Stunning photo by @awolfinred
Hi fairy friends!
It’s day four of our readalong of Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron! I cannot believe the story is almost over!
Today we are reading from chapter 14 – chapter 18.
When you’ve finished today’s section, catch up with me in the comments down below so we can discuss all of our thoughts. Happy reading!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron from chapters 14 to 18. Please only read on if you have finished reading this section!
–!SPOILERS!–
We start with some romantic tension brewing between Eve and Nova. Eve is starting to have some feelings and they’ve started arranging times to speak through the shard. Nova tells her he’ll wait for her and when she stops speaking to him, Eve starts to feel lonely. Ahhh why is that so sweet!
Eve is still staying with Claude and the boys. Claude goes to work in the mines each week and takes the two eldest boys so the younger boys help out in the cabin. I’m loving these brothers, I think they’re so cute!
The brothers have become extremely dear to Eve, and Junior tells her he missed her when he comes back from the mines.
After their dinner, Claude tells Eve that he’s heard news while in the mine from the castle. The Queen has taken ill, apparently she’s gone mad and the people are worried that Queen’s Bridge will be defenceless.
After hearing this Eve insists that she has to check in on her mother despite Claude warning her that there will be dire consequences to everyone if she is seen. Nova appears and also warns her against it, that she’ll be putting Claude and his family in danger too.
Nova doesn’t manage to talk Eve out of it and so he will accompany her. They ride for a long time but have to stop and redo Eve’s stitches. Eve asks Nova how he knows how to close wounds so well and he tells her she can’t imagine the horrors that he’s seen.
Nova can’t apologise enough for his role in all of this and how his father’s anger towards her family haunts him.
They manage to sneak into the Queen’s room undetected. In the short amount of time that Eve has been gone her mother looks like a zombie! The Knight has been torturing her mentally for weeks, showing her images of Eve’s death through the mirror.
The Queen thinks the Knight has a compulsion to grant wishes and wants as much suffering as possible. He hasn’t been able to break the Queen and it infuriates him.
They all agree that for some reason the Knight is more obsessed with the Queen’s deal and Queen Sanaa than anyone else’s… What is it about Eve’s family that makes him so crazy?
Suddenly Nova and her mother sense that the Knight is coming! They tell Eve to hide! The Knight asks the Queen if she wants to enter another deal. She refuses again. This time he lifts her by her neck! Eve, seeing this from her hiding spot, makes the flames dance with her magic!
Disaster strikes as when Eve lets go of the flames, the Knight spots her! He’s realised that he’s been tricked!
The Knight forces the Queen to repeat a strange chant. She tries to fight against him but she can’t and Nova screams at Eve to escape!
Eve manages to ride all the way back to Claude’s house. He asks her if she was sure that the Knight had really seen her and Eve says she saw into his eyes.
Nova is now missing from the shard and Eve has a horrible feeling. Claude says what we’ve all been thinking, telling Eve that it’s Love. I really hope nothing bad happens to Nova!
The next day Junior takes Eve to the grove where his mother and brothers are buried. He’s sad and tells Eve that he wonders what it would be like if all seven brothers were together. This moment was very melancholy but I love the bond that Eve is forming with all of the boys.
Claude and Hunter return from the mine. Hunter is crying and Claude tells the boys to leave as he needs to speak to Eve alone. News has arrived through the mine. The Queen is dead.
Eve is in so much pain. She refuses to eat, drink or leave her room. She doesn’t want to talk to anyone, but it’s Junior’s note that says he misses his mother too that makes her leave the room.
Days pass and this time when Claude returns, he has conflicting news to share. According to someone who witnessed the Queen in her final days, she had been chanting a strange rhyme. The one that the Knight had forced her to speak. The aren’t sure what it all means and wonder what the Knight wanted!
Eve asks Claude if he knows any stories about the Knight that she may not know. Claude tells her that when he was a child he met someone named Nerium who told his father and him a story about the Knight. He was destined to wonder the land due to his ‘great mistake’.
The Knight doesn’t make mistakes so Eve knows that this must be a big piece of knowledge! She decides to go to this place Claude told her about, Little Silts, and see if she can talk to anyone who might know something.
On her journey, Eve meets an old woman. She tells her she is looking for someone named Nerium or her kin. The woman tells her Nerium had no kin and tells her to follow her to a house.
The old woman tells her she’s Nerium! She’s excited for some reason when she hears Eve wants to know about the Knight.
It turns out the Knight has only been bested once. A young girl had made a wish with the Knight but somehow got out of the deal. Enraged, the Knight wanted to curse her but she never wished to him again and she forbade her children to wish to him.
Eve doesn’t believe he has been bested before. Nerium insists that it’s true however the story was incomplete and she needs more information!
Nerium says something ominous to Eve as she’s leaving, that she thinks Eve isn’t the first to ask but may be the last to ask about the Knight’s big mistake…
The story keeps picking up pace and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down at all! I’m sooo curious to know all the details on the Knight’s big mistake!
What do we think has happened to Nova and do we think he’s ok??
Do we think the Queen is really dead?
How do you think the young woman managed to best the Knight?
Do you have any speculations as to what will happen in our final section tomorrow?
Love,
Isla
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Eve going back to her mother truly frustrated me. This felt like another example of Eve’s arrogance and the same sort of situation that got Mehki killed. She thinks she’s doing something good for her mother, but not thinking about how the consequences outweigh any good that could come of it. I’m really hoping that Nova is okay, and her mother. I wonder if her mother will be put in the sleep that only true love’s kiss can break, like in the “usual” Snow White tale? I think it would be a sweet twist if it’s Eve that breaks the curse. Or maybe somehow Queen Sanaa? I wonder if we will see more of Nerium. She sounded so nice in Claude’s memory of her but she seems shady when Eve meets her.
I am also curious if we will follow the original tale or if there will be a twist!
Eve’s recklessness truly is her fatal flaw! I think Nova is being kept by his father and bad things are happening to him. I wonder if Nerium is maybe a descendent of the girl who bested the Knight?? Can’t wait to see how this story wraps up!
Yes it definitely is her flaw but it would also be good to see how she can overcome it!
What do we think has happened to Nova and do we think he’s ok??
I’m imagining all kinds of horrible tortures he’s enduring. But why did the Knight want a son anyway? He could have a messenger or a guinea pig or whatever he wanted without having a son. Hmm.
Do we think the Queen is really dead?
If she’s dead then who’s doing the chanting?
How do you think the young woman managed to best the Knight?
Maybe she wished for him to be unable to curse her? At that, why doesn’t someone just wish he would die? LOL
Do you have any speculations as to what will happen in our final section tomorrow?
This book continues to keep me guessing. I’m expecting the return of Nova if nothing else.
Ahh I have so many questions! I don’t think the queen is really dead – I’m hoping for a happy ending with her and queen Sanaa.
I loved seeing Eve bond with the boys and this twist on the seven dwarves. I knew as soon as Claude explained the deal what had happened. It was sad that they also lost three of the boys. I like that there are real world stakes in this and when mistakes are made there are real consequences, but it’s also so sad. The portrayal of grief after her mother’s death was beautifully done but so heartbreaking. I’m glad she had the boys with her, though wish they didn’t have the experience that allowed them to empathize with her.
The Knight’s great mistake was super intriguing. This was when I realized it was integrating Rumplestilskin and I thought that was such a cool thing to do. At that point, it was obvious to me that was one of her ancestors and that’s why the Knight was so obsessed with besting her mother.
For a moment there I thought Nerium was going to be the Knight’s mother and we would learn how he became what he did. I was kind of sad that we didn’t get to learn that, but there was only so much space and this was Eve’s story not his. Also I totally clocked that she was Nerium and I enjoyed how shocked Eve was by it.
I still stand by my Day 3 statement – the Knight & Nova are the same person. Either Nova is being tortured as close to death as he is capable or simply locked away. I’m not sure about the queen. The verse puts her into a trance-like state. Perhaps the Knight is using this verse to turn her dark like himself. I don’t know yet, how the woman bested him, but I think it is one of the Miller Queens in the past, hence, why the Knight is so obsessed with Queen Regina’s & Queen Sanaa’s deals. Once Eve bests the Knight, he & Nova will be joined as one person, ending the Knight’s evil dealings.
So far I am giving this book a 4.5 star rating. It would be 5 stars, but I found the feelings between Eve & Nova happened outside the reader’s purview, making it feel too rushed.