House of Salt and Sorrows

Annaleigh and Cassius trudge through the deep snow into the forest until they find Lenore’s red berries. Cassius goes ahead and stops, trying to hold Annaleigh back from the sight of Rosalie and Ligeia frozen to death. Annaleigh drops to her knees and crawls to them. Cassius holds her as she sobs.

The family holds a wake for Rosalie and Ligeia, who are buried in the same coffin. They have few guests, as most assume the deaths are results of the family’s curse. Annaleigh sleeps with Lenore, who is now a ghostly shell of her former self.

During the carriage ride back from the wake, the younger sisters pressure Annaleigh with questions regarding Lenore’s survival and why the curse keeps coming back. She snaps that there is no curse. The youngest fall silent, leaving the carriage first. Later, Fisher talks to Annaleigh about his theory that Rosalie and Ligeia were murdered by Eulalie’s killer. He and another guest searched the forest and didn’t see any bodies before she and Cassius found the girls. He thinks the killer planted the sisters’ cold corpses and the berries in Lenore’s hair. Fisher suspects Cassius, and Annaleigh considers his theory despite her feelings.

Annaleigh can’t sleep next to Lenore, as she keeps thinking about Fisher’s accusation against Cassius. She turns to Lenore, who is awake and staring at her. Annaleigh checks on her before taking a bath in the attached room to ease her nerves. Suddenly, Lenore is standing above her, staring. She then hurries away with a strange gait. Annaleigh throws on clothes and follows.

Annaleigh chases Lenore through the castle, into the solarium, where the family grows flowers. Calling her name, she sees Lenore’s shadow and then trips on Verity’s sketchbook. The pages open on their own to different drawings, including one of Annaleigh with her limbs splayed, bleeding out at a ball. She continues to follow Lenore’s noises but is met with Rosalie’s and Ligeia’s ghosts. They point to Lenore’s room, where she sees the real Lenore at the window. Rosalie and Ligeia beat Annaleigh and lock the door of the solarium. Annaleigh bangs on the door until her hands bleed, pleading to be let out while the ghosts vanish.

Later, Cassius finds Annaleigh passed out on the floor, bloody and shaken. She runs from him, accusing him of killing her sisters. He is hurt at her accusations but still tries to comfort her before turning away. Annaleigh gave herself a concussion in her frenzy, and when she throws up, Cassius again comes to her aid. She apologizes for accusing him and talking about ghosts, but he believes in ghosts too. He admits to having a secret and leads her outside, into an open area of snow. Cassius pulls Annaleigh close and transports her to a different place.

Cassius transports Annaleigh to Lir, the island of the People of the Stars. They arrive in an abbey with seven open windows representing the phases of the moon and healing waterfalls that sparkle like starlight. Cassius dips Annaleigh’s hands and the knot at the back of her head in the water, and she’s healed. He finally shares his story: He is a demigod, the son of a human man and Versia, the Night Queen who rules over the People of the Stars. He kept his identity a secret as he wanted Annaleigh to like him for himself, not as a demigod. Since Pontus, the sea god, pines for Versia, he built a castle in the sea, where Cassius grew up and interacted with the dead. In the Brine (the open sea), he met Annaleigh’s sisters over the years, who told him about her. He says the deceased sisters are at peace, not ghosts who want to harm Annaleigh.

Annaleigh equates Cassius’s teleportation to the magical door in the Grotto. He is confused, as he has never attended a ball with her. The pair kiss and plan to attend a ball the next day to look for clues.

The sisters get ready for a ball in Lambent. They hurry through the Grotto door, where Annaleigh reminds them that they’re going to Lambent aloud, for Cassius’s sake. At the ball, metal and fire spheres are suspended, smoke fills the room, and delicious foods are laid out. One sculpture is a slain animal with punch pouring out of its neck, so Annaleigh tells her younger sisters to look away; in reality, the sculpture is a cherub pouring drinks. She wonders how her eyes deceived her.

Annaleigh looks for Cassius, but the dragon man asks her to dance. She asks him about their previous meetings, and he mentions her sisters by name, noting the triplets aren’t there. She knows he had something to do with her sisters’ deaths. Annaleigh frees herself from him, but others push her to dance. While dancing, she can’t focus. Finally, when she forces herself to get punch, the ball dissipates into a gruesome affair: The punch is suddenly blood, filled with rotting seafood, and one sculpture is a dead sea turtle, filled with maggots. Annaleigh tears up and searches for her sisters, worried she’s “gone mad”; others don’t react to the horrors. The dragon man grabs her and forces her to dance, his face turning into that of the Weeping Woman. Annaleigh screams and faints.