pure nihilist and you don't have anybody to care about.

[Natalie Jean]

Don't tether me to this reality with your emotions.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So when you have a thing to love, a person to love, that brings this whole other world. World into your mind, which is just like. This is both a gift and a prison. Because now I'm constantly afraid that you're going to be hurt or in danger or trouble.

[Natalie Jean]

And that's why we learn never to love. Never open yourself up. I think it's just easier in the long run. I was talking to a friend not that long ago who was single, in her 40s and was. She was like, you know what? Maybe it's just better. Cause then I never have to lose a partner. And I was like, well, I feel like that's really just closing yourself off.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But also, you know, also props to.

[Natalie Jean]

People who like, oh, if you choose that. I think this person wants a partner and was just getting to a point that I was like, well, no, if you choose it. Yeah, man, you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We're watching a lot of badass women decide they are, yes, they are better off without. And I agree, never settle. No ever settle. Not worth.

[Natalie Jean]

Unless you're settling for a huge sword. Because, I mean, the bigger the sword, it doesn't change anything. It does make a bigger hole, though. And is that what we want?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't know. Is that a euphemism?

[Natalie Jean]

I don't know. Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Why? It's the truth teller of our generation. So we're with his panicked thoughts and he is kind of like trying to express these fears to Bryce in the moment. Bryce tells him, like she understands what he's saying, but this is more akin to spy work than being on a battlefield. And he tells her that it's almost worse that way. Ending up in one of the Hynes interrogation rooms might be worse than a battlefield mid walk because they're now on the streets of Midgard going back towards the Fae archives. He pulls her into an alley. They're passing by.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, is that my sword between her legs? Oh, no, I shouldn't keep it there.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I think she decided to not take it with her.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, I'll put it down. I was realizing as I was jamming this in between my thighs that this really is kind of a fun, convenient way to hold your sword rather than having it at your waist. Because then it's at the ready at all times and you can just. And just pull it right out if you're sit.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I guess if you're sitting down, you have to.

[Natalie Jean]

It's. It's very. Yeah, it's only if you're sitting. I'm gonna put the sword down for. Because I am gonna not go for one of these coffees.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Have you considered running the US Military?

[Natalie Jean]

You know what? He has asked. And I was like, you know what? Let me think about it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You'd probably be doing better than the guys in my dark. So. So he pulls her into a passing alleyway. He faces her and sees that she also has fear on her face. It's. She's not, like, excited about these turn of events. And he's not even thinking that necessarily. But I think that his panic made him forget for a second that Bryce is also in a terror. Like, this is not what she wants, but she doesn't have it in her to turn her back on it either. But then, at the same time, she's never experienced the horrors that Hunt has. And so he has a relevant point in saying we shouldn't get involved, even though it's the right thing to do.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, y'.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

All.

[Natalie Jean]

Would you want to go back into a situation that, like. It's not like he's gotten over what happened to him.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No. But unfortunately.

[Natalie Jean]

Think about back on Natalie. If you're thinking about Throne of Glass, think about putting it back on Natalie.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm saying if you're mated to somebody who is now princess, you do have obligations.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Much like Meghan Markle.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God, it is just like her. She's gonna start making jams. She's gonna start making subpar Quinlan jams. Oh, apparently they were runny. Jam experts have said the jams were runny.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't know enough about jam. Although your husband makes a mean jam, and I ask him to do them again, and he won't.

[Natalie Jean]

I forgot my husband makes jams.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They were so good.

[Natalie Jean]

We're so good. I'm gonna have to get his ass back in the fucking kitchen.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'VE requested them for Christmas before. And he said, don't tell me what to do.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. That is so Jeff. Like, that is totally how he responds. He was. Yeah. And then he looked you up and down and went. And I was just like, yeah. Get up, Jeff. Oh. Oh, boy. You know how our family talks to each other.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Get him back in there.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. I gotta get to make a jam.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Jams.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God. He can go against the Markle jams. Yeah. Finally. It will be our future.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We can sell them when we go to Cons.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, we're selling them. Oh, we're selling them.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm sure they won't mind if we just sell them food we made in our kitchen.

[Natalie Jean]

You don't need any permits. Like, don't look into how we make them. It's fine. You'll like it. You'll like it. That's what we'll say when we sell.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's fine.

[Natalie Jean]

You'll like it. Okay. I'm so glad it sounds like this when I say things like that. That it's like, it's probably for the best. You're not a parent. Because I feel like it's like.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's right.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. You like it. It's gonna be fine. Get on the ride. Yeah. Don't worry. Yeah. They don't strap you, and you'll be fine. Hope for the best.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, I think that makes a strong child.

[Natalie Jean]

Right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So they're in this alleyway and they both are feeling this fear, but. But Hunt is more hesitant than her for obvious reasons. She had also hoped for. For normalcy, however, and this hugeness of what all of this implies is not what they were hoping for. We were never going to be allowed to live like normal people.

[Natalie Jean]

Bryce breathed, and Hunt ran a hand through her hair, savoring the silken strands.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Trouble was always going to come find us.

[Natalie Jean]

He knew she was right. They weren't the sort of people who could live ordinary lives. Hunt fought past the shaking in his bones, the roaring in his mind. I wanna come. That's what it was. That's what's roaring.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I mean, it is because of blue wings. Yeah. And also the scene coming up. They begin to have a private discussion about everything that's just happened, away from the others at the apartment, having their own, you know, side conversation, pointing out that all of these different groups, Ophion, the River Queen, and Cormac, they're all seeking out Emile. And if she really wants to help find him, she's going to need to tread lightly. She's putting herself in extreme danger. Bryce tells Hunt that beyond finding Emile, she needs to find intel on the Asteri through pursuing Sophie's research. But she reiterates that she doesn't give a shit if Emile is powerful. She wants to protect him, not use him for a weapon. Even though Hunt is apprehensive, he is touched that Bryce would care about this. This random kid. He wonders if Shahar would have cared.

[Natalie Jean]

Prob's not man, the comparisons, though, huh? It is man, the beginning of a relationship, too. When you first start and it's just like, all the trauma from your past relationship, you're always compared. It's like, God, you don't want to, but how do you stop?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, especially. I mean, he's for, like, 200 years or whatever. It's got a lot of baggage.

[Natalie Jean]

But also in thinking about the connection he had with Shahar in, like, going into the war last time versus how he feels about Bryce and their connection and the kind of person she is. Like, I wonder that I. I wonder how he does feel with that connection of, like, does he feel that he would be more successful with Bryce? Because she does care about other people more than Shahar did. But Shahar was also way more about the steadfast of the cause in a way that, like, is that not helpful in a rebellion?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, I think for. At least on a personal level, he's finding, like, a lot of us do, if you. You can't help but compare sometimes, and you realize, oh, some of these behaviors of my former partner were maybe red flags. Yeah, red flags that I didn't notice at the time. And he's sort of working through those, realizing, like, Bryce is more of a partner than Shah. Of just used him a lot of the time. But, I mean, he, like, also really liked it.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. I mean, we don't always pine for what is good for us.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As she muses over a world without the Asteri, Hunt pulls her in closer to him. He decides to be vulnerable and tell her that he wants to help that world become a reality. This world without the Asteri. But in the end, at the end of the day, he wants more than anything to have a world to share with Bryce. Whatever that means. We're not erotic yet. That is romance.

[Natalie Jean]

I'm sorry. It's romance. I'm sorry. My sword was getting.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I know it got up there. It was your romance boner.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Thank you. Her eyes softened once more, and her thumb stroked over his cheek again.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Same athelar.

[Natalie Jean]

He huffed a laugh, bowing his head, but she lifted his chin with her other hand, his fingers tightened on her waist. Price's whiskey colored eyes glowed in the muted light of the alley.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, since we're dabbling in some seriously dangerous shit, now's probably a good time as any to admit I don't want to wait until Winter Soldiers Solstice.

[Natalie Jean]

All these things that we have learned in this book already. I feel like at this point I was like, I forgot that you guys were waiting for Winter solstice. It's just like you knew they weren't doing it. You know they can't. They know they shouldn't. Life and time is finite.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, she's decided she ain't waiting.

[Natalie Jean]

Love this.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Waiting for what?

[Natalie Jean]

God?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You'll have to wait and see. I mean, obviously you couldn't take a guess, but we'll have some gentlemen reading the scene out for you.

[Natalie Jean]

So wait. The horniness is on its way?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. Get into the bath. Get ready for a real thrilling ride. They stop their alley behaviors after that scene, realizing they can't be seen lest Bryce's engagement ruse be discovered. And they need to use that as a cover. Right now they are just like, hooking up on the street. And so they shouldn't be doing that. Bryce and Hunt make plans to get together in a more intimate setting that night. Surely nothing will stop that.

[Natalie Jean]

No, not the apartment filled with people trying to get intel to possibly start a war.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Chapter 18 is back at Bryce's apartment with Ethan and Tharion still there from the earlier Series of Unfortunate Events. So we're back basically the same time period. Ethan and Tharion are the only ones left in the apartment. They're still reeling. But Bryce had, upon her departure, requested Tharion fill Ethan in about some of what has happened over the last spring. Because he's not filled in. They haven't been speaking. He wasn't at the summit either. So people. The people who saw some of the activities of what went on in the spring attack. He doesn't know. Therian breaks the news. Hunt killed Sandriel and Bryce killed Micah. Not only that, but the real big news for Ethan. Micah killed the wolves, including Connor. This is not something Ethan knew.

[Natalie Jean]

And he is so scared to tell a wolf. Like these big things. It's just like, are you gonna. Don't attack me. Don't kill the messenger. I know that you're gonna probably be upset. I know that you have a difficult time, like controlling your emotion. Water wall. Water wall. Yeah. Especially with, you know, Mer. I know that Therian, obviously, he's not.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Nervous or worried I feel like he can handle himself.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, he can.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So he did have to tell him that news. And Ethan is, is stunned. But as we're with his thoughts in this part of the chapter, we're also privy to his deep seated feelings of pain that he wasn't shared this information. Like him not learning this from Bryce or having this information from somebody who cares. Like he's sort of going through the emotions of losing his entire pack and just being like, wow, I'm completely alone, but just like sort of rich since he shut Bryce out and so why would she tell him stuff, you know?

[Natalie Jean]

But it's also like, man, I can't imagine how I would feel if all of my friends and my brother were fucking ripped to smithereens while I stepped out. So, you know, I'd probably make some weird decisions as well and probably push a lot of people away.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, then you don't get the information.

[Natalie Jean]

Come on.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's sort of, you know, I understand. But his wolfiness cries out for a pack that just doesn't exist right now. And so even though he is feeling the shock about the news about Connor, he feels a little betrayed that no one filled him in on the real way his brother died until this moment. He also feels a sense of shame. He's feeling a lot of feelings right now.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, he usually does. It's a lot of this. Oh, God.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, man.

[Natalie Jean]

That sound is what personifies Ethan.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I feel like he's really good at sunball, though.

[Natalie Jean]

He is. And you know, but also it's like he's young. He's a young wolf. Of course he's gonna be like, that's, that's the thing, right?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Like a couple years younger than Bryce.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. But I feel like it still is a wolf, like in the way that human males that are born males don't, you know, their brains don't function smart. They're dumber for a longer time is what I'm saying. I don't know how to properly say that. But they're biologically. Biologically they're dumber for a longer time. And I imagine if you throw wolf on top of that, that that's not really going to help. I feel like that pushes. I wouldn't rent a car to that wolf until they're at least 35. I feel like that's. I think we got to double it or that's not 40 though. So I, I'm not here to do math. I'm here to do science. Obviously.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes, we're going back to longer tomer let's get back into our. Our laboratory.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca Lita.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you.

[Natalie Jean]

I need to recognize. I also. I'm sorry, what you're going through with the divorce and trying to, like, become a pool shark again.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And I'm just going back to my skill set that my husband was intimidated by.

[Natalie Jean]

Whoa.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You know.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

And I'm not even trying to find love at the pool hall, but, like, if it finds me there. So what am I to say no to?

[Natalie Jean]

You're damn right now.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So we're with Ethan. He's feeling all these feelings. Therian ends their conversation and. Oh, and he feels a sense of shame. Sorry, I forgot this part. Ethan feels a sense of shame for questioning whether Bryce had cared about Connor and Danica. So he, you know, is going like, man, I should have never judged her in that time. Whatever. We're all. We're going through a lot. It's fine. Therian ends their conversation asking Ethan to find him. When he decides to pick himself up, dust himself off and start all over again. Sometimes you gotta. And he's saying that because he tells Ethan that he could use his wolf sense smells. His wolf smellies for his river queen duties.

[Natalie Jean]

Snout powers.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Snout powers. Ethan is sort of taken aback by this request, but Tharion just leaves with that. The suggestion that he could maybe team up with him.

[Natalie Jean]

It is fun. A little himbo team.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah, of course.

[Natalie Jean]

You know, I. I think that is part of what. But, you know, with all these damn series. I love a gaggle of himbos.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Of course.

[Natalie Jean]

I have. I have every patience in the world for a gaggle of himbos. Yeah. I melt at their feet or fin or tentacle. I don't know what they've got.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

I just. I love when they work together, but it is sometimes, like watching, you know, two makes me think of Billy from Hocus Pocus. But there's multiples of him and they're just like. They're just like, hitting into each other.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Is this. Is. This is sex where you were sexually attracted to Billy as a. As a child? You know.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you for asking that. I don't think that I was. I think I was too busy being sexually attracted to both. Sarah Jessica Parker. That is her hottest role. I mean, Sarah, she is. When she starts singing the song. And that's really where it. It. Where it comes from. But no, I guess.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Who else in the. Who else in that movie?

[Natalie Jean]

I was really young, so the. The main. Oh, the boy. Yeah. The main. But now, yeah, he's, you know, he's A child. But I remember as that was a.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Poor man's Devon Sawa.

[Natalie Jean]

You're damn right it was. I. Yeah. He wasn't given notes like Devin saw what was in Minutes of Casper and think of what he did. I know that he was in a lot of other things, too, but, like, he only needed a couple of minutes to transcend a generation. Good Lord. That one in, like, the one where the boys are in the river. They're river boys, but they're brothers and they gotta go on the river. The river. This was some river movie with Devon Sawa. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna look it up.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. I don't know what that is. While you're looking that up, Ethan thinks through everything he's just learned and decides that in this time America.

[Natalie Jean]

Specifically thinking of the movie Wild America Star starring Devin Sawa, as well as Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, my boy.

[Natalie Jean]

And also the two of them in a movie. Bro. Yeah. And they were like brothers that had to do something. And they were outside. And that's all I remember.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Was in love with jtz.

[Natalie Jean]

I. You know, I don't. I feel like we could watch this together. And I know it won't give you the same. Well, I hope. No.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ew. But I can go back into my inner child and be like, oh, I wish she would have seen this.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes. It's how I feel watching Buffy that. Like, if I watched Buffy when I was the age that Buffy was coming out, I would be a different human being. Like, I know that for a fact. With what? Like, the feelings I'm feeling validated by.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What would you be doing now?

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, kissing more women? Probably. I mean, Willow is really just the whole. It's. We're in season five of Buffy and just gotta save you. I've never gotten into Buffy. And you like these worlds. I think you're gonna like Buffy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

But then you wouldn't have become a podcaster. You'd be some kind of, like, biochemist that saves the world with an experiment.

[Natalie Jean]

It was the only other option I had.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You. Maybe you would have been in Weather Person.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, take me back. Sorry. Although you say that. But right now I am getting lost in the world of TikTok that is talking about doomsday and the Russian earthquake and what's gonna happen. Don't do that. So it's. Maybe it's for the best that I'm not in the world of anymore.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Please don't go down Doomsday tiktoks. It's an endless.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, but, Natalie, they Have no proof.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Right. Okay. So he thinks through everything he's just learned, and he decides he's going to take this time alone in the apartment. He needs to go see the sword because, like, the sword was this big, big part. Yes, just like that. No, he decides he is gonna go around and snoop in the apartment, being a. You know, before his morals get in the way. And so he starts peering around. He's not finding anywhere anywhere else, so he kind of sighs and he opens up Bryce's bedroom door like a little perv. There it is, right out in the open. He's surprised that he didn't see it that first night when he slept in there, but he was practically dead, so, you know, know you don't see stuff. Yeah, it's just chilling out next to her dresser. And Ethan thinks back to when the prime gifted this sword to Danika, which he did by bypassing Sabine, which infuriated Sabine, but too bad she's not good enough for it. You think, like, Danika seems like a good person and the prime seems like a decent person.

[Natalie Jean]

So what seems like a good person?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, we don't know.

[Natalie Jean]

Finding out a lot.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What happened? Why is Sabine such a.

[Natalie Jean]

I guess it's just one of those where it's like it. You know, it misses a generation every once in a while, you know, maybe it was just one of those.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What happened to her? What's her traumas?

[Natalie Jean]

She got hit by the stick, maybe slap.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, this could be true.

[Natalie Jean]

And it's difficult when it happens so young because you can't really turn that back.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You can always change, though.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, hit with the ugly stick, too. Except she didn't. She's really hot.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Beautiful.

[Natalie Jean]

Problem with all these villains.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They're beautiful.

[Natalie Jean]

So hot. But, you know, I think it's just someone that probably has been waiting. I imagine. You're filled with a lot of acid. This is coming from someone that, like, I'm not, you know, I. I don't get, like a trust fund. There's nothing in. I'm swinging it around. Natalie, don't worry about where the sword's going. Going. I feel like if you're just waiting your whole life for somebody to die so that you could take control over everything and you're that power hungry, you must, over time, just really get filled with such an acid that you can't be a good person if that's something you want or. I feel like it's the other of, like. And maybe this is just because we read Spare and Prince Harry's is like, oh, never gonna be. The king said nobody cared about me. He was just desp. You know? So that also affects life.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah, sure.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I.

[Natalie Jean]

They can't even ride on the same helicopters and private jets. Natalie, it's really.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'm. I don't. We don't think about his suffering.

[Natalie Jean]

What would we do if Henry and I could never be on a plane together ever again?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's why we have two separate helicopters for lpn. Yeah. So we can make sure one of them is always safe.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Both of them say House of Zabrowski on it, so we never know which one is which. So there. There is usually an argument on board. But it's like. Honestly, I think if you're not tussling as an adult, you're not doing it right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

There's also a third helicopter with a faker in it.

[Natalie Jean]

So Wendy and Carmen.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No. For when all of the snipers come by.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, God, I hate it. I hate it when they come after us in our power, and it's just like. Don't you know, I know what you're trying to do over here. I saw House of Gucci. I know what's gonna happen. It's just because the same Henry and I know that someday the Zabrowski family is going to slide into, like the Gucci family. And we're just waiting for that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We're just waiting for that.

[Natalie Jean]

That's why I'm starting to wear more black and gold.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Cool. That is good. That's a good first step.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So Sabine got passed by in this sword honor. It's like an inheritance. And it went straight to Danica, which, of course, is going to only put more resentment inside of Sabine. He remembers how Sabine had ripped Bryce and Danica's apartment to pieces looking for it after the murders. We, the reader know Danica stored it at Griffins, and Bryce used it during the demon attack, but Ethan assumed she had returned it to Sabine. I don't know why he would assume that since Sabine is a sub.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Noise. Yeah, I think it's also. So Ethan is not the most.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No.

[Natalie Jean]

Logical.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He's not necessarily a genius. His emotions spike as he pulls the sword out of its sheath. A reminder of the friend he had lost who had carried this sword with her everywhere before she died. He describes it as a simple but impeccable piece of craftsmanship.

[Natalie Jean]

You're right about that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

As he marvels at it, he can't help but start swinging it around the apartment, having a pretend sword fight. Because of course. Course.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, is there too much Equipment.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No. Yes. They're so expensive. It's so expensive. So he starts using it at the furniture as props in this sword fight he's having, swinging around and sliding until he ends up standing on the coffee table in front of the infamous white couch. Just as he's slicing into an imaginary foe, Bryce's front door opens, and a shocked Bryce stands in the doorway, stunned. I forgot my work id.

[Natalie Jean]

Bryce started brows so high they seemed capable of touching her hairline. Ethan prayed Solas would melt him into the floor and boil his blood into steam. It seemed the sun God was listening, running. The coffee table groaned, then cracked and collapsed entirely beneath him. You silly wolf. What are you doing up there? Get down over there. Get over there. You're also supposed to be on the table.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, Ethan.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, Ethan.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

To be fair, this does seem like something that would happen to me.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. I mean, I was on a. Remember old Jackie Noodle Ripper Zabrowski. I was on a noodle in my mother's pool.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It was amazing.

[Natalie Jean]

And I was. And my lower back had been pulled out, and I was sitting on the noodle, and the noodle just atrophied beneath my. Like, beneath my feet. Cause I was standing on the noodle, and I went. And then I hurt my back. I went to grab, but I made such a sound that my whole family really just lost their minds.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Look, it was the cartoonish element of this pool noodle split in, cracked in half. And because it was under Jackie, it shot up on either side of her into the air on both sides, and she just went.

[Natalie Jean]

And you're vulnerable when you're in a pool. And then it was just. You know, it's. Of course, man. You do that kind of stuff in front of your older brother. And then it's just like. Oh, God, listen, at least it was.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Just in front of your family. Imagine. Imagine if it was when you were younger and you were, like, flirting with a boy.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, my God. Or at, like, especially at a pool party when I was younger, which was already so filled with so many difficult emotions. And then if that happened. No, I would. I think. I don't know what I would have done.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You screamed my back.

[Natalie Jean]

And then they all laughed and laughed. Oh, my God. So you're right. That is kind of. It's very Our family. You know, I. I've broken a chair or two in my day, and, man, you think you're gonna die of embarrassment, but you don't. You just keep on keeping on.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Listen, you. You had a. A noodle accident. I had Maggots in my laundry. We got a lot of stuff going.

[Natalie Jean]

We all have stuff. You know, just think every time you think. Not everybody has problems. Everybody's got something.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Even these guys.

[Natalie Jean]

What, Rebecca Lita?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Even Rebecca Lita.

[Natalie Jean]

I mean, she doesn't have custody of the kids anymore, but it might be for the best.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

Does she want them? If they really impede with the whole pool shark aspect.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He trapped her. So, mortified at what had just occurred, he scrambles to think of something to say to her. But before he can get a word out, Bryce starts walking towards him, her eyes focused on something nearby where he laid sans his dignity. What the hell is this?

[Natalie Jean]

She asked, kneeling.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ethan turns to where she is looking and sees that she's picked up a pile of papers, seemingly from inside of the table. They quickly determine that this must have been left by Danika, since there are no drawers in this table and the furniture all belonged to Danica prior to Bryce living there. So these were Bryce inside, I guess like a hidden latch.

[Natalie Jean]

Hidden papers. Although, to be fair, how many papers that you like. Oh, I'm gonna keep this. I have to keep this that you just have lying around your house that I feel like if I had important information just on a piece of paper somewhere, I would never ever find it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, they were.

[Natalie Jean]

They were in the. But I'm saying, even if it were out in the open, not looking at that shit. Every time you write a note for yourself, do you ever go back? Very rarely. Do you, like, remember, go back and look at it?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

For me, writing notes is just. It like, makes my mind pen to paper. Yes. I won't ever even look at it again, but it helps me, like, sort of solidify it.

[Natalie Jean]

It's how I remember lines. I write them down.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Before we can peer into what these papers are. Now we cut over to Ruhn on the same afternoon, brooding in the Ox armory with Declan and Flynn. This was the plan for the day before. Bryce had texted him earlier to meet. You know, he just was gonna have a day go to meet with the Fae boys. They're gonna clean their weapons off, they're gonna do an inventory, then they're gonna go home. But no, can't have that. Little sister's back in town and she needs him to come and learn a bunch of dangerous information that'll mess up everyone's lives.

[Natalie Jean]

Sorry.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Sorry. That's what you want. You. You were sad you weren't talking to your sister. Well, this is what you get now.

[Natalie Jean]

Yep.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So he had had this plan for the day that's been ruined and now fresh hell is rained down upon him. And the other two don't understand what he's brooding about. So after the three of them do.

[Natalie Jean]

They're so good at brooding though it's really hard to stop him once he starts.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He looks so good doing.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh my God. You know he looks good. Ah, he's just one of those bastards.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's like a cigarette hanging out of.

[Natalie Jean]

His mouth and you just. It's like drinking midday. And it's like you shouldn't be and I shouldn't be attracted. Man. That picture. That picture I gave you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh yeah. Totally. Yep. Put it in my she shed.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Hell yeah. Slut hood.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Slut hood. My hitch. Yeah. Which is fair because my dogs are always in there and they're girls.

[Natalie Jean]

Hell yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Female dogs.

[Natalie Jean]

So physically apartments.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So they do their little requisite teasing of each other and then Run lets them know about everything that's just gone down in the apartment. He immediately breaks the promise to not tell anybody. He knows Bryce. He's just like us. Yep, he knows Bryce and Hunt will be pissed. But Run only trusts these two with this info. And frankly, they're his partners and probably need to know certain things for Rune to be able to be like safe throughout these things. So. And true to their loyalty to Ruhn. They tell him after he reveals all of this new information that they have his back. Whether or not he decides to put himself at risk by working for Ophion. Because again, if you need a refresher. Cormac, as he was leaving, asked if Rune would come meet with him to pitch the idea of working with Ophion. The Rebellion as he is the prince of the Fae. It's like not a.

[Natalie Jean]

It's not insane safe decision.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's scary. Run feels love for his friends even as he's so bummed about everything going on, he considers them as brothers. After they discuss the situation some more and bust some bulls noise, Run tells them that he begrudgingly is going to see what Cormac has to say. Because Cormac said he was going to.

[Natalie Jean]

Be at this specific bar and they're not going to start kissing because they're cousins. Even though it's far off. They're definitely not.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They're too close in bloodline line. I. I can't have. I can't do fantasies.

[Natalie Jean]

The Royals. You know what I mean? I feel like that's all they do.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't want to see it at 19. Read about at 19. Chapter 19.

[Natalie Jean]

Estranged.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We're back.

[Natalie Jean]

Ew.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, that's to make it better. Ew, gross. At chapter 19. Back with. We're back with Bryce, and she and Ethan look at. Are looking at whatever was inside this table. And at first, as they're sifting through these piles of papers, it looks like almost a call, like college research of Danica's. But Bryce knows that Danica had never talked about the things that are on these papers. It was never, like her major. It wasn't something she had been studying. Mostly they revolve around different methods of turning first light into weapons. As they look more, they notice that many of these pages have been redacted as if they are government documents. Documents. Maybe the hysteria was on Epstein Island.

[Natalie Jean]

No, it's just real life. Actual evil.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. They contemplate what this could mean. And Ethan admits that he and Connor knew about Danica's bloodhound sense. I mean, maybe that has something to do with this.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Shaking. Bryce reads through these papers, which call into question whether or not the Asteri are actually undying stars, as they claim to be.

[Natalie Jean]

Okay, so we can actually question this?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, I think it's very dangerous waters to tread upon.

[Natalie Jean]

Maybe we should hide the paper. Hide the papers.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Whoa. The papers point out this truth, that the only evidence that these Asteri are, you know, eternal stars is that they claim it. They just say that it's true. And so.

[Natalie Jean]

Which is crazy, because it's like we just killed two of them.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, I know.

[Natalie Jean]

Special.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes, but one of the hysteria died. Yes, because there's an empty chair.

[Natalie Jean]

Empty chair. Or died. Or I mean, or on a mission doing important. A scary things.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That's my shrug. Going into space. Space.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We don't know, necessarily, but the Asteri would have. The citizens of Midgard believe that they are basically immortal and you can't hurt them generally. But do we actually know this? We don't, because we have to just take their word for it. But these papers, you know, they're saying, are they more fragile than they tell Midgard they are? Did Danika or Sophie find proof that the Asteri are actually much more fragile? Fragile? Bryce wonders if her own starlight is related to theirs and feels sick. Because as they call themselves undying stars, Bryce has some kind of starlight power, and she's hoping that she's not connected to them somehow, but we don't know yet. She wants to call Hunt at this moment, but she doesn't dare speak about this over the phone because obviously, very dangerous info. Also, she's still in a sort of haze of love blessed because this is the aftermath of them being in that.

[Natalie Jean]

Alleyway and they were just coming on. It's just like another thing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So even though the shocking revelation it has got her kind of like spin spun, got her twisted. Sure, she's distracted by how much she wants Hunt physically, she tries to shake off her lust, thanking Earth for calling her back to this apartment just in time for this discovery.

[Natalie Jean]

She exhaled, ran a hand over the pages. The final papers in the pile made Bryce's breath catch.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

What is it?

[Natalie Jean]

Ethan asked. Bryce shook her head, angling slightly away from him to read the text again. Dusk's Truth.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's the mysterious phrase that was in the email exchanges between Sophie and Danika. So she has this written on this paper. Bryce turns the page, is disappointed to find the rest of it empty.

[Natalie Jean]

Come on, just keep throwing these phrases out here.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's like Danika died before she could finish the research. Even with all this, she knows she has to go back to her job at the Fae Archives. Bryce teases Ithan not to play quote warrior hero on any more of her stuff and he's like oh jeez.

[Natalie Jean]

Bryce snickered and grabbed her ID from where she'd left it hanging beside the door. But then she sobered.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You looked good wielding it, Ethan.

[Natalie Jean]

I just screwed around. His tone was tense enough that she didn't say anything more before leaving.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We go back over to Ruhn.

[Natalie Jean]

I was just going around. We go Sorry he's just such a big dumb idiot. He's pretty dumb and I I like that.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, he's a sweetie.

[Natalie Jean]

He. I know. I don't dislike him either. It is just it. I can never really move him from the little brother.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, I'm not attracted to his character.

[Natalie Jean]

No no no.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We go back to Run who has arrived at the meeting place to find Cormac in a pool hall in five.

[Natalie Jean]

Rows of oh, is this where Rebecca Lita's been hanging out? Okay, trying to get Cormac away from Bryce a little bit.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, she is there for the pool. If she finds love, it's like on accident. Oh my God, she's reclaiming her talent. Yes. Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

Get ya groove back, bitch.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Cormac, who is playing pool against the Satyr when Rune arrives, lives, tells Roon he wouldn't have acted on his threat to tell the Autumn King about Rune's mind speaking powers whether or not he showed up, essentially saying, you didn't actually have to come. I wasn't gonna do it by way of greeting.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh he's so sure of himself. Cormac. Oh, yeah. You make me want to roll my eyes on top of that dick.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, you'd be down there, but you'd be rolling those eyes.

[Natalie Jean]

I would be. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then he'd probably love it, and he would. Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, his heart's with another bird. Run is like, yeah, whatever, dude. Just tell me what you want. The satyr bails and Run takes to.

[Natalie Jean]

Go back to her full life. Right. Is that you're the satyr. Oh, I thought you were the one playing pool with him specifically. You're just. At all. Got you. Okay. All right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, I'm a Faye.

[Natalie Jean]

I didn't mean to be misspeak of the actions of Rebecca Lita.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you. I appreciate it.

[Natalie Jean]

I'm just trying to give her a fullness that she expects and deserves.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thank you so much. And she. She feels validated and seen.

[Natalie Jean]

Thank you.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So Run takes up the place of the Seder who was playing pool with Cormac. As Cormac racks the balls, they are hesitant around each other, but far less tense now that they know they are sort of on the same side of history. So before, they were, like, basically mortal enemies, and now they have this sort of tense camaraderie in this moment, we're.

[Natalie Jean]

On the same side. Yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Rune immediately starts dominating Cormac and Pool, And Cormac self consciously says, well, yes, because you're. This is more your crowd hanging out at bars and stuff. I've just got other things as well.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I forgot. You're so important. You're so big. Oh, I forgot.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

You don't usually, you know, bow down to the. The wiles of a shark.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. So he has to basically kind of like, put Rune down because runes better than him at it. Runes like, sorry, I'm fun. Also, I sort of had the entire ox for the face, so why don't you shut your face up?

[Natalie Jean]

So, yeah, I choose to not be good at pool.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

After some more back and forth runes, just like, Just tell me why you want me to be here, bro. Cormac's like, okay, we have a hole in our communications because of Sophie's death, and I just realized something. I can't. I. When I was writing this, I was like, oh, wow. I never put that together before, but I can't say it right now.

[Natalie Jean]

Tell me via mindspeak.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'll tell you afterwards. Oh, are you waiting?

[Natalie Jean]

No, I'm trying to work on our mind speak. I think that we. If we worked on it, we could get into it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay. Okay. I just like straining the face muscles.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. I think that's all you have to do.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

So I guess we have to really wait for, like, the Botox to fall out. Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

You got to wait.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I can't really. I can do a little bit. Yeah.

[Natalie Jean]

I can do a little bit.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Look at that. They move. Whoa.

[Natalie Jean]

It's like, what do we pay for? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We're all just trying to make it by guys. So we're. There's some more. So then they're going back and forth. He says. Says we have this lapse because of Sophie being a part of this communication line. Sophie was the point person to communicate with somebody named Agent Daybright.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Cormac goes on to explain. Was that the Day Man?

[Natalie Jean]

I do think about Day man almost every time I read the word Dave. Right. So I'm gonna try to not do that. That too many times.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

You have to pay the troll toll.

[Natalie Jean]

To get into the boys hole. Yeah. Is it always sunny references?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Love them. Cormac goes on to explain that while Opian doesn't know exactly who Agent Daybright is, that they are very important to the mission, that they have direct communication somehow with the Asteri, and they have pondered. Ophion has pondered whether or not Daybright is actually themselves one of the. The Asteri. That's how high up they. They seemingly are. Whoa. Which would be real helpful in an overthrow if one of the Asteri is on board.

[Natalie Jean]

Here's hoping, y'.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

All. He explains that the two of them, Sophie and Agent Daybright, communicated using these crystals that he calls calm crystals. But Ophi now fears that these crystals were compromised somehow with how fast Sophie was taken out at the prologue. So now Cormac would like to have somebody with mindspeak abilities to take that spot over to do that instead of using the calm crystals.

[Natalie Jean]

Could be us if you wanted to work on it with me.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't. Do you want to be in a. I don't want to be in a battle.

[Natalie Jean]

I just feel like. Yeah, but we'll just, like, use it. We'll use it only for good.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Okay. And then we can just stay at the office.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. But then we could also, like, judge.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, cool.

[Natalie Jean]

That's kind of fun. Maybe, like, Mean Girls and nobody would know it.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Well, keep it inside. Run thinks about his mind speakability. And he remembers in his thoughts that he felt first realized he could do this thing at the age of four when he Asked his mom for something in her mind, and she screamed awesome. He also knows it comes somewhere from her genetics. He kept it a secret after that, seeing the fear on his mother's face. So as a child, he figured out that it was bad thing to tell people, which is very sad. His mom seemed to think that she must have imagined his voice, though. You would think. Think if she had it in her bloodline, she would consider that she. Her kid, has it, right? Whatever Cormac says, if he's got any conscience, Rune, that is, that he will do this. That the camps are unbearably evil and now that Daybright has been assisting them, that. That they have made real headway with dismantling some of them, the camps, and kind of just like getting in to infiltrate the Asteri. He tells Run he needs him.

[Natalie Jean]

Ruhn couldn't fault him for trying. While he couldn't read thoughts or invade people's unguarded minds, some of his cousins could. He'd learned that he could talk to people on a sort of psychic bridge, as if his mind had formed it brick by brick between souls. It was perfect for a spy network. That's awesome. Yeah, it is. I love it because I feel like this is one of those things that's like, all right, don't think about it too hard, right?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Just.

[Natalie Jean]

Just psychic bridge. Okay? Go for it. Just go with it. I. I love psychic bridge. I love that it is different than mind speak. I love that it is something that is also like a mind telepath, but is. Yeah, it's a little Criss angel on there, maybe. Yeah, we need a little bit more. We need a couple more magic sluts to pepper in there.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Korvac insists that if he will aid the cause, that he could save thousands of lives. But Ruhn also knows the counter side of that, that if he gets involved, he'll be aiding in deaths, too, because that's war.

[Natalie Jean]

But the deaths are gonna happen anyway, babe.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Even if. But it's like when you take on the first person account of it, if you're. If you're the one taking the lives, even if they're, quote, unquote, bad guys, you're still deciding to take lives. And that's a big choice to make.

[Natalie Jean]

You're right. And I'm saying this as someone that, you know, has never to do that or expected to do that. So it's a. It's, I guess, a bit of a privilege.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

If somebody asks you, you probably should tell somebody. So I don't know who that would be. Exactly.

[Natalie Jean]

Who should I not tell you what Henry says we have to do?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Who would he be trying to take out?

[Natalie Jean]

I don't know. I feel like maybe somebody that hates whales. Like, I feel like we'll go after them.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, like, so we're doing, like, environmental activism. Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Instead of answering, like, instead of giving an answer right away to Cormac, he asks Cormac how he came to be aiding Opion in the first place. Cormac tells him it began four years prior, and he holds the position now of field commander in opion. He mentions with sadness that Sophie was actually one of his agents and how they met. Run points out that finding a meal would go counter to Ophian's hopes, because he had already said he doesn't want to give email to Ophion that Emil's afraid of Pippa and that he would be hiding Emil. Cormac explains that he still believes in ophion. He believes in the mission, the goal, but there are people in it who he doesn't agree with. And that's probably true in any movement. You know, he just. He sees that some of the people, oh, the sword. We lost the sword.

[Natalie Jean]

Sword.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That some people, like Pippa, who've, like, completely lost the plot and are kind of just becoming villains themselves, they look too deep into the abyss. He doesn't agree with them. So he does agree with the mission, but he will not just give his full loyalty over to them. And I think that's actually good. They talk back and forth as they play pool. Rune beating his ass. Rune asks him if he decides to agree to be a part of the Ophion mission. You know, how does this work? What's the protocol going to be? Cormac explains that he. He, Ruhn would contact Daybright. None of these people knew anything about this agent and would basically just go mind to mind, get information from Daybright, and then transfer it to Cormac, who would then use it with Ophion. You know, Cormac says, you can trust me because we both hold extremely dangerous information about one another. And Ruhn could just as easily get Cormac thrown into the Asteri torture dungeon engines as Cormac could ruin. And this is sort of the double jeopardy.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, man, it is Ashley judding on it. And I think that it's kind of nice because that's family, you know?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ah, family. You know, all of the horrible things.

[Natalie Jean]

Yep. And I'll put you in jail. Go, baby. So put you away.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I feel like there's not any exciting secrets, though.

[Natalie Jean]

No, sorry. Maybe we'll have to make some more. Maybe that's, you know, for. Do more.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

More espionage or crimes or something.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, I don't know what the next, you know, decade has in store.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's true. Basically, Cormac's like, you do give this to me, but you. You have to trust me, because you could throw me in jail anytime. You know really bad secrets about me. Run. Wants to know how he even calls them. And Cormac hands him a comm crystal like the ones they had used before. And he said, hey, try this old way. See if you can find Daybright through that path. And then maybe you won't have to use the comm. After a while, you can just, like, find the path again. Maybe that's how that works.

[Natalie Jean]

Which is cool. And I know that the comm crystals are probably way more, like, tech heavy than just, like, a quartz, but I do imagine them just talking into an actual. No, that's what they said, right? Just a crystal of sorts. And then it's just like, man thinking of, like, what if they found out that in our world, people think that you use it as deodorant? You know, it's like. But they're using it in a whole different way. And what would Cormac have to say about that? You're like, oh, the stinky paper. Like, you're right.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yes. Just like in Pitts Guard Pit.

[Natalie Jean]

Scarred. I'll bring it back around. Natalie G. Yeah, so they basically.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They do have crystals just like the gates that allow for the communication. They trip. They take a big crystal hunk, and they chip off little pieces, and then those become.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh, big hunk. Huh? Big hunk of crystals.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Crystal.

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah. You got big lips on that big hunk.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't even know what that means.

[Natalie Jean]

A big hunk.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, cuz. A big hunk.

[Natalie Jean]

Got it. So if it was a crystal with just big lips, like a Mr. Potato Head crystal, but not the rest of him.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So Cormac mentions that the crystal that he has now was Sophie's, and Run. Notes the pain in his eyes. Ruhn tells him that Sophie seemed like an incredible person and then asks Cormac if he loved her. He tells Ruhn that he did, and he does that he needs to find her in a meal to learn if she somehow survived, Ruhn noted the faint.

[Natalie Jean]

Hint of desperation, of dread and panic, and decided to put his cousin out of his misery.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

We suspect Danika might have told Sophie to lie low in the bone coral her.

[Natalie Jean]

He said, oh, that's cute. Is it A friend connection.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's at least less. At least front of me.

[Natalie Jean]

Yes.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Yeah. Cormax kind of is startled by this, but then hides his emotions again. Back in soldier mode. He says they will then need to come up with a safe way to infiltrate the dangerous area of the Bone Quarter. So he has, like, this thrill of hope almost go through him. Ruhn ignores his turn of emotions and tells him. He thinks that if they find Sophie, that Cormac should damn his father to hell and marry her.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh. Which also ruin. It's like, we all know it's fun in theory to be like. And then we damn that Daddy. And I'd say, daddy, I'm gonna do whatever I'm gonna do, but it's a beautiful dream.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Ruhn is just. He's. He's waxing poetic because he wants love. Love. And he doesn't have it.

[Natalie Jean]

I know.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That conversation leads to Cormac broaching the subject of Hypaxia because Run, of course, is engaged to her, and he's like, well, she could. I mean, you're gonna marry her, right? She seems pretty cool. They're almost, like, bonding over this conversation. And Run thinks about how beautiful and wise Hypaxia seems. But he doesn't think marriage is on the horizon for them, for one re many reasons. One of them being that she doesn't seem remotely interested in him. He doesn't seem super interested in her in that way either.

[Natalie Jean]

But also, it doesn't seem like they've spent a whole hell of a lot of time together.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's so awkward, because if you're put in that position, it's like, what now we just have to be like, okay, well, our daddies and mommy said we have to be together, so what's your favorite color? Yeah, like, it would be kind of, like, unsexy.

[Natalie Jean]

And then finding out that it's like, how do. Like, it's like they Prefer the Godfather 3. And it's like, oh, wow. Okay, well, we'll figure that out.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

That is an opinion, huh? That is a thought. Okay.

[Natalie Jean]

Really into the Minions. And it's like, well, to what extent? It's like, oh, man. Cormac just has a whole wing dedicated to the Minions.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Why?

[Natalie Jean]

Yeah, huge. His entire back is a minion tattoo. It's like, is that Bob? Oh, boy.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

So Cormac then gives Run. So they have this, like, Bonnie moment, and then they go back to business because basically Run has agreed to do this. Cormac gives him a bunch of codes to relay to Daybright, so they know he's not a spy. And Cormac also mentions that when he goes to this first meeting with Agent Daybright, that he should inquire about movements on the Ophian plan to attack the Spine.

[Natalie Jean]

The Spine? The North South Railway that cut Panjera in half, the main artery for supplies in this war.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

It's a pretty cool name for a train.

[Natalie Jean]

It is. Yeah. It's pretty badass.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

He also mentions that Daybright has been feeding them intel about a new kind of mech suit being cooked up by the Asteri. This kind is for the veneer, which is not sounding good for the humans.

[Natalie Jean]

No.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

They wrap their game up, their pool game. And Cormac tells Roon he's going to go down to the Black Dock to see if he can sense any evidence of Sophie and Emil being through the area. He notes to run that, hey, you know you're doing this. Your friends are going to be really pissed that you're helping Opian. It's like, okay, Cormac, why are you trying to get him to back out of it all of a sudden? Run says he'll deal with it.

[Natalie Jean]

Cormac observed him once more.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

When you want out, I'll get you out. I promise.

[Natalie Jean]

Rune sank his last ball into his chosen pocket and leaned the stick against the concrete wall.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I'll hold you to that.

[Natalie Jean]

Hold you that. Up against the table.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

No, they're cousins.

[Natalie Jean]

Cousins, Jackie. And even though there was a restaurant called Kiss and Cousin Cousins in your hometown, it doesn't mean it should be something that you should encourage. Where there's a diner called Kissing Cousins and Cousins was spelled C, U, Z, I, N, S. Yes. Kissing, apostrophe, Cousins. And you don't consider Queens your hometown? No. I guess it really depends. I think it's because. Because I have. I think it's you, really. It's like, where do you have the most trauma? That's your hometown, right? You know, I feel like middle school and high school, and that's, for me, that's Florida. Because I feel like Florida. Specifically, me up in a lot of ways.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

I don't know why. It's just.

[Natalie Jean]

It's doing great now. I know. Well, this was great. I'm really. I guess everybody's about to get horny, huh?

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Oh, yeah, baby.

[Natalie Jean]

Be careful. And now, dudes, Grappling with Erotica, starring Mike Lawrence and Jake Young.

[Hunt]

Bryce asked, head tilting to the side. And what about Cormac's talk of freeing the world from the Asteri? That doesn't hold any weight with you. Of course it does. He slid a hand over her waist, tugging her closer. A world without them. Without the archangels and the hierarchies. I'd like to see that world one day, but. His throat dried up. But I don't want to live in that world if the risk of creating it means get it out. If it means we might not make it to that world. Her eyes softened more and her thumb stroked over his cheek again.

[Natalie Jean]

See, Bethilor?

[Hunt]

He huffed a laugh, bowing his head, but she lifted his chin with her other hand. His fingers tightened on her waist. Bryce's whiskey colored eyes glowed in the muted light of the alley.

[Natalie Jean]

Well, since we're dabbling in some seriously.

[Hunt]

Dangerous shit now, it's probably as good a time as any to admit I.

[Natalie Jean]

Don'T want to wait until winter Solstice.

[Hunt]

For what? Fuck. His voice had dropped an octave. This she murmured word and rose onto her toes to kiss him. Hunt met her halfway, unable to contain his groan as he hauled her against him, lips finding hers at the same moment their bodies touched. He could have sworn the fucking world spun out from under him at the taste of her. His head filled with the fire and lightning and storms. Fire, lightning and storms. That's a lot. And all he could think of was her mouth, her warm, luscious body and the aching of his cock pressing against his pants.

[Natalie Jean]

Oh my.

[Hunt]

Pressing against her as her arms twined around his neck. He was going to kick that wolf out of the apartment immediately. Hunt twisted, pinning her against the wall and her mouth opened wider on a gasp. He swept his tongue in, tasting the honeyed spice that was was pure Bryce.

[Natalie Jean]

You ready for that, Bryce?

[Hunt]

She wrapped a leg around his waist and Hunt took the invitation, hefting her thigh higher, pressing himself against her until they were both writhing. Anyone might walk by the alley and see them. Lunchtime workers were streaming past. All it would take is one peek down the alley into the dusty shadows. One photograph and this whole thing.

[Jackie Zabrowski]

Thing?

[Hunt]

Hunt halted. One photo and her engagement to Cormac would be off, along with the bargain Bryce had crafted with him. Bryce asked, panting hard, what's wrong? We Words had become foreign. All thought had gone from between his legs. Between her legs. He swallowed hard, then gently backed away, trying to master his jagged brain breathing. You're engaged. Technically. You have to keep up that ruse with Cormac. At least in public. She straightened her dress and was that a lilac lace bra peeking out from behind the neckline? Why the hadn't he explored that just now? Bryce peered down the alley, lips swollen from his knee. From his wow. Can we take that again? Bryce peered down the alley, lips swollen from his kid kisses, and some feral part of him howled in satisfaction to see that he had done that. He had brought that flush to her cheeks, the wine rich scent of arousal to her. She was his and he was hers, utterly fucking hers. D and P together as one. Do you think we have problems expressing ourselves sexually? I haven't in over 45 years.

[Natalie Jean]

Please read up until chapter 22 for next week. Sam.