Summary: A Court of Thorns and Roses

Feyre, a nine­teen-year-old huntress who sup­ports her needy fam­i­ly, faces a crit­i­cal moment when she mis­tak­en­ly kills a wolf, which is a faerie named Andras in dis­guise. As per the human-faerie pact, the faerie Tam­lin presents her with two options: death or a life­time in Pry­thi­an, the faerie realm. Opt­ing for life, she accom­pa­nies Tam­lin to Pry­thi­an and dis­cov­ers that he is the High Lord of the Spring Court. Despite ini­tial inten­tions to flee, Feyre adapts to the faerie world, chal­leng­ing her mis­con­cep­tions. A roman­tic bond forms between her and Tam­lin. How­ev­er, a vis­it from anoth­er faerie, Rhysand, prompts Tam­lin to send Feyre back to the human world for safe­ty rea­sons. Upon her return, Feyre finds her fam­i­ly thriv­ing under false pre­tens­es. Moti­vat­ed by her sis­ter Nes­ta’s rev­e­la­tions, Feyre decides to return to Pry­thi­an to aid Tam­lin against a threat­en­ing blight. In Pry­thi­an, she unrav­els the truth behind the blight and Ama­ran­tha’s curse, which hinges on a par­tic­u­lar act of love from a woman who detests faeries. Feyre embarks on a per­ilous jour­ney to break the curse, fac­ing tri­als and ulti­mate­ly sac­ri­fic­ing for the one she loves.

Chapter 1

In a win­try for­est, Feyre, the brave pro­tag­o­nist, hunts far­ther from home than usu­al. She encoun­ters a mys­te­ri­ous wolf, sus­pect­ed to be a faerie from Pry­thi­an, and makes a cru­cial deci­sion to pro­tect her­self. Feyre’s actions set the stage for a series of events that will test her courage and beliefs.

Chapter 2

Return­ing home to her strug­gling fam­i­ly, Feyre nav­i­gates famil­ial dynam­ics and con­fronta­tions. Amidst ten­sions and aspi­ra­tions, Feyre’s respon­si­bil­i­ties and past choic­es come to the fore, shap­ing her rela­tion­ships and future decisions.

Chapter 3

As Feyre and her sis­ters inter­act with the world out­side, encoun­ters with faeries and human per­cep­tions unfold. The loom­ing pres­ence of faerie-inflict­ed wounds and warn­ings hint at a chang­ing land­scape, set­ting the tone for impend­ing challenges.

Chapter 4

A piv­otal moment aris­es as Feyre faces a daunt­ing faerie fig­ure, alter­ing the course of her des­tiny. Con­front­ed with a life-alter­ing choice, Feyre embarks on a jour­ney that will test her beliefs and lead her to Prythian.

Chapter 5

Tra­vers­ing mys­ti­cal realms, Feyre grap­ples with the con­se­quences of her actions, delv­ing into the com­plex­i­ties of Pry­thi­an. As she embraces the unknown, Feyre’s inner strength and resolve are put to the ulti­mate test.

Chapter 6

Immersed in the enig­mat­ic world of Pry­thi­an, Feyre uncov­ers lay­ers of intrigue and mag­ic, bal­anc­ing fear and fas­ci­na­tion. Amidst new­found rev­e­la­tions and alliances, Feyre’s jour­ney takes an unfore­seen turn, shap­ing her fate and those around her.

scarred, and a sin­gle eye, known as Lucien. He’s amazed that Feyre, appear­ing del­i­cate, slew their com­rade Andras, who was pre­tend­ing to be a wolf. Despite Lucien’s indig­na­tion, the fair-haired faerie instructs him not to injure Feyre. Alis, a ser­vant with a bird-like mask, guides Feyre to fresh­en up and switch attire. Uncom­fort­able in a gown, Feyre is pro­vid­ed with trousers and a tunic instead. The seren­i­ty of the estate stands in stark con­trast to the somber sto­ries she has heard about Pry­thi­an. Alis advis­es Feyre to stay alert, not just rely on her instincts, but also assert her­self against Lucien.

Chapter 7

Dur­ing din­ner, Feyre learns that she has been cap­tured by Tam­lin, the High Lord of the Spring Court. Despite her hes­i­tance to con­sume faerie cui­sine, Tam­lin assures her that he is not a mas­ter who owns slaves. He is indif­fer­ent to how she spends her time in Pry­thi­an as long as she evades mis­chief. He fur­ther guar­an­tees the safe­ty of her fam­i­ly, warn­ing that it could change if she attempts to flee. Sus­pect­ing Tam­lin’s lack of com­plete hon­esty, Feyre remains cau­tious, espe­cial­ly when probed about her lack of remorse over Andras’ demise. Even­tu­al­ly, she par­takes of the meal, real­iz­ing she is mag­i­cal­ly com­pelled to do so until she com­plies. The feast sur­pass­es any del­i­ca­cies she has tast­ed pre­vi­ous­ly. Tam­lin and Lucien inquire about her per­son­al life, leav­ing her puz­zled about their curios­i­ty regard­ing her rela­tion­ship with Isaac Hale, whom she con­fess­es she does not love. That night, Feyre secures her cham­ber and sets a snare with her cur­tains. As dawn breaks, Alis trig­gers the trap and gets entan­gled in it. While Alis is vexed by the dam­age to the cur­tains, she admires Feyre’s deter­mi­na­tion. She cau­tions Feyre about the for­mi­da­ble fae, urg­ing her to be vig­i­lant while wan­der­ing the grounds. Feyre admires the art­work in the hall­way as she explores the manor. On her way to the gar­den, Tam­lin inter­cepts her, but she declines his offer to lead her. Tam­lin reveals the plight of Pry­thi­an, plagued by a mys­ti­cal blight for the past fifty years, which could poten­tial­ly spread to the human realm.

Chapter 8

Feyre ven­tures into the gar­den, scout­ing escape routes and hid­ing spots. She devis­es a plan to con­vince Lucien to advo­cate for her to Tam­lin, aim­ing to cir­cum­vent the Treaty. She sens­es a flick­er and hears a sound, indi­cat­ing she is not alone. The enig­mat­ic beings van­ish swift­ly. Lat­er, at sup­per, Feyre con­ceals a dag­ger in her sleeve, vexed by her inca­pac­i­ty to sup­port her fam­i­ly or hon­or her moth­er’s vow. Lucien’s sar­don­ic remarks about her igno­rance con­cern­ing the fae prompt Feyre to reveal her moth­er’s pre­ma­ture pass­ing. Tam­lin responds with gen­uine sym­pa­thy. In her cham­ber, Feyre pre­pares a sack con­tain­ing spare gar­ments and the pil­fered dag­ger in antic­i­pa­tion of a poten­tial escape.

Chapter 9

Feyre resolves to sway Lucien, cur­rent­ly on bor­der duty, to aid in her eva­sion. How­ev­er, Tam­lin dis­tracts her with an offer to go rid­ing, which Feyre declines, caus­ing annoy­ance. Instead, she finds Lucien and accom­pa­nies him on a hunt. Lucien shares anec­dotes with Feyre about his past hunt­ing escapades with Andras, elic­it­ing sym­pa­thy from her. Feyre is tak­en aback when Lucien acknowl­edges her veiled intent of seek­ing his assis­tance. While he appre­ci­ates her faith in his sway over Tam­lin, he asserts that the Treaty can­not be skirt­ed. Inquir­ing about the blight, Feyre learns from Lucien about the irrev­o­ca­ble masks, a con­se­quence of a malev­o­lent enti­ty. Lucien regrets his divul­gence, express­ing dread about a par­tic­u­lar woman dis­cov­er­ing his rev­e­la­tion. He advis­es Feyre to remain igno­rant about the blight. This enig­mat­ic woman and her abil­i­ties cap­ti­vate Feyre. Lucien fur­ther edu­cates Feyre on the High Fae and faerie pow­ers, includ­ing the Suriel, a potent faerie renowned for respond­ing to queries once cap­tured. Abrupt­ly, Lucien instructs Feyre to low­er her bow, stay motion­less, and face for­ward, instill­ing ter­ror in her as an imper­cep­ti­ble enti­ty draws near.

Chapter 10

Lucien and Feyre find them­selves pur­sued by an unseen being called the Bogge, a fae crea­ture that mate­ri­al­izes when per­ceived by oth­ers. This crea­ture is for­eign to their realm. Feyre expe­ri­ences a eerie pull to gaze upon it, despite her trep­i­da­tion, but suc­cess­ful­ly resists until they are out of dan­ger. Lucien, though a war­rior, con­cedes that he does not match Tam­lin’s skill. They engage in a spir­it­ed dis­cus­sion about human and fae mis­con­cep­tions as they con­clude their wood­land sojourn. Dur­ing sup­per, Lucien’s recount­ing of the Bogge inci­dent agi­tates Tam­lin so much that he departs to hunt the crea­ture. Post-meal, in her cham­ber, Feyre ner­vous­ly awaits Tam­lin’s return. Instead, she spies a fig­ure near the shrub­bery. Assum­ing it is a faerie, she is astound­ed to dis­cern her father.

Chapter 11

Feyre dons mul­ti­ple tunics, a cloak, and con­ceals a knife in her boot. She attempts to escape by descend­ing a trel­lis to reach her father, but Tam­lin inter­cepts her before she reach­es the gate. She fears he might exe­cute her for try­ing to flee. How­ev­er, Tam­lin urges her to take anoth­er look at her father. Instead of her father, she now sees a bow and arrows, and lat­er, her weep­ing sis­ters, fol­lowed by her father’s reap­pear­ance. Tam­lin warns her about trust­ing her human sens­es as she is wit­ness­ing an illu­sion sum­moned by a crea­ture known as a puca. He con­fronts her about her escape endeav­or, and she con­fess­es she wished to return home to ful­fill a vow to her moth­er. Tam­lin reas­sures her that her fam­i­ly is safe and that her oath would be bet­ter hon­ored by remain­ing in Pry­thi­an. He then con­fides in her about being an unwill­ing High Lord, coerced into the role from being a fight­er. Amidst the per­ils, Feyre begins to embrace her new abode. Her days are occu­pied with patrols along­side Lucien while Tam­lin pur­sues a crea­ture named Bogge solo at night. One night, a night­mare about slay­ing Andras star­tles her awake.

Chapter 12

Haunt­ed by a night­mare, Feyre wan­ders the man­sion’s cor­ri­dors, sketch­ing a rudi­men­ta­ry map due to her inabil­i­ty to read. Tam­lin appears in his bes­tial form, wound­ed after van­quish­ing the Bogge, and trans­forms back to human. She assists him in cleans­ing and ban­dag­ing his wound in the infir­mary. Tam­lin express­es sur­prise at her prowess in hunt­ing and her illit­er­a­cy. The next day, Feyre is drawn to the paint­ings in the hall­way but is pulled away upon hear­ing a heat­ed exchange between Lucien and Tam­lin con­cern­ing the wors­en­ing blight. Lucien accus­es Tam­lin of grow­ing too soft, despite his steely facade. Feyre, caught snoop­ing, inquires about Lucien’s patrol duties and is advised to accom­pa­ny Tam­lin instead. Instead of hunt­ing, they explore the house. Tam­lin acknowl­edges that he was aware Feyre pil­fered a knife dur­ing din­ner. She won­ders whether to antic­i­pate more crea­tures akin to the Bogge. Tam­lin antic­i­pates the pass­ing of the blight but fore­sees addi­tion­al threats encroach­ing upon their territories.

Chapter 13

Tam­lin illu­mi­nates the can­dles and reveals the study with a sim­ple ges­ture, leav­ing Feyre amazed by the book-laden room. She longs to con­vey a mes­sage to her fam­i­ly, informing­in­form them regard­ing her well-being and warn­ing them of the poten­tial spread of a dis­ease. She attempts to edu­cate her­self in writ­ing inde­pen­dent­ly, but feel­ing too self-con­scious to ask for assis­tance from Tam­lin or Lucien, she aban­dons her ini­tial efforts. While explor­ing the cham­ber, she comes across a paint­ing illus­trat­ing Pry­thi­an’s past, includ­ing the con­flict between humans and faeries, and the redis­tri­b­u­tion of lands. It also show­cas­es Pry­thi­an’s sev­en dis­tricts: Spring, Sum­mer, Autumn, Win­ter, Dawn, Day, and Night. Despite Tam­lin’s offer to assist her with writ­ing, she refuses.

Sub­se­quent­ly, she approach­es Lucien to gain knowl­edge about cap­tur­ing a Suriel, with the inten­tion of extract­ing details about vio­lat­ing the Treaty. He directs her to search for a Suriel in the west­ern for­est, near young birch trees, and to employ chick­en as bait with a dou­bly looped trap. He advis­es ensur­ing a near­by water source, as Suriels avoid cross­ing run­ning water. Lucien cau­tions her that Tam­lin won’t approve of her actions or the infor­ma­tion he pro­vid­ed. He also con­fides in Feyre that he is begin­ning to val­ue her, despite her being human.

chapter 14

Feyre equips her­self with a bow and arrows, and ven­tures into the west­ern for­est. She sets a snare for the Suriel and waits in a tree. Upon hear­ing a cry, she descends, find­ing her trap suc­cess­ful. The cap­tured Suriel, a skele­tal enti­ty with white eyes and yel­low claws, cau­tions Feyre against return­ing home, as it could jeop­ar­dize her and her fam­i­ly’s safe­ty. It reveals that Tam­lin, as the High Lord of the Spring Court, can shield her from an immi­nent dan­ger, the blight. When Feyre press­es for fur­ther infor­ma­tion, the being nar­rates a sto­ry about the King of Hybern, ruler of an island king­dom. The king, aggriev­ed by a treaty, dis­patched crea­tures to infil­trate the courts. How­ev­er, one of his envoys, the Deceiv­er, betrayed him. The Suriel sud­den­ly paus­es the tale, sens­ing the pres­ence of the naga — dark, malev­o­lent faeries. They have been lured by the Suriel’s cry and Feyre’s pres­ence. Plead­ing to be freed, the Suriel advis­es Feyre to flee. But before she can react, four naga emerge.

chapter 15

Feyre encoun­ters the naga, crea­tures that are half-human, half-ser­pent, armed with sharp claws. Con­tem­plat­ing call­ing for Lucien, she swift­ly ques­tions his abil­i­ty to res­cue her. She yells to divert the beasts, releas­es the Suriel by break­ing a snare with her arrow, and injures one naga. She rush­es to the stream, aware that water won’t deter them. Unable to reach Lucien, she has­tens her pace but is not fast enough. The naga encir­cle her. Fueled by rage and fear, she stabs one with a con­cealed blade. Knocked to the ground, she hears a roar as Tam­lin emerges, dis­patch­ing one naga and dri­ving away the oth­er. Tam­lin employs his mag­ic to heal Feyre and ques­tions her pres­ence in the for­est, to which she offers no expla­na­tion. He advis­es her to stay close to the house, and she express­es her grat­i­tude for his time­ly inter­ven­tion. Reflect­ing on the Suriel’s warn­ing against seek­ing more answers, Feyre decides that her exist­ing knowl­edge will suf­fice for her fam­i­ly. She observes a shift in Tam­lin’s demeanor, from tri­umphant to defeated.

chapter 16

Feyre inquires of Alis about the esca­lat­ing faerie pres­ence and the loom­ing threat of war. Alis advis­es her to entrust such con­cerns to Tam­lin and reveals her own dis­tant kin. She encour­ages Feyre to seek her guid­ance and hints at uti­liz­ing the Suriel once more. Feyre, Tam­lin, and Lucien share a meal. Feyre play­ful­ly tests Lucien’s can­dor, and he debunks var­i­ous faerie leg­ends. Lucien departs, leav­ing Feyre and Tam­lin alone. Tam­lin ques­tions Feyre’s inten­tions for being in the woods and con­fronts her about a dis­card­ed note. Dis­traught, Feyre attempts to leave, but Tam­lin assures her of no ill intent. He pro­pos­es friend­ship, express­ing dis­dain for oppres­sion and enslave­ment. He con­fess­es to cast­ing a glam­our on her fam­i­ly to ensure their safe­ty, lead­ing them to believe she is car­ing for a sick aunt. He advis­es them to flee if any­thing unusu­al occurs. Reas­sured of her fam­i­ly’s well-being, Feyre requests art sup­plies. Tam­lin agrees, offer­ing to show her the art gallery. His smile evokes in her emo­tions akin to those she once felt for Isaac.

chapter 17

Feyre awak­ens from a har­row­ing dream involv­ing the Suriel, the naga, and a uniden­ti­fied woman attack­ing her. She is alert­ed by loud voic­es and, upon inves­ti­gat­ing, she sees Tam­lin with a grave­ly injured, blue faerie. Lucien is present as well, and learns from Tam­lin that they dis­cov­ered the Sum­mer Court faerie aban­doned near the bor­der. The wound­ed faerie dis­clos­es that an anony­mous woman stripped his wings. Feyre assists Tam­lin in tend­ing to the faerie, but Lucien, dis­tressed, departs. Feyre sad­ly com­pre­hends that the faerie will not sur­vive, as Tam­lin’s mag­ic is insuf­fi­cient to halt the bleed­ing. She com­forts the dying faerie, assur­ing him that his wings will return. As Tam­lin recites a tra­di­tion­al prayer, Feyre stays with the faerie until his final breath. She informs Tam­lin that she would desire the same treat­ment for her­self and offers an apol­o­gy for killing Andras. Despite her wish to help, Tam­lin opts to bury the faerie him­self and leaves car­ry­ing the body.

chapter 18

Tam­lin and Lucien cease their con­ver­sa­tion as Feyre enters. The trio embarks on a jour­ney, enabling Tam­lin to unveil the beau­ty of his ter­ri­to­ries to Feyre. Feyre’s sim­ple dec­la­ra­tion of enjoy­ing the glen star­tles Tam­lin, who antic­i­pat­ed a more enthu­si­as­tic response. She jokes about the Suriel’s groom­ing pref­er­ences, a jest that amus­es Tam­lin and aston­ish­es Lucien. Tam­lin reveals a mag­nif­i­cent pool filled with starlight, his cher­ished child­hood hide­away. He also divulges to Feyre that Lucien, a refugee from the Autumn Court fol­low­ing his beloved’s assas­si­na­tion by his own father, serves as his emis­sary. Over­com­ing her hes­i­ta­tion, Feyre joins Tam­lin for a dip in the pool. She shares her past, recount­ing her father’s finan­cial down­fall due to a failed enter­prise and her self-taught hunt­ing skills. She and Lucien revis­it her encounter with the Suriel. Lucien denies putting her in dan­ger but admits to a moment of hes­i­ta­tion before res­cu­ing her from the Suriel, and express­es amaze­ment at her release of the creature.

chapter 19

Tam­lin escorts Feyre to the new­ly orga­nized gallery before pro­vid­ing her with art mate­ri­als. The breath­tak­ing gallery leaves Feyre feel­ing hum­ble, and she spends hours there before Alis guides her to a room filled with can­vas­es and paints. She com­mences cre­at­ing art, but keeps her work pri­vate, believ­ing it falls short of her vision. Feyre strug­gles to focus on her paint­ing in Tam­lin’s absence, with her anx­i­ety get­ting the best of her. Despite recur­ring night­mares, she begins to feel safer, recall­ing Suriel’s assur­ance of Tam­lin’s shield. One evening, frus­trat­ed by her fail­ure to seek answers to her queries, Feyre storms off from din­ner and heads to the gar­den. Tam­lin fol­lows her and explains that the gar­den was a gift from his father to his moth­er. Feyre con­fess­es her dis­ap­point­ment at her fam­i­ly’s lack of effort to res­cue her. In her dis­tress, she nicks her hand on a rose thorn, which Tam­lin heals with a kiss. He assures her that he will address her ques­tions in due time. The next morn­ing, Tam­lin accom­pa­nies­Feyre ven­tures into the for­est, where she is enter­tained by lim­er­icks made up of words from her dis­card­ed list. Tam­lin explains the dif­fer­ence between mar­riage and mat­ing and shares the hard­ships he faced from his father and sib­lings. Despite nev­er aspir­ing to his father’s title, Tam­lin became a war­rior and was unex­pect­ed­ly thrust into the role of High Lord when his fam­i­ly per­ished. Many courtiers left, brand­ing him as a mon­ster. Feyre watch­es as faeries pre­pare for Calan­mai, the cer­e­mo­ny that fuels the land with mag­ic for a year. Tam­lin warns Feyre to steer clear of the cer­e­mo­ny and all faeries. Return­ing to the gar­den, Tam­lin urges Feyre to hide as Lucien arrives, and they dis­cuss an unknown adver­sary, men­tion­ing a mys­te­ri­ous woman who holds their des­tiny in her hands. Despite his sto­ic demeanor, an unseen ene­my is shocked by Tam­lin’s fear. Tam­lin reveals to Feyre that the ene­my is the Attor, a crea­ture as ter­ri­fy­ing as human folk­lore por­trays. As they head back to the house, Feyre is left pon­der­ing about the woman who instills fear in both Tam­lin and Lucien.

chapter 20

Feyre spends the fol­low­ing day craft­ing a paint­ing of a bat-like crea­ture, so life­like she can almost sense its foul breath. As Fire Night begins, she is cap­ti­vat­ed by the vibrant fire­light, rhyth­mic drums, and the potent scent of mag­ic. Tam­lin advis­es her to stay safe in her room and lock her­self in until morn­ing, but her curios­i­ty out­weighs her cau­tion. Ven­tur­ing out, she encoun­ters more faeries than ever before, their iden­ti­ties con­cealed in the dark­ness. Intrigued, she finds her­self near a cave adorned with flow­ers. Unex­pect­ed­ly, she is sur­round­ed by three malev­o­lent faeries who, dis­re­gard­ing her protests, insist on involv­ing her in their Fire Night rev­el­ry. Just as pan­ic starts to set in, a fig­ure inter­venes, steady­ing her with a pro­tec­tive arm. The appear­ance of the strik­ing new­com­er sends the threat­en­ing trio flee­ing, leav­ing Feyre to express her grat­i­tude to her unan­tic­i­pat­ed rescuer.

chapter 21

The stranger who saves Feyre from the men­ac­ing faeries, unmasked with vio­let eyes and dark hair, is not from the Spring Court despite being of High Fae descent. Despite his advances being rebuffed, he advis­es Feyre to rel­ish the cer­e­mo­ny before depart­ing. Spot­ting Feyre at Calan­mai, Lucien is tak­en aback and dis­tressed. Rush­ing her home, he warns her of Tam­lin’s pri­mal nature dur­ing the rit­u­al that reju­ve­nates the land through the mag­ic borne of his union with a maid­en. Omi­nous­ly, he cau­tions her that Tam­lin will be dif­fer­ent and implores her to stay in her cham­bers. Despite her appre­hen­sion, Feyre encoun­ters Tam­lin in the kitchen. He cor­ners her against the wall, nib­bling on her neck, and cau­tion­ing her against defi­ance. Enraged, Feyre slaps him before he exits. The fol­low­ing day, she dons reveal­ing attire to show­case the bite mark, silent­ly protest­ing against Tam­lin’s actions. Con­front­ed, Tam­lin acknowl­edges his behav­ior but refus­es to accept blame, attribut­ing it to Feyre’s defi­ance. His amuse­ment when she labels them faerie pigs and leaves prompts Feyre to retreat to her art room, seek­ing solace in the mem­o­ry of the old Tam­lin. A rec­on­cil­i­a­tion takes place at din­ner, where Tam­lin presents Feyre with a bou­quet of white ros­es from his gar­den, sym­bol­iz­ing his apology.

chapter 22

The fol­low­ing evening, Feyre opts for a dress instead of her usu­al tunic and trousers for din­ner. Upon enter­ing, Lucien departs, leav­ing her alone with Tam­lin. Feyre remarks on the dis­tance between them, prompt­ing Tam­lin to use mag­ic to short­en the gap between them by alter­ing the table’s size. He con­fess­es that mag­ic has become more drain­ing for him, though he enjoys using it to impress an appeal­ing woman. Sub­se­quent­ly, Feyre intro­duces him to her art room, show­cas­ing her cre­ations for the first time. Offer­ing him a paint­ing of the glen as a token of appre­ci­a­tion, he opts for one of the for­est where she once hunt­ed. Curi­ous if she can assist in com­bat­ing the blight, Tam­lin is aston­ished that a human would offer help to a faerie, insist­ing that he must face it alone. Feyre sug­gests relo­cat­ing with­in Pry­thi­an to not dis­tract him, but Tam­lin con­tra­dicts, express­ing his desire for her to stay close where he can ensure her safe­ty. He reveals that the for­est paint­ing serves as a reminder that Feyre under­stands him and he is not alone. That night, Feyre leaves her door unlocked as she slumbers.

chapter 23

The next day, Tam­lin and Feyre explore anoth­er pic­turesque area with­in his domain. Tam­lin offers to enhance her sens­es in exchange for a kiss. Plac­ing a kiss on her eye­lids, Feyre expe­ri­ences height­ened visu­al and audi­to­ry per­cep­tions. The metal­lic scent of mag­ic trans­forms into a flo­ral aro­ma. Tam­lin’s mag­ic lifts the enchant­ment on her, reveal­ing him exact­ly as she had imag­ined. Feyre rec­i­p­ro­cates the kiss by peck­ing his hand rather firm­ly. Feel­ing sud­den­ly fatigued, Feyre decides to rest while Tam­lin admits that she encom­pass­es every­thing he had envisioned.

chapter 24

Upon awak­en­ing in the manor, Feyre real­izes that Tam­lin has brought her back home. The glam­our that veiled her per­cep­tion has been lift­ed, allow­ing her to see things pre­vi­ous­ly hid­den. She observes Alis, with skin resem­bling tree bark, and oth­er masked faeries through­out the house. Tam­lin explains that his mag­ic con­ceals those with­in his court, hence why she could per­ceive the Suriel, naga, and puca. Addi­tion­al­ly, the mag­ic shields her from the Attor in the gar­den, but she would be able to see it if they were to encounter again. Feyre com­pre­hends that Tam­lin uses glam­our to ensure her safe­ty. How­ev­er, the next morn­ing brings a star­tling sight in the gar­den — a High Fae’s decap­i­tat­ed head in the foun­tain. Bear­ing the Night Court’s emblem — a moun­tain and three stars — but unknown to Tam­lin or Lucien. They inter­pret it as a warn­ing from the Night Court’s High Lord, sug­gest­ing a breach in Tam­lin’s defens­es. Despite this, Tam­lin reas­sures Feyre of her safe­ty as long as she remains by his side. He express­es relief for hav­ing been young when his father ban­ished the slaves beyond the wall. In turn, Feyre reas­sures him, stat­ing that he bears no resem­blance to his father or broth­ers, and she has nev­er felt like a pris­on­er or pos­ses­sion in his pres­ence. The shock­ing dis­cov­ery inhibits her from paint­ing for the remain­der of the day.

Chapter 25

Tam­lin embarks towards the bor­der and stays overnight, leav­ing Feyre fret­ful about the court’s ongo­ing tur­moil and his well-being. Com­fort­ed by Lucien’s assur­ance of his sur­vival, she awak­ens the next morn­ing to the Sum­mer Sol­stice fes­tiv­i­ties. Tam­lin is absent for much of the day, and as Feyre is in her art room, she hears his return. With Alis’ help, Feyre pre­pares for the cel­e­bra­tion, adorn­ing her­self in a blue dress with flow­ered hair. Lucien com­pli­ments her ethe­re­al appear­ance. Despite his warn­ing about the potent faerie wine, Feyre par­takes and swift­ly becomes intox­i­cat­ed. Dur­ing her dance, Lucien remains close to pro­tect her. Lat­er on, Feyre dis­cov­ers that Tam­lin is among the musi­cians, play­ing the fid­dle. He vows to keep her safe and lat­er escorts her.to a grass­land to wit­ness the ignis fatu­us. They engage in a waltz, fol­lowed by a smooch, and unit­ed­ly they greet the dawn.

Chapter 26

At a feast, Lucien jests at Tam­lin and Feyre for their belat­ed arrival home and shares dis­tress­ing reports of an ail­ment spread­ing south, caus­ing cog­ni­tive harm among the Win­ter Court’s younger pop­u­lace. Sud­den­ly, Tam­lin reacts fierce­ly to a pres­ence at the entrance and com­mands Lucien to cloak Feyre with sor­cery. It’s evi­dent to Feyre, now con­cealed by enchant­ment, that they dread the impend­ing vis­it. The guest is Rhysand, the charm­ing gen­tle­man who res­cued Feyre dur­ing Fire Night. Rhysand taunts Tam­lin for his lack of action over the pre­vi­ous forty-nine years, pro­vok­ing Lucien to insult him. Though Rhysand demands con­se­quences for Lucien, Tam­lin stands firm. Real­iz­ing their group was meant for three, Rhysand dis­cerns Feyre’s dis­guise. Lucien safe­guards her iden­ti­ty by assert­ing they are engaged. Rhysand play­ful­ly mocks Lucien for har­bor­ing a mor­tal and instructs Tam­lin to send Feyre away. When Tam­lin refus­es, Rhysand employs his sor­cery to probe Feyre. Tam­lin implores for her free­dom and Rhysand hints at the delight his queen, Ama­ran­tha, would derive from tor­ment­ing Feyre. He coerces Tam­lin into plead­ing with him not to inform Ama­ran­tha about Feyre. Humil­i­at­ed, Tam­lin and Lucien bow before Rhysand. Feyre, swift­ly fab­ri­cat­ing a false iden­ti­ty, intro­duces her­self as Clare Bed­dor. Rhysand departs, vow­ing to reunite with them Under the Moun­tain and to extend their regards to Amarantha.

Chapter 27

Awake, Feyre con­tem­plates the iden­ti­ty of Ama­ran­tha. Tam­lin pays her room a vis­it, dis­clos­ing his resolve to dis­patch her for her safe­ty, elu­ci­dat­ing he has assumed her debt for Andras’s demise. Despite her protests and wish to aid him, he remains res­olute in his choice. He con­fess­es his inca­pac­i­ty to shield him­self from Pry­thi­an’s dan­gers. He instructs her to main­tain the facade of resid­ing with an ail­ing rel­a­tive to evade Ama­ran­tha’s spies. After affirm­ing their affec­tion phys­i­cal­ly, Feyre views the man­sion as her new­found abode. Drift­ing off to slum­ber, she per­ceives she hears a pro­fes­sion of love from Tam­lin. Upon awak­en­ing, she dis­cov­ers him absent.

Chapter 28

Alis bestows upon Feyre an intri­cate, pecu­liar gown to don for her voy­age, fit­ting for an afflu­ent human. Upon notic­ing her pre­pared­ness to depart, Lucien argues against Tam­lin’s deci­sion to send Feyre back, propos­ing more time. How­ev­er, Tam­lin firm­ly side­steps the debate. He con­soles Feyre, assur­ing her that the mor­tal realm will be secure. Feyre presents Tam­lin with all her art­works. He vows to encounter her anew and express­es his love for her. Feyre boards the car­riage for her jour­ney with­out rec­i­p­ro­cat­ing his sen­ti­ments. As the car­riage tra­vers­es the woods, Feyre detects the aro­ma of mag­ic and nods off. She awak­ens before a live­ly man­sion, observ­ing her sib­lings, Nes­ta and Elain, who ini­tial­ly fail to rec­og­nize her. The sib­lings pre­sume their Aunt Ripleigh has passed on, bequeath­ing Feyre a sub­stan­tial for­tune. Feyre acknowl­edges Tam­lin’s con­cern for her fam­i­ly. Elain divulges that a mys­te­ri­ous indi­vid­ual approached their father to invest his funds. Their father man­aged to dou­ble the invest­ment and regain his for­tune. Short­ly after, their father’s miss­ing ves­sels were locat­ed with their car­go intact. Wit­ness­ing Feyre, their father breaks down and arranges a grand cel­e­bra­tion in her hon­or. Feyre expe­ri­ences a pang of remorse for depart­ing from Tam­lin and rec­ol­lects the Suriel’s advice to remain with the High Lord.

Chapter 29

Tam­lin’s trunks dis­patched with Feyre are replete with gar­ments, rich­es, and valu­able gem­stones. Her father remains engrossed in his work­space, dili­gent­ly tab­u­lat­ing the wealth. Feyre notes improve­ments in his well-being and spir­its. Elain shares her gar­den with Feyre and dis­cuss­es plans to jour­ney to the main­land to see tulips with their father in the forth­com­ing spring. Feyre finds it pecu­liar that Elain would trav­el dur­ing the high-soci­ety peri­od. Elain expounds that the sea­son was atyp­i­cal as indi­vid­u­als over­looked their eight-year pover­ty. Nes­ta declined all social invi­ta­tions and abstained from the entire sea­son. Elain informs Feyre that Nes­ta endeav­ored a vis­it but had to return mid­way due to a car­riage mishap. Feyre, with pouch­es of gold, revis­its their for­mer vil­lage and the cot­tage they once called home.

Chapter 30

Feyre dis­trib­utes small sacks of gold and sil­ver to the vil­lage’s most des­ti­tute res­i­dents. She encoun­ters Isaac Hale, her for­mer sweet­heart, and his spouse, prof­fer­ing them a warm grin. Back at home, prepa­ra­tions are in full swing for the impend­ing ball. Feyre under­takes the task of cre­at­ing a new gar­den for Elain, but her appre­hen­sions about the blight hin­der her artis­tic endeav­ors. Nes­ta dis­clos­es that Feyre’s enchant­ment had no effect on her. She endeav­ored to pur­sue Feyre but could not breach the bar­ri­er. She declined Tomas’s pro­pos­al, under­stand­ing he would not be of aid. Feyre, tak­en aback, com­pre­hends Nes­ta’s con­cern for her. Nes­ta insists on the truth and implores Feyre to instruct her in paint­ing. Despite their new­found afflu­ence, Nes­ta express­es her resent­ment towards their father for not fore­stalling their star­va­tion and for his inac­tion in sav­ing their mother.

Chapter 31

Feyre keeps Nes­ta com­pa­ny at the gath­er­ing, uphold­ing a cheer­ful facade for Elain’s ben­e­fit. She har­bors guilt for not delv­ing deep­er into the blight and aid­ing Tam­lin. The suc­ceed­ing day, she unearths the Bed­dor fam­i­ly’s trag­ic demise in a con­fla­gra­tion. Feyre deduces that the faeries tar­get­ed the Bed­dors due to her divul­gence of Clare’s name to Rhysand. She directs her kin to sta­tion look­outs and sen­tinels for their secu­ri­ty, and to flee by sea at any sign of per­il. Feyre appris­es Nes­ta about the blight. Elain’s glam­our fades and she rec­ol­lects the ver­i­ta­ble events of the night Feyre was appre­hend­ed. Feyre sets off for Pry­thi­an on horse­back. Upon reach­ing the manor, she dis­cov­ers it desert­ed and eeri­ly silent.

Chapter 32

Feyre sur­veys the rav­aged manor, dis­cern­ing it’s the fall­out of a fero­cious bat­tle. She encoun­ters Alis, garbed in a tat­tered dress and limp­ing. Alis reit­er­ates Tam­lin’s cau­tion to Feyre to keep her dis­tance, but Feyre insists on unearthing the truth. Alis even­tu­al­ly reveals that Ama­ran­tha, the ruth­less supreme queen of Pry­thi­an, embod­ies the blight. Once an envoy from Hybern and a dead­ly com­man­der in the human con­flict, Ama­ran­tha’s ani­mos­i­ty towards humans was ignit­ed by her sis­ter Clythi­a’s betray­al and slay­ing by human war­rior Juri­an, with whom Clythia had entwined her affec­tions. Ama­ran­tha aspired to reign over Pry­thi­an and took covert mea­sures to achieve this by infil­trat­ing forces, poi­son­ing the High Lords, and drain­ing their mag­ic. She cov­et­ed Tam­lin as her para­mour, and his rebuff led her to curse him. To break the curse, Tam­lin had forty-nine years to secure the dec­la­ra­tion of love from a human maid­en, one who abhorred faeries enough to slay one with­out insti­ga­tion. To fur­ther com­pli­cate mat­ters, Ama­ran­tha masked Tamlin’s courtiers and com­pelled their silence regard­ing the curse. Andras,in were­wolf form, leaped over the bar­ri­er to assist Tam­lin, and the Pact was a trick to lure Feyre to Pry­thi­an to shat­ter the hex. If Feyre had admit­ted her affec­tion for Tam­lin, his author­i­ty and the realm would have been lib­er­at­ed. Tam­lin dis­missed Feyre bare­ly three days before the hex’s time lim­it. Feyre deter­mines to trav­el to Amarantha’s domain Under the Moun­tain, deter­mined to res­cue Tam­lin or meet her demise in the endeavor.

chapter 33

Armed with a bow, arrows, and dual knives, Feyre is led by Alis through forest­ed path­ways to a quick­er way lead­ing to the Under the Moun­tain domain. Her focus is on free­ing Tam­lin, despite Alis’ bleak fore­cast that Feyre’s best chance is a swift end. Alis imparts cru­cial guid­ance: avoid the wine, only nego­ti­ate in life-threat­en­ing sit­u­a­tions, and trust no one. Alis also sub­tly alludes to an aspect of the fae’s hex that remains undis­closed, urg­ing Feyre to heed the mur­murs around her. Just before enter­ing the cave pas­sage­way, Feyre coun­sels Alis to flee over the bar­ri­er with her rel­a­tives. In times of neces­si­ty, they should seek out Nes­ta for shel­ter. Lever­ag­ing her honed hunt­ing abil­i­ties, Feyre nav­i­gates the maze-like tun­nels. Unan­tic­i­pat­ed­ly, she comes face to face with the Attor.

chapter 34

The Attor drags Feyre into a vibrant throne cham­ber, and harsh­ly toss­es her to the ground. Ama­ran­tha, bedecked with grim adorn­ments, rules from her shad­owy throne with Tam­lin by her side. Feyre is com­pelled to admit she came to res­cue her beloved, Tam­lin. Tam­lin remains expres­sion­less, yet Ama­ran­tha sees through his facade. When Ama­ran­tha ques­tions her right to sur­vive, she cal­lous­ly unveils Clare Bed­dor’s man­gled remains as evi­dence of her cru­el­ty. Ama­ran­tha pro­pos­es a deal to Feyre: three chal­lenges over three full moons would earn Tam­lin’s lib­er­ty. Until then, Feyre would be restrained and com­pelled to car­ry out chores. Fail­ure spells death. How­ev­er, if Feyre could deci­pher a enig­ma, the hex would be instant­ly lift­ed. Despite know­ing to avoid bar­gain­ings, Feyre, devoid of alter­na­tives, con­sents to Ama­ran­tha’s terms. After accep­tance, Feyre is fierce­ly assailed by three faeries, caus­ing her to lose consciousness.

chapter 35

Feyre awak­ens in a cell, aching from her pun­ish­ment in the roy­al cham­ber. Lucien pays a vis­it and ques­tions Feyre’s san­i­ty. He tells her she does­n’t belong there, but Feyre remains firm about her neces­si­ty to declare her love for Tam­lin. After mend­ing her frac­tured nose and mag­i­cal­ly alle­vi­at­ing her tor­ment, Lucien reveals that all the High Lords will be incar­cer­at­ed Under the Moun­tain until all chal­lenges are ful­filled. He assures that the bone and eye Ama­ran­tha wears belong to Juri­an, who deceived her kin. Lucien van­ish­es just before the sen­tinels arrive. Feyre is escort­ed to the throne cham­ber by two faeries, where she hes­i­tates to dis­close her iden­ti­ty to Ama­ran­tha. Rhysand, when inter­ro­gat­ed, dis­miss­es Feyre as just anoth­er mor­tal. Ama­ran­tha threat­ens to tor­ment Lucien to elic­it Feyre’s name, prompt­ing Feyre to unveil her­self. Ama­ran­tha presents Feyre with a rid­dle, guar­an­tee­ing imme­di­ate free­dom for her­self, Tam­lin, and his domain if she can unrav­el it. Unable to reply, Feyre attrib­ut­es it to her human lim­i­ta­tions. She spends the next two days in her cell pon­der­ing the rid­dle until the guards fetch her, mark­ing the com­mence­ment of her first challenge.

chapter 36

Feyre is marched by guards to a bustling amphithe­ater. She is hurled onto a stage where Ama­ran­tha, Tam­lin, and the High Lords of Pry­thi­an sit. A fly­ing crea­ture plunges Feyre into a murky, maze-like pit, hous­ing an enor­mous, toothy worm. After a slip­pery pur­suit, Feyre dis­cerns the wor­m’s blind­ness and the maze’s bone-strewn floor. She fash­ions a lad­der from bones to ascend the mud­dy perime­ter. By cov­er­ing her­self in mud, Feyre masks her scent and exits the pit, leav­ing its base stud­ded with sharp bones. Rhysand, observ­ing her strat­e­gy, grins approv­ing­ly from the audi­ence. Feyre lures the worm by injur­ing her hand for its scent, with Lucien guid­ing her on the crea­ture’s where­abouts. She baits the worm into the trap, where it meets its demise on the bone spires. Feyre sur­pass­es Ama­ran­tha’s ini­tial chal­lenge, with Ama­ran­tha dis­clos­ing that the court, bar­ring one, doubt­ed her sur­viv­abil­i­ty. Upon return­ing to con­fine­ment, Feyre notices her severe­ly frac­tured arm.

chapter 37

Feyre, detained and wound­ed, appre­hends her injury wors­en­ing. Rhysand shows up, but she repels him. Nev­er­the­less, he dis­clos­es he had bet on her dur­ing the pre­lim­i­nary tri­al, acquir­ing a for­tune. In exchange for restor­ing her, he sug­gests she sojourn with him in the Night Court for two weeks each month. He also divulges that Ama­ran­tha penal­ized Lucien for aid­ing her dur­ing the chal­lenge. Feyre, despite her excru­ci­at­ing agony, rebuffs him. How­ev­er, as he is about to depart, she has a change of heart and coun­ters his pro­pos­al, sug­gest­ing five days in the Night Court instead. They set­tle on a week. He lays a hand on her arm, alle­vi­at­ing her tor­ment, siz­zling fever, and grime. Feyre looks to find her left arm embell­ished from her hand to her elbow with a somber, elab­o­rate tat­too fea­tur­ing an eye in the palm. She accus­es Rhysand of deceit, and he mocks her with the option of dis­clos­ing their pact to Tam­lin before vanishing.

chapter 38

Feyre is tasked with scrub­bing a white mar­ble cor­ri­dor with a pail of filthy water, threat­ened with immo­la­tion if she fails to fin­ish by din­ner time. The matri­arch of the Autumn Court vis­its her, puri­fy­ing the water in her buck­et as a ges­ture of thanks for res­cu­ing her son, Lucien, from Ama­ran­tha’s wrath. The ensu­ing day, Feyre is assigned the task of sep­a­rat­ing lentils from fire­place ash, cau­tioned that botch­ing it will result in her skin being stripped off. Rhysand dis­cov­ers Feyre in his hearth and informs her his pow­er is near­ly deplet­ed. He reveals that all High Lords pos­sess the abil­i­ty to shapeshift and show­cas­es his bat­like wings. Feyre queries whether Rhysand knows the answer to the rid­dle, but he is unable to aid due to Ama­ran­tha’s inter­dic­tion. He admires her audac­i­ty in inquir­ing and mag­i­cal­ly sifts the lentils for her, cleans­ing away the ash­es. He also instructs the guards not to harm Feyre or del­e­gate her fur­ther tasks. Feyre departs with a smile from Rhysand.

chapter 39

Feyre uti­lizes her soli­tary con­fine­ment peri­od in the cell to con­tem­plate the rid­dle, often gaz­ing at the design etched on her palm. After a lapse of four days, Rhysand dis­patch­es two High Fae ladies to fetch her. They cleanse and embell­ish Feyre with cos­met­ics and body paint before dress­ing her in a del­i­cate, white gar­ment. Rhysand then escorts her to a Mid­sum­mer cel­e­bra­tion and expounds on the pur­pose of her scanty out­fit and body paint to alert him of any unwel­come touch. Once in the throne cham­ber, Rhysand divulges to Ama­ran­tha their pact of Feyre spend­ing a week with him every month. Tam­lin’s response to this is obscured but Feyre notes his clenched fists. Rhysand prof­fers her wine and upon rec­ol­lect­ing Alis’s counsel,she ini­tial­ly refus­es but even­tu­al­ly yields, lead­ing to her falling ill. Dur­ing her ail­ment, Lucien pays her a vis­it and dis­clos­es that Rhysand select­ed her as his dance part­ner for most of the night. He cen­sures her for form­ing the alliance with Rhysand. Feyre express­es thanks to Lucien for aid­ing her dur­ing the ini­tial task and regrets the con­se­quences he faced. Lucien elu­ci­dates that was the cause for his belat­ed vis­it and men­tions Tam­lin is inten­tion­al­ly unre­spon­sive to avoid pro­vid­ing Ama­ran­tha any evi­dence against Feyre. Every night, Feyre is read­ied and parad­ed to the throne cham­ber along­side Rhysand. Fol­low­ing each such event, she spends the ensu­ing day recov­er­ing from the wine’s impact and con­tem­plat­ing the rid­dle’s solu­tion. Rhysand con­fess­es that he takes delight in uti­liz­ing her to pro­voke Tam­lin. When Feyre ques­tions his moti­va­tion behind sav­ing her life, he remains silent. The ses­sion in the throne cham­ber ends with Ama­ran­tha order­ing Rhysand to oblit­er­ate the mind of a High Fae who attempt­ed to escape, result­ing in the lat­ter’s demise.

chapter 40

Feyre finds her­self in a small­er cav­ern fac­ing Ama­ran­tha and Tam­lin on the eve of her sec­ond chal­lenge. She is low­ered into a pit, with Lucien chained across an iron grate. The audi­ence gazes as she is pre­sent­ed with a puz­zle by Ama­ran­tha – a choice between three levers. Two grates with spikes, hang­ing over Feyre and Lucien, start descend­ing from above. Feyre is unable to ful­ly decode the inscrip­tions over the levers. As the spikes draw clos­er, Lucien appeals for her to make a deci­sion. Anguish shoots up her arm as she tests the first two levers, but the third is pain­less. She pulls the third lever, halt­ing the spikes. Over­whelmed, Feyre breaks down, but a voice with­in her prompts her to stand tall before Ama­ran­tha. Feyre com­plies, then col­laps­es in her cell, over­whelmed. Rhysand mate­ri­al­izes and wipes away her tears. He informs her she’s excused from escort duty for the night but instructs her to attire well the fol­low­ing day. He jests about her illit­er­a­cy but vows to keep it con­fi­den­tial. Despite her ani­mos­i­ty towards Rhysand, Feyre acknowl­edges that he res­cued her.

chapter 41

Feyre resigns her­self to her prob­a­ble demise in the impend­ing third task, and while being escort­ed for the evening’s rev­el­ries she over­hears a dia­logue between the Attor and a High King’s mes­sen­ger from Hybern. The High King is dis­pleased with Ama­ran­tha’s deal with Feyre, notably because her obses­sion with Juri­an cost him a war. Feyre rec­ol­lects Alis’s cau­tion not to depend on her sens­es. Alone in her cell, she hears entranc­ing music that con­jures vivid images of flow­ers, col­ors, and a celes­tial palace in her mind. Over­whelmed, she weeps, remem­ber­ing that she is fight­ing for Tam­lin. Feyre then gazes at the eye embed­ded in her hand, con­tem­plat­ing her loom­ing final task in two days.

chapter 42

At the fes­tiv­i­ty, Tam­lin sub­tly inter­acts with Feyre and guides her to a seclud­ed cham­ber. Their inti­mate moment is dis­rupt­ed by Rhysand who reproves them. Rhysand cleans­es Tam­lin’s gar­ments of Feyre’s body paint before Tam­lin departs, pro­fess­ing his affec­tion for Feyre. Feyre is puz­zled by Rhysand’s inter­ven­tion. Enraged, Rhysand forcibly kiss­es Feyre as Tam­lin and Ama­ran­tha enter the cham­ber. Rhysand, smeared with Feyre’s paint, escorts her back to the throne cham­ber and then con­fines her to her cell. Lat­er, Rhysand vis­its Feyre in her cell seek­ing seclu­sion. He admits that Feyre is the only per­son he can freely con­verse with. He fore­warns her about the con­se­quences of the impend­ing tri­al — her demise and Ama­ran­tha’s eter­nal reign if she fails, and Ama­ran­tha’s down­fall if she tri­umphs. He con­fess­es to manip­u­lat­ing Feyre to incite Tam­lin. To main­tain his inno­cence in front of Tam­lin, he exclu­sive­ly touch­es Feyre’s arms and waist. Rhysand reveals that Ama­ran­tha tar­get­ed him for his father’s offense of slay­ing Tam­lin’s kin. Feyre appre­ci­ates Rhysand’s clan­des­tine aid.

chapter 43

Feyre is sup­plied with her pre­vi­ous attire for the ulti­mate task, and the spec­ta­tors are unusu­al­ly silent. She declares her love to Tam­lin, who remains impas­sive. As Feyre has not unrav­eled the rid­dle, the chal­lenge com­mences. Three hood­ed faeries are pre­sent­ed to her, and she is tasked with slay­ing them using ash dag­gers. Ini­tial­ly hes­i­tant, Feyre resolves to car­ry out the deed to safe­guard Tam­lin, Pry­thi­an, and the human realm. She apol­o­gizes before dis­patch­ing the first two faeries. As she con­tem­plates end­ing her own life after the third killing, the last faerie is unveiled to be Tam­lin, while the Tam­lin beside Ama­ran­tha is the Attor in dis­guise. Feyre is caught in a dilem­ma: she can either kill Tam­lin to ensure her safe­ty and his court’s, or end her own life to pre­vent Ama­ran­tha from seiz­ing con­trol. She reflects on Alis’s guid­ance and attempts to recall some­thing to assist her in deci­pher­ing the unspo­ken aspect of the curse. She remem­bers her encounter with the Attor and the dis­cus­sion between Tam­lin and Lucien about the curse. Feyre is cog­nizant of Ama­ran­tha’s affec­tion for Tam­lin and is con­vinced she would not desire his demise. Feyre recalls Lucien describ­ing Tam­lin with a heart of stone, a phrase also used by the Attor. She clings to the belief that if Tam­lin’s heart is indeed stone, the dag­ger would fail to pierce it. She recalls not feel­ing Tam­lin’s heart­beat when she embraced him ear­li­er. Filled with hope, Feyre advances towards Tam­lin and stabs him in the chest.

chapter 44

Tam­lin howls as his blood spurts, the dag­ger strik­ing a sol­id object and bend­ing its tip. Rhysand smirks, while Ama­ran­tha’s coun­te­nance drains of col­or. Despite her pledge to release Tam­lin and his kin once Feyre solved her rid­dle, Ama­ran­tha clar­i­fies this does not encom­pass the tasks. She will lib­er­ate them at her dis­cre­tion. Uti­liz­ing her mag­ic, Ama­ran­tha vio­lent­ly hurls Feyre onto the ground, her bones frac­tur­ing. She vows to cease the agony if Feyre renounces her love for Tam­lin. Rhysand charges at Ama­ran­tha with an ash dag­ger, but her mag­ic repels him, leav­ing him bat­tered. Feyre implores Ama­ran­tha to halt the bru­tal treat­ment but stead­fast­ly refus­es to dis­avow her affec­tion for Tam­lin. Tam­lin also beseech­es Ama­ran­tha to ter­mi­nate her bru­tal assault. In tor­ment, Feyre’s thoughts drift to the rid­dle, her rec­ol­lec­tions with Tam­lin Under the Moun­tain, and her sib­lings. Feyre pro­claims that the answer to the rid­dle is love, notic­ing Tam­lin’s eyes widen in shock as she sens­es her back breaking.

chapter 45

Feyre expe­ri­ences the world through some­one else’s per­spec­tive. Her injured form lies on the earth while Lucien unmasks, his eyes brim­ming with sor­row. Tam­lin con­fronts Ama­ran­tha, trans­form­ing into a beast and launch­ing an assault. He pins her to a wall by the neck. Despite efforts by the Attor and oth­er guards to inter­vene, the faeries and High Fae of the crowd pre­vent them. Lucien hands Tam­lin a sword, which he employs to ter­mi­nate Ama­ran­tha’s reign. Feyre comes to real­ize that she is wit­ness­ing these events through Rhysand’s eyes. Upon revert­ing to his orig­i­nal form, Tam­lin cra­dles Feyre in his arms, over­whelmed with emo­tion. The High Lord of the Autumn Court, Lucien’s sire, approach­es, leav­ing a radi­ant spark on Feyre’s chest. The High Lords of the Sum­mer, Win­ter, Dawn, and Day Courts each do the same. Rhysand steps for­ward, acknowl­edg­ing the rar­i­ty of the High Lords’ col­lec­tive bestow­al before adding his own light. Final­ly, Tam­lin presents Feyre with a bril­liant light from his hand, pro­fess­ing his love before rest­ing his hand on her chest.

chapter 46

Feyre’s entire form emanates a glow, she has become a High Fae. She is alive due to Tam­lin, who act­ed to lib­er­ate her and oth­ers from Ama­ran­tha’s curse. As Tam­lin’s gold­en mask lies on the ground, Feyre feels his liv­ing pulse. He endeav­ors to mend her lin­ger­ing wounds as she perch­es on a bed. Recall­ing the chaos in the throne cham­ber, Feyre rec­ol­lects that numer­ous faeries and High Fae, com­pris­ing The Attor and Lucien’s sib­lings, have van­ished. Tam­lin receives grat­i­tude from the Spring Court as he for­mu­lates future strate­gies with his allies. Ten­der­ly trac­ing Feyre’s tat­too, he pledges to annul the pact she made with Rhysand. Their love flour­ish­es as they par­take in a fer­vent kiss. Feyre abrupt­ly awak­ens to find Rhysand on a bal­cony. He has arrived to bid her adieu. His wish is to be remem­bered as an adver­sary of Ama­ran­tha, a com­pan­ion in Feyre’s tri­als. He inquires about her new High Fae guise, and she feels altered but retains her human heart. Feyre’s fea­tures star­tle Rhysand as he departs. Tam­lin and Feyre wit­ness the destruc­tion of Amarantha’s Under-the-Moun­tain court by the High Fae. As they depart, Tam­lin seals the entrance as they pro­ceed to their abode. Wit­ness­ing Alis and her sons safe brings relief. Lucien invites them to din­ner. Feyre grap­ples with rec­on­cil­ing her actions but has returned home with Tamlin.