What happened in House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas

The basics

Title: House of Sky and Breath

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Series: Crescent City #2

- House of Earth and Blood (2020)
- House of Sky and Breath (2022)
- Untitled

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are trying to get back to normal―they may have saved Crescent City, but with so much upheaval in their lives lately, they mostly want a chance to relax. Slow down. Figure out what the future holds.

The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt, and their friends get pulled into the rebels’ plans, the choice becomes clear: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent.

In this sexy, action-packed sequel to the #1 bestseller House of Earth and Blood, Sarah J. Maas weaves a captivating story of a world about to explode―and the people who will do anything to save it.

Read a full summary of House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas below. If you can’t remember what happened in House of Sky and Breath and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

What happened in House of Sky and Breath?

• Sofie’s parents were killed and her brother was taken and imprisoned. Sofie joined the rebels to get their help to get Emile back.
• Sofie and Emile both have thunderbird powers, which are extremely rare. The rebels want their powers on their side.
• Sofie enters the camp where Emile is being kept and frees a bunch of children. Her partner, Silver, is waiting with a van to take them all to the harbour.
• Unfortunately, the dreadwolves are out, led by The Hind.
• Sofie holds them off by using her powers. Emile and the others escape and Sofie is captured.
• Bryce and Hunt still have this stupid deal going on. They can’t sleep together until the solstice, which is making things tense.
• Everyone else agrees that Bryce and Hunt should just go for it.
• Ruhn and his housemates hold a party. Prince Cormac shows up and he’s a massive dick. Bryce’s fae king father has betrothed her to Cormac. Bryce threatens Cormac and tells him to leave.
• Ruhn had to fight Cormac during his trial. Cormac was also after the special sword that eventually Ruhn won. The sword likes Bryce too, so that’s a double blow.
• Tharion has angered the River Queen, so she has sent him out to sea to look for Sofie’s body. He finds the lead blocks that she was chained to, but there’s no body. Someone has cut her loose.
• Bryce returns to her apartment and finds a bloody and beaten Ithan there. He spoke out against his pack leader to defend Bryce so he was kicked out.
• The Autumn King talks Ruhn and Cormac through the plan. Or, rather, he tells them what he expected from their marriages. Ruhn is betrothed to a witch called Hypaxia, which is fine beause she seems chill. Her sister, though, is the stag shifter known as The Hind. Hypaxia is also a necromancer, which the other witches don’t like.
• Tharion finds the boat that Emile and co. escaped on. Looks like they were heading to Crescent City.
• Hunt meets his new boss. She seems very chill compared to his old one. She did bring Baxion and Pollux with her, though.
• Hunt fights Pollux and gets put in a cell. Bryce has to come and get him out.
• Tharion learns that Sofie was communicating with Danika before Danika died.
• Tharion goes to Bryce to tell her about Sofie and Emile. Bryce immediately wants to find and protect Emile.
• Baxion is paired with Hunt. He accuses Hunt of seeing everyone as very surface level. Baxion may not be as terrible as he seems.
• Tharion and Ithan talk and figure out that Danika was researching something dangerous. They just don’t know what.
• Fury tells Bryce that Danika was a bloodhound, meaning she could sense people’s bloodlines.
• Bryce fills Ruhn in on everything as they head back to the apartment. When they enter, they find the demon Prince Aidas waiting for them. Ithan thought he was just a cat lmao.
• Aidas tells the group that Bryce’s powers come directlyfrom Theia and she has more to unlock. He also talks about the war they’ve been fighting for thousands of years.
• Aidas says Pelias forcibly wed Helena, Theia’s sister, and created Ruhn and Bryce’s bloodline. He says Bryce is the only one who can stop the war.
• Cormac shows up and it turns out he’s Agent Silverbow, aka Silver. Nice.
• Cormac has been looking for Emile. He agrees to team up with the crew so they can find Emile, and possibly Sofie if she’s still alive. Cormac joined the rebels because he wants everyone to be free. He tells everyone that Pippa is the worst.
• Bryce and Ithan find some of Danika’s coursework which talks about Dusk and Project Thurr. They guess it’s something to do with Sofie. We know from Tharion’s snooping that Danika and Sofie were exchanging emails.
• The Prince of the Pit visited Hunt in his sleep btw. He asks Hunt why he’s not using his full powers and tells him to team up with Bryce to join their powers.
• Ruhn meets with Cormac and Cormac asks Ruhn to use his telepathy to contact Agent Daybright. Sofie had previously been in touch with the agent but obviously that has fallen apart.
• Ruhn agrees and makes contact. Daybright cloaks themselves as a fire woman. Ruhn is terrible at being a secret agent.
• Bryce and her mother fall out over the betrothal. They make up a bit and start exchanging postcards.
• Pollux assaults a woman in an alley and causes a media frenzy. Celestia is commanded by the Asteri to mate with Ephraim to distract everyone.
• Celestina tells Hunt she was best friends with his former partner. Celestia apparently tried to help him when he was enslaved but the Asteri weren’t having it.
• Tharion finds the body of a selkie. Ithan says there’s the scent of a human man and a woman on the body. They figure out that Emile was escorted by the selkie and then Pippa found the selkie shortly after and tortured it for information.
• Ithan goes to live with Ruhn because it makes the most sense.
• Ruhn and Bryce are about to go and train when Ruhn is captured by Reapers. They threaten her by saying the Prince of the Pit wants to battle. They tell her to train harder and to be ready.
• Cormac arrives and helps Bryce and Ruhn. Bryce uses the sword, which glows in a way it never has before. Cormac can teleport.
• Ruhn gets knocked out and Daybright enters his mind and tells him to wake the eff up.
• We learn that Tharion is betrothed to the River Queen’s daughter because he wanted to take her on a date/sleep with her once. ONCE. The River Queen keeps punishing Tharion for this. Occasionally she makes him pick up litter.
• Bryce, Hunt, June, and Fury head to the Meat Market to see if Emile is there. It seems logical that he would be. They don’t find anything out though.
• Bryce and Hunt go to the gym and Hunt electrocutes her clit 🙂
• Daybright and Ruhn talk about the rebel plot to steal the suits. Day freaks out a bit when she realises that Ruhn must be of a high rank.
• Bryce goes to the Bone Quarter to speak to the Under King. She thinks he sent the reapers. Baxion tries to stop Bryce and Hunt because the idea is stupid but they ignore him.
• The Under King shows up and is annoyed that he has been summoned. He says he didn’t send anyone after them and says it must have been the Prince of the Pit. The Under King tells Bryce that everyone has been told lies about the Bone Quarter.
• It’s explained that during the drop everyone has to give a bit of their First Light to power the city (we knew this bit already), but instead of everyone chilling in the Bone Quarter until they’re ready to move on, the dead actually get sucked of their Second Light and drained entirely. Everyone thought there was an afterlife so that’s sad.
• The Under King attacks with his hounds. Hunt starts buzzing with lightning power. Bryce jumps in front of his lightning and is able to use it herself. Nice. They escape and Tharion comes to help them in the river.
• We learn that the head evil wolf guy, Murdoc, is Danika’s father. He tries to get Ruhn and Cormac and Ithan but Cormac is able to teleport them all away.
• It’s all a bit much so they go out for a drink. The Hind and the Harpy come across them. They’re gross and try to wind them up. Turns out Ithan is in love with Bryce. No idea how the Hind knows this.
• Celestina throws a celebration for her betrothal. Hunt has to leave because Bryce is having an emergency, so Hunt jumps out the window.
• Ithan learns of what happened at the Bone Quarter and is super upset that his dead brother has been sucked/drained/whatever. Sabine turns up in the middle of this breakdown, which is why Bryce text Hunt.
• Baxion shows up too and Sabine runs off.
• Ithan asks Tharion to take him to the Bone Quarter but because that’s a stupid idea Tharion takes him to a mystic instead.
• They end up accidentally using a mystic to talk to the Prince of the Ravine. The Prince gets pissed and wants to know why they’re contacting him. He tries to steal the mystic’s soul. Everyone runs off because it’s scary.
• Bryce pulls some princess strings to get Juniper made lead dancer. Juniper is really upset about this because she didn’t want any handouts and wanted to prove herself. So they fall out.
• Cormac teaches Bryce to teleport. It doesn’t go great.
• Bryce sees some footage of Danika looking through a book. She asks Jesiba for said book, who sends it along. The entries show Danika’s family wolf tree. Bryce decides she needs to speak to the Prime, so they head into the pack.
• The Prime says they’ve forgotten a lot about their past and their ancestry. Bryce tells the Prime that Ithan has been kicked out.
• Celestina makes Hunt stay in the barracks for a couple of weeks for running out on the party.
• Cormac finds out that the rebels attacked the train and got the suits, which are now on their way to some islands, and to Pippa. Cormac says they have to intercept so Pippa and her crew can’t use the super powerful suits.
• Bryce asks if she can borrow Hunt for a bit for a family visit. This is obviously a lie but Celestina is like yeah, keep him please.
• The Prime promises he’ll give Ithan his own pack if he wants to come back to the wolves. Aw!
• Ithan heads back to the Astronomer’s place and talks to the mystic who’s out of her tank. Turns out she’s a wolf. Ithan tries to get her to leave with him but she refuses, so Ithan steals a jar instead.
• Ruhn tells Daybright about the island plan, and Day is super sus and wants to know all the information. Day tells Ruhn that she doesn’t like the person she currently has to be with. They fall asleep together.
• Cormac teleports everyone to the island, which is super difficult but he manages it. He tells Pippa they’re there to help. Hunt inspects the suits, which are made of special stone that absorbs First light power. Pippa wants them for the humans, kills a bunch of people, and then Hunt electrocutes the suits and blows everything up.
• The whole thing is a disaster. Bryce blinds people for a bit and the group steals a boat. They start to escape but it goes horribly. Baxion is on the cliffs, in his dog form, and warns them to turn around because the Hind is on her way.
• The Hind and the Harpy show up on jet skis and the Hind threatens to out Hunt as a rebel. The Hind drops a white pebble into the water, which seems to be her thing.
• A submarine appears and the group escapes into it. Nice.
• Meanwhile, Ithan heads back to the house with his stolen fire sprites and a dragon. Ithan asks the dragon for information about the wolf mystic but the dragon warns Ithan against going back there. The dragon, Ariadne, says she can’t fly.
• The submarine is run by merpeople, who are separate to the River Queen’s lot.
• Ruhn points out that Hunt and Bryce are mates. Hunt has gone into a weird lightning mode and might explode in the submarine. Bryce takes Hunt to a remote location, they have sex, and then Bryce teleports.
• Turns out Sofie’s body is on the submarine. It was picked up by these merpeople. Unfortunately they weren’t able to save her. It seems Sofie has carved some numbers into her arm.
• Day checks in with Ruhn to make sure he was ok. Day reveals that she hates Pippa, but is working with her to take down the Asteri. Day shares a bedtime story with Ruhn and he falls asleep because it was boring.
• Baxion talks to Bryce and Hunt about how he wants to join the team. No one wants him there though.
• We learn that the Viper Queen has Emile, and Bryce set this whole thing up. She got the Queen to find Emile and take him back to hers so he’d be safe. I’m questioning this logic tbh.
• Hunt is upset that Bryce has gone behind everyone’s back to do this. There’s an argument.
• They talk to Emile and we find out he doesn’t actually have any thunderbird powers at all. Sofie made it up so she could get the rebels to help rescue him.
• Bryce sends Emile to live with her parents. They adopt him. This was all arranged via postcards.
• Ruhn gets Bryce to come over and introduces her to the sprites and the dragon. Ariadne says she was given to the Astronomer as a gift from an arch angel.
• Apparently dragon fire can hurt the Princes of Hell.
• The Hind doesn’t tell anyone about what happened on the island. She says she’s enjoying watching Hunt squirm.
• Hypaxia asks Ruhn to borrow his royal guard so the other witches can’t harm her. Ithan agrees to help out too, partly because Hypaxia is a necromancer and she might be able to help him speak to his dead brother.
• Hypaxia says she’ll help Ithan out but can only do it on a certain date.
• Hunt tells Tharion not to bother looking for Emile because he doesn’t have any powers. Tharion is like jfc ok.
• Apparently Bryce using her princess powers means that she’s officially accepting the title. Her father tells her so, and also tells her that she has to stay engaged to Cormac. He spots the numbers from Sofie’s arm that Bryce has written down. He warns her that by messing with the Asteri she is going to piss them off, and they’ll go after her real parents.
• Bryce talks to Hypaxia about everything that has been going on. It’s quite nice and a bit of a relief after all the dick swinging to be honest. Hypaxia wants to find out why everyone’s powers seem to be diminishing with each generation. She knows about the Bone Quarter stuff already.
• A reaper demon hound shows up and attacks Ithan. Hypaxia hits Bryce in the chest with her power, and Bryce is able to use it to fight the reaper demon hound off. Hypaxia heals Ithan.
• Hunt wonders if the witches summoned the hounds.
• Ariadne ran off during all of this.
• Tharion decides to move in with the guys.
• Day tells Ruhn they should meet at midnight at the mating ball for Celestina and Ephraim.
• At the ball, Bryce introduces Hunt as her mate. This public announcement and blessing means this beats the betrothal or whatever, so the Autumn King is Unhappy.
• Hypaxia gets to meet her half-sister, the Hind. It’s not the nicest meeting but the two talk privately.
• Ruhn goes outside and sees the Harpy waiting at the fountain at midnight. He goes up to her and calls her Day, and she is like “wut”. He runs off and freaks out.
• Bryce and Hunt get it on and bump into Celestina and Hypaxia already getting it on. Celestina starts to freak out probably out of embarrassing. Bryce says she’s got their backs <3
• Day and Ruhn meet and talk about the threat. Day knows that Ruhn is Ruhn. She says they shouldn’t plan to meet again.
• The Prince of the Pit tells Bryce to train the eff up. He says that Theia was working with Hell to fight against the Asteri. Theia and Aidas were also lovers. The Asteri kept all this a secret. Apollion tells Bryce she must use the Horn to let Hell through.
• Hypaxia tries to contact Connor but instead summons the Under King. She and Ithan are trapped in a maze.
• Bryce tells Cormac that Emile is alive and safe and to please leave him alone.
• Hypaxia and Ithan show up, and tell Bryce she has to go to the temple otherwise the Under King will make the entire dead wolf pack dead dead.
• Bryce arrives at the temple and finds the Under King sat on the throne.
• Tharion finds out that Ariadne is fighting for the Viper Queen. He wants information on the rebels from the Queen and she asks for Ariadne’s bodyguard services in return. She tells him to call his friends.
• Apparently the Asteri summoned the reapers.
• Pippa and co. arrive at the temple. Bryce teleports the others away but isn’t able to escape herself. Murdoc arrives. Baxion shows up and helps Bryce escape into the secret tunnels. Bryce reveals that she used the telephone gates and told everyone that the rebels are at the temple.
• This caused a fight between Murdoc and the Hind and everyone and the rebels.
• Baxion shows Bryce his tattoo. It’s Danika’s favourite quote in her handwriting. They were mates.
• Sigh.
• Apparently they were together two years before Danika’s death. Bryce agrees the timeline makes sense.
• Bryce shows Baxion the numbers, which he says Sofie got from Danika, because Baxion gave the numbers to Danika.
• Baxion says the numbers are of a room in the Asteri’s Eternal City. God.
• Danika was obsessed with the numbers and wanted to know what was going on in the room. She got Sofie on board because Danika was already being watched by the Asteri and couldn’t investigate herself. So Sofie started investigating herself.
• Declan starts looking into the Eternal City palace, and says he can get into their camera system. He finds footage of Sofie entering and exiting the room.
• Bryce calls Fury to ask what the hell is going on. Fury gives Bryce information and maps to get to the room.
• Ithan tells the Prime about the wolf mystic, who he thinks is an alpha. The Prime asks Ithan what the wolf mystic smells like and heavily implies that she’s a lost heir to the wolf kingdom.
• Tharion tells the River Princess that he doesn’t want to marry her. She throws a strop and tells her mother. Tharion literally runs to the Viper Queen and offers to fight for her.
• Ruhn and Day have mind sex. He tells her the plan about the Eternal City, she freaks out, and then gets pulled away before she can tell him anything more than it being a bad idea.
• Ruhn is convinced that Day is in the dungeons. Bryce agrees that Ruhn can try to free Day while they’re conducting the rest of the plan.
• The plan isn’t great and it doesn’t go well so there’s no point in repeating it.
• Ruhn tells Bryce that she has more power than the Autumn King.
• They enter the Palace. Ruhn goes to find Day. Bryce enters the mysterious room. Here she learns all the stuff. She sees the Asteri’s names attached to pipes, along with their current power levels. Looks like the First and Second light is literally feeding the Asteri.
• EVERYONE IS BEING HARVESTED.
• Bryce takes the time to read a book about Dusk. She finds information about the entire universe. It shows the Asteri conquered several/dozens/hundreds of planets and drained them. Or were kicked out.
• THE ASTERI ARE ALIENS.
• It goes into the history of Midguard (where Crescent City is), and describes how the Asteri lured creatures from different planets to this place and trapped them there. They made them forget what happened.
• The Asteri tried to conquer Hel but were chased away. Hel found out how to reach Midguard and some people (Theia and the fae) joined forces with them.
• Bryce tries to figure out where the Asteri came from but Rigulus shows up and says they don’t actually know.
• Outside, Cormac shoots the rebels. Pippa shoots him. Cormac sacrifices himself to blow up the lab.
• Ruhn is caught by Mordoc.
• Rigulus explains that the whole planet has been shut off and now the Asteri can’t leave Midguard. They want Bryce to open the rift using the Horn so the Asteri can travel again.
• All the other creatures are originally fae, and Danika presumably found this out using her nose.
• The Asteri told Micah to get rid of Danika because she knew too much.
• Bryce runs off and finds Hunt handcuffed in the hallway. The Harpy is there. She handcuffs Bryce. They’re taken to the dungeons. The Harpy starts torturing Ruhn and is then attacked by the Hind.
• THE HIND IS DAY.
• The Hind kills the Harpy for being a dick. She frees the others and starts explaining herself but then Pollux arrives. The Hind whispers something to Bryce before everyone is handcuffed again.
• The group is taken to Rigulus in the throne room. There’s a portal. Bryce tells everyone what she learnt in the least lowkey way possible.
• Apparently the Asteri pushed Bryce on this investigation path so she would end up at the Palace and open the rift. Rigulus pretended to be Aidas the whole time.
• Bryce says she’ll open the portal if they let the others go. She starts saying her goodbyes. She tells Ruhn (via his mind) that the Hind unlocked her chains. Bryce unlocks Ruhn’s and Hunt’s.
• Ruhn tells Bryce she has to go to Hel and bring armies back to fight the Asteri.
• Bryce jumps through the gate while the others all fight. The others are put in the dungeon because obviously the fight didn’t go well. Bryce lands on the other side of the portal and starts shouting about Hel and Aidas and stuff.
• A guy shows up but he can’t understand he because she’s speaking some random language. He takes her into the house.
• Bryce meets a bunch of other people. One of them looks a lot like Fury? Bryce’s sword starts vibrating because it seems to have found its twin. A translator tells her this isn’t Hel and what the hell is Midguard.
• Then one of them introduces himself as fucking Rhysand.
• In the epilogue Ithan steals the wolf mystic away.

That was our recap of what happened in House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas. Check out our recap list for more plot summaries, and if you can’t find what you need you can request a recap here!

Other recaps for this series:

• House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)