Bookish Mumma

Just in case it wasn’t glaringly obvious yesterday, I was having a REALLY low motivation day. I still want to do the bingo though, so let me know if you have any tile ideas. After the next book is finished, I am going to ease back a day or two of posting. Posting every day is gruelling and it takes the fun out of doing this. I also need time to rest, just like everyone does, so it’s a measure to keep myself healthy and happy. or now, here’s the next post for House of Night!

If you would like to read this book to fill in the gaps, you can find it here.

If you’d like to read any of the previous posts, you can read those here.

Gorsky is acting like a jealous lover more than ever. But he raises a good point – why doesn’t Valen drink from him directly? And why did he drink from me? I’d much prefer a clinical setting where Melody takes my blood. Hell, I’m a decent stick. I’ll do it myself. This is so messed up. I’m literally debating the best way to let Valen victimize me.

Trying to make the best of a bad situation, no one can argue with that! At least Valen’s bite feels good. Gorsky is just an asshole.

My eyes go wide. “An elevator?”
“Always so observant, little rabbit. It’s truly your greatest gift. How did you ever manage to get captured with such sharp, incisive intellect?” His acid tone is underlain with amusement. He slides the grate back and pulls me into the carriage.

See, if the supposedly cruel captor was to treat me with sarcasm, I’d be melting right there, I’m a sucker for a strong dose of sarcasm and wit.

“We worked together before all this. You know that.” He says it with a bored exasperation. “Whitbine seems to have scrambled what brains you had left. Now you don’t remember a damn thing, which leads to endless inane questions from you. Quite the vicious cycle.”

I don’t think that the hate is mutual between them. I think that there was something between them that she can’t remember and he’s trying to hold up a performance or act.

“You wound me, little rabbit.” he matches my pace with ease. I glance at the injury across his cheek. “Not me, sadly.”
He only gives me a smirk in response.
“You should have that looked at.”
“Worried for me?” he taunts.
“You know what? Never mind. I hope it rots your entire head off your body.”

This made me laugh more than it should have. I REALLY want more of this.

I sit back on my heels and inspect the door again. The dragon looks back at me, seemingly above it all. I give it the finger. Immature, but also somewhat satisfying.

Even though the dragon is an inanimate object, flipping it off is entirely justified. I have also absolutely flipped off my monitor during the process of writing this post. SEO and passive voice deserve it.

“You really shouldn’t be on this level. It’s not safe.” His taunting voice comes from all around me. “Do you even know where you are?”
“In a dark hall with a fucking nutcase, apparently,” I keep my knife in front of me, ready to swing at him if he appears. “Didn’t Valen tell you to leave me alone?”

I think Gorsky exists purely as a way of increasing conversation and conflict through the book while Valen is away, but I don’t think it’s particularly productive.

“Valen will have a good laugh when I tell him.”
“Valen laughs? Is that just when he’s kicking puppies or-“
She giggles. “He told me you were funny.”
“He did?” Now I’m curious.

Every being on this earth (in House of Night or otherwise) has a side that one person doesn’t see. Also with the show of sarcasm, I absolutely can believe that he experiences things like this.

“Perhaps if you’d wasted less time spying on me through your questioning of her, you could’ve done your job and gotten the information our high lord seeks. However, you chose a different path. A such, we’re done here.” Valen is behind me, his presence like a looming wave set to drown me.
“Yes, my lord.” Whitbine dips his chin even lower as Valen pulls me to my feet.

C’mon Celia! Give me the ‘touch her and die’ trope! I can see it just under the surface and I’m itching for it!

“Sit.” Valen gestures to an armchair nearby, one of the arms frayed.
I edge to it, keeping both of them in front of me as I sit. “What is this?”
“A library,” Valen answers dryly. “Perhaps I overestimated your perceptive powers after all.”

Yes, more sarcasm! I will never be upset when I see more of it. I want to see them hit back at each other with words

“There’s only one of him. Be grateful,” Coal says.
Valen gives him a withering look. It’s almost like… banter. Are they bantering?
That’s when it dawns on me. “Wait, are the two of you friends?”

Coal may be my new favourite! He seems like the fun friend that everyone needs and who keeps you on your toes. I want to see more of him! Wouldn’t be mad if there was a little MMF spice…

Leaders emerged – some warlords, some actually concerned for the greater good. A mixed bag of ideals and monarchies, democracies and dictatorships.

Due to a plague or not, when leadership disappears, there is always going to be a power vacuum and trying to fill that after such a wide spread loss, it would be hard to fill that vacuum in a way that worked. Not saying that the warlords are preferable in any way, just that they happened to step in more effectively than anyone else who would have tried in that particular circumstance and area.

Footsteps behind me, particularly loud when I know Melody is capable of moving without a sound. “We should return now.” She’s being polite, making her presence known so she doesn’t startle me. Would a monster do something as thoughtful as that?

Something I learned and accepted recently was that, while you may not make the same choices as someone else, they made them thinking that that was the best choice for them at that point in time. There is someone in my personal life that I am not particularly fond of, but who I can recognise made the best choice for herself and her child, even if it has disastrous outcomes for me and someone I love. A monster isn’t always a monster in the light of day.

“I-I’m going to the ball?” My mouth is dry. “I didn’t think I’d have to do that.”
Her perfect eyebrows draw together. “Of course. You’re Valen’s-” She stops herself, then begins again. “You’re his guest.” She turns and hurries down the stairs.
Prisoner. I’d bet money she was going to say I’m his prisoner, and now I’m about to be paraded around at a vampire ball like a show pony.

I really love the way that Celia has written the internal dialogue/point of view, it’s engaging.

Conclusion

In this section of chapters in House of Night, we start to see a different side of Valen which I’m really excited to see more of. We see that he’s capable of and practically dripping with sarcasm as well as fully able to give witty banter. For anyone that knows me personally, they know I’m a sucker for sarcasm and banter! I want to see how this will develop as Georgia finally gains more confidence and bites back because I’m sure she’s well and truly capable of it.

If you would like to read this book to fill in the gaps, you can find it here.

If you’d like to read any of the previous posts, you can read those here.