ACOTAR 3
Sarah J. Maas
This summary comes from: BadBooksGoodTimes. I highly recommend going to that blog and enjoying the entire comedy of their chapter summaries.
RHYSAND - TWO YEARS BEFORE THE WALL
Rhys fights in the war defending the keep for three days holding the lines against the loyalists.
PART ONE: PRINCESS OF CARRION
1. Feyre is painting some roses. Feyre is in a new room now because Tamlin destroyed her old room after she left him for Rhysand. Tamlin and Lucien show up. Tamlin tells Feyre that the three of them have a meeting with Ianthe, the High Priestess who was apparently working with Tamlin but betrayed them, most notably selling out Feyre’s human sisters to the King of Hybern. Feyre tells us she’s looking forward to destroying Ianthe. Tamlin is like “I’m sure she had a good reason for betraying all of us.” Lucien’s kept his doubts to himself because he fell in magic-predestined-love-at-first-sight with Feyre’s sister, Elain, whom he thinks is being held captive by Rhysand. On their way to the meeting, Lucien and Feyre have a conversation out of earshot of Tamlin where they get to drop a little bit of pretense. They have their meeting with Ianthe, the High Priestess. Ianthe says she thought Feyre would want to have her sisters forever. Tamlin believes her. He doesn’t trust Hybern and has his citizens moved to the east side of his territory before he is scheduled to arrive the next day.
2. Jurian shows up, and Feyre is really upset. She uses the Winter Court’s ice to calm herself. Prince Dagdan and Princess Brannagh are with him. Feyre assumes they are twins and therefore share a mental bond. Feyre is super polite to them, and she tells us that because she is dressed very innocently, her enemies are convinced she’s no threat. They all have a very tense and unpleasant dinner where Jurian tries to rile everybody up so that the twins can try to read everyone’s minds. Feyre somehow puts up mind shields for everybody. As Jurian gets more vulgar, Tamlin tells him to behave or sleep in the stables with the beasts.
3. Feyre stays up making sure the twins don’t use their powers on anyone’s mind. They go to investigate the invisible gap in the invisible wall. They all discuss various holes in the wall and strategies for getting through. Lucien and Feyre go to talk alone while. Lucien reveals that on the day Feyre was “abducted”, he returned to the house first and hid Feyre’s abandoned ring. She says they melted it off her and thanks him again for the rescue. She asks him what drives Hybern, but Jurian comes to them before he can answer. Feyre and Lucian bond over their hatred of Jurian. They return home where Ianthe is waiting. Feyre agrees to do some party planning with Ianthe later, and she and Lucien go off on their own to chat for a bit. I guess they really are chill now. Feyre asks Lucien if Ianthe and Tamlin hooked up while she was gone. He tells her when Calanmai came along, Tamlin refused, and Lucian took his place in the rite and had sex with Ianthe. Feyre wishes she could have stopped it. While preparing for the Solstice party later, Alis reveals she has figured out what’s going on. She has family still working in the Summer Court, and they saw Feyre super happy. Also, on the day Morrigan showed up, Alis asked her to take Feyre away and help her. Feyre still plays dumb, but they seem to kind of reach an understanding.
4. For Summer Solstice, they are all up before dawn because Ianthe wants to do the ceremony more traditionally. All the important people are on top of a hill, “with a gathered crowd of hundreds” all watching them. Ianthe is making Jurien and the twins participate in the ceremony and they’re grumpily going along with it. Then the ceremony concludes as the sun begins to rise and the first cracks of light over the horizon will light up Ianthe and magically bless her. Feyre moved her marker stone and is lit up instead of Ianthe. Hundreds of faeries spend the next few hours praising and thanking Feyre. But most importantly, Ianthe is apparently genuinely baffled how this could have happened. A little later, in a moment of privacy, she decides it’s worth risking exposing that she still has a bond with Rhysand and fantasy texts him. They send a few short, loving messages to each other. Rhysand asks when comes home. She says she’ll “be done soon.” She dances with Tamlin, tearfully tells him that she heard that he didn’t complete the sex ritual for Calanmai, and asks him if Ianthe is mad that the sun blessed her instead.
5. Feyre wakes up in the middle of the night, screaming from a nightmare and runs to Lucien’s room. Tamlin finds Lucien embracing her and she leaves to go back to her own room. She is hoping to put doubt in Tamlin’s head about Lucien.
6. A set of keys to the estate gates had gone missing, but Tamlin didn’t appear to care. Breakfast is super awkward as Tamlin glowers at everyone the whole time. Feyre debates confronting Jurian about the missing key but instead goes along with the awkward silence. Ianthe makes a big show of asking Tamlin if they should speak in private to seem important to Hybern crew. Feyre cuts in to say that she should speak freely in front of their allies. Ianthe tells Tamlin the land around her temple is dying. Jurian doesn’t seem to care and the twins suggest telling the gardener. The conversation shifts to whether Tamlin will be going with Feyre, Lucien and The Hybern Crew to survey more of the wall, and she suggests the Night Court might try to steal Feyre back. Jurian says this is ridiculous and that the Night Court wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack, but Ianthe argues that Rhys has a vendetta. She suggests returning Rhys’ family’s wings to him, but Tamlin says he burned them a long time ago. Feyre keeps her cool, and assures Tamlin everything will be fine. He agrees, and tells Lucien (with his claws out) to be careful. While away on their surveying trip, everyone has to share tents. Feyre and Lucien share a tent and he tells her Tamlin’s deal with Hybern is sealed with magic. Ianthe’s urging finally pushed Tamlin to make his deal with Hybern. Lucien tells Feyre things were awful and that Tamlin even killed sentries who had been on duty the day she was “kidnapped.” He tells her they didn’t have any options other than going to war with the Night Court or allying themselves with Hybern. The chapter ends with more wall surveying and three “Children of the Blessed” staring at them through a hole in the wall.
7. The twins start sizing up the humans, cooing at them to come and “we can… enjoy ourselves”. Jurian (who is human) gets tense and worried about the humans, asking them what they’re doing here, because who the hell understands what Jurian’s motivations are. The evil faeries want to work with him, he wants to work with them, except also he’s not down for murdering humans, which is definitely a not-insignificant part of what the evil faeries want to do. Feyre starts filling their brains with nightmares. The Children of the Blessed immediately run away. move to pursue them, but Feyre stops them, saying that if they do, “then you and I will have a problem.” Jurian thanks her. They end up spending another night in the woods, and Jurian and Feyre end up having a private conversation around the campfire, where Jurian still can’t believe that there are actually humans as stupid as the Children of the Blessed. He talks about how 500 years ago, people fought for freedom from the fae. He did everything for Miryam and she left him for a fae prince. She told him to seduce Clythia for information. His motivation now is to draw out Miryam and get his revenge. He knew Rhys during the war and thinks he unleashed his mate on them rather than believing Feyre’s story. In the morning, Feyre wakes up and finds that the twins had gone out and caught the human Children of the Blessed and left “what was left of the three bodies” in their campground. Lucien points out they did this to make “a statement about their power” to Feyre.
8. Feyre and Lucien lured the Bogge to their camp and unleashed it on the twins. Furious, Tamlin screams at both of them to get out of his study. Feyre goads him into having another abusive meltdown. Feyre lets herself get injured and prevents her healing powers from kicking in so she can gain the sympathy of Tamlin’s guards and Lucien while also making Tamlin feel awful. Rhys and Feyre communicate and flirt using their bond. Feyre informs us she’ has more evil-but-good plans in the works. She sucks up to Ianthe and praises her and Tamlin for being great leaders and protecting their land, but somehow this is “a dare”, and that night a group of naga attack. The naga had the key that had gone missing. After the attack is thwarted–and remember, this all happened in the past and is purely exposition–Tamlin has to punish the sentry who had his key stolen. Ianthe declares that he should receive twenty one lashes. Feyre tries to get everyone to listen to the sentry, but Tamlin lets himself be bullied into punishing him. This turns the sentries (and Lucien) against Tamlin. The chapter ends with Feyre cuddling up to Lucien in mock-fear and the lashes beginning.
9. After the public whipping, Ianthe is under the impression that everything is turning up Ianthe and, with Elon Musk-levels of social consciousness, invites all the upper classes into the manor for lunch. Feyre sticks behind to tend to the beaten sentry while he’s healed and then gets personally escorted by Bron and Hart, because this story is all about the collective power of the 99% unless we’re in the Night Court where the only characters who matter are the god king Rhysand and his friends who happen to run the government with him. Feyre explains how her actions have secured her position as a favorite of the people in the upcoming revolution against the Spring Court. The next day, Ianthe tries to flex her increased favor by telling the others she’ll join them on their next wall exploration camping trip. Alis tells Feyre that she and her nephews are totally-not-fleeing the country but just going to their home in Summer Court the next day. They say they will always have a friend in each other’s courts. When they leave the next day, none of the sentries look at Tamlin. That night, Feyre “quietly, shyly” asks to share a tent with Ianthe instead of Tamlin. She considers slitting her throat in the middle of the night, but she reminds herself her plan is sneakier than that. While the others are off doing something else, Feyre talks to the twins and they show her the exact spot they will use the couldron on to destroy the wall. She decides she is ready to go back to Rhys and plants a false memory in a sentry’s head that the twins killed her. As she is trying to escape in the middle of the night, she overhears Ianthe trying to rape Lucien. She stops her and has her beat her own hand with a rock while telling her she will never touch anyone without their consent again. She also has her forget what happened and to tell people she fell. The twins have seen the whole thing.
10. The twins reveal they are going to kill Lucien. They have been poisoning them all in the food to wearing their faerie magic. Feyre battles the twins, and together she and Lucien manage to kill them both before their powers fade. Feyre starts heading off again, and Lucien declares he’s coming with her to the Night Court to get his mate. They make their way to the Autumn Court before their powers fade. The cave that serves as the entrance doesn’t have any guards present because Feyre had already messed with their minds prior to them getting there. She can hear Tamlin’s roar over the land.
PART TWO: CURSEBREAKER
11. Feyre lets Lucien lead the way, since they can’t magic out where any sentries are, and then they find an abandoned campground hidden away in a cave that he used to use back when he lived here. After Feyre accuses Lucien of only doing what’s right because he thinks her sister belongs to him, Lucien counters by pointing out that she was going to leave him behind. She tells him he would have been fine. They barely get any sleep between the cold and the constant fear about all their enemies who are out looking for them. Lucien explains that literally everyone in the country would sell them out to his father because he’s a High Lord who barely pays his workers. Feyre decides they will head north until the faebane wears off. Lucian tells her his father is directly north, but she isn’t willing to waste time going to the east (as Lucien suggests) or west. They hike for five days. Lucien was the youngest of the Autumn Court’s High Lord’s seven sons, and spent a lot of time studying and training and spending time with common folk. Nobody really cared what he did “since no one believed I’d be dumb enough to kill my way up the long list of heirs.” Feyre asks him if he would want the crown, and Lucien – apparently considering the matter for the first time ever since “no one’s ever asked” – says he isn’t interested in the bloodshed it would take just to “rule over a crafty, two-faced people.” They reach the mountain range on the border between the Autumn and Winter Courts and have to risk a fire. They wake up to find that Lucien’s brothers have found them.
12. Lucien’s brother holds them at knifepoint. The leader of Lucien’s Bro Pack is Eris, the man who had been betrothed to Mor and left her for dead (after she was tortured by her own family) because she was no longer wife material. Feyre suddenly feels her powers stirring. the brothers plan to take them to Lucien’s dad who will do horrible things to them. Luckily, Feyre’s powers have conveniently returned and she fights/burns their captors. She traps them in the cave and she and Lucien bring it down on top of them. They start moving without any of their supplies and limited amounts of magic. They find a cave for shelter, but hold each other to stay warm while Feyre tells Lucien about Elain. She reminds him that Elain is engaged, but also that she will probably not be returning to the human world. Lucien wonders how Rhys handled Feyre being in love with Tamlin when he knew she was his mate. The continue on and Feyre considers a place for Lucien in her court. Lucien’s brothers find them again while they are on a frozen lake and Eris threatens to melt it.
13. Feyre and Lucien run while Eris melts the ice below them. Feyre uses her powers to freeze it again. When Eris catches her, She starts to fight, but Cassian and Azriel show up. Feyre decides to spare them and reveals she is the High Lady of the Night Court revealing her tattoos. They clearly have the upper hand and Feyre tells them they will see them on the battlefield, but lets them decide which side they will be on.
14. They arrive at the townhouse in Velaris. Rhys takes Feyre to their room. They update each other. Jurian has returned to Hybern. Feyre asks about her sister and Rhys offers to take her to them, but she decides it can wait. Rhys had been at the mortal queens palace, but left as soon as he felt their bond getting stronger. Rhys magically cleans Feyre and then she takes a bath. They have sex.
15. When they rejoin the others in the House of Wind, Feyre remembers she didn’t offer Lucien any new clothes or a place to get cleaned up. Rhys tries to reassure him Feyre didn’t dishonor or betray Tamlin. Rhys kept his distance until Feyre left Tamlin and broke up with him. The facade they show the rest of the world is to keep Velaris safe. Lucien starts to reevaluate his thoughts on her and her friends. He promises to stay away from Elain until she is ready for him. Feyre visits Nesta first, but she is fine and reading a book. Cassian watches her longingly. She tells Feyre she didn’t have much at stake over the wall and she should go check on Elain, who is heartbroken and wants to go home. Feyre tries to comfort her after all she has given up. Lucien hears the entire conversation.
16. Rhys and Feyre show Lucien to his quarters. They give him a list of what he can and cannot do, which mainly consists of him not being allowed to talk to Feyre’s sisters without permission. And they finally offer him new clothes. They show up at Amren’s house, and she immediately starts telling them how they should make Lucien the High Lord of the Autumn Court. Rhys says he’ll think about this. The gang all discuss what Feyre learned from the Maybe-Incest-Twins and Jurian about the other armies that will be fighting in the war. Feyre doesn’t know anything about these armies and asks if they’re powerful. Vallahan has the numbers, Montesere has the money, and Rask … it is large enough to have both. Feyre suggests Rhys call in his favor with Miryam and Drakon. Azriel already went to them, but no one was there. Miryam had been resurrected like Feyre. Feyre asks about how they’re going to try to prevent more territories from joining Hybern. Rhys went to Hybern to see if he could sense an opportunity for an internal conflict, but they all seep super ready for a war because they’ve been on an island for years and are bored (????). There is a lot of speculation about whether the king has been playing the long game and making sure to make things progressively worse for the people so they’re desperate to fight the humans again. Rhys went into Hybern’s territory and started planting rumors to confuse everyone. Feyre speculates she could heal the wall. When it is suggested her sisters might be more suited for the task because the couldron made them fae, she says they won’t be involved. Amren accuses Feyre of sounding like Tamlin, and Mor loses her shit. Amren insists they need Feyre’s sisters to at least help them convince people “of the risk”. Sure, whatever. Feyre agrees to give them the choice. Rhys is sending out invitations for all the High Lords of Pythian to meet and see where they all stand.
17. The gang meets for dinner the night before the invitations go out. Lucien laments on how nice Velaris is and can see how Feyre chose it over the Spring Court. Nesta joins them for dinner. Mor compliments her dress and Cassian makes a comment about her taking it right off her. Nesta is not impressed. She asks Amren why her eyes glow and Amren explains it is the only part of the containment spell that wasn’t done right. Amren tells her they are alike. Lucien is reluctant to sit at the head of the table, but Rhys doesn’t care as long as he gets to eat. Lucien tells him his father is likely to side with Hybern if he thinks it will give him a chance at getting his powers back.
18. Rhys explains that the next part of his plan involves going to the Court of Nightmares to ask Mor’s father for his help in the war. When the Court of Dreams was formed, the army stayed in control of the Court of Nightmares, where the rest of the world believes the seat of power is held. Mor points out that her dad – the leader of the fake secret local government and also the military – may not offer the kind of help that they want. Feyre abruptly changes the conversation by announcing that she wants to learn how to fly. Feyre explains that shape-shifting is one of her many new magic powers, Cassian expresses concern that it may not be possible because it takes years of practice and they might only be a few weeks from the war, but they all agree it’s worth trying anything that might give them an advantage. Feyre tries to convince Nesta to help them out too by using her mysterious, unexplained, and yet-to-be-seen magic powers to help them fix the wall before the King of Hybern can destroy it. Nesta says she will help with the wall if the king and the mortal queens (who may or may not still be mortal) dead. She refuses to give testimony of what Hybern did to her at the meeting of the High Fae. After dinner, Feyre and Rhysand go for a walk in Velaris. Feyre observes how the city is still rebuilding from the battle at the end of the last book. They talk about Nesta and Feyre recognizes that she fucked up how she went about asking her to help them. Feyre and Rhysand also talk about how they’re equals which is nice and all, but also about which High Lords hate them and whether they can trust Lucien.
19. The next morning, Feyre goes to train with Cassian. Feyre goes to meet Cassian to resume her training, and he instantly starts making sex jokes, which prompts her flashbacks to having sex with Rhys. As they begin to spar, Feyre realises that Cassian is pissed at her. Apparently he’s really mad that before they faced Hybern, she hadn’t told them she was High Lady. He explains his feelings as they spar. Nesta shows up and distracts him. While she and Cassian bicker back and forth, Feyre calls to Rhys to get her out of there. Rhys is busy, so he sends Azriel to pick Feyre up for her flying training session early. He whisks them away, and Feyre is able to shapeshift pretty quickly. Azriel helps her make adjustments to her wings.
20. The mountain that Rhysand’s private home is at the top of has a library carved into the bottom of it. Rhysand explains that libraries have an unsurprisingly more classist history in the faerie lands: before the war, humans weren’t allowed inside “unless you were someone’s slave on an errand” because the faeries didn’t want them to have access to knowledge of magic. After the war that freed the humans, most scholars resorted to burning down their libraries rather than letting humans get access. He goes on to explain that human/faerie half-breeds have pretty much also been shunned by both communities, and many ended up as sex workers to get by. Clotho is one of the priestesses who works in the library. Rhysand explains that the library is a sanctuary and everyone who works there is a priestess with a horrifying past. Clotho was assaulted by a bunch of dudes who broke her hands and cut out her tongue. There is a gaping hole at the bottom of the mountain. Rhys had dared Cassian to fly down it once and he came out quick and refused to talk about what he saw. Clotho takes them to a small reading area where she set aside a few books with the research that Rhysand had asked her to pull aside for him. She leaves, and Feyre and Rhysand immediately start joking about fucking in the library. To summarize their research: the wall was never supposed to last! It was intended as a temporary solution “to cleave human and faerie until peace settled long enough for them to later reconvene.” They talk about the war, and Rhysand admits that army against army, they don’t have good odds. Feyre asks if he could beat the King of Hybern if the two of them fought one-on-one, Rhysand says he doesn’t know but would be “willing to take the brunt of it” if it gave everyone else a chance, and Feyre immediately points out that he shouldn’t have to. She remembers Amren saying putting the two halves of the book together could draw out unspeakable monsters. Feyre suggests using it to get the Bone Carver on their side.
21. Feyre goes to find Amren and Nesta who are training together. It looks like they’re just staring at one another, but it turns out Amren is just training Nesta’s mind. Feyre segues the conversation to Amren’s time in the prison where the Bone Carver is being kept. She asks if she ever talked to the other prisoners. Armen sends her away so she can keep training Nesta. Feyre has a nightmare about her sisters, Amarantha and Rhys. Rhys comforts her.
22. Feyre goes to the prison with Cassian. Rhys tells them to be very careful and explains that because of wards, and Feyre won’t be able to reach him through the bond when she’s in there. Cassian and Feyre discuss what exactly the Bone Carver is, and he might be some sort of “Old God” who can kill lots of people instantly. Apparently no one has any idea how he wound up in the prison. Feyre meets with the Bone Carvert and realizes he has taken the form of her and Rhys’ future son. the Carver asks if Feyre has brought him a gift, and she gives him some Attor bone. The Carver immediately starts banging on about how much Cassian wants Nesta. Feyre tells the Caver about the Book of Breathings
23. Feyre tells him the book has spells to send people back to their homes, and it has been suggested he has useful skills on the battlefield. The Carver tells them that he doesn’t believe the place he came from even exists anymore and straight up says that he prefers being in prison. He tells them his siblings, the Weaver and Koschei, and how he hides from them because they are death-gods. Cassian tries to insist that if they lose this war, the Bone Carver might have to deal with his death god siblings being similarly untrapped. The Bone Carver insists that even the King of Hybern isn’t dumb enough to do that, and suggests they asks some other minor characters in the jail to help them out instead. Feyre gets angry and shouts at him, but Cassian suggests they just go and start making their way to the Hewn City, when the Carver guesses more of their plan and suddenly gets interested. He tells them about his sister’s mirror, the Ouroboros, that can see anything. He says it is in Keir’s possession. If they bring it to him and find a way to free him, he will join them.
24. Everyone prepares for their journey to go to the evil part of the Night Court. But first, Feyre goes to visit her sisters. She finds them in the library; only Nesta acknowledges her, Elain is sadly staring out the window. Nesta affirms she is ready for that night and then goes back to reading. Elain tells Feyre she can see very far away and hear heartbeats now. Feyre asks to speak to Nesta privately. While they are discussing how much Elain is eating and how Nesta doesn’t want to be a warrior for some reason, Lucien shows up. Feyre decides to hop into his brain. Lucien has long, expository thoughts about how Elain is nothing like Jesminda (his former love). Then he just goes back to thinking about how gorgeous Elain is and how she needs to eat. She reminds Lucien that she was to be married, and of course he feels rage. Feyre finally gets out of Lucien’s head, and she and Nesta tell him to go away. He mansplains that they need to get Elain out of the house, so Feyre declares that…her sisters will now be moving to her house. Rhys, Cassian and Azriel show up ASAP to help carry her sisters (and Lucien!) to the other house. At the townhouse, Azriel takes Elain to the garden, and Feyre laments the fact that they aren’t mates. This prompts a discussion between Feyre and Rhys about how you apparently can reject your mate. Rhys also takes the time to point out how for “the males…It can drive them mad.” He assures Feyre that in the progressive Night Court (the good Night Court, I presume), a woman who rejects the bond would be protected, but elsewhere she might be killed. Rhys assuages Feyre’s guilt about going into Lucien’s mind again, and tells her if she feels guilty just don’t keep doing it. Nesta reveals she made the cauldron give her something back with her: death.
25. Rhysand – High Lord of Night Court – and his gang go to meet with Keir, the man that rules the Court of Nightmare’s army. Rhys struts into the throne room with Feyre and puts her on the throne while he sits on the arm. He says he will forgive them for not having two thrones ready for them by not flaying them. Rhysand, Feyre, and the gang go off with Keir to talk politics over dinner. Keir cuts to the chase, saying that he knows Rhysand is going to ask for his army to join him against Hybern, but that he finds himself “sympathetic to Hybern’s cause.” Rhysand brings out his first bargaining chip for Keir’s army, and calls for Lucien’s brother Eris, heir to the Autumn Court, to enter the room.
26. Keir says an alliance with Autumn Court isn’t enough. Meanwhile, Feyre and Mor are visibly hurt and angry that Rhysand struck a deal with one of their enemies (who has personally done terrible things to Mor) in secret and then surprised them all with this new alliance during a high-stakes moment with their other enemy. keir continues to call out Rhysand on gentrifying his country. He wants his people to have access to Velaris, which he now knows about because of Hybern. He says they’ll discuss the specifics later, but largely agrees, and Keir accepts and offers his army. Feyre mentions the Ouroboros mirror and Keir tells her the only way to get it is by looking into it, which causes madness. Keir leaves. Eris and Rhysand explain that Eris has agreed to an alliance and to keep quiet about Feyre’s powers (especially to his father) in exchange for Rhysand’s support of Eris’s claim to the throne “when the time comes”. Eris suggests they just kill his dad now and get it over with, but is chill with waiting if that’s what Rhysand wants to do. Eris says he is the reason Lucien made it to the Spring Court when he and his lover where hunted down in the Autumn Court. Eris also helpfully reminds everyone that Rhysand’s made a deal with his best friend Mor’s bigoted ex-fiance who left her to die after she fucked an Illyrian to get out of the engagement. Eris says he had his reasons for what he did and he might tell them one day now that they are allies.
27. Feyre decides she cannot risk madness by going after the mirror yet. They all winnow back to the good Night Court, and Mor is furious with Rhys for what happened with Eris. Rhys has taken precautions telling the people in his city to not be welcoming to Keir or anyone from the Court of Nightmares. Rhys insists that they’ll set limitations on how often “they” the riff raff will be allowed to come to their precious city. Mor asks Rhys how he would feel if he was forced to work with Amarantha. He says he would do it for the good of the whole. Mor doesn’t believe Rhys, but he insists that if she showed up right now with a chance for them all to survive, he’d take it. Amren actually calls Rhys out on keeping secrets and he apologizes. Cassian brings up the Mirror. Amren asks what she needs the mirror for. Feyre shields them to keep anyone from listening in. Amren says she made herself less immortal in a new body to escape the prison. She says if she were not bound to her current body, she wouldn’t be able to care for them and would either smite or abandon them. Nesta asks what she was and she says a soldier-assassin for a wrathful god who ruled a young world. Elain says she hears crying and sees young hands wither with age, a box of black stone, and a feather of fire land on snow and melt it. Azriel looks thoughtful and then winnows away. Feyre asks Nesta about what she and Amren did in the Court of Nightmares. It ends in an argument and Nesta storming away. Lucien suggests a healer for Elain. Feyre cries in bed and Rhys comforts her. He admits he would kill Amarantha if she showed up, and he feels horrible about what happened with Mor.
28. The next day, a few of the High Lords have responded to their request for a meeting about who’s on what side in the upcoming war. The High Lords of the Day, Dawn, and Winter Courts have all agreed to the meeting, but none of the other seasonal courts have responded. Mor suggests they have the meeting without them if they don’t respond. She has forgiven Rhys for bringing in Eris in an attempt to protect Velaris from Keir. A healer comes to evaluate Elain, but doesn’t find anything. The healer suggests that Elain’s issue is most likely some pretty serious PTSD. He tells her they cannot reach anything like the mind or soul because they were couldron made. He suggests Lucien might be able to help her because the mating bond is a bridge between souls.
29. Lucien and Elain awkwardly sit by a fire while everyone pretends to be doing things in nearby rooms while keeping a close eye on them. Amren and Nesta are busy building walls in their minds. Feyre spots Rhys and Cassian approaching the house, and she shoos them away. Elain suddenly leaps to her feet, startled. Turns out that Lucien tried to tug on the bond, whatever that means. Nesta of course storms over and is overbearing and obnoxious as usual. Elain says it felt weird, but seems momentarily lucid, until she goes back to saying things like two ravens are coming, one white and one black. Lucien tells Feyre he didn’t have time to find anything, and they agree to try again in the future. Then he offers to help them find a meeting place for the High Lords. Azriel mentions Feyre’s flying training and tells a story about a weak girl becoming strong to save her friends. Later that night, Feyre gets a sexy massage from Rhys. He pleases her without asking for anything in return.
30. Feyre cancels training because she’s sore, and Cassian and Azriel show up to berate her while she’s having breakfast with her sisters. Azriel takes Elain to the garden. Cassian and Nesta have more of their awkward flirtation before Cassian flies Nesta up to the House of Wind so she and Feyre can go to the library together. As they look for books, Nesta notices that Feyre struggles more to read. Apparently, she never knew Feyre couldn’t read. Feyre asks why Nesta pushes everyone away except Elain. Nesta is about to explain when suddenly the lights start going out. They start to run away. Feyre suddenly remembers she has the power to winnow, but before she can, two male fae step out of the shadows. It’s men from Hybern’s army, and they blow some magic dust on Feyre that strips her of her powers. It turns out these two are the kings Ravens. It appears these Ravens are after Nesta. The king wants/needs whatever Nesta took from the Cauldron.
31. Feyre is trapped in the library and weighs her options. Nesta tells the males that if Hybern wants what she took from the couldron, he can come take it from her. They tell her he doesn’t have time. Feyre warns the Ravens that they made a grave mistake. She grabs Nesta and starts running deeper into the library. he Ravens tell them that the youngest human queen insisted on going into the Cauldron first after it turned Feyre’s sisters immortal, but the Cauldron was so mad that Nesta took so much from it that it took the human queen’s youth, turning into an immortal but elderly fae. They keep running, Feyre knocks over some bookshelves to slow the Ravens, gets separated from Nesta, is about to get cornered by the Ravens Feyre calls out for help from the creature at the bottom of the pit in the middle of the library. It tells her it wants her to send it company to tell it of life. he Ravens find Feyre, notice there’s an unknowable evil standing behind her, and realize they messed up. The creature tells her to close her eyes and she does. It attacks the Ravens.
32. Cassian arrives during the slaughter to help Feyre and Nesta escape. Rhysand interrogates the Ravens, who were left on the brink of death by the mysterious monster in the basement. They all regroup. Feyre now has a slim band of black iron tattooed on her forearm, because magical bargains are “permanently marked upon flesh”. Rhysand asks what she offered it. She tells him and admits she didn’t promise herself. Rhys is relieved and admits it isn’t too bad, all things considered. He tells Nesta that Hybern is hunting her first because the couldron isn’t working properly without whatever she took from it. He notes that Hybern must be more desperate than they thought if he made such a risky move to try to take out Nesta. Feyre asks how Hybern even got into the city past its magic wards, and Rhysand explains it must be because Hybern used his one “fleeting spell” to cleave the wards. Rhysand decides they’re all just gonna pretend like this never happened, because he doesn’t want them to seem weak when all the other High Lords come to the meeting. Elain tells them the queen with feathers of flame might come.
33. Feyre realizes Elain is a seer. Azriel confirms the existence of the sixth queen–the one who the other queens lied about being ill–with Elain. His calm understanding seems to clear her mind. Elain explains the queen was cursed by a sorcerer-lord and is a bird during the day and human at night. She cannot see why the other queens sold her to him. They blather on a bit about the queen’s kingdom and how little they know of it and whether it’s worth looking for her. Finally, Lucien offers to go try to save her and see if she’ll help them. They agree Lucien will leave tomorrow, and after they finish making plans, Rhys and Feyre head to their room. Feyre gives Rhys a bath since he’s covered in blood. He talks about how he needs to protect everyone in the city and how upset he is that Hybern managed to get his lackeys inside of the city.
34. Lucien prepares for his mission into enemy territory. Rhys holds out his hand to him and Lucien takes it. Just before Rhysand teleports Lucien away, Elain appears at the top of the stairs and the two exchange eye contact of “longing and sadness”. Lucien nods to Rhysand and the two teleport away. Rhysand gets back a bit later, just in time for Amren to show up to tell them Hybern has laid siege to Adriana in the Summer Court.
35. The Summer Court was caught totally off-guard, with their armada scattered along the coast and their closest army legion a three-day march away from the capital. Varian sent word to Amren to prepare her own defenses. They decide that they can’t leave the Summer Court to face Hybern alone, but Keir’s army is not ready to march. Rhysand’s going to winnow the entire Illyrian legion to the Summer Court to battle. Mor and Feyre winnow in separately later after getting a signal. Feyre observes that war seems pretty bad. Mor tells Feyre that Hybern’s soldiers have surrounded the palace, so their job is to go there first, and they winnow into the palace
36. Feyre and Mor tear through Hyberns soldiers inside the palace. The battle rages on. When Feyre tries to check on Rhys, his shields are too strong for her to check in on him. When they do go down, she sees from his perspective. When he throws them back up, she gets trapped in his mind. Feyre sees through Rhysand’s eyes and learns that he’s been tracking down the source of whatever’s dampening his power, and then the King of Hybern shows up.
37. Rhys and Feyre start telepathically arguing about how to handle the king. Feyre begs Rhys to let one of the inner circle come help him. He thinks Azriel could help him. Rhys reaches out for Hyberns mind, but can’t find anything. Feyre tells him to kill the King, but Rhys wants to keep him alive to find out what is draining their power. While they banter, Rhys telepathically explores the ship. Hybern starts talking about how much Tamlin hates them and the revenge he has planned. Rhys asks Hybern why he is doing this. Hybern says he is tired of cowing to humans. Rhys attacks, but the King is just an illusion. He fades away and so does the spell that dampens Rhys’ power. He kills the rest of the enemy soldiers.
38. Feyre comes back to Mor shaking her motionless, nonresponsive body. Feyre notes that the Hybern army is retreating now that Rhysand’s power has been restored. But between the shock of returning to her body, the scene she witnessed with Hybern, and taking in the shock of the first real battle of the war, Feyre starts vomiting. Varian tells Feyre to go to the oak dining room, where she finds Tarquin, the High Lord of the Summer Court. Rhys appears and tries to explain. Tarquin points out that they took down the Spring Court allowing Hybern’s army in and from within which gave Hybern direct access to their borders. Rhys offers to leave his army in the hills until they are settled, but Tarquin tells them to get out. He asks him to reconsider coming to the meeting. Tarquin tells him to keep Feyre from giving High Lords orders. Rhys points out she is the High Lady of the Night Court and Tarquin is upset he “spit on tradition.”
39. The Night Court crew and the Illyrian army set up camp nearby to try to help the wounded. Feyre assures us there has been a lot of damage. After a montage of Feyre helping out around camp, she sits down and falls asleep, only to wake up in a tent with Rhys who tells her to sleep more. Instead, they talk about how they need to take Hybern down and how they need allies. They decide to hold their big meeting three days from now, and Feyre tries to convince Rhys that maybe making the world think they’re all assholes isn’t the best plan forward anymore. They agree to go to the meeting without their cruel masks and as a family. He tells her they will also keep her powers (aside from the ones from him) a secret. They have sex. They head back home the next day, but Cassian and Azriel stay behind to lead the army to their new base. Nesta asks about Cassian and Mor is upset by it. Rhys sends Mor off to prepare for the meeting, and Amren and Nesta return to their lessons. Feyre overhears Amren telling Nesta that Cassian will be fine, but Nesta pretends not to care. Feyre tells Rhys she needs to go down to the prison.
40. Since Feyre can’t claim ownership of the Ouroboros mirror without looking into it (which has been rumored to drive everyone mad), Feyre returns to the old prison to confront the Bone Carver and demand he choose an object other than the Ouroboros for his deal to aid them in the war. Astoundingly, somehow this doesn’t sway him. She tries being nicer about it and he asks about her first born. After their meeting with the Bone Carver doesn’t prove fruitful, they go home, so hungry they head straight into the kitchen where they’re surprised to walk in on Elain and the two housekeepers Nuala and Cerridwen covered in flour. They explain Elain wanted to bake bread.
41. The meeting has been moved from the neutral location (traditionally under the mountain where Amarantha ruled from) to the Dawn Court. Tamlin is the only one that hasn’t responded to the invitation yet. Amren announces that Nesta is making progress. Amren announces that Nesta is making progress. Feyre talks about how weird it is picking out a crown and how she now apparently owns a whole crown collection through her marriage to Rhysand. Nesta casually shows up dressed to the nines and tells everyone she’s going to the meeting after all. Feyre thinks she dressed up to impress Cassian.
42. Nesta explains she’s going because she doesn’t want to be remembered as a coward and to fight for human lives. Rhys offers her the job of being emissary to the human world and Nesta says she will make him pay through the teeth for her services. Cassian and Nesta are having A Moment and Mor is nervously watching them…because remember if they get together she and Azriel can no longer avoid each other…for reasons. The go to the Dawn Court and climb up a lot of stairs to get to the meeting room. The lords of the Day, Winter and Dawn courts are already there. Before they enter Rhys tells Feyre that she bows to no one.
43. Rhysand infodumps the Dawn Court to Feyre We learn that the winged high fae of the Dawn Court are Peregryns, its High Lord is Thesan, and the male captain of his army is his lover. They meet around a reflecting pool and Thesan welcomes them to his Court. They meet Kallias (the High Lord of the Winter Court) and his wife, Viviane. Viviane and Mor squeal when they spot each other and run and embrace. Viviane turns to Feyre and thanks her for helping her return her mate to him (since she helped end Amarantha’s reign), which prompts Mor to flip out that Viviane and Kallias are not only married, but are also mates. Then the High Lord of the Sun Court shows up and his name is Helion and he wears a crown of golden spikes. Helion points out that Feyre is clearly High Lady of the Night Court. Viviane asks Kallias why she isn’t High Lady. The attention turns to Nesta, and Feyre introduces her sister. Feyre tells everyone that Hybern threw her sisters into the Cauldron after Tamlin and Ianthe turned on them. Helion points out that this is a serious accusation. Kallias tells everyone how he and Viviane were childhood friends. Kallias was overprotective and stationed her on border duty for decades, away from court scheming, which kind of worked out when Amarantha took over. When Amarantha’s spell began to take hold, Kallias used “the remnants” of his magic (this is how the rules work now) “to warn her”, tell her he loved her, and “begged her to protect his people”. And then when Feyre broke Amarantha’s spell and freed the High Lords, they got engaged. The bond snapped into place when they had sex. Tarquin arrives. And then Beron and all of his sons arrive. Thesan calls the meeting to order. Rhys starts talking about joining forces and then Tamlin shows up in a fury.
44. Rhys keeps his face bored and relaxed even though she can feel his wrath. Tamlin ignores the other High Lords as they try to speak to him and talk about how surprised they are he came. He’s just staring at Feyre and realising she’s a High Lady/seething. Tamlin starts throwing jabs at Rhys how he fucked their enemy (Amarantha) and then stole Tamlin’s bride and forced him to join Hybern. Tamlin says Feyre was stolen away in the night, which she finds odd because it was the middle of the day. Tamlin gives his own version of events–conveniently explaining why he believed Feyre when she so obviously was faking her way back into his court. He accuses Feyre of leaving him because he told her she wouldn’t be High Lady when they were married. Now she and Rhys are scheming to become king and queen of all Prythian. Everyone turns to Rhys and start demanding answers about his involvement with Amarantha Under the Mountain, children who died at Amarantha’s hands. Rhys protests that he tried to stop it and that every day he remembers what happened. Rhys tells Kallias that when the Winter Court rebelled, Amarantha had wanted to kill him as well but Rhys convinced her not to. Tamlin rolls his eyes as Rhys insists to Kallias that he did his best and there was no more he could have done. Kallias asks why Tamlin is there and he says to help fight Hybernand that he knows of his movements. Tamlin continues on more, but Helion calls for the meeting to continue. Tamlin presents papers with routes and faebane caches. Everyone starts arguing over whether the documents could be fake and who might be secretly working with Hybern. Tamlin asks why the Night Court knew about the attack on Adriata, and Varian informs them that he’s the one who told them. Apparently, Tarquin didn’t know this. Tamlin goes back to making nasty comments about what a whore Feyre is and how they all can’t be trusted, until Rhys uses his powers to stop Tamlin from speaking.
45. Rhys points out war is upon them and they don’t have time to argue amongst themselves while he prevents Tamlin from speaking. Tarquin decides to rescind his Court’s death sentence on Rhysand and Feyre because they were the only ones that came to help when his Court was attacked. Beron asks where their son Lucien is and Eris (who is supposed to be their secret ally and Also Secretly A Good Guy) asks why they didn’t bring Elain because she is rumored to be beautiful. Mor makes a comment and Eris calls her a slut. A fight immediately breaks out as Azriel rushes forward and starts beating the shit out of Eris. Beron protests but Feyre takes her time before calling Azriel off Eris, who sure is fulfilling the “secret” part of secret ally, at least. Feyre warns Eris that next time she’ll let Azriel kill him. Eris apologizes to Morrigan. Beron gawks at his son apologizing to a woman, but his mom quietly smiles in approval. They discuss Tamlin’s stolen maps reveal Hybern’s caches of faebane, how Helion’s “master tinker” has developed an antidote for faebane, but Beron refuses to let anyone in the Autumn Court take it because he doesn’t believe in “testing out a theory.” Rhys offers his entire court and army to take it. Tamlin complains about Feyre turning his people against him. Then we shift wildly from Beron is an antivaxxer to Beron hates refugees as there’s a whole discussion about evacuating the Spring Court. Then they speculate about whether the human armies will ally with Hybern because of the human queens that he promised immortality. Beron refuses to help the humans below the wall. Feyre calls him a coward and he remarks he could say the same about her and the human she sent to Amarantha to be killed. Beron starts talking about how he hasn’t decided what side of the war he’s going to be on yet anyway, and how he can’t really trust the Night Court since in the last war Rhysand literally whored himself out to Amarantha for protection while she tortured other Courts. When he suggests Rhys would be Hybern’s whore, Feyre shoots a flame at him like a lance.
46. Beron shields himself from Feyre using his own fire powers against him. The other high lords are surprised Feyre has his power. She continues to use other powers on Beron. Tarquin realizes that is how she got the book. Beron insults Feyre again and Rhysand attacks him. When Beron has had enough and gets up to leave, Nesta scolds them all for not caring. She wants to see innocents, both human and fae protected. Beron says he’ll think about it. His family disappears, with Eris disappearing last. Tarquin reminds everyone that Feyre saved them all from Amarantha. Feyre reminds them she didn’t take their power, they gave it freely. The High Lords don’t really react, but all their wives stand up and announce that they’ll fight by Feyre’s side, and then the men decide they’re good with it too.
47. The meeting runs late and Thesan invites everyone to spend the night in his palace. Feyre’s people believe if they others join them, Beron will as well. Helion comes to talk to them and apologizes for acting like a prick. He and Mor flirt a bit and Feyre avoids looking at Azriel. Helion tells a story about how he and Lucien’s mom were having an affair. Feyre and Rhys have a mind discussion about how Lucien is actually Helion’s heir. Nesta interrupts to tell them that they have to leave because she has a bad feeling, Rhysand and the superfriends go investigate but can’t find anything, so they stay. Mor goes off to have sex with Helion. Feyre is concerned, but Rhys is not.
48. Cassian and Azriel stay out all night. Feyre and Rhys cuddle all night. Mor is tired when they meet for breakfast. They get dressed and then make their way to continue the meeting. Nesta starts to vomit and says something is wrong with the couldron. Hybern used the Cauldron to destroy the wall.
49. Everyone freaks out and makes some last-minute arrangements while departing for their respective Courts. Thesan says he’ll get the faebane antidote shipped to all the other Courts asap. Hellion and Tarquin offer sanctuary to Tamlin’s people (who are unprotected against Hybern after Feyre sorta inspired a populist uprising and then peaced). Feyre is mad at herself. Rhysand tells her that she should evacuate her old human family’s household, offering them all sanctuary in Velaris. Elain suggests her fiancé’s father who has been planning for such an event for a long time. Cassian points out that since their enemies possess magic, the stone walls really won’t do anything and they should at least set up a guard. Elain says no, they’d never trust a faerie guard, but there are escape tunnels, and this is better than nothing. She asks Rhys to glamour her to look human so she can convince her fiancé to let people in and maybe set up wards. Nesta then asks Feyre what she can do, and Feyre realizes that since there’s no wall for Nesta to protect anymore, Nesta has nothing to do in this story now. Feyre tells her they will need her close incase the couldron is used again. She goes to Amren and tells her she wants to make another deal with the monster in the library pit, Bryaxis.
50. Feyre offers Bryaxis freedom in exchange for his help in the war. He declines. Amren offers a window and he accepts. Feyre meets with the rest of the crew, but she keeps this whole plan a secret from them, and she’s not even sure why. But she does tell Rhys as soon as they’re alone.
PART THREE: HIGH LADY
51. Feyre, Nesta, and Mor stay behind as the others go to the Illyrian army. Suddenly Devlon sees Nesta and asks about her. Devlon isn’t sure about her and asks if she is a witch. When Nesta says she is, Devlon tells Cassian to keep her away from everyone. Elain and Feyre arrive at Elaine’s fiancé’s estate.
52. The guards let the disguised superfriends into the heavily fortified castle. Their disguises seem to have the humans distracted for now, but their guard dogs are already snarling at them. Elain’s fiancé, Graysen, starts to rush towards her, but his father, Lord Nolan, pulls him back. Nesta cuts to the chase and says the wall has come down, the army invading these lands kidnapped her and turned her against her will to test a reality-shifting weapon called the Cauldron. Elain begs them to give sanctuary to the humans that can get there because the queens won’t be sending add from the continent. Lord Nolan says he knows Elain has been made fae and is a high lord’s mate. Jurian reveals himself.
53. Jurian says he has been working against Hybern the whole time. He wants to beg Miryam and Drakon for forgiveness rather than get revenge on them. He went to warn the humans when the wall went down. Tamlin went back to the Spring Court to report to Hybern what they met about. They plan to attack the Summer Court the next day.
54. The queen that Lucien has been on a mission to find, Vassa, warned them about resurrecting Jurian. Vassa was given to a death-lord above the wall to prevent her heir from taking over. Elain says she still loves Greysen, but he says he doesn’t want her. Feyre intervenes to tell Graysen that he and his family will protect people and in return she and her crew will ward their property. Lord Nolan is against letting riffraff in and Jurian points out they will have need for manual labor and the lords likely won’t be willing to participate. Graysen demands his ring back and continues to insult Elain. Nesta slaps him and they leave. Jurian tells them more about his double-agent life and congratuates Feyre on killing the twins.
55. Feyre and Mor have a brief conversation wondering why they never suspected Jurian might be good. Elain hasn’t been doing great since their meeting with her human ex-fiance.
56. After a long fight scene, they win the battle. The battle takes place in the Summer Court, so Tarquin gets to determine what to do with the prisoners of war who have surrendered, and he murders them. After the battle, Nesta’s helping heal the wounded soldiers, there is romantic tension between Cassian and Nesta. A few days after this victory, though, Azriel reports that Hybern’s army somehow skirted them entirely and was heading for the Winter Court. Rhysand and Feyre create a huge illusion that makes it look like their army is still right where they are so this area still looks protected. then they take off and meet the Hybern army. Tons of people are dying, and Feyre decides she has to find the Suriel.
57. Feyre convinces Mor to leave her and Nesta to fight so that Feyre can sneak off to capture the Suriel. Feyre goes to Elain and asks her to help track the Suriel. hey track the Suriel to the forrest where none other than the Weaver of the Wood lives. Feyre winnows to the Suriel and it asks if she is there for help or to kill it.
58. The Suriel knows that Feyre wants to know where Hyberns army is, but it cannot see it. He tells her that since the Cauldron’s magic is older than him, she should be using Nesta to track it since Nesta’s power comes from the Cauldron. Feyre also finds that to have nullified the Cauldron, she would have had to sacrifice her life when she joined the books. Feyre then asks if they have any chance of winning the war if Feyre collects all the beasts she has been making deals with. The Suriel questions if she is really willing to unleash those monsters on the world to save Prythian. It tells her to tell Amren the answer lies on the second and penultimate pages of the Book. Before it can answer any more questions, it is shot through the throat by an arrow. Ianthe appears with two Hybern soldiers. She is jealous the Suriel speaks to Feyre and not her.
59. Feyre, hiding in the trees, knows she could winnow away, but the Suriel isn’t dead and she wants to help it somehow. Ianthe takes this time to tell her it took days for Hybern to undo what Feyre did to her and put shields in her mind to prevent Feyre from harming her again. She had caught the Suriel using Feyre’s method as described by Tamlin, but it wouldn’t talk to her. Feyre tells Ianthe if she wants to take her to Hybern, she will have to catch her first. The forest shifts to allow Feyre to run faster than her pursuers.
60. She goes to the Weaver, who recognizes her brother’s (Bone Carver) scent on her. She is pleased Feyre brought her people. Feyre hides behind the open door until the soldiers and Ianthe are inside. She rushes out and closes the door behind her. She rushes back to the Suriel, but he tells her to save her magic. It reminds her to stay with the High Lord and she realizes it always meant Rhys. She says she will and it dies. Helion shows up and tells Feyre it is time to go. She covers it with Helion’s fine robes and they go back to camp
61. Helion winnows them back to Rhysand and the others. Feyre learns that they barely won the battle and that Cassian was gravely injured and only survived because Azriel literally held in his intestines for him. Rhys and Cassian argue over him being hurt because he disobeyed orders. Mor is mad at Feyre for not trusting her with her secret mission and leaving in the middle of a battle to go on it. Feyre says Mor lies to them everyday about her feelings for Azriel so she shouldn’t lecture about trust.
62. Amren advises Feyre to give Mor some time and space so they can both cool off after (checks notes) Feyre told Mor that not making a move on her friend that Feyre thinks Mor has feelings for is the same thing as Feyre lying to Mor about leaving a battle to go on a dangerous secret mission without telling anyone.Amren has a plan to locate the Cauldron, which involves Nesta standing over a giant map, casting her mind toward “the bond that links you [and the Cauldron]”, and casting three stones and four bones over the map to pinpoint the location once she does so. It doesn’t seem to work at first but suddenly Nesta’s clearing going through something, which immediately prompts Feyre to step into Nesta’s mind. Feyre helps Nesta keep calm and come back to her physical location to cast the stones and bones, which form a perfect circle on the map. Hyberns army is along the western edge of the human territory. Varian comes in and starts making out with Amren.
63. That night, Feyre, Nesta, and Amren all wake up in a panic, feeling that something is wrong, that the Cauldron is there, “looking.” mren supposes it’s because the three of them were Made. They realize Elain should have a similar feeling, and rush to find her. They Rhys who found Elain’s cloak on the edge of the forest, still warm.
64. Feyre breaks down why the Cauldron kidnapped Elain. Because Nesta took something from it, the Cauldron took Elain to punish her. Azriel announces that he’s going to go get her. eyre says that she’ll be going with Azriel. Her plan is to…morph into Ianthe so she can walk right into the army. they hope that Hybern doesn’t already know that Ianthe is dead.
65. Feyre gets into the camp just fine and can feel Azriel in the shadows around her. Inside the camp, the soldiers are having a party. Feyre hears screams and needs to figure out a way to investigate. It isn’t Elain she finds but a human from that cult, The Children of the Blessed. Jurian shows up and tells Feyre-Ianthe that Hybern has been looking for her. He knows she is really Feyre and says she will have to act like Ianthe to fool Hybern. She demands to know where her sister is and Jurian says hse hasn’t been touched. Feyre tells Jurian to help her save the human girl being tortured as well. They rescue Elain and flee, there is some action where Feyre gets to use a bow and arrow again. They hit a cliff and the girl is there. The king shows up and wonders how to punish them. Feyre gets hit with an ash arrow, the king is gloating, but then Tamilin shows up and saves them. In order to escape, Feyre manages to use her flying skills that she practiced earlier in the book with Azriel. They return to the camp, and everyone is injured. The sisters hug and are happy to be reunited.
66. Another army arrives. The human girl they rescued in the last chapter, Briar, seems to be settling in okay. Feyre and Mor talk for the first time since their fight. She admits she prefers females over males and mostly sleeps with males to keep people from realizing the truth. Though she knows that her friends would accept her and in Velaris she’d be fine to pursue relationships with women, she fears her family would find out and find new ways to shame her. Mor goes on to tell us during the war she’d fallen in love with a human queen, but the wall separated them in the end. Mor managed to find a way to return to her through the wall, but by then the queen had married, so they never reunited. The war is discussed and plans are made. They realise Hybern is going to the human lands to slaughter everyone he can. Everyone agrees they’re going to go fight this battle even though it seems hopeless. But then Amren shows up and says they all really need to go to the battle because it’s a distraction. They need to get to the Couldron. She’s found a way to stop the entire army.
67. Amren tells the superfriends that thanks to the advice Feyre got from the Suriel, she’s finally found the spell in the Book of Breathings that will nullify the Cauldron. The catch is that Feyre, Amren, and Nesta will all have to actually physically touch the Cauldron, which is a problem since it’s the King of Hybern’s ultimate weapon, so the plan is for them to move on the Cauldron only when “the carnage was at its peak [and] Hybern might be distracted in the chaos”. Also interesting to note that Feyre points out that “Alone, it had nearly killed me. But split amongst others who were Made… We could withstand its lethal power.” Feyre and Rhysand return to the town that human Feyre grew up in and forcibly winnow human families to safety. Feyre decides to give the Bone Carver what he wants and winnows to the Court of Nightmares.
68. Feyre gets the mirror and looks into it. She sees the monsters behind her and turns to see nothing is there. When she looks back, she sees she is the monster. She makes peace with who she is. She takes it to the Bone Carver and he says he never needed it, he just wanted to make sure she was worth helping. She is angry that the Bone Carver let innocent people die over it.
69. It’s off to the seemingly final battle. Rhysand tells all the superfriends how much they mean to him. The two armies throw magic at each other “to try to bring down the shields around the armies.” Feyre reveals she has brought Bryaxis and the Bone Carver. Rhys has brought the weaver.
70. The monsters attack. Rhys lifts his hands and kills a bunch of the army instantly–Feyre describes them as “misted.” The fight rages on. Tamlin, Beron, and Graysen’s armies (lead by Jurian) eventually join against Hybern as well. They all fight, but then the Cauldron also attacks. And kills a lot of people including the Bone Carver. Luckily, Cassian is fine because Nesta sort of predicted the attack and screamed his name a lot to save him.
71. Everyone is shook by the Cauldron’s attack. Elain is vomiting and Nesta can’t stand up. The Cauldron has stopped its attack for the moment because it needs time to refill. Feyre asks if she and Amren can take on the Cauldron alone, but Amren isn’t sure. More of Hybern’s army shows up by sea. Rhys mind-tells Feyre to do her best and if she can’t win to run away and live to fight another day. The Seraphim, Drakon’s army, shows up. Drakon explains that they basically used the same trick Rhys did to hide Velaris but it meant friends couldn’t find them either. He tells them about meeting Lucien who had joined Vassa’s people. Feyre’s father (his ships named after his daughters) was the one to find Vassa and Lucien later joined them.
72. Feyre looks down at the arrival of her father’s ships that he brings into the battle. Vassa flies through the air as a firebird and sets the enemy ships on fire. his is actually pretty much the best distraction they ever could have asked for, and says that they have to go off and nullify the Cauldron now. Nesta concocts a plan on the spot for her and Cassian to go create a distraction, since they have to draw the King of Hybern away from the Cauldron anyway. Everyone argues with Nesta and Cassian that if they do this, they absolutely will get killed.
73. Feyre and Amren take off towards a craggy overlook, following the path of death guards that Stryga the Weaver fought through for them. Feyre points out it isn’t going well for them. The King snaps the Weaver’s neck and feeds her body to his naga hounds. Immediately after killing an immortal god of death with his bare hands, somewhere far to the north Nesta triggers her diversion. Feyre and Amren sense it, and notice Hybern sense it, and he teleports away. Feyre, balking at how her sister and friend are definitely about to get murdered, has to be urged on by Amren. They get to the Cauldron and she tells Feyre to put her hands on it. When she does, Amren shuts the book and kicks it behind her. Feyre realizes it was a trap.
74. Amren apologizes for lying. Feyre gets pulled into the mind of the Cauldron as it searches for Nesta on the battlefield. Through the Cauldron she can see everyone fighting, and apparently Rhys has morphed into his most monstrous form. They find her with Cassian about to attack Hybern, but Hybern has a sword to their father’s throat. Feyre asks the Couldron to save him, but it is focused on finding Nesta. Hybern breaks her father’s neck. Cassian attacks the king and is beaten. Nesta attacks the king, but he easily thwarts her. She throws the last of her power at him and knocks him back into the trees. The Couldron settles. Nesta tries to get Cassian to move before Hybern comes back, but he can’t move. Nesta throws herself over Cassian so they’ll die together. Feyre offers the Cauldron her soul in order to save them. Elain puts a sword through Hybern’s neck.
75. The couldron pus around Elain. Nesta finishes beheading Hybern. The Couldron decides it cannot hurt Elain or the sister she protected. The Cauldron whisks Feyre away. Jurian and Drakon are wasting time fighting each other. Even though Hybern is dead, it still looks like Feyre and Friends might lose the war. Feyre sees that Rhys is being injured and she’s able to come back to herself where Amren is slapping her and shouting at her to fight it. Feyre tells Amren she’s going to kill her, and Amren says she has to kill her and be the conduit. eyre is going to unbind Amren with the Cauldron’s power so Amren can wipe them all away. Amren’s boyfriend Varian shows up randomly to beg her not to do this. But Amren gives a speech about what a gift this has all been and refuses to have her mind changed. She tells Varian she learned to fall in love with him. Amren tells Feyre she’s glad they met, and then she jumped into the Cauldron. Oh, and she also warns Feyre not to run or it’ll attract her attention. Amren is unleashed in her true form, and apparently can’t recognise her friends but knows to attack the enemies because they are running. She flies around and instantly wins the war for them, and then after doing that I think it’s implied she is completely gone.
76. Rhysand shows up. Varian is also sad that Amren’s gone. She looks down at the Couldron that held the universe together and the growing fissure in the world that was starting to grow. Rhys says they can remake the couldron and pours all of his own power into it until he dies.
77. Feyre screams out her pain. She begs the high lords to bring him back like they did for her. They try to tell her it was different because she was human, but they do it anyway. They show her how to do it for her own power. She begs Tamlin. He does it and tells her to be happy. Rhys is alive again. He hasn’t gotten anyone else’s powers. He tells them to get Amren out of the Couldron.
78. The Archeron sisters bury their father. Lucien arrives and says he has a story to tell Feyre. Lucien lets Feyre know that Vassa will want to talk to her. Apparently Papa Archeron (RIP) made a deal with Vassa’s “keeper” for her to come battle. Elain invites Lucien to Velaris and he accepts. He tells them he’d hunted for Vassa, found her already with their father and an army marching westward, and then Miryam and Drakon found them as well. Feyre gets back to camp and finds none other than Drakon and Miryam hanging out with Rhys.
79. Drakon and Miryam agree to hide the Cauldron on their secret island. They also confirm that though they don’t trust him, they let Jurian live and he’s off to help some wounded soldiers somewhere. Then we jump forward to Feyre hosting a meeting in her family’s old estate. Tamlin is not happy to see Lucien there in Night Court clothing. Vassa arrives and tells Feyre her father was a better father to her than her own. She asks Feyre if she can break her curse and thinks there might be a loophole to keep her from going back to the death-lord right away. Feyre announces she wants to discuss a treaty.
80. Feyre tells us that the first meeting didn’t result in any breakthroughs, but “channels were made.” She narrates that she told the others her story, from her years in poverty on the human side of the wall to, uh, “the love I had found and let go, the love that had healed and saved me.” Others chime in with their own stories, including the ones about “Relations that had not gone well” and “Crimes committed”, which Feyre says “was a start.” No one can agree on whether they need to make a new wall. Queen Vassa has offered Jurian a place in her Court, but he is not interested because she has to return to the death-lord. Lucien had to make a separate trip before coming back to them. Feyre writes to Tamlin saying she hopes he finds happiness as well. She asks her sisters what is next. Nesta just goes to her room and closes the door. Feyre and Elain talk about how they’ll help Nesta come to terms with everything that’s happened eventually, when they’re all ready. The superfriends all enjoy being back in their home that they never thought they’d live to see again.
81. Rhys is happy the war is over and has drinks with Azriel and Cassian. He is happy he hears Feyre laughing from the other room.
82. Feyre finds Rhys on the roof staring at the stars. She sits in his lap and shows off her new lingerie, and they brag about how rich they are. Rhys gives Feyre another tattoo. Rhys also informs Feyre that Bryaxis has escaped and she has to hunt him down and put him back in the library. Then they go flying and are happy. THE END.