So.
A lot happening here.
Our main characters are Susan and Ravyn. Susan is a reporter who used to be renowned for her investigative reporting. She was disgraced and now works for a trashy tabloid. The kind that writes about bat boys and alien invaders.
The catch? It's run by a squire! If you don't remember squires, they're the human helpers of the Dark Hunters. They help care for them during the day to allow them to focus on protecting humans against the Daimons.
Ravyn, he's a rare were-Dark Hunter. See, if you remember the creation story of weres, you'll remember they were created by a king to save his Apollite sons from dying at 27. That makes the weres and Apollites cousins of sorts. So, becoming a hunter isn't something that weres really do or appreciate.
His backstory, like all Dark Hunters, is pretty sad. As a were, he received the mate mark. If you remember from the other were stories, were's get one fated mate. It's the only person they can procreate with. And it's all on the women to choose to stay with her mate. Ravyn's mate was a human. His mother encouraged him to tell her the truth about them, that if she loved him, she would accept him.
Well, she didn't love or accept him. She ran and told her village about them. Her village then attacked his and killed all the women and children. Everyone who was in the village was slaughtered. The men were out hunting when it happened. Some were bonded with their mates and died when the women did. That's how the group knew what was happening. They rushed back, but it was too late.
Ravyn's family has blamed him ever since.
With Maggie's help, the family comes to some understanding, and the process of forgiveness starts.
But there's way more important things happening here.
One, I loved the fact that Ravyn doesn't stop being a Dark Hunter. He wants to keep doing it, wants to stay immortal, wants to bond with Susan so she lives as long as he does. They seem to ignore the down side that she's still vulnerable, but now if someone kills her, they kill him, too. Or maybe it's that he wouldn't want to live without her. Fair point, but still. We'll let that slide, though. She also becomes a squire.
Another hunter here, Cael, is in love with Appolite. When the baddies attack, she accidentally becomes a daimon. Cael is dying, so she gives him daimon blood as well. He becomes...something else. We don't really know what, or what it means. We do know Ash knows it's going to happen. So, I'm sure we'll see more about that later.
Nick is also back. Kenyon worked in the events of Katrina really well. As well as the horror and loss those who love New Orleans feel. Nick hates Ash even more because of it. He blames Ash for not stopping the storm, or making sure it never started. He clearly doesn't understand how Ash's powers work. But I'm sure he will.
There was something else. When Nick was ranting about Ash, he said he saw Kyrian near the River Styx. Here's the issue with that: Ash said the reason he could bring Kyrian back was because he hadn't moved on - he stayed with his wife and daughter. As did his wife. But Nick says he sees Kyrian in the afterlife and Kyrian is freaking because Amanda, not being an ancient Greek, didn't go to the same afterlife realm. But that poses the question: why was Nick there? He's not an ancient Greek either. And even if you can say that it's because Nick serves Artemis in a way, then it still doesn't explain how Kyrian was there, yet refused to leave his body. Either Ash or Nick is wrong. I tend to think Nick was being tricked. But maybe not.
So, Ash asked Savitar to train Nick, since Nick isn't super happy with Ash. Savitar drops him with Ravyn to train him here. Nick seems way to pissy to be trained by anyone though. You have to be willing to learn to be trained.
Now, for my "Oh, Nick." Satara, Stryker's sister and a (disgruntled) Artemis servant, tricks Nick. Well, she and Stryker do trick him, but Nick is kind of willing to be tricked. He's so angry at Ash that when a daimon offers to help him, he never even considers this might be the same daimon who killed his mother. Seems pretty foolish to me. But he's obviously not thinking clearly.
I have no idea what's going to happen with Nick or Cael. Nick I think will come to understand Ash and, if not reconcile, will be able to give up his anger and vengeance. While Ash does have Nick's soul, Nick still needs to find his love to get it back. One interesting thing Ash says in passing is that Nick was supposed to marry at 30 and have a house full of kids, but his future wife ended up dead on her shop floor. I think that's a reference to Amanda and Tabitha's sister who died the same night as Nick's mom. What that means going forward, I have no idea.
It does highlight what Ash says about one decision changing so many fates.
As for Cael, I got nothing. We'll just have to wait and see.
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