House of Flame and Shadow

The darkness seemed inherent to the three people standing across from her: a petite female in gray silk, and two winged males clad in black scalelike armor, one of them—the beautiful, powerful male in the center of the trio—literally rippling with shadows and stars. If they were somehow repelled by whatever ancient power lay around Avallen, that would be a secret worth abasing oneself to keep. Morven glowered away on his throne, shadows like a hissing nest of asps around him, the monstrous twins now flanking him on either side. And he finally let the Mask say the word he’d been ignoring since he’d grabbed her in the depths of space.