Bryce Quinlan

by Fernanda Fernandez

**Bryce Adelaide Quinlan**, is a half-fae, half-human who is the Heir to the Starborn Fae. She is the bastard daughter of Ember Quinlan and Einar Danaan. Two years after the brutal slaying of her best friend, Bryce joins forces with a powerful fallen angel, named Hunt Athalar, to hunt down the killer.

## Biography

### Early Life

Bryce was born in the year 15.010 V.E. to Ember Quinlan, a 19-year-old human woman who had been seduced by the Autumn King. Bryce was raised by Ember and her stepfather Randall Silago, who taught her self-defense and how to handle weapons, especially guns. Bryce's mother was very protective of her and did not want Bryce to move from her hometown, Nidaros, to Lunathion.

Growing up, Bryce was somewhat of an outcast amongst her peers. This was largely due to her Fae heritage, considering Nidaros is mostly populated by humans. At age five, she managed to collect Jelly Jubilee, a highly coveted toy from The Starlight Fancy franchise which were the number one toys on every girl's Winter Solstice wish list. Ember left Nidaros for the first time in years to buy Jelly Jubilee from one of the big towns two hours away. This served as a means for Bryce to finally connect with other kids, she showed them the toy at school and was instantly accepted. The toy is of significant emotional value to Bryce; Jelly Jubilee's half-pegasus, half-unicorn heritage served as a self-esteem boost to Bryce. Although the toy differed greatly from the other horses in the franchise, it was still the most valuable.

When Bryce was thirteen, Ember had a sudden change of heart about her meeting her father and got in contact with him. Documents showed up a few weeks later granting Bryce civitas status in exchange for her declaring allegiance to the House of Sky and Breath. Bryce was hesitant, but Ember encouraged her to do it.

Bryce soon visited her father for the first time at his villa in Five Roses. This was also the first time she met her half-brother Ruhn Danaan, and they quickly became close. Her visit to her father, however, was less successful and her hopes of having a relationship with him were dashed by his vindictive personality and behavior towards her. The Autumn King refused to acknowledge her until her traditional visit to the Oracle. When looking into Bryce's future, the Oracle began screaming and clawing at its eyes. The Oracle is said to have been blind for a week after. This unmitigated disaster left her in tears and ended with her father kicking her out of his villa to make her own way home.

Having just returned from a disastrous visit to the Oracle, Bryce was crying on a park bench outside the temple when a cat found her. which turned out to be Aidas, the prince of the Chasm of Hel, having seemingly heard the screaming from inside the temple, was intrigued by Bryce and appeared next to her.

Aidas told the young girl to stop crying, saying it would only satisfy those who wronged her. He then sat with her until she stopped crying and felt brave enough to return to her father, though he disappeared before she could thank him.

The Autumn King later offered Bryce a monstrous amount of gold marks in exchange for Bryce to keep her eternal silence about him being her father. Bryce rejected the money, but still kept quiet about her parentage.

Despite the falling out with the Autumn King, Bryce maintained a relationship with Ruhn until she was sixteen, at which point they had a fight after Ruhn insulted her. Bryce stopped speaking to Ruhn afterward, ignoring his various attempts to apologize.

When she was older Bryce attended Crescent City University, where she met Danika Fendyr. The two quickly became close friends. They remained friends throughout college and after they graduated.

During their senior year, Danika uncovered an illegal animal smuggling ring run by asp shifters; plagued by guilt at the thought of the animals in cages Danika and Bryce snuck into their hideout to free the animals and were caught, resulting in them being chased and injured by the shifters. Cornered and about to be killed, Bryce told Danika to close her eyes and killed some of the shifters, while the others were killed by police.

After college Bryce and Danika moved in together; Bryce got a job working at Griffin Antiquities for the feared Jesiba Roga while Danika went on to become Alpha of the Pack of Devils.

### *House of Earth and Blood*

#### Part 1

Bryce Quinlan works as an assistant at Griffin Antiquities, and lives in an apartment together with her best friend Danika, granddaughter to the Werewolf Prime and alpha to the Pack of Devils. They recently got the news that Phillip Briggs, who was caught by Danika’s pack planning to blow up a nightclub to spread the war between humans and vanir, has been released from jail. Danika is going to meet up with Micah, the Governer of Lunathion and wider Valbara to complain about Briggs's release. Meanwhile, Jesiba has tasked Bryce with locating Luna's Horn, an ancient Fae relic that was stolen during a recent power outage from its temple.

Because of Briggs's release, Danika and the pack spent the evening at the flat (Bryce and Danika's apartment) and Bryce leaves for a date with Reid Redner. On her way, Connor, a member of the pack, interrupts her and begs her to let him take her on a date, however, Bryce refuses and makes her way to the date. Because Reid is late, and barely pays attention, always being on his phone, Bryce dumps him and texts Connor that she'd go out with him. After leaving the place where she was with Reid, Bryce meets Fury and Juniper so that they can go clubbing, taking drugs, and drinking heavily as she texts Danika.

However, once she reaches back to her flat, Bryce stumbles home to find her door smashed and Danika and the pack dead, cut into pieces. Seeing a demon escaping, she chases after it to understand what has happened and finds out that it was feasting on an angel. Bryce hits the demon, however, it gouges her leg and runs away. Bryce later stays to keep the angel alive. Bryce is later found in her apartment and is taken to a holding cell, watched by over two angels, Isaiah and Hunt. Both of them took part in a rebellion, that later resulted in them being proclaimed fallen. Ruhn, Bryce's half-brother, calls and demands that they let Bryce go and Isaiah has no choice but to release her.

## Personality

Bryce is a very headstrong, sarcastic girl. She does a lot of things with different intentions, and can secretly do a lot while putting on the facade of a "stupid party girl". She doesn't care about rules and is willing to break the law to get things done. However, she is hated by many people, leading to a hidden depressive side. She is also deadlier than she lets on, being raised by a legendary sharpshooter.

## Physical Description

Bryce has golden-dusted and freckled skin, long wine-red hair, amber-colored eyes, full lips, high cheekbones, and slightly arched ears, thanks to her Fae heritage. She has a curvy figure and is said to be busty and attractive. She has a tattoo down her back, written in an unknown alphabet, saying *Through love, all is possible*, which she got together with Danika. She furthermore has a white scar in the shape of an eight-pointed star between her breasts, which she got when she used her Starborn gifts to close the gates in Lunathion.

## Powers & Abilities

### Powers

While initially having negligible power levels, Bryce performs the drop with Danika's spirit as an anchor while they are connected to the Old Square Gate and Dead Gate respectfully. Bryce then receives power from the 7 gates of Lunathion which held droplets of power from every creature who ever used them and is revealed to have more power than her father, the King of the Valbaran Fae. She is also the strongest Starborn Fae anyone has seen in centuries.

It is later revealed that Bryce can absorb "certain kinds of magic. forms of pure energy". So far she has only done this with Hunt's lightning and Hypaxia's healing magic. Declan states that Bryce is "literally a gate", she can take in power and offer it. However unlike the gates which can store power indefinitely hers "clearly peters out after a while".

* **Fae Physiology**: As a Half-Fae Bryce has enhanced senses and physical abilities, including a sense of smell much stronger than that of humans which she frequently uses to identify the types of Vanir she encounters in Lunathion. Her Fae attributes are not as strong as that of a full-blooded Fae, however.
* **Starlight**: Bryce is revealed to be a Starborn and to have the ability to wield starlight. A light of a pure star - it has no other power other than the light itself and to blind people. Bryce used it to shield Old Square Gate and stop demons from entering the city. She removed a star wholly from within and blasted its light into the Gate's clear stones and with the Horn repaired she channeled her light and sealed the Heart Gate portal. According to Prince Aidas Bryce has the same starlight as the Starborn Queen Theia.
* **Teleportation**: Bryce is able to teleport from place to place when charged up with some kind of energy - usually Hunt's lightning. Since she is still learning to work with that power, her teleportation is limited and not as strong as that of Cormac Donnall.
* **Slowed Aging/Immortality**: Since Bryce has made the Drop she will age slower.

### Abilities

* **Combat**: Bryce has been trained in various forms of combat and self-defense by her stepfather Randall, to keep her safe in Lunathion.
* **Sharpshooting**: Bryce is an expert marksman, having been trained by her step-father Randall.
* **Dancing**: Before Danika's death, Bryce was an avid dancer, despite discouragement from local studios, saying she had the 'wrong body type'. After her saving of Lunathion, Bryce picked up dancing classes again.

## Relationships

### Connor Holstrom

Bryce and Connor met at university, through Danika. Connor had feelings for Bryce for years, but Danika told him he wasn’t allowed to make a move in until Bryce was ready. After five years, Connor let her know how serious he was for her. Bryce broke up with her boyfriend, Reid Redner, and decided to give him a chance. However, he was murdered before they got the chance to go on the pizza date they had planned.

### Hunt Athalar

During her investigation into Danika's death on behalf of Micah Domitus, Bryce grew close and began a relationship with Orion "Hunt" Athalar. At first, they only tolerated each other due to direct orders from the Archangel, Micah. As the investigation continued, they started to form a friendship. Bryce stated that she knew Hunt was her friend ever since he pulled out Jelly Jubilee. Their romantic relationship developed, and when Hunt was thought to have been dying, Bryce told him she loves him before making the Drop.

### Tristan Flynn

Though Bryce never hooked up with Tristan, she had a crush on him when she was younger. When she used to visit Ruhn as a teenager, she was barely able to function in both Flynn’s and Declan’s presence. For a while, Bryce had a fanatic conviction that Flynn would be her husband one day. She wrote *Lady Bryce Flynn* on all her school notebooks for two years straight. Years later, when she was already in college, she ran into Flynn again—this time, Danika went home with him because Bryce hadn’t wanted to mess up anything between him and Ruhn.

## Gallery

*See more here.*

by Sandra Winther Artby Bxromanceby Morgana0anagromby Sasha Lee Coleman
## Trivia

* The name Bryce is a version of the Latinized version of the Gaulish name "*Bricius*," which means "speckled."
* When Bryce was a child, she had an unreciprocated crush on Tristan Flynn.
* Bryce's job was inspired by the summer Sarah spent working at an antiquities gallery: "Her job is a lot more exciting than mine ever was, I mostly sat at the reception desk in the gallery waiting for people to come in and if someone did I’d say, here’s the 2000-year-old bust from Crete. I would give little tours of it. Bryce has magical artifacts in her gallery that could come alive and kill her so it’s a lot more exciting.
* Bryce stated that her worst hookup was when she dated a Vampyr for about three weeks. She also stated it was her first and only hook up with anyone in Flame and Shadow.
* After Danika was killed, Bryce kept her leather jacket with the quote *Through love, all is possible* written on the back and continued to wear it.
* Bryce smells of lilac, nutmeg and starlight.
* Bryce has her period every three months.

## References

1. ↑ Campbell, M. (2017). *Brice*. Behind the Name.
2. ↑ 'Sarah J. Maas Talks About Her Adult Debut' — Tor