Summary of Clash of Stone and Steel

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Prologue: Talyn, the Raptor of Avril, stands at the foot of Cyra and Bressen’s bed trying to decide if she should just kill them and end her latest job. Just as she decides to wait, Cyra wakes from a nightmare and Talyn ports to a hiding place on the other side of the room. She discovers that Cyra is a dream walker and was in Axenus’s nightmare.  Talyn is finally able to escape the room when Bressen and Cyra start to have sex, but she runs into (literally) Samhail in the hall as she’s leaving. He questions why she’s out of bed so late, and she makes up a story about needing to find her necklace. He lets her go and she returns to her room.

Days later, Samhail is in training session with Cyra, but he keeps getting pulled by the divine imperative while Cyra spars with one of the house guards. He reacts instinctively when Cyra is about to get hurt, and the training pauses. Samhail calls a halt for the day, but Cyra protests. Samhail dismisses the guard, but Cyra attacks Samhail, and he’s forced to subdue her. He realizes she’s spiraling after her father’s death and orders her to take a break. When she leaves, he gives in to his guilt over his own part in Aramis’s death until he senses someone watching him, but there’s no one there.

Samhail goes to meet with Bressen and Axenus, and they discuss Cyra’s deterioration. When talk turns to the impending war, Axenus reminds them they can’t fight the symbionts like any other enemy. For one, many are Thasia’s own people, turned against their will. For another, any of their soldiers who are wounded risk being turned into symbionts. The meeting breaks up when it becomes clear Cyra is in Bressen’s mind erotically teasing him.

Minutes earlier, Talyn has been called to Cyra’s room to help her with her bath. Cyra has just learned she’s the new owner of a Hiraethian vineyard, and she’s happy. Cyra tries to get to know Talyn – who she knows as Leeda – but Talyn tries to avoid it by arousing the lady in her bath and getting her to call Bressen to come for sex. Ultimately it works and Talyn is able to return to her room where she opens a message leaf from Sandrian that gives her the order to kill Bressen and Cyra.

Talyn tries to kill them that night, but she’s stopped by recent warding Cyra has put up around the bedroom, and she has to rethink her strategy. She decides to learn more about Samhail, since he will be one of the biggest obstacles to killing Bressen and Cyra. She find him alone and, on a hunch, comes to him looking like Cyra. She teases him and learns there may be something between him and Cyra. She grows bolder until she almost gives him a blowjob. Samhail stops her before she puts her mouth on him, and she leaves.

Samhail feels ashamed of what he almost let happen with Cyra and avoids her and Bressen for days after. He finally decides to confront Cyra and goes to her vineyard to talk. When he arrives, he’s attacked by two new bodyguards he soon realizes are his twin brother and sister, Surgeon and Serise. Cyra intervenes and Samhail goes in to talk to her. Cyra denies anything happened between them, and Samhail realizes they likely have a masque, a kind of shapeshifter, in the midst. They leave to share the news with Bressen.

After laying into Bressen about hiring his siblings, Samhail tells the lord what he and Cyra suspect about a masque. They theorize it must be one of the servants and hatch a plan to find the masque.

That evening, Talyn is called to Bressen’s office and is confronted by six armed people. Cyra negates Talyn's powers, and her true form is revealed. Realizing she can’t port, Talyn heads for the balcony to jump off in the hope that getting away from Cyra will return her powers. Samhail injures her while she tries to get away, but she manages to jump off and gets her powers back on the way down.

Samhail and the other two gargoyles pursue her through the house until they finally contain her on the first floor. Bressen arrives, claws his way into her mind, and learns who she is. He’s about to kill her, but Cyra intervenes by negating his powers and putting Talyn to sleep.

Back in Bressen’s study, Bressen, Cyra, Axenus, Samhail, and the twins discuss what to do. They learn Talyn may be a famous assassin called The Raptor of Avril. Bressen orders her locked in the dungeon, and he plans to torture her with Samhail’s help, but Cyra intervenes and holds him off until the next day.

Now in the dungeon, Talyn finds Samhail watching her. He delivers some clothes Cyra gathered for her, and she goads him into getting in the cell with her. Her challenges her to take the key from him, and they fight. 

Talyn manages to wound him and almost escapes, but Samhail prevents it and leaves. However, Talyn has managed to get the key of her cell off the ring without him knowing and plans to escape later that night.

Samhail goes to a tavern for a drink, but he’s interrupted by Surgeon and Serise. They needle him until he snaps and drags them out. They press him about Cyra, and he admits that what they’re feeling toward her is the divine imperative. Samhail goes back to his room but ends up fantasizing about Talyn.

Talyn escapes Tide’s End as planned, but Samhail quickly catches up to her the next morning. They fight again and are both reluctantly impressed by each other. Samhail subdues Talyn by kissing her and putting a caronium cuff on her wrist while she’s distracted. Talyn begs him not to bring her back to face Bressen and Revenmyer. She instead offers to turn on Sandrian, and Samhail takes her up on it. He decides not to tell Bressen about it, ostensibly for Bressen’s own good, and he and Talyn begin traveling together.

Samhail gets his own horse in the next town, but Talyn begins to test his limits as they travel and flirt with each other. Samhail is challenged in one town by a mercenary looking to make a name for himself. He originally declines to fight, but when the man threatens Talyn, he fights him one-handed to humiliate him before he kills him.

Afraid of her growing feelings for Samhail, Talyn decides he has to die. That night she picks the lock on her caronium cuff and plans to bash his head in with a rock. He wakes, and they fight. Talyn realizes she’s in trouble and tries to flee, but Samhail catches her and paralyzes her with a toxin from his gargoyle fangs.

The next day, Talyn wakes and can’t feel her body. She and Samhail talk as she rides in front of him, and Samhail worries about how long it's taking for the toxin to wear off. He eventually stops to figure out what’s wrong, only to realize Talyn has been playing possum for the last few minutes. She gets hold of his swords and puts them to his neck, intent on killing him, but she can’t bring herself to do it. She’s sure he’ll kill her now, but Samhail kisses her instead and tells her he plans to fuck her.

Talyn manages to put him off, and they continue on their journey. Both distracted by their growing attraction, Samhail and Talyn are attacked by bandits on the woods and Samhail is wounded by caronium-tip crossbow bolts. They learn the bandits are after Samhail because of a bounty Sandrian has put on his head, and Talyn kills them all.

Talyn gets Samhail to the nearest village, and she works to remove the tips of the caronium bolts lodged in him as they wait for the healer. The healer eventually arrives to fully heal Samhail, and Samhail and Talyn settle in for the night to rest. The next morning, Talyn shocks Samhail by sucking his cock before they continue on. 

When they stop at the next town, Talyn learns it’s the day before Spring, which is a significant day for her. She loses Samhail and goes to a tavern to drink, looking like her dead sister. Samhail eventually finds her but doesn’t interfere while she drunkenly flirts with three men. Talyn plays a knife throwing game with them men and pretends to lose to make Samhail jealous because it means kissing the men. Talyn shows her true skill when the final man tries to be an asshole, and Samhail finally confronts her. He tries to get her back to their inn while Talyn tries to get him to fuck her. He ultimately manages to resist and gets her to go to sleep.

Talyn has a hangover the next morning, and they’re further prevented from doing anything together by the arrival of Surgeon and Serise, who have finally caught up with them. The twins try to take Talyn, but Samhail stops them and insists they listen to him. He lays out his plan with Sandrian and sends them back to Bressen, after Talyn stabs them both in the hands for suggesting they’d want to fuck her.

Samhail and Talyn continue on, but they eventually encounter a village that’s been attacked by symbionts. They follow a caravan of soldiers to a Rown camp in the middle of Derridan. Samhail shifts into his gargoyle form to fight the soldiers while Talyn frees the captives. 

Talyn is injured by a symbiont, and Samhail brings her to the center tent to bandage her wounds. There they finally give in to their desires and have sex, starting on a table and finishing up on a bedroll in the tent.

When they’re done, Samhail realizes it’s time to bring Bressen in. He and Talyn clean up and get dressed, and then he sends a message to Bressen.

Bressen arrives with Cyra, and they bring Aidan and Maziren in as well. Samhail explains what happened and shows the lords where he fought the soldiers while Cyra stays behind in the tent to heal Talyn. When they return to the tent, Bressen checks for survivors, and they discover the captain of the regiment has been hiding there in a cabinet the whole time.

Bressen questions the captain, and they learn that he’s immune to the symbionts. They also learn that the symbionts can only turn so many people at a time, so that’s why they take people prisoner, to turn them later. 

When the questioning turns to where Sandrian and Magdalene are, Aidan objects to Bressen’s interrogation and tries to stop it. There’s a moment of chaos, and Aidan ends up killing the captain with one of Talyn’s daggers after he claims the man attacked him.

Bressen decides they will pursue Samhail’s original plan of trying to lure Sandrian out, so they have Talyn contact him and set up a meeting.

That night, Samhail shows up in Talyn’s room to seduce her. She tries to fight him – literally and figuratively – but ultimately gives in, and they have sex.

The next day they meet Sandrian in a location he chose, and Talyn tries to coax him through Magdalene’s portal by tempting him with a seemingly incapacitated Samhail. When Sandrian and Magdalene finally come through, Bressen, Cyra, Aidan, Maziren, and the gargoyle twins reveal themselves. Unfortunately, Sandrian has also brought reinforcements: dozens of symbionts under an obfuscation glamour.

A fog envelopes the area, so Samhail and Talyn and the rest of their people can at least see shapes moving toward them in the mist, and they all begin to fit. The gargoyles shift, and Talyn tries to find Cyra to help her. She saves Cyra when it seems like Magdalene has her, but Magdalene sends Talyn falling over a chasm Cyra created, and Samhail saves her.

When Talyn tries to rejoin the fight, she’s confronted by Aidan, who tells her she looks like her sister. Talyn realizes she may have killed the wrong man for murdering her sister, but she wants to be sure this time. When Magdalene calls a retreat and Aidan flees, Talyn kidnaps Bressen and slips through the portal with him just in time.

Having followed Sandrian, Magdalene, and Aidan through the portal, Talyn tries to convince them she’s still on their side and offers Bressen up as proof. Magdalene eventually reads both her and Bressen’s minds and decides to let Talyn stay. Bressen is brought to the dungeon, and Magdalene shows Talyn to a room where she admits she knows Talyn is there to kill Aidan, who she knows as Morland, but she doesn’t seem to care.

Later that night, Talyn visits a now-battered Bressen in the dungeon. He attacks her when she gets in the cell with him, but she gets the upper hand and convinces him to at least listen to her. She explains why she kidnapped him, and Bressen reluctantly agrees to help her, but only because he needs to get Aidan back as well. He reveals that an old enemy, Morland, has taken over Aidan’s mind, and Talyn agrees not to kill him until they can try to get Morland out of Aidan’s body. She gives him a hair pin and tells him how to pick the lock on his cuffs.

Morland breaks into Talyn’s room that night, but she’s ready for him and sends him packing.

The next morning when Talyn tries to see Bressen again, she finds he’s gone from the dungeon. She learns Morland took him, and she hurries to the throne room where she finds Morland torturing Bressen. She gets there just in time to prevent Bressen from losing his cock to Morland’s blade, and she tries to stall while Bressen works on unlocking his caronium cuffs. 

Sandrian reveals that he knows what she’s doing, and just when it looks like they’re in big trouble, the castle begins to shake. Bressen reveals that Cyra has arrived. Talyn ports her, Bressen, and Aidan/Morland as far away as she can before she collapses. Bressen has been able to take over Morland’s mind, so he picks up Talyn, and the three of them run to meet Cyra, Axenus, and the gargoyles in the courtyard. Cyra creates a portal, and they flee through it to the Citadel.

Talyn is far from safe as she now faces both Cyra and Samhail’s wrath for taking Bressen, but Bressen makes them both stand down. He credits Talyn with helping them get Aidan back and with keeping her promise to keep him (relatively) safe. 

Bressen reveals the deal he made with Talyn and tells her she’s welcome to get her affairs in order while they figure out how to get Morland out of Aidan, but Talyn refuses to leave. She agrees to locked in the dungeon with him while they figure out a solution.

Several days later, Talyn is in the dungeon with Aidan/Morland when Bressen’s mental hold on Morland lapses. Morland begins to torture Talyn with the details of her sister’s murder, and there’s nothing she can do to stop him.

Samhail finds her later that night huddled in a corner, exhausted and traumatized. He dislocates Morland’s shoulder in retaliation and brings Talyn up to sleep in his room. They manage to resist each other that night, but the next morning, Talyn again sucks his cock, and then he returns the favor before fucking her, which includes a bit of anal play.

Samhail takes Talyn with him to Derridan with him to check up on Jasper and Maziren in Aidan’s absence. While there, Talyn masquerades as Aidan for a bit to keep his people from becoming suspicious that something happened to him.

After that, Samhail takes her to the army training camp in Hiraeth where he suggests she help train the soldiers. He offers a gold piece to any of the trainees who can land a hit on Talyn and makes her fight them without her powers. She still beats them all, although she’s a little pissed at Samhail.

Days later, Samhail and Talyn have fallen into a routine that involves a lot of sex. The chance for morning sex is denied them, however, when Bressen returns from his and Cyra’s ocean voyage with news that they may have a way to get Morland out of Aidan.

A couple hours later, Cyra seemingly uses one of Morland’s bones to regrown his original body and transfers his mind back into it. Now back in his mind wraith body, Morland seizes control of Talyn’s mind and threatens to kill her. Bressen is ready to sacrifice her, but gives her a chance to free herself for Samhail’s sake. She’s able to break free of Morland’s hold and kill him.

Talyn distances herself from Samhail after that and prepares to leave, but she finds excuses to stay. Samhail again visits her room the next night and they have sex. When Samhail begins making plans for them, however, Talyn admits she was planning to leave that night. In desperation, Samhail claims her by the gargoyle Right of Primacy, which essentially makes her his mate and wife. Furious with him, Talyn rejects his claim and opts to fight it through combat.

Talyn and Samhail face off the next day in a battle where a winner is only declared when one of them can’t continue to fight. Surgeon and Serise are called in as judges to certify the results. Talyn begins to regret her choice to fight, but her anger flares when Samhail declares he loves her and she doesn’t believe him.

They fight and eventually they stab each other at the same time. Talyn takes a blade in the stomach, but hers penetrates Samhail’s chest near his heart. Cyra rushes to heal Samhail, but he won’t let her help until she heals Talyn. She does so reluctantly, then tries to heal him again. He once again stops her until Talyn accepts her victory over him. Talyn accepts the victory to save his life but then turns around and claims him by the Right of Primacy. Surgeon and Serise note that they don’t think there are any rules against it, and Samhail accepts as Talyn’s mate mark appears on his hand.

Talyn comes to Samhail’s room later that night, and they consummate their mating. She tell him, however, that she’s agreed to become Bressen’s spymaster, which means she may be away often, and Samhail won’t be able to come with her. Samhail is furious with Bressen, but Talyn talks him down and assures him she will always be back to claim what’s hers.

Epilogue: Bressen and Cyra bring Morland’s body down to the beach at Tide’s End where Cyra turns it to sand, and it washes away with the surf. It’s revealed that Praya (a Hand of the Gods) and Ariel, the women from the island, have come back with Bressen and Cyra from their ocean voyage. Bressen suggests the Protector is trying to gain power through Magdalene, but Praya decides not to reveal that it’s the Nemesis she feels growing in power.