Nicholas Ryves Timeline and Summary

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• Nick is fixing the kitchen sink when ravens burst in through the window and attack him and his brother, Alan.
• Nick survives the raven attack and is faced with something that is a much tougher challenge for him: making new friends. Two teens, Mae and Jamie, arrive asking for help, and Nick does everything he can to make them leave. Unfortunately (for Nick), his brother's super-nice and Mae is stubborn, so they stay.
• Nick thwarts another attack—this time by a serpent—but not before his brother is bitten and marked, something that wouldn't have happened if Alan hadn't given away his talisman. Again. Grr.
• Nick flashes back to the last time Alan gave his talisman away and broods about it for a bit. It's not a pleasant memory.
• Stressed by the night's events and the demon's mark his brother has acquired, Nick goes outside to practice with his sword.
• The next morning, after a dicey encounter with one of Black Arthur's messengers, Nick, Alan, and Mum hop in the car and head for London.
• When Nick is unpacking Alan's books at the new house, he finds a picture of a mysterious girl and wonders if perhaps she's the person who secretly wrote Alan several letters (letters which Nick tore up). He replaces the picture without letting Alan know he found it.
• Nick catches Alan trying to sneak out of the house later that night and makes him promise not to leave. He's persuasive, and Alan promises.
• In London, Nick enrolls (or rather, is enrolled) in school. Not his cup of tea, let's say.
• Nick accompanies Alan to pick up Mae and Jamie for the Goblin Market.
• At the Goblin Market, Nick gets a new sword, is kissed by Sin Davies, and dances up a demon (Anzu) with help from his new dance partner, Mae. It's all very sexy and steamy, and Mae wants to take things one step further, but Nick resists her advances.
• Nick, angry with his brother for taking on one of Jamie's demon marks and insisting on continuing to help Jamie and Mae, sulks all the way back to London. When they get home, he takes off on his own, winding up at the garage where he works. Some weird things happen—a few sparks and flames in and among the cars—and Nick figures a demon is afoot.
• Nick and Alan make up over toast, but Nick is still upset about Alan's now second tier mark. He wants answers, so he skips school and summons Liannan, another demon, to get information.
• When Nick returns to the house, Mae and Jamie are there. He pouts, then shares the information he gained from Liannan: the magicians of the Obsidian Circle are coming for them.
• When Alan comes up with a plan but won't share it, Nick feels betrayed. He remembers the picture of the girl again and gets (surprise) sullen.
• Nick struggles with sharing space with Mae and Jamie, and he struggles with his feelings for Mae as well. He's drawn to her, physically at least, but keeps his distance out of respect for Alan, who he knows has a crush on her.
• Nick places an ad to get information about the mysterious girl in Alan's picture. (Good thing Alan doesn't read the papers.)
• When the crew heads to Salisbury to seek out magicians, Nick finds one (Gerald) and captures him after an exciting rooftop chase.
• Back at the house, Nick tortures Gerald (just a little) for information and earns Alan's wrath. While Alan's chewing him out, Gerald escapes, and Nick begins to think Alan let him go on purpose. He starts questioning Alan's plan, and when he doesn't get any answers, he resents Alan's secrecy. More.
• Nick travels with the rest of the team to the House of Mezentius (the home of Merris Cromwell) via boat and gets seriously seasick.
• While at Merris Cromwell's less than humble residence and asylum for the possessed, Nick overhears Alan saying a few disturbing things to Merris and his distrust of his brother grows.
• Nick receives a call from a woman named Natasha Walsh who knows the girl in the picture and makes an appointment to go see her.
• On the boat ride back from Mezentius, Nick is attended by an amorous Mae, but their tryst is cut short when he again becomes super seasick.
• Nick visits Natasha Walsh and learns that he and Alan have different fathers. He puts two and two together and figures out that his dad must be Black Arthur. It's not a good day.
• Back at home, Nick confronts Alan and hits him. Alan draws his gun. Things get tense.
• Nick tries to talk to his mum, Olivia, about his dad, but she's not very helpful. Actually, she's terrified of Nick, which doesn't do much for his self-esteem.
• Nick participates in a ritual that allows both him and Alan to trace Black Arthur.
• When the fab four infiltrate the house where the magicians of the Obsidian Circle are staying, Nick gets captured and finds himself contained in an imprisonment circle.
• Nick learns the truth—the whole truth and nothing but—of who he is and how he was created.
• Nick is freed from the imprisonment circle—and his human body—by Alan, and goes soaring up into the London sky feeling very powerful and safe.
• Discovering that he prefers his human skin—constricting as it is—to life without his brother and cereal, Nick returns to his human body and pledges never to leave Alan again.