Happy Saturday and welcome back to the Ledge Readalong! The adventure continues in chapters 30 – 37. The stakes are higher than ever and there’s so much new information to learn. Need a breakdown? You’ve come to the right place.

🪓 Beware of spoilers down below if you haven’t read the section! You have been warned…🪓

!! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD !!

The section starts with Ryon waking up to an iron poker to his neck. Dawsyn stands over him, demanding he answer her questions. Basic foreplay.

Because he values his life, Ryon tells her all.

First, she learns that he is leading the mixed-blood Glacian rebellion and that the hybrid Glacian’s of the Colony are depending on him to find them weapons for the uprising. Esra trades weapons with him in small amounts and he carries it to the Colony.

Dawsyn also presses for information on the people on the Ledge. Ryon reveals that fifty years ago, Queen Alvira made a deal with the Glacian King. She sold the entire Fallen Village of humans and in exchange, Vasteel agreed to leave the rest of Terrsaw alone.

Furious, she rushes downstairs to confront Salem. He confirms what Ryon has said, further explaining that the nobility voted on it and overnight, the people were taken. Though they are contrite, Dawsyn is unrelenting and unforgiving. She grabs her weapons and she leaves, Ryon hot on her heels.

Dawsyn marches to the Mecca, enraged. Even though Ryon tries to speak to her, she ignores him, intent on her mission to the capital city. She makes her way to the shrine that Queen Alvira said she had erected to show her deep regret of the people of the Ledge being taken, and realises the uncanny resemblance to her grandmother is not a coincidence. Ryon informs her that her grandmother was the crown princess of Terrsaw.

Inconsolable, Dawsyn whirls to the castle, intent on harming the Queen. She knows they know about the Glacian’s raiding down on them. The Queen’s pretend for a while, cooing and congratulating Dawsyn and Ryon on their success at escaping once again. Dawsyn tells them that they killed all five Glacian’s that came for them, and the Queen’s cannot hide their surprise.

Dawsyn confronts them about selling the Fallen Village fifty years prior, and Queen Alvira confesses to it immediately. She also tells Dawsyn that she has no regret. Before the deal was made, the Glacian’s hunted humans, plucking them from the kingdom and taking them at will. It was a horrible time to be alive; people lived in fear and died to avoid such a fate. One day, King Vasteel came down to the palace in Mecca, and he killed the current King. Alvira stepped in and suggested he take the villagers of the Fallen Village, keep them alive, and pluck who he needed from there. The court agreed, all except one. Valma Sabar, crown princess of Terrsaw, didn’t agree and she ran to the Fallen Village to warn the people. She was also taken with them.

Though Queen Alvira is contrite, she believes she did the right thing. She sacrificed the few to save many, and it worked. Terrsaw lives fearless of the Glacian’s returning.

Tired and worn, Queen Alvira sits on her throne, and she questions Dawsyn on whether she would’ve done the same thing. She also questions Dawsyn’s ability to lead. This infuriates Dawsyn to the point she breaks a chair, incapacitates a guard, steals his sword and advances on the Queens, threatening to kill them. The rest of the guards fight with Ryon, who reveals his wings. He grabs Dawsyn and they fly off.

When they land, Dawsyn’s rage has reached it’s boiling point. She fights him, pushes him to the edge of a cliff and throws rocks at him. She demands an explanation for why he hadn’t told her who her grandmother was and accuses him of using her to get down the valley. Ryon explains it was not his place to tell her and reminds her that he had no use for her, but he apologises regardless. Eventually, Dawsyn calms down, stilling in his arms. He tells her that he will fix it.

Dawsyn sleeps and Ryon thinks about their survival since they’ll now be hunted by Glacia and Terrsaw. He takes them to a small cave and attempts to light a fire. Dawsyn wakes up and manages to catch a spark for them. While she’s tending the fire, she tells Ryon of her sister Maya and how much she misses her. Dawsyn also says she’s tired of being alone. Ryon relates, and tells Dawsyn of his own mother, Farra. She was friends with a woman named Harlow Sabar.

At the revelation of her birth mother’s name, Dawsyn sits up. Ryon, who didn’t know his own mother, begged those who knew her in the Colony to tell him everything they knew about her. She often told people in the Colony about Harlow, who was descended from royalty. The name is seared in his head, so when he heard Dawsyn claim it in front of King Vasteel, and then her choosing the slopes, he felt like it was fate.

The two of them reach a new understanding of one another. Ryon realises they are for each other in the cave.

The night passes with them speaking, sharing their childhoods and getting closer. Ryon offers to fly Dawsyn away from all of this, from Terrsaw and Glacia, but Dawsyn considers him too good of a man to abandon the people he’s been fighting for. She commits to going one day, but not right now.

They fly to find a better shelter, and Dawsyn confronts the growing need for Ryon until she can’t take it anymore. Mid-flight, she kisses his neck passionately. Ryon, overcome by his feelings for her, flies her to a worn down cabin. He asks her if she wants him because if they do this, there is no turning back. She confirms that she wants nothing else and he finally delivers on his promise. Over and over, mind you.🤭

In the morning, Ryon considers his relationship with Dawsyn, and realises just how much he wants to keep her close. The two of them forage for food and Dawsyn finds an axe head that she can use to fashion an axe with. Ryon watches her work, enthralled. With it, they cut wood and manage to make a small fire. Dawsyn asks what Ryon would’ve done if she was captured by the two Glacian’s who found her on the mountain, and he tells her that they wouldn’t have been able to: she was too strong a fighter. He didn’t want to take the chance of her dying, which is why he killed one.

Ryon calls Dawsyn his malishka, which means ‘my one’. In the Colony, is used to describe someone’s significant other. Dawsyn asks him about his upbringing on the Colony, and he tells her how hard it was, how the mixed-bloods exist in a liminal space as they’re not acceptable to the Glacian’s but they are feared by the humans. There is nowhere for them to go and they exist in the squalor of the Colony because of it.

The Glacian’s used to use the mixed-bloods for their iskra, but since the pure-blooded Glacian’s have stopped being able to give birth, all Glacian blood has become precious. Now they just take from humans. Ryon leads the growing rebellion against King Vasteel: with the weapons he gains from Esra, they will kill the King. Dawsyn tells him that if they join the rebellion, they will have to save all the people from the Ledge as well.

Ryon makes good on his promise a few times. Wrapped up with each other, she asks him about the Pool of Iskra and how the magic works. He explains that it coaxes the souls out of those who are submerged in it, removing it from them to fuel the magic. The Pool seems to have a mind of it’s own, convincing people to give their magic and not take from it. They aim to unravel the power it has.

Dawsyn and Ryon make preparations to leave their cabin.

What a section! Ryon and Dawsyn have done the Thing™ FINALLY AHH!!

Questions;

1. What do you think of the sacrifice Queen Alvira made?

2. How do you think Ryon revealing he is a Glacian will haunt the two of them in the future?

3. Do you think the mixed-bloods will be successful with their rebellion?

4. What magic do you think the pool of iskra grants the drinker?

See you on the 18th for the next chapters!