QUICK LINKS: House of Earth and Blood Recap by Chapter 1–11 | 12–23 | 24–35 | 36–49 | 50–59 | 72–84 | 85–E
House of Earth and Blood Chapters 60–71 Summary
This chapter-by-chapter summary of House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas contains spoilers.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 60
Today would have been Danika’s twenty-fifth birthday. Bryce feels like the only person who still remembers. She picks up a box of chocolate croissants because they were Danika’s favorite and sits alone by the river to honor her. Hunt finds Bryce there, and they talk openly about their grief. Hunt shares what it felt like to lose Shahar, and they realize they understand each other’s pain in a way nobody else does.
The moment turns dark when Bryce opens the box. Someone wrote a cruel insult on top of the croissant in chocolate. Bryce is devastated. Hunt flies to a bar in Moonwood, finds Amelie, pins her against a wall, and uses his lightning to make clear she’s never to touch Bryce again. Ithan witnesses it and understands how cruel Amelie was to do that on Danika’s birthday.
Hunt returns to the roof where Bryce is waiting. Bryce is scared he’ll get in trouble, but Hunt takes her hands and tells her they’re reflections of one another. Something shifts in Bryce. The next morning, Bryce schedules an appointment to treat her leg and tells Hunt she has a plan to get the demon venom needed for the antidote research.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 61
Bryce visits a medwitch’s clinic with Hunt to treat her old injury. The healer warns that the demon venom has spent two years bonding with Bryce’s leg and will be incredibly painful to remove. Bryce goes through with the treatment anyway.
Hunt holds Bryce’s hand throughout. To distract her, Hunt admits he was in the interrogation room two years ago and has remembered Bryce ever since. At the worst of the pain, Hunt kisses her softly.
The witch seals the extracted venom in a glass vial and tests it on a synth tablet. The pill dissolves in three minutes. The treatment works. The witch says she’ll keep refining the formula so it can eventually be used without her direct involvement.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 62
Micah summons Bryce and Hunt to his office, where Sabine and Amelie are waiting. As punishment for the attack on Amelie, Micah sentences Hunt to the Living Death, the permanent removal of his wings. Amelie tries to stop it, but Sabine insists out of revenge for the investigation into her daughter’s death. Hunt accepts without resistance.
Before leaving, Sabine taunts Bryce with information from the Under-King. After Danika died, Bryce went to the Bone Quarter and surrendered her eternal rest to ensure Danika was allowed into the afterlife. Sabine claims this only causes Danika shame, but Bryce refuses to accept it.
That night, Bryce took a Death Mark from the gallery, crossed the river alone, and repeated her offer seven times until the Under-King accepted. She gave up her right to any afterlife to give Danika peace.
Later, Isaiah and Naomi help Bryce and Hunt get home. Bryce stays up to clean Hunt’s wounds and warns Ithan she’ll kill Sabine if they ever meet again. Hunt wakes in the early hours to find Bryce asleep at his side. He knows he should distance himself, but he pulls her closer instead.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 63
Bryce spends the day at the gallery while Ruhn watches over Hunt. She submits several job applications, having decided to leave Jesiba regardless of how the investigation ends.
She pulls up Danika’s Redner Industries account and tries every password she can think of before landing on the phrase from her tattoo and Danika’s jacket about love making all things possible. It works.
Among the files is a folder oddly labeled for party invitations with a subfolder bearing Bryce’s name and a single photo of Danika’s leather jacket. Bryce grabs the jacket and cuts into the seam where “love” is stitched. A tiny flash drive falls out.
The drive holds three files. Bryce and Lehabah watch the first one together, and what they see leaves them both stunned.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 64
Bryce shows Hunt the flash drive, and together they watch a synth trial recording. A human test subject displays terrifying strength after an injection, kills multiple Vanir prisoners with her bare hands, and takes her own life. Bryce concludes there was never a second demon. Someone powered by synth bypassed the apartment security and killed her friends. Hunt agrees but warns they need to stay under the radar since Micah won’t show mercy if they cause more trouble.
Hunt and Bryce share a passionate kiss, but things stop when Bryce notices that Hunt is bleeding from his back. A medwitch patches the wound and orders no physical strain until Hunt’s wings grow back. Hunt falls asleep, and Bryce rests for a few hours.
Later that night, Bryce wakes and goes to her old apartment to look for anything Danika left behind, but she finds the place on fire. All residents escape safely, but Bryce knows the blaze is a deliberate warning. Someone tracked her when she accessed the corporate account. The attack convinces Bryce she’s close to the truth. On her way home, Tharion messages Bryce about a suspicious boat and a synth deal about to go down. Bryce rushes to meet him without telling Hunt or Ruhn.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 65
Tharion takes Bryce out on the river to watch a transaction on a barge. Together they spot the Viper Queen delivering a massive synth shipment to hooded buyers. Bryce reaches for Hunt’s contact to call for help. One buyer turns around, and the light catches his face. The buyer is Hunt.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 66
Bryce boards the barge and finds Hunt with Viktoria and Justinian. Micah arrives with armed guards and explains that Hunt and the other angels had spent days buying a large synth shipment to distribute to enslaved angels so they could break their bindings and rebel. The Viper Queen set them up after Justinian tried to recruit one of her people.
Micah then reveals a truth Hunt had known for days. Danika murdered her own pack. She was addicted to synth, took a massive dose the night she died, lost control, killed her friends, and took her own life. The demon Bryce had been tracking was a byproduct of the black salt in the formula. Danika stole the Horn to provoke her mother and likely planned to sell it.
The worst part for Bryce is that Hunt knew all of this for nearly a week and let her keep chasing a killer that didn’t exist. Fury arrives and holds a gun to Hunt’s head. Isaiah cuffs the three angels. Bryce throws her opal at Hunt, tells him she’s done with him forever, and leaves with Fury without looking back.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 67
Ruhn finds Bryce in the lobby and sits with her while she processes the betrayal. Bryce suspects that Hunt used the promise of a shared life to stop her from digging further when Bryce showed him the footage, and that Hunt set fire to her old apartment to destroy evidence before finishing the deal with the Viper Queen.
Fury returns and talks with Ruhn in the kitchen while Bryce listens. Justinian is dying publicly as a warning. Micah separated Viktoria’s spirit from her body and sealed it in a container to drop into a deep underwater chasm forever. Hunt is in a cell, and Micah has something worse planned for him. Bryce sits on the couch in shock, staring at nothing.
House of Earth and Blood Part IV: The Ravine
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 68
Hunt explains the plan to Isaiah from his cell. The other angels, along with Hunt, had intended to use the drug at the upcoming Summit to break their magical bonds and restart the rebellion. After watching the trial videos, Hunt tried to back out, but the others refused to stop.
Isaiah tells Hunt the Governor already knows about his hesitation, and that’s the only reason Hunt is in a cell instead of facing a public execution like Justinian. Viktoria’s spirit has been trapped in a small container at the bottom of the sea.
Hunt asks Isaiah to pass his apologies to Bryce. Isaiah says his final goodbye and warns Hunt that whatever punishment is coming will be severe.
Three days pass with no news about Hunt’s fate. The healer delivers a working antidote, and Bryce locks it in the office safe.
The Autumn King makes an unexpected visit to the gallery. The Governor has guaranteed Bryce’s safety, so no one is permitted to target Bryce to get back at Hunt. The king reminds Bryce that the stolen artifact still holds historical value even with no one hunting for it. He hints that Bryce has more of his personality than she’d care to admit, then walks out.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 69
Sandriel visits Hunt in his cell and pulls up photos on Hunt’s phone—pictures he took with Bryce—and forces him to look at them. Sandriel mocks Hunt by suggesting that Micah might have freed him if he had been more patient. Instead, Hunt faces a return to his old life. Micah has handed ownership of Hunt back to Sandriel.
Later that night, Bryce meets Ruhn at a bar and thanks him for staying by her side after the betrayal. She admits she feels foolish for ignoring every warning about Hunt. Ruhn invites Bryce to watch a sunball game at his place as a way to close the distance between them. Bryce agrees to give their relationship another chance but says the invitation has to include Juniper and that they’re only testing the waters for now.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 70
Fury stops by to tell Bryce that Micah transferred Hunt back to Sandriel earlier that afternoon. Sandriel leaves for the Summit tomorrow and plans to bring Hunt to Pangera, which means Hunt will likely never see freedom again.
The two women have a blunt conversation about the last two years. Bryce asks why Fury disappeared after Danika died. Fury admits she couldn’t handle the grief and the weight of what happened. She also reveals that she and Juniper share a much deeper bond than anyone knew and that Juniper helped her survive the guilt that followed the murders. Fury leaves Bryce with a small bit of hope and tells her that life will eventually get better.
Alone with her pet, Bryce realizes she can’t let Sandriel take Hunt away, regardless of his betrayal. Bryce remembers her promise to Fury about not being reckless and decides she won’t do something foolish, but she can still find a clever way to intervene.
House of Earth and Blood Chapter 71
Bryce shows up at the Comitium with a check for nearly a hundred million gold marks and an ancient necklace to buy Hunt’s freedom. Sandriel destroys the jewelry and refuses the money. Bryce then offers her own life. Sandriel is intrigued and reveals that she already knows Bryce is the secret daughter of the Autumn King.
Ruhn steps in before the bargain can be finalized. Ruhn invokes an old Fae law that claims Bryce belongs to his royal house and forbids Bryce from trading herself away. Bryce tells Ruhn she’ll never forgive him for taking away her choice.
Hunt tells Bryce he wants nothing to do with her and that she should never look for him again. It’s the only way to keep Bryce safe. The guards load Hunt into a van and take him to the Summit.
Bryce goes to the river near the Black Dock and speaks to the memory of Danika about how everything has fallen apart. A demon leaps out of the shadows and drags Bryce down into the river.