The first 2 books of the Nightrunner Series (Luck in the Shadows and Stalking Darkness) kind of make a mini 2-part series of their own, since the first ends in something of a cliffhanger (a minor one) and the main plot carries over both books, before taking a bit of a different turn in the 3rd book, etc. At the grand climax of the 2nd book, one of the main side characters (Nysander) basically forces one of the main characters (Seregil) to kill him and then he's dead.
Wat.
That ^ was more or less my impression on reading the chapter. It sounds kind of blase just reading it as a sentence typed very blandly and literally on a forum, but as a reader, I was seriously hurt. Nysander is introduced as basically this awesome kindly old man that everyone would love to have as a grandfather or uncle; he's Seregil's mentor. Reading over the books again, I can see some slight foreshadowing of what was to come, but the first time I'd read that story, it hit me like a tonne of bricks, not only for the death of Nysander himself, but the emotional toll it put on Seregil, who was forced to kill his best and oldest friend. The ending isn't entirely bad (bad guy is stopped, Alec recognizes his love for Seregil and the two finally become lovers, more happy ending type stuff), but the horrific death of Nysander still casts a pall over the entire ending, something felt strongly by both the readers and the characters themselves.
So, yeah, I really disliked this ending on a personal level, even though I know it was right for the books, and I love the masterful way Lynn told the story and how Nysander's death impacted everyone. But, damnit, it hurt, and it is probably my least favourite book in the series because of that. The first time I read it, I cried, and the 2 or 3 times I've read it since then, I've started crying even before it happened because I knew it was coming.
Going back to what I said at the beginning of this post, it's not as if I dislike the plot of Lynn's book, or this book in particular, just that I felt so strongly attached to the characters that my considerations for them over-weighed the needs of the plot. The Nightrunner series is quite a bit dark with a lot of bittersweet moments, but perhaps that makes my fondness for the characters even stronger.