Daughter of Smoke and Bone 2
Laini Taylor
1. Zuzana wants to live in Karou’s flat after she leaves, but Kaz keeps giving interviews in front of it and the police keep stoping by to try to find Karou. She is at the apartment on the phone with her boyfriend Mik and asks if she can do something to Kaz from the window he is standing below. Mik talks her out of it.
2. Akiva doesn’t know if his siblings have reported his betrayal or not. He decides to become invisible before going through the portal to his home world. He immediately starts looking for Karou.
3. Zuzana starts emailing Karou knowing she probably won’t get through to her. She mentions how she has been trying to get back at Kaz for what he has been doing. Her perfume bomb even made it onto TV. She tells her about how Mik knew she was upset and created a cake walk for her. They spend hours feeding each other cake in the park. She tells Karou she loves her and hopes Akiva is making her happy wherever they are.
4. Akiva searches for Karou, but can’t find her. He finds his siblings. Liraz is furious. Hazael is more calm about the situation than her. He is glad they now know what happened to him when he disappeared for a month then and came back different. Liraz attacks him and Hazael joins her. Akiva blocks their blows, but never strikes back. Eventually, Liraz gets him on the ground and heaves up her battle axe. It comes down right next to his face. Hazael tells him they are all still bastards together. They ask what happened to the girl and he tells them she died.
5. Zuzana sends another email to Karou just to say hello.
6. Akiva goes to the small village where Madrigal was born. It has been abandoned for a long time since most of its inhabitants were carried away by seraphim while Madeigal had been out playing. He goes inside and finds one of the lantern-like vessels the chimera use to carry souls with a note on it that has the chimera word for hope: Karou.
7. Zuzana writes again thinking Karou is dead.
8. Akiva feels that Karou’s soul is in the vessel, but Brimstone is no longer alive to resurrect her. He watches the destruction caused as chimera are killed or made into slaves. He goes back to her world and checks her apartment. He sees two people sleeping in the bed. He hopes it is her, but his jealousy makes him angry at the thought. He follows Zuzana and Mik around but Karou never appears.
9. Zuzana is getting ready to perform her popular puppet show, but is starting to get bored of it. Mik asks for confirmation that Karou used to collect teeth. When Zuzana says all kinds of teeth, he tells her she needs to see what he is watching on the news.
10. Eight seraphim arrive in an empty chimera village and get ready to attack. They start looking around for the chimera. When they find them hiding under the aqueducts, the angel Bethena has a thought that it is a trap. She lets it go thinking that the war is over. A match is lit and the seraphim are killed proving the war isn’t over yet.
11. A girl goes around the world stealing teeth from various museums without leaving a trace.
12. Karou writes back to Zuzana and says she is happy.
13. Karou has become a resurrectionist. She carefully makes the necklaces out of teeth to form the new bodies. She is still learning and not all of her trials have been a success. She drops a tiger tooth and it goes through a crack in the floor. She decides to wait until morning to retrieve it because she doesn’t want to deal with the person that is in the room below hers. Thiago comes to the door and knocks saying the tooth just fell on his head.
14. Karou arrived back in her native world, Eretz, with her old memories freshly restored. She sought out the city to see if her family survived, but there wasn’t a city left. She is angry they of all the chimera to survive, Thiago, her murderer, was one of them. He reminds her that it is okay for her to need help and reminds her that even Brimstone has assistants. She thinks about how Brimstone made her as human as possible and raised her without her memories only to have them released with the breaking of the wishbone. She wonders how odd it is that Akiva would find her once again in that world. She doesn’t think she could let him live if she saw him again.
15. Madrigal had gone to meet Akiva at the temple like they so often did. They kissed and then made love. He has her practice turning invisible because they will both have to be able to hide in the other’s territory. Akiva says they will need to kill Thiago because he would never allow peace. Madrigal is reluctant as Thiago is the heart of their movement, but she knows it is true. Thiago had been watching them the whole time and heard everything. He has both of them seized and burns the temple. Karou remembers it all, including her execution.
16. Karou asks Thiago for the tooth back without making any gaps in her doorway to make him feel like he would be welcomed in. He takes care of the part where people sacrifice their bodies so they can be resurrected for the greater good. Karou doesn’t want to see that part of the process. He asks if she is working in the necklace for Amzqllag. She confirms and can see he has the thurible in hand ready to do his part. He pushes past her to get into her room saying he wants to help her to have something to do. When she joined them, there were only 60 of them. They had stored souls waiting to be brought back and join their cause. He goes through her tool kit. He offers to give pain to fuel her magic rather than use her own. She agrees and closes the door to get back to work.
17. Thiago endures the pain and they create a new body. She tanks him and he says he is glad to spare her the pain. He wants to atone for what he did to her, but he admits he hadn’t had much choice. Thiago had prayed for a solution and when he saw her in the ruins, he thought she was salvation. Part of her wants to bring Brimstone back, but she is glad he is free of the burden. It was her idea to give their soldiers wings to be able to get to and go through the portal in the sky.
18. A group of slavers come across the village where the eight seraphim were killed and strung up as a display. The chimera appear and the slaves start singing. When they see winged reinforcements coming in, they are relieved until they see that they are also not seraphim.
19. An angel and a devil fall in love and dream of a world without war. But this isn’t that war.
20. Akiva and his siblings arrive at the village to inspect the dead seraphim that have wicked smiles on their faces. The young patrol leader, Noam, calls him “sir” and explains what they have learned about the situation. Their people are starting to question what the message “we are arisen” means. Akiva is positive Brimstone is dead and they didn’t have another resurrectionist. He has a slight hope for Karou, but nothing more than a feeling. The Warlord, Jorem, had killed Brimstone in front of him. Noam says they are to answer the attack. He wants to know when the war will be over, but Akiva doesn’t think it ever will be.
21. Steva falls asleep during her watch and wakes up at dawn. She and her sister had been running when they were caught by the slavers. Ones the slaves were free, the slaves went their separate ways. They were heading home as soon. Serasal has a hurt leg and is getting sick from infection. The herbs aren’t working. The manacle the slavers put her on was too small and cut into her leg. Steva tries to wake her sister, but she is difficult to rouse. Wrath comes to tell them they have to move or the Seraphim will kill them. Steva says they will stay hidden, but Wrath tells her they are going to burn the forest. They have to move. Steve goes to see for herself and comes back telling Serasol she has to get up or they will both die their together. Serasol tries, but is too sick to move. Wrath picked her up and carries her. Steva follows him.
22. Zuzana knows the teeth theif must be Karou and knows she must have been in Prague. Mik makes a comment about marrying Zuzana and she tells him it would be ridiculous at 18. She realizes the “I feel happy” lines in Karou’s email were a reference to Monty Python. She looks up the scene from Holy Grail to check.
23. Karou has been hiding the Chimera in the human world. Thiago had been coming to her a lot to help or tithe his pain for the cause. Ten (who has been with Thiago a long time) offers to help Karou and he her assistant. Karou isn’t comfortable with the idea, but this is clearly an order from Thiago. Karou agrees to it. The body she built that morning for Razor approaches them.
24. Razor breaks the table in front of Karou and calls her angel lover. He asks if she know what all he lost because of her. She doesn’t. Razor destroys the table, and Karou wonders if she made a mistake by giving him such a powerful body. Thiago comes to stop Razor from killing Karou. He tells her to go back to her room. She tells him she can take care of herself, but still goes.
25. Ten follows her, but when Karou gets to her room, she shuts the door and slams down the crossbar. Karou realizes she would have to resurrect every chimera she was responsible for the death of and they still probably wouldn’t accept her. She wishes she hadn’t stolen teeth so efficiently on her last trip so she would have an excuse to get away. She reminds herself she is doing all this for Brimstone. She looks out the window and sees a kirin boy, Ziri, that had had a crush on her when he was very young and she was having her trust with Akiva. She waves at him, but he just walks away.
26. Ziri sees Karou’s wave and wishes he could respond, but the Wolf was in the next window and told all of them they were to shun her. He remembers his feeble attempts at trying to save her from her execution. How naive he had been for thinking he could just sneak in and take her away. Ziri remembers how fearless a leader Thiago was into battle and how it inspired the soldiers around him. The Warlord had not been happy when he had died and needed a new body. After battle, Ziri just wanted to be rid of all the blood. Thiago seemed to thrive on the pain of the enemy.
27. Rath continues to carry Sarazal with Sveva following. Sveva becomes less frightened of him the more they travel together. He tells her he doesnmt esr Dama or any higher beings. He gets them to a herd of slow moving Caprine that seem to have all their livestock with them. Sveva is worried they will be too slow. Rather points out they may have a healer for her sister. Meanwhile, Akiva tries to lead his team of angels away from any chimera. Hazael asks him what he thinks of the death if their fellow seraphim having no trace of a struggle. They both think there could be another resurrectionist. They come up on a group of chimera and there isnmt anything Akiva can do to lead them away now that they spotted them.
28. Rath goes to the herd and tells them the angels are not far off. He convinces them to abandon their livestock, cross a river and hide. When the angels arrive, they find the aries livestock and realize there are no chimera among them. They slaughter the animals. The herd they had joined up with had given Sarazal some medicine and her condition is improving. She wakes up and doesn’t recognize Rath. She screams.
29. Zuzana tries to track Karou’s movements around the world. She is fascinated with how the world assumes Karou is the demon and the angels are the good guys.
30. When Karou and Ten get back to Karou’s room from bathing in the river, the crossbar is gone. She is furious and thinks it will be impossible for her to feel safe enough to sleep without it. Ten tries to get Karou back to work, but Karou goes out the window instead. She ends up watching Ziri interact with other chimera soldiers having fun together. They stop when Thiago arrives with the Shadows That Live. He gives them their orders and they take off. Karou knows whatever angel they are after is as good as dead.
31. The younger seraph soldiers go to tattoo marks on their hands for the chimera they killed that day. Liraz tells them they don’t get marks for killing chimera citizens. She asks how many of their marks fought back, but they don’t give an answer and try to blow her words off. Hazael and Akiva try to warn them not to get on her bad side. When Hazel and Akiva heard the girls scream, they saw the Caprine heard and Rath, a Dashnag, with them. They both pretend like they didn’t see anything and take off. When they come back to Liraz, Hazael hands her a flower and she eats it. She eats it and he says he hopes it wasn’t poisonous. She says there are worse ways to die.
32. Ten catches up with Karou. Karou wants to know where Thiago sent the sphinxes, but Ten reminds her they have an army to build. Sveva and the rest of the group keep moving with Rath carrying Sarazal. They make it into the mountains. The seraphim are having trouble finding the rest of the chimera. At night, Akiva would go out and frighten any nearby chimera away.
33. At the seraph garrison in Thisaly, a guard watches and can’t seem to leave his pistol even though his shift is over. One hundred dead angels with red smiles are in the city below. When the commander comes along, the soldier asks him to believe he never fell asleep. Bye says it must have been the Shadows That Live.
34. Karou goes back to the human world and Ten hides in the back of the car she drives. He tells her to get something to celebrate. She avoids the shop in town that sells guns. She doesn’t want to add them to the already deadly world of Eretz. She buys food and materials. She loads everything into the truck and stops when she sees drums in a shop. She buys 10 and then heads back. Akiva thought the Shadows That Live had died. Liraz says if their father knew about his ability to turn invisible, he would have his own shadows. Akiva says she can do it too because he taught her and Hazael. Liraz says she likes for people to see who kills them. The misbegotten are to live obscure and never leave a trial, such as children or a gravestone. Liraz has a glad she will never be forced to have sex with Jael, their uncle because they are blood related. Akiva knows she would kill Jim if he touched her. She knows that doesn’t help the girls he does touch. Hazael cuts in to mention how gloom they are. Akiva feels a change in the air. He takes off to warn the chimera the dominion are coming.
35. Karou wants to listen in on the reports about what is going on, but Thiago sends her away. He asks if she is worried about anyone specific indicating Akiva. She lets Ten lead her back to her room. Karou starts telling Ten the story of Blue Beard and how his bride went in the one door he said was forbidden to her as soon as he had his back turned. She uses the vice to cause pain in her hand and uses it to go invincible. Ten assumes she jumped out the window again and goes to chase her. Karou sticks to the shadows and listens to Thiago tell his soldiers about the messages they have been sending back to the seraphim and that the dominion is coming. It isn’t long before Thiago catches her scent and the. The others do as well.
36. Ziri is the one to find Karou. She recognizes a bit of the compassion he had as a kid, but remembers he is the one to carve the smiles onto the seraphim with his crescent blades. She says she knows who to go to the next time she needs a smile and walks away. Akiva is called by his father and Uncle. They don’t understand how the rebels are able to kill their soldiers so stealthily. Akiva doesn’t tell them anything. They mention how they want to finish this war so they can move onto the next one. Akiva realizes his mother’s people will be next. The Warlord takes off. Jael tells his nephew he was not for keeping him when he was born, but his father was right that his blood was stronger on him than his mothers. He calls for the guard to send a woman to his room. Alive tells them they only have soldiers there, but Jael says he will take what he can get. Karou watches as the small number of 56 chimera get ready to take in the dominion. She knows it won’t be enough.
37. Thiago leads them through the portal and sends each squadron off to kill the women and children of the seraphim. One squadron lead by Belerios ignores the order and decides to fly south into the enemies’ forces. Hazael asks if Akiva thinks they will find any birds out that day. Akiva says not enough.
38. Karou sifts through teeth and finds the gazelle one she took from a museum for Ziri. He was still pure, but she knew that his luck couldn’t last forever. She sets them aside and tells herself she is just preparing for the inevitable. She will be ready when he needs her.
39. Zuzana and Mik head to Morocco looking for Karou. Zuzana did as much research as she could and made sure to tell people where they were going. They are planning to find the ruined sand castle and her friend.
40. Karou keeps focused on her work to stop herself from thinking about what was happening. Squadrons come back without any soldiers lost, but they have a heaviness about them. She tries not to think about what they have been doing. One of the guards point out the two humans that are heading towards the kasbah.
41. Sveva’s group are close to making it to their final destination. They are at the foot of the mountain when the angels arrive. She realizes they are not the same angels that let them go before. Rath protects her from a sword coming down on her. Sveva stabs the angel between his armor and he does. Sveva tells her sister to run and they do. She stands with Rath and knows they are probably going to die. The revenants arrive and she recognizes them as the same ones that saved them from the slavers. Rath tells Sveva to go. He tells her to go. He has been searching for them to join them. Sveva leaves him. He doesn’t the rebels and are burned at the foot of that mountain.
42. Alive tells his siblings he wants to stay with them, but as better versions of themselves. They are all sick of the death. Ziri is the one that has to stay behind to glean the souls as they died. He watched his friends died. The seraphim cut off the chimera hands before they burned the bodies. Once the enemy is gone, Ziri goes to the eternal fire and does what he can to grab the souls. He hopes he has gotten them all, including Rath. When Belerios asked if they wanted to slaughter seraphim innocents or save their own kind, they all agreed to help. Ziri had been angry at Karou for the comment she made to him. He realizes she is right and thinks helping their own will help her opinion of him. He turns to find three angels staring at him.
43. Ziri is confronted by Jael and his horrible scar. Angels start to surround him and he knows he is dead. Ziri tells them the chimera play a game about how each of them say they gave him the scar across his face. Ziri tells his own story. Jael says they aren’t going to kill him but Xiri says he is going to kill them. He starts fighting as fast as he could. He starts killing them and Jael tells them to keep him alive. When Jael captures him, he punches him in the stomach. He takes the vessel that holds the souls. Jael was there when Brimstone and the Warlord were killed and asks who is resurrecting chimera now. Siri says he’ll whisper it in his ear. Ziri is held back as Jael approaches.
44. Karou yells Thiago promised no humans would be hurt. Thiago says they can’t risk their war. The humans are not doing well and need help. Karou tells him she will go help them and take them to the grainery and keep them from seeing anything before taking them back to civilization. Thiago agrees to let her go. As soon as she starts down the hill, Zuzana calls out to her. Karou is so happy to see them, but worried for them. Karou rushes out to meet them. Zuzana says she figured out her riddle. Karou hadn’t meant for Zuzana to look for her. Mik is furious and tells Karou to get Zuzana out of the sun. Karou gets them back to the castle. Thiago watches them. Karou says they are her friends and not to be hurt. Thiago agrees to this, but Karou doesn’t trust him.
45. Zuzana looks around and notices Brimstone and Karou’s other friends in her sketchbook were not there. Karou tells them they were killed. When Zuzana asks about Akiva, she says he was alive last she heard, but refuses to talk about him. She leads the way up to her room.
46. When Karou opens the door to her room, she warns them not to trip over the body. She explains it is not yet alive, so undead is the term she uses. She explains everything like she did when first telling Zuzana about her life. She shows them how she brings the body to life using the captured souls. She puts Bess i. Her new body. Bess thanks her for doing such a good job before she leaves. Zuzana begs her to do another one and asks how Karou ended up with the chimera. She tells them she was one of them. Mik asks what kind. She draws a picture of Ziri and says she was the same kind. She is worried because he is overdue on the mission he went out on.
47. Karou takes Zuzana and Mik to the river to wash up and Ten follows at Thiago’s insistence. Karou tells them about how they had a moon god of assassins and secret lovers. Zuzana says her love is not a secret, so she would have to be an assassin. Karou says she wouldn’t be an assassin: Zuzana asks again about Akiva. Karou explains it was like Romeo and Juliet if Romeo hadn’t killed himself and instead killed her entire family and enslaved her people. Zuzana understands and lets it drop. Karou sees a single hurt figure flying in. She sees it is Ziri. He lands in front of Thiago. Ziri was cut up like he had been cutting up the seraphim. Thiago and Ten carry him away and Karou asks them to take him to her room because she thinks he’s he can heal him. Karou feels something behind her, but doesn’t see anything. Akiva falls to the ground and his glamour fades. He is shocked to see her alive.
48. Razget is found and brought to Jael who is intrigued by the creature. He says the one with fire eyes wouldn’t help him and Jael knows he is talking about Akiva. He tells his men to bring Razget food.
49. Karou rolls up her sleeves to get to work. Thiago comes in and says it would be better to let him die and be resurrected if he won’t be able to use his damaged hands. Karou thinks she can heal them and keep him in his natural body. Thiago needs to know if Ziri told them anything. Karou gently wakes him up, but Ziri cannot speak. Thiago asks if he gave anything away and Ziri shakes his head no. He motions for Karou to use his pain for the process and she warns him that he will have to stay conscious the whole time. He nods his approval and they get glassed. Karou asks Zuzana to assist her and she immediately does. Karou is in the world of Brimstone’s magic for a long time, but she is able to mend Ziri with very little scarring. When she is done, she passes out.
50. Zuzana watches Karou as she sleeps next to Ziri. She admits she is hungry and Mik pulls out a ball of chocolate. Zuzana suggests they go down to get food from the chimera and share their chocolate. They come up with a code word to use in case they get separated before they leave the room. Karou dreams of Brimstone and then if Akiva. She says his name when she wakes up. She is upset with herself for it. Akiva watches her and sees that she is awake. He can’t keep spying on her and seeing her in bed with another man. He watches her take Ziri’s hand. Akiva goes out the window.
51. Ziri wakes up and says he has to tell Karou what happened before Thiago comes back. He tells her he wanted to talk to her, but Thiago said they couldn’t trust her. Ye told them she had sold their secrets to the enemy. Karou is outraged because it was Thiago that had told Akiva about the resurrections, not her. Thiago had kept her in shame and guilt to do what he wanted. She realizes she doesn’t know if Brimstone thought that. She swears she didn’t tell the angel and Ziri believes her. She suddenly realizes Zuzana and Mik aren’t there. They hear a scream.
52. Mik shows one chimera, Virgo, his violin and it lets out a screech. The chimera seem more curious about them than anything. One takes the violin from Virgo and gives it back to Mik and he starts playing. Karou finds them in the courtyard and doesn’t feel so alone. Ziri stops her. He tells her he saved his team, but he doesn’t know whether or not to tell Thiago. The order was to attack seraphim civilians, but they went to help their own instead. Ziri says he would have broken eventually. Akiva saw Ziri was a kirin like Karou had been. He could see the dominion lead by Jael had a rebel soldier pinned down. Jael forced the ash from his friend into Ziri’s mouth. He starts choking on it. They clear his throat with water and is ready to go again. Then the angels stop and the sky filled with birds. He wants to reach out and hold Karou. He shows her a tiny feathered corpse of a hummingbird moth. Ziri had to rip his hand free from the sword that pinned it to the ground and freed himself. He fought off the angels that tried to stop him. He took off without thinking about who might have helped him, but he later realized someone had. He says he doesn’t know for sure if Akiva had helped him, but he doesn’t have any other ideas. He told her he watched her when Akiva had made her a shawl. He had also watched Thiago that night and saw his behavior. Ziri started to hate him that night.
53. Liraz and Hazeal are called before Jael. He makes a point of looking at Liraz and it makes her uncomfortable to know exactly what he is thinking. Hazeal makes sure to call him uncle and call their father by that title to impress on him they are family. Jael asks about Akiva’s whereabouts, but they tell him they don’t know. Karou is surprised that she found Zuzana and Mik having a conversation with The Shadows That Live (Tangris and Bashees) and explains they are deadly assassins. Zuzana seems to have liked them, but Thiago gives her a bad feeling. Ziri and Larou told Thiago about the souls he saved, but haven’t determined how to explain the extras. She tells Zuzana and Mik to get some rest while she goes for a walk while it is cool at night before she starts back to work in the morning.
54. Karou is thinking when Akiva appears in front of her. She wants to kill him, but her arms drop to her side. He tells her he thought she was dead, but hasn’t killed any chimera since. He says there are seraphim that want to choose life like they had talked about before she died. She tells him when both sides are killing children, neither are choosing life. She also points out at he has told her he is done killing her kind before. He is the one that told their secret and caused the death of so many innocent chimera. She cannot forgive him and he knows that. He gives her the lantern vessel that has a soul and has Karou’s name written in it in Brimstone’s handwriting. She inspects it in shock and doesn’t even notice when Akiva leaves. She is torn about what to do and if it is actually Brimstone’s soul that she holds. She thinks about how Akiva might have brought her a piece of her family while her supposed allie have been keeping her isolated. She opens the container and knows whose soul it is.
55. Nevo leads veiled girls to the emperor. The girl hesitates and he wonders if she is going to try to jump. He knows he would be expected to save her and bring her back. He doesn’t know if he would be able to do it. His fellow guards think he is too soft. He knows financially it was better than he had joined the Silver Sword and became on end the emperor’s guards, but he missed the f eking that he was doing good when he was a soldier. His shift is almost over when there is a shout from the emperor, Jorem. Nevo leaves his post and rushes to where the girl was dropped off. The captain of the guard is already there. Jorem is screaming about who could have put a basket of fruit in his room. In his fury. He hit the girl so hard, she had been flung against the wall and killed. Jorem orders they every guard in shift be killed for allowing someone into his room to leave the basket. He is furious for the girl. Nevo knows he is going to be hung, but he doesn’t understand why.
56. Karou wakes up Zuzana before dawn saying she needs her help with a resurrection before Thiago comes out.
57. Akiva hears the gossip about the basket of fruit, the response from the Stelian tribe. Liraz tells her brothers she cannot continue to watch innocent girls like their mother being paraded to Jorem. Akiva says they will have to start a revolution by gathering supporters and eventually killing their father. She says she has done horrible things, and she isn’t sure she can make up for them. She knows they have been helping the chimera. Akiva reminds her that all they have ever known is war. They can’t help that, but they can become better.
58. Karou and Zuzana have created the copy of the body. Mik had helped them create a groove in the floor so they could use boards to keep the door shut. Thiago comes knocking Karou asks him to wait. She brings Issa back to life and tells her they are in the human world. They both have lit to tell each other.
59. When Karou opens the door for Thiago and Ten, she reveals Issa’s resurrection. He questions that it is really her and Issa assures him it is. Karou says she found her soul amongst the others. She says she will be able to work faster now and won’t need Ten to assisted her since she has Issa and her friends. She realizes Thiago’s plan was to have Ten learn how to resurrect from Karou so Thiago could kill Karou and have more control. When he is gone, Issa tells her how they knew Jorem would be after them soon. Brimstone had killed Issa and Yasri so they could help Karou. Karou tells her how she feels like she has failed them all and doomed their kind. Issa tells her centuries of hatred was what doomed their world. She tells Karou that Akiva was devastated when she died. She asks if she is worried about revealing their location, but Karou realizes she isn’t.
60. The work goes much faster with Issa’s help. The chimera celebrate, and Karou is surprised to find Zuzana and Mik’a friendly interaction with the chimera. She tells Thiago they will need to return to their lives soon. Thiago makes it clear they cannot leave so he can control her. He tells her to try the seraph wine he brought. Karou wonders if bringing Issa back was a mistake. Issa tells Karou she is important and so is the message from Brimstone.
61. Akiva and his siblings agree they will have to kill Jorem and make sure everyone knows it is them. This will sentence all the bastards to death, but they think it’s what it will take to end the war. There are rumors of Jael ordering 100 white uniforms made for the dominion (usually wears red) and the monks of … . Liraz brings them a sealed scroll and they read that Akiva is being summoned to their father. Hazael points out that Akiva is the 7th of his name and that means there won’t be any room left in the urn for his ashes. He tells Akiva he has to live.
62. They make their way to Jorem’s city he had attempted to build on top of the ruins of his predecessor’s towers. Akiva had offered to go alone and kill their father, but Liraz insists on going. Akiva and Hazael are the ones that could gather support for a revolution. They were the ones that needed to live. When they get to the doors, the guard tells them to go to the slaves entrance. Hazael pretends it is a joke as Akiva shows him the summons. Liraz tries not to let her fear show and tries to be the strength they need as they walk through the city to appear before their father.
63. Ziri watches Zuzana and Mik from a distance and is fascinated. He asks Karou how they fell in love and she tells him to story about how they had worked together, but she had never been able to talk to him. She left him treasure maps leading to her and have been in love ever since. He regrets telling Karou he had a crush on her, but treasured the few touches they have had. He goes to Thiago’s meeting and is made to join Razor’s group. Razor makes a comment about him not being able to hide. Ziri resents it, but admits he does not like being a soldier even though he is good at it. Thiago plans to send them out immediately so the seraphim won’t even know the deaths have happened until they see the river run red with blood. Ziri looks to Karou’s window as they fly away for their mission.
64. Tena comes up to Karou’s room to give her Ziri’s goodbye message. She makes a comment about seven people being too many for a team and probably only six would return. Karou threatens to throw her out the window, but Ten points to Zuzana and Mik and asks which one she thought Thiago would kill first. Issa warns Karou that Ten is not worth the fight. Ten leaves and Karou tells Zuzana and Mik they have to leave that night. They are confused and Karou tells them how Thiago had beheaded her for falling in love with Akiva. She teaches them how to make themselves invisible and she leads them out that night. Zuzana left her a drawing of her and Mik and spelled out “I love you” in chimera.
65. Brimstone and the Warlord new the seraphim were coming to their city to kill the civilians. They gave the people the choice of being killed by the angels or dying in the cathedral below the city. Brimstone had hope that the cathedral would act as a giant therable and Karou would come to resurrect them. Thiago has everyone gathered and is again trying to rile them up with anger to get them ready for killing the seraph women and children. Karou interrupts to ask him what the objective of his war is. Ten warns her that she will make good on her threat. Karou tells her that Zuzana and Mik are gone ond out of her reach. She again asks Thiago what he sees for their future. When he can’t give an answer, she asks the chimera to listen to Brimstone’s words. Issa tells them how Brimstone gleaned her soul so she could give them a message. If they continue like they have been, all they will get is more death and destruction. But there is hope and a reason for them to make a future for themselves.
66. Akiva goes to see the emperor. He and his siblings are made to leave their weapons behind. They keep a few on themselves, but have made them invisible. Akiva knows it is necessary to kill Jorem to end the wars.
67. The chimera want Issa to tell them who all was in the cathedral, but she says there were thousands of them and there wasn’t time to make a record of who. Thiago says it changes nothing. They do not have a place to keep all those people even if they were to be resurrected. Karou is furious with him. She points out that both sides killing each others’ children is pointless. She tells them Balieros’ team went out to save the chimera they had abandoned after stringing up the seraphim bodies. She tells them someone has to stop the killing. Thiago insists it must be the seraphim. The Shadows That Live move to Karou’s side in show of support. Thiago says he will take it into consideration and the rest of the crowed is spared from having to publicly make a choice.
68. Akiva and his siblings are brought before Jorem. His son, Japheth (around Akiva’s age), is there as well as Jael. Akiva listens to the request of his father. He wants Akiva to go to wear his mother had lived and tell them he doesn’t have Akiva’s mother, Festival. Akiva mentions his mother, but Jorem tells him he has no parents and is worthless. Akiva kills his father.
69. Bast comes to Karou’s window and tell her Thiago has taken several chimera down to the pit. Karou goes out the window. Issa tries to rush down after her, but Ten is standing outside of her door.
70. A fight breaks out. Japheth hides himself behind a serving woman. Akiva looks at him and says, “the empoeror is dead. Long live the emperor.” Japheth is confused about this and follows them. Jael and his Dominion are ready for Akiva with chimera hands that bear the hamsas. Akiva realizes Jael had expected this and set a trap. Jael slits Japheth’s throat and names himself emperor. Akiva is shocked and Joel thanks him.
71. Karou gets to the pit and finds Thiago there shoving in the bodies of any chimera that might have sided with her over him. She calls him a monster and he promises to give the seraphim the monsters they want. She tells him she is done resurrecting his army. He brings up Akiva to try to shame her in front of the others, but she points out that he couldn’t handle her choosing Akiva over him. He sends the others away and they take off. Karou tries to take to the sky, but he grabs her. He throws her to the ground and gets on top of her trying to rape her. She never stops struggling to get away from him and is able to get to the small knife she kept at the top of her boot. She sinks the knife into his throat.
72. Jael tells his dominions to kill everyone. His co-conspirator, Ur-Magus Hellas reminds him to leave the Misbegotten alive. Jael gives the order saying they will have to publicly execute the traitors. He also orders the Magus killed because he can’t trust someone that took part in a conspiracy. Akiva and his siblings are getting sicker from the hamsas around them. Jael calls Akiva a magus. He had gotten his information from Razgut. Jael said he wasn’t sure he could trust the information at first, but it all ended up being true. Akiva realizes the plan isn’t to attack Stelians, but the human world.
73. Thiago falls dead on top of Karou. She pushes him off enough to get free and get her jeans back on. She is not sure what to do. Those that would help her are either dead or sent away. She figures Issa is probably dead now too. She thinks about leaving. She can’t stand the idea of resurrecting Thiago. Jael is under the impression that the human world would welcome them as gods. Akiva points out the scar across his face. Jael plans to wear a mask. Akiva thinks about what he saw of human war and how awful their weapons are. Akiva asks him to instead send him to the Stelians to deliver his message. Jael admits that was just a way to get him there. Akiva warns him that others will stop him, but can’t think of who. Jael wishes he could keep him, but knows he can’t. He looks at Liraz. He wants to keep her as a serving girl. Hazael stands to defend Liraz and offers himself. Akiva realizes his mother gave Jael the scar across his face. Liraz tells him to kill her with her brothers before he regrets it. Hazael attacks and is killed by a sword through his chest. Liraz catches him. Akiva lets out a scream that is felt across the world. The glass of the Hall of Conquest shatters and the Sword exploded outward. When the day comes around, there are rumors of the emperor’s death and the disappearance of the Misbegotton. The rest of the bastards were in a cave waiting to join Akiva’s cause.
74. Zuzana and Mik are in a cheap hotel and are too hot to move. Mik asks why they haven’t gone home yet. Zuzana doesn’t want to go back to real life or leave Karou behind. Mik draws on her back and spells out “Zuzana will you ma-.” Zuzana assumes he was going to ask her to marry him and she stops him. He reminds her he still has two tasks left and asks if she was serious. She says she was and he is too.
75. Karou is back in her room. The board to keep her door closed was taken away. She tries to tell herself it doesn’t matter what happens to her. She thinks about the Kirin story of chimera creation. She cleaned herself in the river. She hears wings and tries not to think about what happened. She tries to stitch her ear with a needle. Issa wakes up and does the stitching for her. Akiva arrives at Karou’s window. She unlocks the shutters and lets him in. He becomes visible and collapses.
76. Akiva wasn’t alone; he brought his siblings. His eyes were bloodshot from using magic. Liraz and Akiva carry Hazael between them. Liraz begs Karou to save Hazael. They all look at Karou. Liraz says she will pay any price to save him. She agrees to do it and says there isn’t a price. Akiva has brought her enough and she owed him. She explains she won’t be able to bring him back as he was. Akiva says he is fine with it as long as he is himself. She asks for the therable. Akiva says they didn’t have one. It was only a day since he died. She tells him it is too late and his soul is already gone.
77. Liraz jumps at Karou and yells for her to save him. Issa rips her from Karou and throws her back to Akiva. Akiva wonders what happened to Karou. There is a knock on the door. Karou opens it and Akiva can see she is ready to die. He wanted to finish the revolution he started with her. ten comes in the door and Thiago is behind her.
78. Karou cannot look at any of them. She had dragged his body back from the pit with her. She knew he was necessary to the chimera movement. Now Akiva and Thiago face off. Karou had healed Thiago herself. She feels like her life had been leading up to this moment. She thinks that Thiago would have been delighted by the sight, if it had really been him standing there in her room.
79. Thiago asks what is going on. Liraz says the war is over, but Thiago says it isn’t. He shares a look with Karou and she returns it. Akiva sees it and attacks Thiago. Ziri is the one in the body and he holds back Akiva. When he found Karou, he didn’t realizes the burden he was putting on her to bury his old body and put him in Thiago’s. He still wasn’t used to it. This deception is what they needed to change the course of the war. Akiva passes out and Ziri tells Ten to take the angels to the grainery. She tells him she knows who he really is and holds him. He holds her back and thinks she might be their last hope.
80. Karou had heard wings approach and was surprised to see Ziri alive. He found her dragging back the body with his clothes undone and bloody. He held her shoulders and told her she was alright. She tells him they would make her bring him back and it wouldn’t be over. He apologizes for the leaving her in the time between. He cut himself and she held him while he died. She thought about the boy he had been. She thinks of him as the boy rather than the monster’s body she wears. She shows him she has the tip of his horn. She had thought he might not want it before she had burried the rest of his body in a shallow grave. She knew he was right and she had to put his soul in Thiago’s body. Issa and Ten return. Ten is now actually Hexi resurrected into Ten’s body. She explained what had happened and that they need her to be Ten. They ask what she wanted to do with the angels. She tells them she wants them gone. She can’t imagine peace without him, but she can’t be with him.
81. Two worlds collide to make the strange stranger.
82. Zuzana and Mik are at Ait Benhaddou, the most famous casbah in Morocco. Mik thinks about how he has to complete two more tasks for Zuzana to be worthy of her. The tourists start to gather around something and they go to see what is happening. They hear screaming and Mik pulls Zuzana across the way to see what is going on from a TV.
83. Akiva wakes up and feels invigorated. Hazael’s body is still with them. He wakes up Liraz and they give him a small funeral. He and Liraz hold hands. Liraz asks Akiva what he had done. He admits he didn’t know. They both wonder why it hadn’t happened when he needed it most. They both wonder if Jael is alive. They both hope he is alive because he didn’t deserve an easy death. Akiva wonders why Thiago had let them rest and where Karou was. Liraz feels like they are abandoning Hazael. They drink the water that was left for them and put Hazael’s ashes inside to take with them. They are heading to the caves where his and Madrigal’s revolution was supposed to start. He says there is something he needs to do before they leave. Akiva goes to Karou’s room again. She asks what he is doing there. He says they are leaving, but he has to tell her something first. He tells her he is going to seal the portals and wanted to warn her so she can decide which side she wants to be on. Liraz says it is to save both worlds from corruption. He says if Jael is alive, he would be coming there soon for weapons. He learned of them from Razgut. She knows it is her fault. Akiva admits the rest is his fault for finding the first portal to her world. He tells her they must be closed. He knew she would chose Eretz and warns her there may never be a way back. She tells him she is chimera and her life is there. He has hope for them as long as they were in the same world, there was still a chance for them. He asks how much time she needs to get them back. He asks how she can be with Thiago after what he did to her. She tells him he doesn’t get to judge. She says goodbye. The angels leave.
84. Karou feels cold when Akiva leaves. Issa tries to comfort her. She knows she has to be her own strength and comfort. Issa tells Karou it is alright for her to love him. She doesn’t want her to punish herself for it. She looks around her room at everything that has to go with them back to Eretz. She asks where they will go. The dominion had already arrived. A car comes around honking its horn. A van with Zuzana hanging out the window pulls up. She tells Karou that there are hundreds of angels and the world is freaking out. She sees Akiva as he comes back. She knew if they were to fight the angels, the human world would only see them as demons. Akiva asks Thiago to come with them. Akiva has an army of his own.
EPILOGUE
The Misbegotten and the chimera are separated to keep from fighting amongst themselves. He wishes Hazael was there to help them get along. They are united against a common enemy. Ziri gets used to Thiago’s body, but he has to force the cruelty onto his face when he remembers to. This is not the revolution they envisioned, but it might be the start they need. The give themselves the night and decide the Earth’s apocalypse will start the next day.