Tamlin is following through with his promise and allowing her to travel around without him, although with Lucien, to help the Hybern delegation when they come to visit but I’m certainly not saying Maas redeems him. She spends a lot of time with Lucien and uses this to her advantage to manipulate him to make Tamlin jealous, which felt pretty exploitative to me, especially with how worried he is about Elain finding out about what he was forced to do with Ianthe while Feyre was away and Tamlin was depressed. She can only communicate with Rhys occasionally and weakly through their mating bond.
This book was better than the first for me but not as good as the second. I did enjoy seeing her in the lions den and her changed view on Tamlin as well as hearing a little more from him. I was expecting something more conclusive with a bigger ending but overall this has been a very enjoyable series.
Rating: B+
SPOILERS AHEAD!
A few weeks after arriving back at the Spring Court, Ianthe finally explains herself to Feyre; basically just making platitudes and saying she didn’t want Feyre or Lucien to lose her sisters when they died. When Jurian arrives with the niece and nephew of the King Feyre suspects they are Daemati like she is and is proved right when she stops them probing into Lucien and Tamlin’s minds.
At Summer Solstice Ianthe opens her arms in the position where the sun will shine to seem she is divinely blessed but Feyre hijacks her moment by moving her marker to herself. That night she fakes a nightmare and leaves the door open so Lucien will come in to comfort her and get close to her *shirtlessly* so that Tamlin arrives and growls in jealousy, over-thinking back on all of the moments they have shared.
A set of keys to the estate gates has been stolen but Ianthe is concerned that there is a blight around her temple, at least she pretends to be as she and Feyre verbally and passively spar with each other, her trying to persuade Tamlin to go with them on the next survey. Feyre wins and sleeps in a tent with Lucien, knowing the Hybern royals will tell the High Lord. He accidently reveals they might have a plan to turn against them in the future. Whilst they’re out they come across three Children of the Blessed so Feyre gets into their heads to scare them away but they kill them and leave a message by leaving them outside camp and Feyre and Lucien retaliate by sending the Bogge after them. Feyre lets Tamlin get riled up until he explodes again but this time she doesn’t protect herself, letting Lucien and the sentries see what he did to her.
The key to the estate is found with a sentry and Feyre frees his memory she suppressed that it was Ianthe who took it. Tamlin realises it’s true but doesn’t want to look weak in front of the royals and punishes the sentry, but, as Feyre intended, this turned the other sentries, who had sacrificed their friends and lives for Tamlin, against him.
It turns out Lucien isn’t the only one who doesn’t believe her façade because Alis saw how Feyre held onto Mor and she’s from the Summer Court so she’s heard about how happy Feyre seemed while she was there. Alis is taking her nephews back to the Summer Court and promises Feyre will always have at least one friend there. Meanwhile Ianthe and Tamlin come on the next expedition.
Feyre almost stabs Ianthe one night but the priestess wakes up and sees her. She manipulates the royals into revealing how many troops they have- too many- and learns they need this exact spot to unleash the Cauldron’s power. With the perfect amount of knowledge, Feyre plans to slip away, letting the Spring Court collapse behind her, but hears Ianthe sexually assaulting Ianthe so reveals her power to mind control the High Priestess and have her crush her own hand so she’ll never sexually engage with anyone unless it’s consensual! The royals catch her and reveal their own scheming- they’ve been poisoning her food to weaken her and now it truly kicks in, silencing her bond to Rhys. Still, she can winnow and uses the power to kill them, with Lucien’s help. Their power to winnow is fading though so they have to physically travel through the Autumn Court to get home. Unfortunately he doesn’t have very good relations with anyone here, particularly his brothers, who believes they ran away from Tamlin as lovers. They get away the first time but his brothers soon catch up again and Mor’s dick ex-fiancé offers Feyre the choice of death or marriage to him. Instead Cassian and Azriel arrive to help her but she stops them before they kill the brothers, sparing them and revealing herself as the Night Court’s High Lady. The Illyrians bring her and Lucien to Mor, who tells her Rhys has been putting everything on himself, travelling above the human court to spy on them.
After reuniting with Rhys she goes to see her sisters at the House of Wind. Nesta is furious, and has constantly been verbally sparring with Cassian despite his offers to physically train. Lucien is desperate to see Elain but she is broken and depressed about the fact that she was supposed to marry next week.
Their potential allies aren’t very numerous so Feyre suggests Drakon and Miryam but the others tell her how she died and the prince raised her from the dead as a faerie then they vanished so they don’t seem like they’ll be much help either! Rhys reveals he also travelled to Hybern to seek out any weaknesses, and playing the territories around it against each other. The human queens are locked up in their palace though and no-one knows whether they’re mortal or immortal or even alive. Rhys suspects the King used too much of the Cauldron’s power so that’s why he’s sought the holes out to increase it. Amren thinks because her sisters were forged using it they could fix the wall but Feyre refuses to have them forced to do it.
Nevertheless at dinner she suggests this to Nesta and Amren immediately clarifies that she can teach her how and let her practise at the Court of Nightmares as Lucien warns them his father will kill her when he knows she has his power and they decide to have a meeting with all the High Lords to see who will ally with them. They also need one with Mor’s father to gain use of his legion.
Feyre strength trains with Cassian, and although Nesta declined she shows up so Feyre begs to Rhys, who sends Azriel to collect her early to train her to fly with her shape shifted wings. After training she and Rhys go to a public library designated as a space for women who’ve been abused where some choose to remain as priestesses. Cassian found a monster down here two centuries ago and still refuses to talk about it. They find conflicting reports on the wall but Feyre remembers Amren’s warnings about the monsters unleashed by putting the book together and suggests they get help from them, starting with the Bone Carver.
She goes with Cassian instead of him so they don’t look too desperate but first Rhys reminds him about the monster he ‘put in there’- hmmm… This time Feyre realises the Bone Carver has been appearing as her future son. They try to negotiate his freedom to fight for them but it wants to stay in its cell to be safe from his death god brother and sister- the Weaver. However he offers to help them if they get him the Ouroboros, his sister’s mirror. So at the Court of Nightmares they negotiate Keir’s Darkbringers with the help of Eris, whom Rhys made a deal to support behind everyone else’s backs, and who pushes that he isn’t as bad as they think. Keir agrees if they grant him access to Velaris, although Rhys has conditions to this to protect the city, and gladly offers her the Ouroboros if she can take it- since anyone who looks into it goes mad. When Amren hears of this she’s furious but reveals how she escaped- binding herself into a body- saying the Bone Carver will never let them do this to him. She says that if she leaves the body she won’t remember any of her ‘mortal’-ish memories and she will smite them down.
Elain wanders in with a vision which turns out to be true as she is a Seer, a gift from the Cauldron: the young Queen went into it first and instead became old because Nesta had taken its magic so she was sent away. Another vision she has is of two ravens which turn out not to be birds but Hybern’s men sent to grab Nesta and take back what she stole from the Cauldron. She’s with Feyre when they find her so they try to take both sisters but the High Lady tricks them into going down to the monster in the library. It offers to kill them if she gives it company so she makes the bargain, gaining a new tattoo, as she doesn’t know Rhys has just sent Cassian to help her. It asks for a window and in response will fight Hybern for them. Elain tells them about another queen, the sixth one, cursed by the others and sold to a sorcerer Lord. Lucien volunteers to go find her and make her an ally using his eye.
Meanwhile Hybern has attacked the Summer Court. They bring their army to help and Rhys fights the King alone, or at least thinks he does because it’s just an illusion, but when it’s over Tarquin tells them to leave.
Amren had wanted Nesta to stay with her to finish training while the others went to meet the other High Lords but she doesn’t want to be remembered as a coward so Rhys makes her his new emissary to the humans and they all reunite with the other leaders- Mor is particularly excited to see the Winter Court Lord’s new wife- her friend. Tamlin shows up to throw shade and say he’s on their side- although he later goes straight back to Hybern. Beron is curious where his son is and is also abrasive, refusing an antidote for faebane which Eris volunteers to try but he won’t let his son do it. Rhys snaps when Tamlin insults his mate and later Feyre does the same when Beron insults him, revealing that she took their powers. Beron walks out but everyone else agrees to ally, Tarquin rescinding the rubies. In particular Helion is closest to them and comes to see them later to tease the trio about a foursome, and ends up sleeping with only Mor because she is uncomfortable about what Azriel did that day. Feyre works out the timing and realises he is likely Lucien’s father.
Unfortunately while they are working together Hybern strikes and breaks the wall, which Nesta realises just before it happens due to her connection but can do nothing to stop it. They go to Lord Nolan and Grayson- Elain’s father in law to be and fiancé. She tries to hide her features but they have already been told about her by Jurian- not vindictively but trying to help as he lets Rhys and Feyre into his mind to show them he is on their side. He’s hurt that Mor- who he fought with- didn’t consider he could be a double agent. The humans cruelly reject Elain but they are forced to take in any humans seeking refuge in exchange for shields. With Jurian’s information the Illyrians and Darkbringers take the Obi-Wan high ground and push them back into Tarquin’s forces; they surrender but he kills most of them. Varian has the idea to cast a glamour that makes their army look to be somewhere else but Hybern has also deceived them so Feyre has Elain track the Suriel for her to reveal where their enemy’s real army is. However it tells her it doesn’t know but Nesta should be able to track it through her connection. It’s partway through helping her when Ianthe appears and shoots it because it wouldn’t help her
She pushes Ianthe into the Weaver’s Cottage and Helion appears to take her home, Rhys later tells her he was there on his behalf to make a deal with her to fight for them. But Mor feels betrayed she left without telling her, especially because Cassian got her. He survives and stands by Nesta as she uses bones to find the Cauldron but it recognises her looking for it and comes for them, taking Elain. Feyre transforms her face into Ianthe’s and sneaks into Hybern’s camp with Azriel to bring her back. Jurian helps them get out a mortal who was taken and Tamlin stages a distraction- maybe he isn’t such a traitor to Prythian!
When she gets back Feyre has the best moment with her sisters possibly ever and makes up with Mor, who shares a secret with her; she’s been pushing Azriel away because she prefers women. They spend the night before battle winnowing villagers to safety and Feyre braves the Ouroboros to get the Bone Carver to help them. Now they have three immortal beings to fight Hybern +Amren! Although the Cauldron blows the Bone Carver up along with a huge hoard of their warriors; Cassian would have been included had Nesta not been able to predict it. Tamlin and Beron’s armies arrive to help but it’s still not enough until Miryam and Drakon arrive- their wards worked too well!- with the cursed Queen Vassa brought by the Archeron girls’ father! Lucien found them later and told them where to go.
Nesta and Cassian distract the King and he nearly kills the Captain but Elain uses the blade Azriel gave her and Nesta finishes the King off. Before he died he killed their father although it turned out to be the only real death because all the others are cop-outs, which was pretty frustrating. Because Amren seems to sacrifice her human form to wipe out the armies but Rhys brings her back as only a high fae. Similarly Rhys seems to sacrifice himself to be Feyre’s link to reforge the Cauldron and save the world but she brings him back. I thought this made more sense when they did it to her but the High Lords themselves even said it might not work because she was human. I think the ending could have done with more consequences and I felt a lot more between Azriel and Elain than the forced stuff with Lucien. I did like how they started Tamlin’s redemption but didn’t force it into a complete bow.
Vassa decides to stay away from her captor with this excuse while they re-negotiate a treaty and, after a nudge, Elain invites Lucien back to Velaris.
Quotes
“A library is a temple of sorts.”
“A world divided is not a world that can thrive.”
“I believe everything happens for a reason. Whether it is decided by the Mother, or the Cauldron, or some sort of tapestry of Fate, I don’t know. I don’t really care. But I am grateful for it, whatever it is.”
“It’s a rare person to face who they are and not run from it – not be broken by it.”
“We’re all a broken, in our own ways – In places no one might see.”
“I suppose that war makes wanting things like that unimportant.” “Perhaps. But you should not let war steal it from you regardless.”
Into New Realms 