Crush

The second installment in Tracy Wolff's Crave series, Crush picks up at Katmere Academy, a boarding school in Alaska for paranormal creatures, where seventeen-year-old Grace Foster is the only human student. In Crave, Grace discovered the school's true nature, fell in love with vampire prince Jaxon Vega, and became his mate, a soul-deep paranormal bond. When Jaxon's dead brother Hudson was resurrected through a dark ritual, Grace stepped between the brothers to protect Jaxon and turned to stone.

Grace regains consciousness walking through Katmere's hallways with no memory of anything since that moment. Her uncle Finn, the school's headmaster, and Jaxon reveal the date is March 5: Grace has been frozen in stone for nearly four months. They tell her she is a gargoyle, the first to exist in over a thousand years, and Grace struggles to process the revelation. Her cousin Macy, a witch, shows her photos of her gargoyle form, a stone version of herself with short curling horns, large wings, and small claws. No one can explain her total memory loss, and a pressing question looms: What happened to Hudson during those months?

The answer comes swiftly. Grace wakes her second morning drenched in someone else's blood. Cole, the alpha werewolf at Katmere, was attacked overnight. Then Grace blacks out again and wakes in the witches' casting tower with no memory of how she arrived. Security footage reveals that during a blackout, Grace used Hudson's power of persuasion, the ability to compel anyone through his voice, to entrance the school librarian and steal a ceremonial blade. The group realizes Hudson has been hiding inside Grace's mind since she turned to stone, seizing control of her body during blackouts.

Jaxon carries Grace five hundred miles through the Alaskan wilderness to the Bloodletter, an ancient vampire who raised him. The Bloodletter teaches Grace to construct a mental wall to partition Hudson's consciousness from her own, warning that without containment, Hudson could eventually take over Grace's body permanently. She explains that five items are needed for a spell to extract Hudson and strip his vampire powers: an alpha werewolf's eyetooth, a moonstone talisman, a bloodstone from a born vampire, a full dragon bone, and a heartstone guarded by a creature called the Unkillable Beast.

Back at Katmere, Hudson's voice becomes a constant, sarcastic presence in Grace's head, able to hear all her thoughts and see everything she sees. Grace researches gargoyles extensively, learning they are immune to magic, can channel other paranormals' powers, and were created as protectors who maintained balance among supernatural factions. She discovers that Jaxon and Hudson's father, King Cyrus, exterminated the entire gargoyle race to seize control of the Circle, the governing body for all paranormals. Hudson shares a childhood memory: He sobbed as Cyrus took little Jaxon away, and their father told him to use the pain, smiling when Hudson's anguish caused him to disintegrate every object in the room. Hudson also helps Grace channel his own power to light every candle on a shelf at once, revealing that Grace can use his abilities through their mental connection.

Grace's relationships grow increasingly complicated. Jaxon is frustrated by Hudson's constant presence, and Grace discovers an internal resistance from her gargoyle nature that prevents her from kissing Jaxon comfortably. The Ludares tournament, an annual Katmere competition combining magical portals and paranormal abilities, is announced, with a bloodstone as the prize, one of the five extraction spell items. Grace's team includes Jaxon, her friend Flint Montgomery (a dragon shifter), Macy, and several other students. With Hudson's guidance, Grace learns to shift into her gargoyle form and fly. Hudson reveals he has been feeding on energy from Grace and Jaxon's mating bond to sustain himself, draining both of them. Despite their constant arguing, Grace and Hudson develop a complex bond; he shares vulnerable moments and pushes her to believe in her own strength, while Grace grows unsettled by how accustomed she has become to his presence.

King Cyrus and Queen Delilah arrive at Katmere with the full Circle. Grace's team wins the tournament after four intense matches. The team then descends through hidden tunnels to the Dragon Boneyard, a cavern containing the remains of every dragon who has ever died, and secures a small bone. As the group prepares to pursue the final item, Circle guards ambush them. In the fight, a guard tears into Jaxon's vampire friend Mekhi's throat; Grace heals the wound using powdered stone from her own gargoyle horn, a technique Hudson guides her through.

Grace argues the group should release Hudson without stripping his powers, believing he is not the monster everyone fears. The others overrule her. At an assembly, Queen Delilah announces the Circle will take Grace to the Vampire Court in London. Hudson instructs Grace to invoke gargoyles' legal right to a seat on the Circle by issuing a formal challenge for inclusion. Grace does so, and Cyrus is forced to accept, scheduling the Trial for two days later.

The team flies to an enchanted volcanic island to confront the Unkillable Beast. Xavier, a werewolf on Grace's team, throws himself in front of Macy to protect her and is killed instantly. Grace realizes the beast is actually a gargoyle, the last one besides herself, chained for centuries and immune to magic just as she is. The internal voice she mistook for her own instinct was this ancient gargoyle communicating with her all along. Grace refuses to take the heartstone, recognizing it is the gargoyle's literal stone heart, and promises to return. Macy transports the survivors home, but Xavier's body cannot re-form and is lost.

Before the Trial, Cole intercepts Grace and Jaxon and reads aloud a mating-bond-breaking spell that Jaxon had once obtained from the Bloodletter and discarded. The bond is ripped apart, leaving both in excruciating pain. Jaxon is too depleted to compete. Grace nearly surrenders to despair, but Hudson's voice breaks through, calling her a badass and refusing to let her quit. He reveals he has secretly transferred all his powers into Grace, hiding them inside her memory of her mother's encouraging smile and rendering himself mortal so she can fight.

Grace enters the arena alone against eight opponents in a version of Ludares without safety protections for her. She battles using flight, stone immunity, and shifting between forms. Cole strangles her on the ground while the others beat her, but she draws strength from Hudson's focus on the sidelines, shifts one knee to stone, and drives it into Cole. She then accesses Hudson's power through her mother's memory, growing enormous as she absorbs every magical attack. She shatters opponents' bones with a wave of her hand, teleports others away, and walks the comet—the game's burning ball—across the goal line to win.

After Grace's victory, Cyrus sinks his fangs into her neck, delivering his eternal bite, a lethal venom no one has ever survived. Hudson, now in a physical body but mortal, carries Grace away and destroys the arena in his rage. Jaxon covers Grace with stones in a granite grave, and she absorbs every one of them through a gargoyle healing process. Her eyes open. Grace returns Hudson's powers, realizing he could have destroyed everyone at any time but chose restraint. She tells him she finally sees who he really is and says goodbye to Jaxon, exchanging declarations of love.

In a closing section from Hudson's perspective, he reveals that during their months trapped together on another plane, Grace's bond with Jaxon faded and she and Hudson fell in love. As Jaxon moves to kiss the awakened Grace, Hudson speaks the final line: "Jaxon, if you wouldn't mind, take your fucking hands off my mate."