Daughter of Smoke & Bone 1
Laini Taylor
1. Karou runs into her street performer ex-boyfriend, Kaz, on the street while on her way to her art class. He comes up behind her and nibbles at her neck pretending to be a vampire. He tries to convince her to join him in vampire tours and to get back together. Kaz has no interest because he cheated on her constantly. When she refuse him, he says he has a new gig.
2. Karou arrives at her art class and her friend Zuzana asks for her sketchbook. Karou hands it over and her classmates start looking over her most recent drawings. Zuzana asks how she comes up with the characters, but Karou just shrugs it off. When their naked model arrives, Karou is surprised to see it is Kaz. He has a tattoo of a “K” on his chest. She draws him in the different poses. When they take a break he confronts her and asks what she thinks about the tattoo. She thinks it stands for the only person he loves: himself. He says it is for her and remarks that she has his name tattooed over her heart. She pulls down her shirt to show him it isn’t there. He is confused, but she is not inclined to tell him how she got rid of it.
3. When class resumes, she uses the wish beads on her necklace to make him itch in several places ending with his penis. She had lost her virginity with him. He had told the girl he cheated on her with about the black cape she wore when they had had sex. She made a comment about it and Karou knew he hadn’t kept their secret. Brimstone tells her not to put anything unnecessary into her body, including unnecessary penises. Kaz runs out of the room because of the itching. She thinks of how Brimstone will scold her for nonessential wishes.
4. Karou goes through the rest of her art classes in the morning before meeting with Zuzana for lunch. The go to a morbid cafe, Poison Kitchen, that was once a monastery and has become a tourist spot lately. Karou has an American accent she uses even though her first language was from a place the humans had never heard of. Zuzana has a crush on a new violin player, but he seems to have a girlfriend because he is texting on every break. Karou suggests Zuzana make a reverse puppet where she is the marionette. Karou doesn’t know what to do for her own project. Last year she had made wings and her teacher had made her take them off. Kishmish arrives like a shadow and Karou goes to meet him. The creature gives her a note saying she is needed for a task. She says she will go, like she always does. She goes back to the table to tell Zuzana she has to go run an errand.
5. Karou gets to Brimstone’s shop and knocks on the door. She waits for it to be opened so it would take her to the right place. Issa greets her and lets her in. Karou gives Issa her sketchbook and starts telling her about how Kaz was the model for that day. Brimstone is not happy it took her 14 minutes to arrive. His shop deals in teeth and she thinks about the horrible things she has seen in the acquisition of them. She tells him she was across town and unless he wants to give her heads big enough to allow her the powers of flight and invisibility, she can’t get there quicker. He says he cannot give them to her and she accuses him of giving them to monsters that hurt people. He looms over her and tells her he expects better of her. He then tells her she is going to Paris.
6. When Issa lets Karou back out the door she came in, she finds herself in Paris. She goes to the location Brimstone gave her and told her she would know what to get when she saw them. She lugs a bag of elephant tusks down the street, down into the subway, on the train and back up to the street before making it back to the door. She notes a handprint on the door she assumes is someone’s marking for the door location. She thinks about how Brimstone had trained her in martial arts and loosed her into just about every city to collect teeth. One time she was shot and after a long healing process, she has been more cautious on her adventures. She knocks on the door and has the same fear she always does: that it might not open. Issa opens the door and welcomes her back.
7. Black handprints start appearing on doors all over the world. People have tried to cover them up, but they bleed right through. Some people say they saw the person that left the print. One boy said it was a girl that flew away afterwards, but no one believed him.
8. Bane, an American trader, is there with one of Issa’s snakes around his neck. After their business is concluded and Bane leaves, Karou gives him the tusks. She is disappointed with the payment she gets and tells him she had to use her wishes to get it because another man kept driving the price. Yasri brings out pastries and they have tea while Brimstone quizzes Karou on different teeth. When there is a knock at the other door, Karou asks to stay. Brimstone tells her she has to leave and Issa sees her out. She is back in Prague and the clock towers chime midnight.
9. Akiva lands and puts his print on Brimstone’s door. He appears to be as a tall young human man. People don’t see his wings. He moves to another doorway until they all have the black handprint.
10. Karou has had more jobs, and Zuzana has noticed and fells abandoned. She knows she cannot tell her human friend the truth. She had grown up going to school and martial arts classes in Manhattan, but when a friend had seen her go through the door to get to Brimstones, she thought Karou was homeless. Karou was put into a home and she had to escape and start going to school in Hong Kong instead. They start heading to Poison and Zuzana warns her that Kaz has been hanging out there waiting to run into her. As they walk through the rain, Kishmish flutters around. As the enter the cafe, Karou gives him a look to let him know she saw him and isn’t coming right then. The cafe is packed and Karou uses a wish to make a few backpackers leave. Zuzana talks about her crush on a boy. Karou goes to the bathroom and Kishmish delivers a note that just says, “Please.”
11. When Issa opens the door, she tells him not to berate Brimstone. She doesn’t understand, but goes inside. Brimstone looks sad and she asks if he is okay. He tells her he is glad she came. He always knew she would go on with her human life someday. He is glad this is not the day. He says he needs her more than ever. He sends her on another errand to collect teeth. Before leaving she tells him she would never just leave him without saying something. He tells her he won’t hold her to that.
12. Akiva sees Karou come out of the door and is intrigued by her. He marks his last door and then follows her wondering how she got mixed up with the Chimera. He wonders who she is and knows he is not like Brimstones other grim reapers.
13. Karou thinks about the things Brimstone said to her. She longs for a family. She goes to meet Azeal. He had an episode and wasn’t allowed in the shop anymore. Razgut is the price of one of Azeal’s wishes. A monster only he can see. Razgut asks to have a taste of her, but Karou declines. He hands over the teeth he acquired from dead humans (previously from being a war doctor. Now from graves sniffed out by Razgut). Karou sorts through the teeth and tells him Brimstone doesn’t take baby teeth. Akiva watches curiously from a distance. Karou pays him generously for what little teeth Brimstone would actually approve of. Azeal wants to ask her for a favor and Razgut bites him to try to stop him. She helps Azeal up and Razgut slithers to her shoulder and licks her neck. She shoos it off and has had enough. He begs her to use an abruxish (must give one’s own teeth) to wish Razgut off him. She tells him no and starts walking away. Suddenly, Razgut isnmt invisible anymore.
14. Akiva sees the monster on Azeal’s neck and is disgusted that it speaks his own language. It begs Akiva to take him home. He looks at Karou and she is staring back at him. She wonders who/what he is. Azeal calls him an angel and tells her to run to warn Brimstone. She does run back to the door. It flies after her and brings his sword down on her shoulder. She grabs a wooden plank to defend herself. She sees the inhumanity in his eyes. They fight and when her board breaks, she stabs it into him. She goes to the door and knocks, but Issa doesn’t answer. Karou shoves the woman back in and knocks again. The angel comes up behind her and asks who she is in Chimera’s language. Issa opens the portal and Karou jumps in closing the door quickly. Akiva wants to know why he hadn’t killed her. He saw the eyes on her palms and knows she isn’t human.
15. Issa asked who hurt her and Karou is surprised Issa hadn’t seen him. She asks for Brimstone, but Issa says he isn’t there. Karou isn’t allowed in the shop without him there. She passes out from her wounds. Karou wakes up in a bed and pretends to still be asleep. She hears Issa and Yasri talking. They are surprised the angels have returned. They say Brimstone will be back some before leaving the room. Karou uses a wish to silence the bed springs before she follows them out of the room to listen at the door. She is surprised to find the door is open for the first time she has ever seen.
16. Akiva goes back to Azeal to ask about Karou.
17. Karou finds the door leads to a completely different world with two moons. She keeps hidden and looks around. She sees other Chimera around. She starts to see some laying flat on the ground, naked and dead. She approaches one and he grabs into her. He sees the tattoos on her palms and asks who she is. She screams.
18. Azeal tells Akiva that Karou is Brimstone’s foster child. She runs errands for him, but otherwise is not involved. Razgut continues to beg Akiva to take him home saying his punishment has gone on long enough. Azeal asks if Akiva knows why Razgut was being punished. Akiva says he knows his history, but Azeal points out that myths are made from history over time. He offers to have Razgut tell him the story. Akiva grabs them both and takes them into the sky to threaten them. Rather than telling Akiva anything useful, Azeal throws himself from Akiva’s grip and falls to the ground with Razgut.
19. Brimstone shows up and the man again asks who Karou is. He tells him she is no Ken and angrily drags her away with reckless abandon. He gets her back to the shop and throws her in so hard she hits her cheek and sees stars. Issa and … try to tell Brimstone she is injured and he reprimands them for not sticking to the rules they have in place when Karou is there. He through Karou out into the street without any of her things. She walks home in the cold half dressed. When she makes it to her apartment building, someone comes up behind her and she throws him through the plate glass. She sees it is Kaz and makes she he is okay before going in herself . He asks what she is.
20. Questions are flooding Karou’s head. She spends the weekend in bed trying to recover. She skips school on Monday and Zuzana comes to check on her. She demands an explanation and decides to tell her best friend the truth. Zuzana finds it all difficult to believe. Kishmish arrives on fire and dies in Karou’s arms. He has brought her the wishbone Brimstone always wore. She hears sirens and races up to go to the shop. It is on fire with the silhouette of wings hovering over it. The fire doesn’t spread, burning able to be put out either. All of the doors with the black handprints are burning just like this one.
21. Karou remembers using small wishes to unwrinkle a drawing herself as a chimera. Brimstone thought it was a waste and told her he never used wishes. Three months after the portal door burned, Karou goes to Bane’s cabin in Idaho. She has been stealing wishes and used those from others to find his off the grid home. She is able to get the wishes from his beard. She tells him of all the traders she has been to so far, he is the only one that still has his teeth, though they were in bad condition. She wishes him to sleep with a shing. She is about to use a wish to bring back the taxi that fled, but suddenly has another idea.
22. After her wounds healed, she went back to school, but hadn’t been able to focus. Brimstone left her bank accounts so she would never have to worry about money. She tracked down Brimstone’s associates and found all the portals are gone. She wears his wishbone around her neck just like he had. Zuzana is her link back to the human world and she makes sure to spend time with her and her new boyfriend. Now she is in Idaho and uses a gavriel to make a wish. She starts to lift into the air and is flying. She knows she now needs to find Razgut. He appears and she is surprised to find he survived the fall. He tells her how Azeal died protecting her. He wants her to carry him, but she refuses. He promises to take her to the portal if she takes him with her. The portal that brought him there is in the sky.
23. Akiva waits at Karou’s apartment for her to return.
24. Karou flies to a spot in the road that is ahead of the taxi, when it reaches her, the driver is shocked. She gets in and haves him drive her to the airport. Zuzana calls to check in and make sure she is alright. She also says she needs Karou’s help with her marionette project. Karou tells her she has to make a stop in Paris and then will be back after. The stop in Paris is to get Zuzana a present. When she gets back to Prague, she decides to have the taxi drop her off at the cemetery. She goes to the door that used to lead to Brimstone’s shop and knocks. Nothing happens.
25. Akiva watches Karou sleep. He realizes he didn’t kill her because she reminded him of another beautiful woman, Madrigal, he had known a long time ago. He remembers lying next to her. His siblings would have noticed his absence by now. His father is the seraph ruler. He sleeps with different concubines every night to create bastards for his war. He dreams about Madrigal and wakes with a start remembering the execution.
26. The next morning, Karou heads over to Zuzana’s with breakfast and presents. Karou brought her Anna Pavlova’s tutu. Mick had given Zuzana the idea of performing her project on the street. She gets dressed and Karou does her makeup. Mick kisses her before the performance and Karou thinks the smudge adds to the ballerina’s disheveled look. The performance is a hit on the street.
27. Karou hears someone saying she is going to live like pray. She can’t find who said it. Zuzana’s performances improve over the rest of the day. When Karou starts heading home, she knows she is being followed. She ducks into one of Kaz’ vampire hiding spots, but the girl he cheated Karou with is already there. Karou doesn’t have time to find a new spot, so she drags Svetlana into the tight spot with her. She promises to fix her eyebrows if she stays quiet. When Svetlana goes to protest, Karou tells her she can’t fix them if she is dead. When the shadow approaches, Karou jumps out and attacks her stalker. She tackles him to he ground, but he doesn’t fight back. He takes to the air and says he just wants to talk to her. She jumps into the air to join him.
28. Kaz rounds the corner with a tour group and isn’t surprised to find Karou in the air. He is jealous that she isn’t alone. Kaz would later claim it was a stunt planned for the tour. Svetlana would be upset he would refer to Karou as his girlfriend. The fight continues. The crowd watches until the flying man comes to the ground.
29. Akiva gets back in the air. Karou is angry at the man for cutting her off from her family. She keeps attacking, but she knows she doesn’t want to kill him. He says he doesn’t want to hurt her. He wants to talk because of the feelings that are between them. She feels it too. Akiva starts to fall again. Karou goes to him. She tells him to bow and pretend it was all part of the act because it would make them easier to get away.
30. Karou takes Akiva back to her apartment. He asks why Brimstone would give her a name that means “hope.” She doesn’t know and asks about his name. He tells her that he was bred for war. He got his name because the previous Akiva had died and the spot was open. They have been fighting the Chimera for a long time. She asks why they came to her world. He tells her that they sensed dark magic coming from it and had to close it off. He was drawn back to her. He falls asleep and she starts sketching him until she falls asleep. When Karou wakes up, Akiva is standing over her with her recent moon knives.
31. He apologizes for frightening her and she tells him not to loom over her in her sleep to avoid that. Karou jumps out the window and is impressed with her own landing skills. She stops at a bakery and then they fly to the top of a Cathedral to eat. Karou is excited about this. She uses a pencil to put her hair up. She takes out a coin and makes a wish to fix Svetlana’s eyebrows. She mentions what he told her about his childhood, but he doesn’t remember it. She tells him about sitting on the floor in Brimstone’s shop and playing with a tuft of his tail. He is surprised that Brimstone was good to her. She wonders why he is surprised by it. She tells him he doesn’t know Brimstone. He tells her she doesn’t know him and tells her the wishes come from pain.
32. Akiva explains to her that the wishes have to be held in balance. She wonders why it has to be pain. He says it cannot be something acquired so easily and she asks if he has had more pain or joy in his life. He tells her his world is called Eretz (Hebrew word for earth). The Magi had believed the worlds were layered, but they were killed off by the Chimera. Their tales of angels and demons come from the glimpses of Seraph and Chimera people saw in the past. She notices the marks on his hands and suddenly realize it is a count of the Chimera he has killed. Their waitress comes over and asks Karou how they were flying. She gives the girl a look and says that really were. The girl accepts she will not be told the trick and says she saw it on the news. Karou checks her phone and sees she has a lot of messages. She calls Zuzana and tells her she is alright and taking with Akiva. Zuzana insists on coming over to meet him.
33. Karou warns Akiva about her tiny friend coming to meet them. When Zuzana arrives, she makes comments about his looks and how their breeding could save genetics for the widows peak. Karou introduces them, but has to translate between them as Akiva has been speaking in the Chimera language and Zuzana speaks Czech. Akiva compliments Zuzana’s art. When Karou reminds him they are enemies, he hides his tattooed hands under the table. Zuzana tells her Kaz has been on the news telling everyone Karou is an accomplice to whoever has been setting the fires. She doesn’t want to leave for a war torn world, but she realizes she has to. She tells Akiva she has to go. He tells her the portals were lost with the Magi. She says she will go with Razgut because he can’t take her. He insists on going with her and she agrees.
34. Karou goes to the school and the Poison kitchen to say goodbye to the places she loves. She and Akiva prepare for the long journey they will have to take to get to Razgut and then portal he told her about. She goes to touch him, but the eyes on her hands burn him. He tells her they could stay there where it is safe and he would stay with her. She says she has to find her family. He sees Brimstone’s wishbone around her neck and knows who she is.
35. Akiva falls to his knees and she goes to him. His brother, Hazael, and sister, Lorax, have arrived to find him. He tells Karou to keep her hands hidden. He speaks the angel language and warns Karou they shouldn’t be heard speaking the Chimera language. They ask what is going on and if he is planning to come back. They had covered for him. They ask who the human girl is and who she could possibly be. Karou asks them in their own language what she could be.
36. Karou uses a lucknow to learn their language. She tells them if they want to see her hands, they only had to ask. The marks on her hands are a weapon against Seraphim. She holds up her hands and it blasts the angels back. Akiva is between them and he is forced to make a decision. Akiva tells him he is not going back home to war. Hazael says there is peace now, but Akiva tells him their standstill is not peace. He moves to Karou’s side and tells his siblings he won’t let them hurt her. Akiva tells her to meet him where they first saw each other. He asks her to wait for him before she goes to find Razgut. She wonders if she would chose him over her family and realizes she would not. She says she will wait as long as she can and then takes off.
37. Akiva lay dying on the battlefield. A chimera woman finds him and tells him she doesn’t think he should go with her to death. He makes a joke about it being peaceful. She ties a tourniquet above his wind. More chimera approach. She runs off to lead them away from him. Akiva lives. When his siblings asked who helped him, he tells them he doesn’t know. That experience changed him.
38. Hazael remembers Akiva refusing marks for killing chimera and insisting he hadn’t killed any. Hazael watches his siblings fight and gets between them to stop them. Akiva admits the girl that saved him in the woods was a chimera and that he fell in love with her.
39. Akiva kept himself from killing chimera so that if he ever saw the girl again, he could tell her so. The Magi were destroyed because the seraphim was dependent on magic. Akiva’s arm healed and he was made to practice and strengthen it, but the pain never went away. The emperor comes to see him. He says it was a pity what happened to his Stelian, a savage tribe. Akiva didn’t remember her and didn’t ask what happened to her. This encounter makes him sympathetic to the tribe of his mother and starts to learn magic. He starts practice. He has a low and passive source of pain to fuel his practice. He learns how to hide his wings. He prepares himself to meet the chimera girl.
40. Akiva tells his siblings where he was going. He went with the wishbone in his hand. Madrigal had worn one around her neck. She told him it wasn’t real magic, but a hope that could come true. He was happy for a few nights. He thinks about how the wishbone could come between him and Karou. Without it, he could have her and love her.
41. Karou waits for Akiva for two days in at the Jemaa el-Fna, heart of Marrakesh. When he does arrive, she is surprised how cold he is towards her. She thinks she must have imagined everything between them in Prague. He gives her the crescent knives and tells her she will need them. He tells her they need to go somewhere private. He says she needs to break the wishbone. She is confused as to why she would break Brimstone’s wishbone. He tells her Brimstone was only holding it for her. She says his name and he finally drops the pretense and holds her.
42. They make their way to her room. He asks if she is ready. She sees a flash of him smiling and looking happy. She thinks it is from another time. They get ready and he tells her he was drawn to her. He tells her he loves her. He kisses her and they start making out. He stops her and tells her she has to know the truth right then.
43. They break the wishbone together.
44. The wind rushes in like an open door. It settles and the door closes again. Karou is whole.
45. Karou flies and lands in a grove. She goes down with only one face in mind. She is held back and a blade is swung as Akiva yells.
46. Karou finally understands what happened and what Brimstone had done. She understands everything.
47. Madrigal was pinned in a cage to be taken to her death. Thiago wanted to humiliate Madrigal. She wasn’t sorry for what she did. Akiva is brought out to watch her execution. She smiles at him and has tears for the future they could never have. She has a plan to save Akiva’s life.
48. The seraphim had united the chimera by declaring themselves the rulers and protectors of the world. Madrigal had the head and body of a human, bat wings and the antlers and hooves a gazelle. Her friend, Chiro, comes to wake her up to get ready for the upcoming masked ball. Thiago has had his eye on her and the ball is important for this. He wants someone who isn’t marked on their hands. Madrigal wonders what Brimstone would think of it. She had been learning from him. Chiro is jealous of her chance to be with Thiago and live a long life in the body she was born with. She had died a year ago when a seraph arrow had hit her.
49. Madrigal was with Chiro when she got hit. She would glean the souls. Brimstone would make new bodies for the souls gleaned from the battlefield. He taught her how to string the necklaces with teeth to make the bodies. She pays special attention to for Chiro’s new body as close to the old one as possible. Brimstone touched her in approval. Madrigal had been an orphan for three years when she was sent to be Brimstone’s page. At first she only delivered messages. Once she found out he could resurrect souls, she wasn’t content to be a page. He didn’t want to involve anyone else in the terrible and beautiful work he did. He taught her how to sort teeth by feeling. He teaches her how to create power. The hansas (palm tattoos) are part of the spell that brings them back with their own magic. Brimstone hates that he has to keep bringing the chimera back only ti keep going back to war again and again. She hopes the angel is alive. She decides she will know what to do in the moment at the ball.
50. Madrigal borrows a dress she thinks is too revealing, but Chiro scolds her for not finding her own dress when she had a chance. Thiago’s bodies are designed by him in advance to his deaths. Madrigal wonders what it would be like to have sex with Thiago as Chiro finishes preparing her for the ball. When Chiro was brought back, she was upset that Madrigal had given her the jackel face of her first body. She wanted to be high human. Nwella tries to convince Madrigal not to wear the wishbone around her neck, but she refuses to give it up even for the night. Nwella dusts her with sugar powder before they head off to the ball.
51. Madrigal stands out and everyone knows who she is and who she is for. No one touches her and friends warn each other she is for Thiago. Someone in a horse mask that covers her entire head grabs her elbow. His gloved hands bring her into a dance. After the danced she tries to excuse herself from him. He says he knows her and came to find and thank her, but admits she never told him her name. He says she saved him and he took her advice to live.
52. Madrigal is shocked and tries to figure out why he would come there. She asks if it will be an assassination attempt. He says he won’t bring blood and death down on the gift she gave him. He says it was so easy to get in and find her. They are funneled into the party. She tells him he had to leave and that she is spoken for. She tells him if Thiago sees him, he will kill him. Chirp and Nwella find her. Thiago is looking for her. Madrigal takes her friends to dance. Thiago watches her and she wonders is Akiva is as well.
53. Akiva joins in the partner swapping dance and when he comes to Madrigal, he actually takes her hand and she knows it’s him before she sees him. He asks if she is really going to marry him and asks if she loves him. He says he didn’t realize they didn’t marry for love. She tells him her parents married for love. He admits his did not. At the end of the dance, Madrigal is delivered to Thiago.
54. She curtsies for him and he tells her she is beautiful. She returns the compliment and he takes her hand to escort her into the dance. He leads her through the dance, but her mind is elsewhere. He mentions her dress not being much to cover the body underneath. She says it is sturdy and the tears it. He holds it up to her chest to keep it from falling down. She moves to another dance partner and then is passed back to Thiago. After a few passes, she finds herself dancing with Akiva in a human mask. He notices how Thiago watches her and she admits she hasn’t agrees to marry him yet. He notices her dress is torn and he creates a shawl for her out of hummingbird moths, but they have to shoo them away when they start to lick the sugar off her. The fireworks start and Madrigal takes advantage of everyone looking up to sneak away with Akiva through the crowd.
55. The sun was betrothed to Nitid, but raped her sister, Ellai. Ellai stabbed him with her knife to get away. The drops fell and became seraphim. When she told Nitid what happened, Nitid wept and her tears became chimera. The sun begged for forgiveness, but the did not. Madrigal takes Akiva to one of Ellai’s hidden temples. They fly to the temple and take their masks off. They are surprised to really see each other after two years.
56. The seraphim believe their godstars came to a world of darkness and conquered the monsters that lived there to the point of near extinction. The last one, Zamzumin, used the shadows to create the chimera in his own image. The godstars would have children called seraphim. Madrigal and Akiva joke about their myths and decide they need a better one. She comes up with a peaceful place that is waiting for lovers to come to it. She knows she has to go before the sun comes up. She shows him the wishbone and explains it to him. Brimstone had told her not to waste wishes. She kept it in defiance. They break it and the pieces are even. They get dressed and go into the temple and drink water. They kiss goodbye as long as they dare. She flies back and goes to Brimstone’s underground cathedral. She would continue to work with Brimstone during the day and spend the night with Akiva. She tries to end it, but when she sees him, she can’t. He tells her about his history. She can’t bring herself to tell him about the resurrections. They start to believe they could be the end of war. It lasts a month before they are betrayed.
57. Karou starts to realize she is both women. Brimstone had offered her a new life as a human away from war and death. He saw her die and she says she remembers it all. Akiva tries to shake the earth to keep them from executing her. Thiago was left in the platform to rot and never be gleaned.
58. Chiro notices the difference in Madrigal’s behavior and asks what is going on. Thiago’s return is announced and Madrigal is worried about him being mad. She had said she had too much grass wine and had to sneak off and fell asleep. Chiro says she could die and come back ugly to lessen Thiago’s attention on her. Chiro would soon betray Madrigal’s trust.
59. Brimstone comes to visit Madrigal in her cell. She apologizes, but he asks what for. She says for getting caught and making him ashamed. She gives him a rundown of her sentence. She tells him everything. She thought they would bring peace. He says he isn’t ashamed of her. He gives her pastries from Yasri. He tells her they all know what she did and none of them are ashamed of her. She wasn’t supposed to have visitors, but Brimstone was. He tells her she will be killed first and he will watch. Thiago is not through with him. She gives him the last wishbone she had and tells him to smash it because there isn’t hope yet. He tells her they can’t win the war. The seraphim are too strong. They told themselves the chimera were just stupid beasts. They burned the library to even the odds. He also dreams of peace. But he doesn’t have enough magic to do it. He tells her their only hope is hope. He tells her Chiro is the one that betrayed her. Thiago promised her a human body that he cannot give her. Brimstone says he will be tempted to use eel teeth for her. He talks about the resurrection smoke. He tells her it isn’t the magic, just something to lead the soul. A strong soul might not need it. Thiago arrives and tells her it is time. Her hands are bond and wings pinned against Brimstone’s wishes. Chiro is brought to be the one to cleanse her soul. She is shoved out the door.
60. Chiro’s body was a vessel and Brimstone chose her to do cleanse. Chiro’s weak soul was shoved deep down to make ways for Madrigals. When she went to go see him, his eyes were bloodshot from his efforts to save her. She had no idea the whole time she was living her human life, she had no idea he was stuck there suffering. She said she couldn’t tell him it was her that saved him because he hadn’t know about resurrection. Thiago liked to talk while he tortured him. He told her everything. She tries to kiss him and wonders why he is not kissing her back. He thought Brimstone was against them. He gives her the page of her sketchbook that had been in Brimstone’s shop. He was trying to end the war by ending resurrection. He tells her that her family is dead.
EPILOGUE
Karou goes with Razgut through the portal. She sees the pyre of dead chimera being burned. He was alive to do this because of her. She wishes she could go back to before his treachery. She leaves him alive and goes on to see what she can do to save her own people.