Iron Fey 2
Julie Kagawa
Meghan Chase finds herself in the Unseelie court of Tir Na Nog. She is lonely and feels like Ash has abandoned her as he is out making sure the winter realm is safe from the Iron Fey. She is having dreams about killing Machina that she finds disturbing. To top it all off, her summer glamour still has not been able to fully recover from her fight in the Iron Kingdom.
Meghan is called to meet Queen Mab and is instantly given a hard time. Ash and his brothers, Sage and Rowan, show up in the middle of this meeting. Meghan gets a glimpse of the callousness Ash had warned her about from Mab and her three sons (including Ash). Eventually, Meghan decides to go outside for a walk. After being taunted a bit by the locals, she runs into Rowan. As he is showing her the extent of Mab’s cruelty, he gives her an apple. This makes her tell Rowan what happened in the Iron Kingdom and she admits that she loves Ash. Meghan still doesn’t understand that Ash is acting this way to protect her, so she shows her weakness and starts crying.
The winter solstice comes around and it is Summer’s turn to deliver the Scepter of the Seasons. Upon arriving for the party, Oberon expresses his intensions to bring Meghan back to the Seelie court. However, upon learning that she is under contract, he leaves her there. Shortly after the scepter is delivered, Meghan is talking with Sage in the room that holds the scepter. A few Iron Knights show up to take it. Sage refuses to let that happen and fights Tertius (who looks like Ash), but fails in his attempt. Mab, Rowan and Ash arrive. Mab believes that Summer has started a war. Meghan tries to explain, but will not be heard by anyone but Ash, who is making his plan to get her back to Arcadia before she is killed.
Before Ash can whisk Meghan away to safety, they are confronted by Rowan. He tries to convince Ash not to betray his family and court, but Ash ends up running with Meghan. Their attempt to be smuggled out of the realm was thwarted by Rowan’s Thorn Guards. They reveal to Ash that Rowan has sold out the Fey for the Iron Fey. The Thorn Guards were wearing iron rings because the new Iron King told them it would eventually help them survive the Iron realm. They escape the winter fey only to have to start running from wiremen fey. As they are looking for a hunting lodge that Ash and Ariella used to use, Puck shows up to help them fight off the Iron Fey. Ash expresses his wish to have Puck take Meghan back to Arcadia.
As Puck and Meghan are heading back to the Seelie court, Meghan finds that she cannot help where she is going. She finds that she has been summoned by Grimalkin to meet with Ironhorse. The massive Iron fey offers to help them retrieve the Scepter of the Seasons from Silicon Valley (where the False King has hidden it) and they eventually accept. The group sets out for the Briars (a huge maze) to find the trod they need. While navigating the maze, they find themselves in Leanansidhe’s realm exiled fey, the Between. Before meeting the Queen, Meghan meets a man playing piano and they seem familiar to each other. Leanansidhe offers her help in finding out where the scepter is in Silicon Valley. As it turns out, one of her people, Warren, has betrayed her to the Iron Fey. She tortures him to get the information they need. The night before their planned invasion, Puck tries to comfort Meghan and they end up making out, but it is stopped so that Meghan can figure out the code they received for their mission
When they arrive at the software company, SciCorp where the scepter is being held, they make an attempt to sneak in with disguises. Meghan uses the code from the riddle to find floor 29.5. However, they are discovered by the Iron Fey and Virus shows them there new secret weapon: Ash (being controlled with a bug). Though Ash is fighting them, he seems to be holding back which allows them to just narrowly escape.
Virus sends messages in the forms of Kimi and Nelson (two of Lea’s subjects) to let Meghan know that Virus is sending Ash after her family. Puck and Meghan go to protect them. Puck and Ash fight and Ash ends up on the wrong side of Puck’s dagger. Ash asks Puck to finish him off, but Meghan can see the bug that is controlling Ash. She ends up using Iron glamour to get it out of him, but it makes her really sick.
Meghan ends up going to her room to collect a few things and finds the picture of her human father. She realizes that this is the memory she gave up in the first one to save her brother. They all end up going to a healer so that Ash can recover. However, they all still need to heal some, so they end up going to Meghan’s high school dance to use the energy to heal. Meghan gets to dance with her old crush and realizes she is over the whole human experience. Grimalkin shows up to let them know that Ironhorse is watching a factory that the scepter might be in. They end up catching a ride on the Host to get back to Silicon Valley.
Meghan, Ash, Puck, and Ironhorse end up getting into the factory that is covered with gremlins. Meghan seems to be able to tell the gremlins what to do, so she has them leave them alone. Ash wants to pretend like he is still under Virus’ control, but Ironhorse stops him by taking on the Iron Fey alone. They are all fighting and Virus sends the swarm after them. Meghan tries to keep up a barrier with her iron glamour, but Virus has the scepter, which makes her more powerful. She goes for the killing blow on Meghan, but Ironhorse steps in the way to protect her. This gives Meghan a chance to make the swarm back off and Ash to kill Virus.
They take the scepter to where the war is being waged. The first person they meet is Rowan and he gives them some trouble. As Ash and Puck are fighting him and his Thorn Guards off, a unicorn appears to Meghan. She is able to ride the unicorn part of the way to Mab, but it falls in battle. She states her intentions to return the scepter to the Unseelie Queen and Mab appears, but does not want to listen to Meghan’s story. However, Oberon arrives and lets Meghan tell of what happened. Mab still wants to hold Meghan accountable, but Ash admits his love for Meghan. He is exiled by Mab and Meghan follows him, also being exiled by Oberon for admitting that she returns his love.
They meet on the rainy street of the real world and have their reunion. Meghan asks Ash to never leave her and he promises to oblige.
The Iron Fey Series:
The Iron King
1.5 Winter's Passage
The Iron Daughter
The Iron Queen
3.5 Summer's Crossing
The Iron Knight