Une braise sous la cendre, tome 3 : Le prix du sang

Oh man, once again, a 4,5/5 for Sabaa Tahir's work !
I finished the book a couple of hours ago and my thoughts are already a complete mess ugh
First of all, I am very happy to say that Helene Aquilla remains my absolute favorite. As I said the first time I reviewed An Ember in the Ashes, she is perfectly flawed. Aaaaaah, I just love her a lot ?
Anyway. That third book. Once again, we are reunited with our 3 beloved characters : Elias (who, I have to confess, I've grown to love a bit more than I did when I first started the series), Laia (who remains pretty interesting and realistic to me) and Helene (yaaaaay ???).
I have to say a good half of the book left me slightly annoyed at the fact I couldn't see where it was going (especially what the Commandant was doing, like she is super cool but I sometimes was tired of Helene wondering what Keris wanted, Helene thinking HEY I GOT IT but Keris being NAH BITCH HAHAHAHA ) and that's why I didn't give it 5 stars. But man, when the plot finally get clearer !!! THAT END OF THE BOOK. It was so good!

Random thoughts :
- Helene is such a badass and I love her a lot
- Livia is such a badass and I lover her a lot lol I love that kind of characters who are strong and resilient in their own way. I cried when she gave birth. The relationship between Helene and Livia is just too much for my heart. (also Laia was super badass)
- I cried for Marcus and Zak, yup. One thing I particularly liked was that Marcus is described as a terrible monster, you seriously can only hate him. But the best thing is that even while showing his humanity, the author managed not to make it like "aaawwww poor baby, he's only human after all, don't hate him!!!!" The fact that he couldn't move on from the Waiting Place immediately made me feel that way. (idk if that makes sense, whatever)
- I KNEW COOK WAS HER MOM !!! Istg I knew it from the 1st book ! I cried when Cook stayed behind to save Laia and Helene... Yup
.- Harper is super cool like possibly my fav male character, even before Elias. I really hope we'll get some siblings interactions because Elias, my man, you have a brother !!!!! Also, I do hope he ends up with Helene... please. It's so rare when I like a love story :'(- I'm not sure how I feel about the Nightbringer. I guess I like him, his nature, his motivations. But I'll have to see how his story ends to really know if I like him or not.
- the whole story around ghosts and jinn is super good. And the battle scene with the ghosts ! So cinematic, it'd look awesome *-*
- oh and to me, this book is pretty feminist and I like it. Yup.

To finish, a quote which made me cry :

"Curse this world for what it does to the mothers, for what it does to the daughters. Curse it for making us strong through loss and pain, our hearts torn from our chests again and again. Curse it for forcing us to endure."