I don’t need the water,” I mutter. “I never do. My highs never last for longer than a handful of minutes after my last drink. An unfortunate side effect of my blood-gift. My system purges liquor and boosters at warp speed.” The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen's deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive.

He blows me a kiss from the chair. “Nope. This gig will get too dark and depressing otherwise. Gotta hold on to joy some kind of way, girl.” I’m experienced. Aging and wisdom go hand in hand. Live long enough, see enough suns rise in the Iludu sky, and you, young girl, will get better wits about yourself too. You might even know the good fortune of becoming like me: forward thinking. But none of that is the point. What’s pertinent for you to weigh here is if you don’t hold that same belief about what influence you might come to yield, then really, dear, what do you have to lose by agreeing to an old woman’s delusional requests?” SR1] The Elder God: "The birth of one of Kain's abominations traps the essence of life. It is this soul that animates the corpse you 'lived' in. And that Raziel, is the demise of Nosgoth. There is no balance. The souls of the dead remain trapped. I can not spin them in the Wheel of Fate. They can not complete their destinies." His thumb retraces its former path along my bottom lip, and I remember that it’s been resting in the center of it all along. I catch the tip of the digit between my teeth, playfully.I snort—which isn’t the most attractive or mature reaction. But everything about this moment is surreal and bewildering and my brain has pseudo-short-circuited. “That makes two of us,” I say, like an adult who can use words. I stand in the middle of the courtyard fighting not to vibrate with dual rage and grief. But the attempt doesn’t matter. The team glimpses what I try to conceal anyway. I see it in Dannica’s, Haynes’s, and Reed’s sympathetic stares. In Caiman’s and Greysen’s winces. In Liim’s and Dane’s scrubbed expressions. I snort. I know Haynes is only ribbing Reed, like the asshat often does, but it irks me that Reed’s getting tossed a heap of crap for merely being human.

We stay like that for a long time with Reed pouring the apology and explanation he verbalized into the kiss, and me accepting it, welcoming it, and devouring it. I drink in everything he gives me, and I never want it to cease. But I do pause for a second to admit something vital. “To be honest, this is all I wanted to do to you after Khanai too. Though, I was prepared to murder you as well if you tried to come for me.” In this sequel to The Blood Trials we continue where the story left off with Ikenna and crew trying to create allies in their quest to take down The Blood Emperor. Funny,” I retort. “You must be a different Darius from the trials because I didn’t know you had any sense of humor.” The ancient/original Vampires (like Janos) had one method, by which Vorador was raised, and by which Vorador would also raise his vampire offspring. This would be a more "traditional" method, where the vampiric curse is passed from one vampire to a human. [17] Would you really relinquish your life and your people’s lives to make a point?” I ask tightly while wanting to jab Reed in the throat.SR2] Raziel (referring to the murals in the Air Forge): "The scenes I discovered here were unambiguous. Raziel found the final pieces of the puzzle. He saw murals in the Earth Forge and the Avernus Catacombs which bore a symbol representing the Wheel of Fate. He realised "it was not the blood-thirst, but their immortality that was the true nature of their enemies' curse." Reed clears his throat. A light pink tints his cheeks. I blink, not believing what I glimpse. Is he—no way am I seeing a blush on Darius Reed. To my wonderful readers who’ve shown so much enthusiasm for Ikenna’s journey and who’ve connected with our favorite Murder Girl; to anybody and everybody who needs to rightfully rage at injustices; and to those who dare to dream big when the world tells us we shouldn’t

It’s so glacial it feels like icicles punch through my insides while my heart and blood and muscle and tissue and sinew freeze over.Kenna is her normal badass self, but this time we see more of her godly powers and OH MY GOD DOES SHE HAVE POWERS. I found myself smiling and giggling when she was doing her thing because she is just too awesome. I’m so glad we got to see more of her and Reed’s relationship form, but I wish we had more!! I know this is fantasy first and romance second, but there was so much passion between the two I needed more

Dannica throws up her hands. “You two are insufferable. If you want it to come to the alternative and can’t be sensible adults about things, fine.” She spins away from us and faces the rest of the squad around the fire pit. “We vote on the matter,” she says to Haynes, Caiman, Greysen, Liim, and Dane. “Like we’ve done with everything else thus far. Hands for Kenna and Darius getting their shit together.” I like duologies, typically, because it seems to me the author knows they don't have enough for a trilogy, but still want to tell a compelling story. I hate to say it, but this probably should have been a trilogy. Book should have ended about 70-75% in, but it was easy to see we had more. So, oops, the big baddie she just killed... that's not the end. There's more. So lets do that. Oops... there's more. Now this is stupid. Like any number of shows/series where you spend half a season or more leading up to the big finale with ultimate evil only to realize there is someone else behind it and an even bigger evil. Then biggerier and eviler. It's too much. SR2] Janos to Raziel: "Over time, our race died out. Until I alone remained... sustained only by my obligation to you, and by my guardianship of the blade."In this stunning conclusion to the Blood Gift duology, Ikenna and her rogue cohort must outrun bounty hunters, their former comrades, and a megalomaniacal demigod if they hope to save their world from the oppression that threatens from every side… There’s a moment where I swear I see emptiness in one of the partygoer’s eyes, and I get excited. Did that really just pseudo-work?