A Court of Mist and Fury: Full Summary and Character Guide

This is the book.

The one responsible for an alarming number of fictional-boyfriend standards, an entirely unreasonable obsession with winged men, and a fandom that has never looked at a bowl of soup the same way again.

And yes, I am part of the problem.

I’ve just finished rereading the ACOTAR series on GraphicAudio, and I had forgotten just how much happens in A Court of Mist and Fury. The wedding. Velaris. The bat boys. That cabin. THAT chapter.

And apparently, somewhere between all of that, there is also an actual war brewing.

This is my full breakdown of book two: what happens, who’s who, the moments I absolutely needed to talk about, and all those little details that hit differently when you already know what’s coming.

If you haven’t read it yet, go and read it, then come back. I’m about to ruin every single bit of it, and I am not sorry.

Still on book one? My A Court of Thorns and Roses summary and character guide stops safely at the end of that book.

If you want my personal verdict on book two, including the spice rating, spicy chapters and GraphicAudio experience, head over to my ACOMAF review.

A little comfort-level warning: This book deals with trauma, nightmares, confinement, controlling behaviour, sexual assault and abuse references, violence, torture and forced transformation. Some of Feyre’s experiences are particularly intense if confinement or loss of personal agency is a sensitive subject for you. Check your comfort level before diving in.

A Court of Mist and Fury summary

A traumatised woman is slowly being suffocated by the man who believes he’s protecting her, gets pulled out of it by the man everyone told her was a monster, discovers a hidden city and a family she was never meant to see, and eventually learns that the person she’s falling for is her mate.

Meanwhile, there’s a king trying to start a war, an ancient magical book that apparently has no patience for liars, and a group of people who really should have known better than to underestimate an Archeron sister.

And by the end of it, Feyre walks willingly back into the very place she spent half the book trying to escape.

Not because she’s been rescued.

Because she has a plan.

Sixty-nine chapters and a prologue, and I will die defending the vast majority of them.

Here it is properly.

After the mountain

Book two opens three months after the events Under the Mountain, and Feyre is not fine.

She’s barely eating, she’s having nightmares, she vomits most mornings, and she hasn’t painted since she came out of that mountain.

She killed two innocent faeries during Amarantha’s trials. She survived, but she cannot stop thinking about what she did, and nobody at the Spring Court seems capable of having an actual conversation with her about it.

Tamlin is struggling with his own trauma. His response, however, is to keep Feyre safe by keeping her contained.

He won’t train her. He won’t let her help with the court. He won’t properly discuss what happened Under the Mountain.

And the more he tries to protect her, the smaller her world becomes.

There’s something particularly awful about watching Feyre, who has already spent so much of her life fighting to survive, being told that she now needs to sit quietly and let somebody else decide what’s best for her.

She doesn’t want to be wrapped in cotton wool.

She wants something to do. She wants to understand the powers she has been given. She wants to stop feeling like she’s trapped inside her own head.

And she wants to be able to leave the house without having to negotiate it like a hostage release.

Meanwhile, Tamlin is planning their wedding, mostly through Ianthe, a High Priestess who has apparently appointed herself the authority on everything from religious ceremonies to what Feyre should be wearing.

And hanging over all of this is the bargain Feyre made with Rhysand Under the Mountain.

One week every month at the Night Court.

A bargain that hasn’t been called in yet.

But Rhysand hasn’t forgotten.

The wedding

Ianthe is planning the wedding, Tamlin is letting her, and Feyre is slowly realising that this whole situation is becoming less about what she wants and more about what everyone else has decided she should want.

Ianthe chooses the dress. She organises the ceremony. She makes herself indispensable while apparently having no concept of personal boundaries.

And Feyre, who should be looking forward to marrying the man she loves, is becoming increasingly desperate for an escape.

Then comes the wedding day.

Feyre is walking towards Tamlin in a dress she doesn’t want, surrounded by people who seem perfectly happy with a future she’s no longer sure she can survive.

She starts to panic.

And silently, desperately, she wishes that someone would stop the wedding.

Anyone.

Apparently, the universe has a very specific sense of humour.

Because Rhysand arrives.

“Hello, Feyre darling.”

The man knows how to make an entrance. I’ll give him that.

Rhys calls in the bargain Feyre made Under the Mountain, announces that he’s taking her for the week he’s owed, and winnows her straight out of her own wedding.

To everyone watching, it looks like the terrifying High Lord of the Night Court has just kidnapped the bride.

To Feyre, it’s the first proper chance she’s had to breathe in months.

And to me?

Well, I was already smiling.

This book had me from that moment.

Welcome to the Night Court

Feyre has spent months hearing about the Night Court and everything that makes Rhysand supposedly so dangerous.

After what happened Under the Mountain, she has good reason to be wary of him, too.

So when he takes her away from the Spring Court, she’s expecting something awful.

What she gets is the Moonstone Palace.

The palace sits high above Hewn City, home to the Court of Nightmares. It’s the public, deliberately intimidating face of the Night Court, and exactly the sort of place the rest of Prythian associates with Rhysand.

Amarantha liked the Court of Nightmares so much that she modelled her own court Under the Mountain after it.

Which, frankly, tells you everything you need to know about her taste in interior design and company.

But Rhys doesn’t drag Feyre into the Court of Nightmares.

He gives her somewhere to stay.

He tells her to eat.

He starts teaching her to read.

And, most importantly, he gives her room to make her own decisions.

He doesn’t expect her to entertain him, perform some elaborate court duty, or spend every waking moment proving how grateful she is to be there.

For the first time in months, Feyre has space to think.

It’s such a small thing, but after everything that’s happened at the Spring Court, it feels enormous.

And Rhys has another interesting theory.

Feyre was remade as High Fae through the combined power of seven High Lords. What if she inherited more than just Tamlin’s shapeshifting abilities?

What if she has a little power from every single one of them?

He wants her to discover what she’s capable of.

And, unlike Tamlin, he’s prepared to let her try.

The Tithe, the water-wraith and the beginning of the end

After her first week at the Night Court, Feyre returns to the Spring Court.

The wedding has been postponed, but the actual problems in her relationship with Tamlin haven’t magically disappeared.

And now we get to see something that says quite a lot about how the Spring Court operates.

The Tithe.

Essentially, Tamlin’s subjects are expected to pay him a regular tribute. One of them, a water-wraith, cannot pay what she owes because there are no fish left in her lake.

Tamlin refuses to make an exception.

Feyre, on the other hand, gives the water-wraith some of her jewellery so she can settle her debt and buy herself food.

It’s a small act of kindness, and the water-wraith promises not to forget it.

Remember her. She matters later.

Meanwhile, Feyre is still begging Tamlin for some freedom.

He gives her a travelling painting kit, but when she asks whether she’ll actually be allowed to go somewhere and use it without being followed by guards, the answer is effectively no.

What is she supposed to do? Paint the same four walls she’s barely allowed to leave?

Their argument escalates, and Tamlin loses control of his magic.

The room explodes around Feyre, and she instinctively protects herself with a magical shield.

Another new power. Another thing she doesn’t understand.

And yet another reason she desperately needs someone to help her learn how to use what she’s been given.

Tamlin apologises, but the underlying problem remains.

Rhys eventually returns for Feyre’s next visit to the Night Court, and even he is concerned by how much worse she’s become.

By the time Feyre returns to the Spring Court again, her relationship with Tamlin is heading towards a point from which there really isn’t any coming back.

The shield, and Mor

Tamlin and Lucien are preparing to leave the Spring Court on business, and Feyre wants to go with them.

She wants to get out of the house. She wants to help. She wants to do something other than sit there waiting for everyone to come home.

Tamlin refuses.

And when she keeps asking, he seals her inside the manor with a magical shield.

A woman who has nightmares about being imprisoned is now trapped inside her own home by the man who says he’s protecting her.

It goes about as well as you’d expect.

Feyre panics. Her magic erupts around her, and she’s unable to break through the shield or escape.

But Rhys can feel her distress through their bargain.

He breaks Tamlin’s shield from outside, and Mor is the one who comes in to rescue Feyre.

Not Rhys.

Mor.

She gets Feyre out of the house and takes her to the Night Court.

And I love that detail.

After spending so much of the book surrounded by people who won’t listen to her, Feyre is finally helped by someone who doesn’t need to make the rescue about himself.

When she wakes, Rhys offers her somewhere to stay for as long as she needs.

She doesn’t have to return to the Spring Court.

She doesn’t have to decide what the rest of her life will look like before she’s even had breakfast.

She can stay until she figures things out.

And this time, she chooses to stay.

Velaris, the City of Starlight

Now we get to the reveal that changes everything.

Rhysand takes Feyre to Velaris.

Not Hewn City. Not the Court of Nightmares.

Velaris.

The City of Starlight.

A hidden city on the River Sidra, filled with beautiful buildings, shops, restaurants, music, artists and ordinary people going about their lives.

I would move there tomorrow if it were real. No notes.

Velaris has been protected and hidden for thousands of years. Its existence is one of the Night Court’s most closely guarded secrets.

And Rhys has spent centuries allowing the rest of Prythian to believe that the Court of Nightmares represents his entire territory.

It is a reputation he deliberately maintains.

During Amarantha’s fifty-year rule, he went to extraordinary lengths to conceal the city and protect the people living there.

Amarantha never discovered Velaris.

Now, for the first time, Feyre gets to see the part of Rhysand’s world that he has kept hidden from almost everyone else.

And the man who has spent so long convincing other people that he’s a monster is suddenly standing in a city where people know him, trust him and are happy to see him.

Which is a fairly significant change from the Rhysand we met in book one.

I also love that Velaris has an entire artists’ quarter called the Rainbow.

Not just painters, but musicians, performers and all sorts of people creating things.

After watching Feyre lose the part of herself that loved painting, seeing her discover a place like this feels like the first proper glimpse of the life she might eventually want.

Even if she isn’t ready to pick up a paintbrush just yet.

Meet the Inner Circle

And this is where the book introduces the people responsible for making me entirely unreasonable about the Night Court.

Rhysand’s Inner Circle.

Mor, Cassian, Azriel and Amren.

Or, as I like to think of them, the reason a group dinner can somehow become my favourite scene in a fantasy novel.

Mor is Rhysand’s cousin, his Third in Command, and someone who has already shown Feyre more genuine kindness than most of the people she left behind.

Cassian is the commander of the Night Court’s armies, an Illyrian warrior with seven red siphons and absolutely no filter.

Azriel is the spymaster, a shadowsinger with seven blue siphons, scarred hands and the sort of quiet presence that apparently has half the fandom permanently distracted.

And Amren?

Small. Terrifying. Very old. Drinks blood. Definitely not someone I would want to annoy.

She might look like a High Fae, but she was originally something very different.

Together with Rhys, they’re the Court of Dreams.

Which sounds a little dramatic until you get to know them.

Then it makes perfect sense.

Rhys, Cassian and Azriel grew up together in Illyrian war camps. Their childhoods were very different, but none of them had an easy time of it.

Rhys’s mother brought Cassian and Azriel into her home, and the three eventually became brothers in every way that matters.

Mor and Amren have their own difficult histories, too.

They aren’t simply people Rhys has appointed to important positions.

They’re his family.

They argue with him. They take the mickey out of him. They disagree with him.

And they welcome Feyre into their world without expecting her to suddenly become a different person.

It’s one of my favourite things about this book.

Feyre doesn’t just find a new romantic relationship.

She finds people who want her around.

People who notice when she’s struggling, who encourage her to try things, and who will happily sit down to dinner with her without making the entire evening about everything she’s been through.

And apparently, I am a person who could read about the Inner Circle having dinner for several hundred pages and still want more.

The Prison and the Bone Carver

There is also a war to worry about.

The King of Hybern wants to destroy the wall separating the human and faerie lands, allowing his forces to invade the human territories and restore the old order.

And he has access to the Cauldron.

The ancient, terrifying magical object associated with the creation of their world.

So naturally, Rhys and Feyre decide they need to find a way to stop him.

Which means visiting the Prison.

Because apparently the Night Court’s approach to problem-solving involves asking something ancient and horrifying for advice.

The Prison is located inside a mountain on a barren island. It holds creatures and beings too dangerous to be allowed into the world.

Amren was once imprisoned there herself, which is the sort of information this book casually drops into a conversation and then expects me to carry on with my day.

Rhys and Feyre visit the Bone Carver, a mysterious creature who appears to different people in different forms.

Rhys brings him a bone from the Middengard Wyrm as payment.

Feyre, meanwhile, sees something in the Bone Carver’s appearance that she cannot explain.

And I have questions.

So many questions.

But we’re staying within book two, and I’m not opening that particular door here.

The Bone Carver tells them about the Book of Breathings, an ancient magical book that can be used to counter the Cauldron.

Unfortunately, the Book has been divided into two halves.

One is hidden in the Summer Court.

The other is held by the mortal queens on the human side of the wall.

The Book also requires someone who has been Made to use its magic.

Feyre, who was resurrected and transformed into High Fae, is one of those people.

So now the plan is to retrieve both halves, work out how to use them, and somehow stop Hybern before the wall comes down.

Simple.

Absolutely nothing to worry about.

The Weaver in the Wood

Before going after the Book of Breathings, Rhys wants to test a theory about Feyre’s powers.

Because she carries a fragment of magic from each of the seven High Lords, he believes she might be able to locate objects hidden by their magic.

And apparently the sensible way to test this is to send her into a cottage belonging to an ancient creature that likes collecting things from its victims.

The Weaver.

Rhys tells Feyre that there’s an object belonging to him inside the cottage, and he wants her to retrieve it.

The object is a ring.

What he doesn’t tell her yet is whose ring it is or why it matters.

And what follows is one of the most unsettling sequences in the entire book.

A cottage full of strange objects. A beautiful, horrifying creature sitting at a loom. A song that gets considerably less pleasant when you pay attention to the words.

And Feyre, trying to find a tiny ring without making enough noise to get herself eaten.

Respectfully, I was not calm.

The Weaver discovers that Feyre is there, and suddenly the mission becomes less about finding jewellery and more about getting out alive.

Feyre escapes through the chimney, using her wits and the strength she’s only beginning to understand.

She gets the ring.

She survives.

And she comes out of that cottage more determined than ever to learn how to fight.

Which is fair enough.

I’d probably be reconsidering my entire approach to self-defence after that particular afternoon.

Keep the ring in mind. We’ll come back to it.

Training, reading lessons and the letters

Feyre begins training with Cassian, developing the physical skills she’ll need to defend herself.

She also continues learning how to control her new magic with Rhys.

And, of course, there are the reading lessons.

Rhys has been teaching Feyre to read since her first visit to the Night Court, using practice sentences that are apparently designed to achieve two things.

Improve her literacy.

And remind her how spectacularly handsome he thinks he is.

The man genuinely cannot help himself.

As Feyre becomes more confident with reading and writing, their lessons develop into playful notes that they exchange using magic.

Sometimes they’re teasing each other.

Sometimes they’re flirting.

And sometimes the things they’re saying are considerably more meaningful than either of them seems prepared to admit out loud.

Here’s what I love about this.

Feyre couldn’t read properly in book one.

Now she’s learning a skill that gives her more independence, while also building a connection with someone who makes her laugh.

It’s not just about the romance.

It’s about getting to watch her become more capable and confident in something she once struggled with.

And I am absolutely not going to pretend I wouldn’t have enjoyed being sent little magical notes by a ridiculously handsome High Lord.

Even if half of them were about how ridiculously handsome he is.

Back across the wall, and the Archeron sisters

To retrieve the second half of the Book of Breathings, the Night Court needs to make contact with the mortal queens.

And Feyre has an idea.

Her family’s estate could provide a neutral place for the queens to meet with faeries.

Which means going back across the wall and asking Nesta and Elain for help.

Rhys, Cassian and Azriel accompany Feyre to her family’s home, where they receive exactly the sort of welcome you’d expect from Nesta Archeron.

Nesta takes one look at the three winged males standing in her house and apparently decides that intimidation is a two-way street.

She is protective of Elain, deeply suspicious of their visitors and not particularly interested in making anyone feel comfortable.

And then there’s Cassian.

Oh, Cassian.

The two of them immediately start getting under each other’s skin, and I don’t think either has any idea what to do with the other.

Nothing is happening.

But somehow the nothing is incredibly loud.

Elain is engaged to Graysen and has a future planned for herself. She’s understandably wary of getting involved with faerie politics, but she and Nesta agree to help Feyre.

The sisters’ home becomes the place where the Night Court hopes to negotiate with the queens.

And this time, Feyre isn’t simply the younger sister who once had to hunt to keep her family alive.

She’s the person asking for their help with something that could determine the future of both human and faerie lands.

That’s quite a change from where we met her in book one.

The Attor, and Feyre’s powers

While the Night Court waits for a response from the mortal queens, Feyre continues training.

Her new abilities include magic associated with several different High Lords, and she’s slowly learning how to access and control it.

Which is a good thing, because the Attor is still around.

Yes, that horrible creature from Under the Mountain.

Apparently, surviving Amarantha wasn’t the end of dealing with her unpleasant little collection of associates.

The Attor attacks Feyre while she’s training, but Rhys intervenes and captures it.

The encounter makes it painfully clear that Feyre needs more than theoretical knowledge of her powers.

If she’s going to defend herself against Hybern and everything coming for them, she needs to be able to fight when it actually matters.

And later, when she has an opportunity to confront the Attor again, things are going to go rather differently.

The Summer Court

The first half of the Book of Breathings is hidden in the Summer Court.

So Rhys, Feyre and Amren head to Adriata, where they’re welcomed by Tarquin, the High Lord of Summer.

And here’s where things get complicated.

Because I like Tarquin.

Feyre likes Tarquin.

Rhys likes Tarquin.

Even Amren seems to be tolerating the situation.

Tarquin is young for a High Lord, and he wants to change the way Prythian operates.

He’s interested in a future where lesser faeries have more rights and the courts aren’t divided by the same old prejudices and rivalries.

He also seems genuinely interested in building a friendship and an alliance with Rhys.

Unfortunately, the Night Court has arrived with a very specific objective.

Get the Book.

And they’re not planning on telling Tarquin the truth about why they’re there.

This is one of those parts of the story where I can understand what the characters are trying to achieve while also wanting to tell them that maybe, just maybe, they should consider being honest with the nice man who’s invited them into his home.

Especially when that nice man is offering them a friendship they could actually use.

But no.

Apparently, we’re choosing the complicated option.

Again.

Rhysand, jealous, and the bath at the Summer Court

Feyre and Tarquin get along surprisingly well.

There’s genuine warmth between them, and Feyre finds herself enjoying his company.

Rhys, meanwhile, is doing a very convincing impression of someone who is definitely not jealous.

Very convincing.

Nobody suspects a thing.

Except, you know, everyone reading the book.

There’s also a scene where Feyre experiments with her water magic in the bath.

The power comes from the fragment of Tarquin’s magic she inherited when the seven High Lords brought her back to life.

And now she’s sitting in a bathtub, moving water around and discovering what she can do with it.

I love this scene because it lets her experience her powers without immediately being in mortal danger.

She’s not trapped.

She’s not desperately trying to survive.

She’s simply enjoying something new.

After everything she’s been through, watching her have even a little bit of fun feels important.

Of course, that same water magic is about to become extremely useful.

Because the Night Court still needs to steal the Book.

The hidden temple and the Book of Breathings

Feyre eventually senses the Book of Breathings inside a small, partially submerged stone building.

And rather than asking Tarquin for access, the group decides to steal it.

Rhys provides support from outside while Feyre and Amren enter the building.

To get through the magical protections, Feyre uses her shapeshifting abilities to take on Tarquin’s appearance.

Which is an absolutely outrageous way to rob someone who’s been nothing but welcoming.

She and Amren locate the Book inside a lead box.

And then it speaks.

It asks who is there.

Feyre tells it she’s Tarquin.

The Book is not impressed.

It knows she’s lying.

And suddenly, this supposedly straightforward little theft becomes considerably less straightforward.

The building begins flooding, trapping Feyre and Amren inside.

They manage to escape the chamber, but the rising water leaves them in serious danger.

Then, just when it looks like they’re going to drown, help arrives.

Three water-wraiths.

Remember the water-wraith Feyre helped during the Tithe at the Spring Court?

The one who promised not to forget what she’d done?

Well, her sisters haven’t forgotten either.

They rescue Feyre and Amren, allowing them to escape with the Book.

And I absolutely love that this is how the earlier scene pays off.

Tamlin refused to show the water-wraith compassion.

Feyre gave away her jewellery.

And now that act of kindness has saved her life.

Sometimes being a decent person really does come back around.

Even when you’re in the middle of robbing a High Lord who’s also a decent person.

Which brings us to the consequences.

Three blood rubies

Once the Night Court has the Book, the truth about what happened at the Summer Court eventually comes out.

And Tarquin is not happy.

Which is understandable, really.

He welcomed Rhys and his companions into his home, offered them hospitality, and was interested in forming an alliance.

They repaid him by stealing from him.

Using his own magical protections against him.

While Feyre was wearing his face.

Honestly, I would be upset too.

Tarquin sends three blood rubies to the Night Court.

One each for Rhysand, Feyre and Amren.

These aren’t polite little gifts to let everyone know that the friendship has become slightly awkward.

They’re a declaration that the recipients are marked for death.

And you know what’s particularly frustrating?

Rhys and Tarquin have similar hopes for the future of Prythian.

They could have been allies.

They could have been friends.

Instead, the Night Court now has the first half of the Book and three very expensive reminders that its methods have consequences.

I still like Tarquin.

And I am firmly of the opinion that he deserved better than that particular house visit.

The mortal queens, and the problem with trusting people in crowns

With the first half of the Book safely in Amren’s hands, attention turns to the second half.

The mortal queens have it, and the Night Court needs to convince them to hand it over.

So Feyre, Rhys and Mor travel to the Archeron family estate for the first meeting.

Five queens arrive. The sixth is apparently too unwell to travel.

The queens know that war is coming, but they aren’t particularly interested in giving up their precious magical book to a group of faeries they’ve been taught not to trust.

They also seem remarkably comfortable with the idea that the human territories closest to the wall might be sacrificed.

Nesta is not impressed.

Neither am I, Nesta. Neither am I.

The queens demand proof that Rhysand genuinely wants peace before they will consider handing over their half of the Book.

Which presents a bit of a problem.

Because the most convincing evidence of who Rhys really is happens to be a secret city that he has spent centuries protecting.

Velaris.

And showing it to five mortal queens, any of whom could betray him, is a fairly enormous risk.

The group decides to show them the city using the Veritas orb, an object capable of revealing the truth.

Unfortunately, the orb belongs to Keir, the steward of the Court of Nightmares.

Which means another trip to Hewn City.

Because apparently we haven’t had enough dangerous visits to deeply unpleasant places yet.

The Court of Nightmares, and the show

Rhysand and Feyre travel to the Court of Nightmares with a plan.

They need to distract Keir while Azriel retrieves the Veritas orb.

And the best way to distract everyone is to give the court exactly what it expects to see.

The cruel, terrifying High Lord of the Night Court and his beautiful new plaything.

Feyre agrees to play the part, and Rhys puts on the same intimidating public persona that the rest of Prythian knows so well.

It’s deliberately uncomfortable.

Keir and the rest of the court believe they’re watching Rhys treat Feyre as someone who belongs to him.

But Feyre is participating in the deception, and what she’s actually feeling is considerably more complicated than what the audience thinks it sees.

The attraction between her and Rhys is becoming impossible to ignore.

Which is particularly inconvenient when you’re supposed to be concentrating on a dangerous mission.

Keir also makes the mistake of insulting Feyre, and Rhys responds with a very public reminder of who holds the power in that room.

Meanwhile, Azriel retrieves the orb.

Mission accomplished.

Although I suspect Feyre leaves with considerably more on her mind than the successful theft of a magical object.

What I find interesting about this scene is how differently Feyre experiences the performance compared with what she endured Under the Mountain.

She’s choosing to participate in this plan. She knows what they’re trying to achieve, and she can communicate privately with Rhys while they maintain their public act.

That doesn’t make the situation entirely comfortable, but it does change the dynamic.

And her reaction to Rhys?

Well.

Let’s just say her feelings about the High Lord of the Night Court are becoming increasingly difficult to file under strictly professional.

Starfall

After the darker atmosphere of the Court of Nightmares, we get Starfall.

And this is where I would like to formally submit my application to move to Velaris.

Starfall is an annual celebration when glowing spirits travel across the night sky.

Feyre joins Rhys and the Inner Circle at the House of Wind to watch the spectacle, and for once, the story lets everyone have a beautiful evening without immediately trying to kill them.

The city is celebrating.

The sky is full of light.

And Feyre, who has spent so much of this book struggling to feel anything other than fear and guilt, gets to experience genuine happiness.

She dances with Rhys, surrounded by the magic of Starfall.

And I love it.

Not every important moment in a fantasy novel needs to involve a battle, an ancient magical object or someone making a terrible political decision.

Sometimes it can just be a woman having a wonderful evening with people who care about her.

And a ridiculously attractive High Lord.

Obviously.

The music, and what Rhys did Under the Mountain

As Feyre spends more time in Velaris, she begins to understand just how much Rhys has kept hidden from the rest of the world.

That includes something she remembers from Under the Mountain.

The music.

When she was imprisoned and losing hope, music reached her in her cell and gave her something beautiful to hold on to.

During her time in Velaris, Feyre realises that Rhys was responsible for sending it to her.

And suddenly, a little detail from book one means something entirely different.

There she was, trapped in a cell, believing she was completely alone.

And the man she thought was her enemy was finding a way to send her a little hope.

Excuse me while I reconsider several of my feelings about book one.

This doesn’t erase everything Rhys did Under the Mountain, but it gives Feyre a much better understanding of the man behind the reputation.

And the more she learns about him, the more her feelings change.

Which is becoming a problem for someone who is still trying to work out exactly what she wants from him.

Lucien finds Feyre

The Spring Court hasn’t stopped looking for Feyre.

Lucien eventually finds her while she’s training in the Illyrian mountains, accompanied by Spring Court sentinels.

He wants her to return to Tamlin.

Feyre refuses.

And this is a very different Feyre from the woman who was trapped inside the Spring Court manor.

She’s training. She’s learning how to use her abilities. She’s building a life that she actually wants.

She also reveals that she can use her shapeshifting powers to give herself Illyrian wings.

Actual wings.

Which is a fairly spectacular way of announcing that you’re no longer interested in being told what you can and cannot do.

Rhys is there, but Feyre speaks for herself.

She makes it clear that she isn’t returning to the Spring Court and warns Lucien not to send anyone else after her.

I love this scene because Feyre isn’t waiting for Rhys to explain her decision.

She doesn’t need him to tell Lucien what she wants.

She already knows.

And she’s perfectly capable of saying it herself.

Chapter 48, and only one bed

And then we get the inn.

Chapter 48.

One room.

One bed.

Two people who have spent an unreasonable amount of time pretending that whatever is happening between them is perfectly casual.

I think we all know where this is going.

Feyre and Rhys spend the night together at an inn while travelling through Illyria.

There’s only one room available, and apparently the universe has decided that these two have done enough talking around their feelings.

They share the bed, and the tension between them finally gets an opportunity to do something other than make everyone at the dinner table uncomfortable.

They still don’t go all the way, but the encounter makes it rather difficult for either of them to pretend there’s nothing happening.

And somehow, the man who can apparently intimidate an entire court is now sharing a tiny bed with the woman he’s falling for.

Honestly, I love a forced-proximity trope.

Especially when the characters are already well past the point where anyone believes they’re just friends.

But the next morning, everything changes.

Rhysand is captured, and Feyre goes after him

While flying back towards the Illyrian camp, Rhys is struck by poisoned ash arrows and falls.

Hybern’s soldiers capture him.

Feyre manages to track him down, using her abilities and the connection between them to find where he’s being held.

And she rescues him.

This is important because it’s Feyre taking control of the situation.

She’s not simply waiting for the Inner Circle to come and save him.

She’s the one who goes after Rhys.

She gets him away from his captors, but the poison is a serious problem.

She doesn’t know how to heal him, and she needs help.

Which means finding someone who might know what to do.

Someone Feyre has already encountered before.

The Suriel.

The Suriel, and the truth about the mating bond

Feyre manages to capture the Suriel and asks how to save Rhys.

The creature tells her how to counter the poison, but it also reveals something considerably more personal.

Rhysand is Feyre’s mate.

And he knows it.

Oh.

OH.

Suddenly, all those moments where Rhys has been acting like someone desperately trying not to say something make considerably more sense.

But Feyre isn’t immediately delighted by this revelation.

She’s furious.

Rhys has known about the mating bond for a long time, and he hasn’t told her.

And the rest of the Inner Circle knew, too.

Which means everyone around her has been sitting on a rather significant piece of information about her own life.

After everything she’s experienced with Tamlin, being kept in the dark about something this important is not exactly going to go down well.

She still saves Rhys, of course.

But once he’s safe, she needs some space.

And this time, it’s Mor who helps her get it.

The cabin, and finding her way back to painting

Feyre asks Mor to take her somewhere she can be alone.

Mor takes her to the family’s mountain cabin, a private place where Feyre can have some time to work through everything she’s just discovered.

And while she’s there, something wonderful happens.

She starts painting again.

Not just imagining what she might paint.

Not staring at a blank canvas and wishing she could feel inspired.

Actually painting.

She finds the supplies in the cabin and starts covering the walls with images of the people and things that matter to her.

Illyrian wings. Mor’s hair. Amren’s eyes.

Little pieces of the life she’s been building.

And I genuinely love this.

Back in the mortal lands, Feyre painted the furniture in her family’s cottage because it was one of the few ways she could bring some colour and beauty into their lives.

Now she’s doing something similar in a cabin that belongs to the people who have become her new family.

But this time, she isn’t painting because it’s the only beautiful thing she can give herself.

She’s painting because she finally wants to.

She’s beginning to imagine a future again.

One that might include her own art studio, a home in Velaris and a life that belongs to her.

And yes, a certain High Lord is very much part of that picture.

Even if she hasn’t quite finished being angry with him yet.

Chapter 54, the mating bond and the soup

Rhys eventually arrives at the cabin.

And this is where we finally get the explanation behind everything that has been happening between them.

He tells Feyre about their connection, what he experienced Under the Mountain, and why he chose not to reveal the mating bond.

He first felt a connection to her before they properly met, and he became certain that she was his mate when Amarantha was killing her.

But Feyre was in love with Tamlin.

And Rhys knew that telling her about the bond would complicate a choice she was already struggling to make.

So he kept it to himself.

Now, I understand his reasoning.

I also understand why Feyre is angry.

Because there’s a difference between allowing someone to make their own decision and deciding what information they’re allowed to have while making it.

And Feyre deserves the chance to hear the truth and work out what she wants.

Which is exactly what she does.

Rhys explains himself.

Feyre listens.

And she decides whether she’s ready to accept the mating bond.

Which brings us to the soup.

Because in this world, a female offering food to her mate is a traditional way of signifying that she accepts the bond.

And Feyre has a bowl of soup waiting for Rhys.

She makes him tell her everything before deciding whether she’s actually going to give it to him.

The man has survived Amarantha, spent centuries protecting an entire city, and is one of the most powerful High Lords in Prythian.

And his romantic future is currently dependent on whether Feyre decides he deserves his dinner.

I love her.

Eventually, she offers him the soup.

He eats it.

And Feyre accepts him as her mate.

No enormous public declaration.

No elaborate ceremony.

Just two people in a cabin, finally being honest with each other.

And a bowl of soup that has somehow become one of the most important meals in romantasy history.

Chapter 55

You know the one.

The cabin.

The paint.

Two people who have spent almost an entire book building up to this moment.

And finally, absolutely nobody is pretending they don’t want each other.

I’m not going to give you a detailed breakdown of everything that happens here. That’s what my ACOMAF spicy-chapter guide is for.

But I will say this.

The paint is not just a prop.

Feyre has spent so much of the book disconnected from the part of herself that loves creating things.

Now she’s painting again, she’s imagining a future, and she’s chosen a relationship she actually wants.

And the fact that this particular chapter combines all of that with an extremely satisfying romantic payoff?

Well.

Respectfully, I was not calm.

The second meeting with the mortal queens

Unfortunately, the romantic interlude cannot last forever.

There is still a war coming.

And the Night Court still needs the second half of the Book of Breathings.

The mortal queens finally agree to another meeting at the Archeron estate, and this time the Inner Circle brings the Veritas orb.

Only two queens attend.

The others are absent, which is not particularly reassuring.

Rhys and his companions use the orb to show the queens Velaris, hoping that revealing the hidden city will prove that the Night Court genuinely wants to protect its people and avoid another war.

And still, the queens refuse to hand over their half of the Book.

Honestly, at this point I would be reconsidering my entire approach to diplomacy.

But after the queens leave, Rhys discovers something.

The golden-haired queen has secretly left the Book behind, along with a letter.

She has decided to trust the Night Court, and she warns them not to trust the other queens.

Which means the group finally has both halves of the Book of Breathings.

And the golden-haired queen has taken an enormous risk by helping them.

Unfortunately, we’re about to find out just how enormous.

The attack on Velaris

After the second meeting with the queens, Feyre and the Inner Circle return to Velaris.

For a brief moment, it looks like things might actually be going according to plan.

They have both halves of the Book.

Amren is working on understanding its magic.

Feyre is happy with Rhys.

And then Hybern attacks.

The city that has been hidden for thousands of years is suddenly under assault.

The enemy has discovered Velaris.

And the golden-haired queen, the one who secretly helped the Night Court, has been killed.

Her body is thrown into the city during the attack.

It’s a horrific reminder of what happens when the wrong people discover a secret.

But while everyone else is dealing with the attack, Feyre makes a decision.

She’s not going to hide.

She’s not going to wait somewhere safe while the people of Velaris are being killed.

She’s going to fight.

And she goes straight for the Rainbow.

The artists’ quarter.

The place that helped her start imagining a future again.

Using her water magic, Feyre summons creatures from the river to attack Hybern’s forces and defend the people of the city.

And then she goes after the Attor.

Yes, that Attor.

The creature that tormented her Under the Mountain and attacked her again during her training.

This time, Feyre is ready.

She fights it and kills it.

And when Rhys finds her afterwards, he calls her the Defender of the Rainbow.

I’m sorry, but can we appreciate how far this woman has come?

At the beginning of the book, Feyre was being told that she couldn’t leave the house because it was too dangerous.

Now she’s defending an entire city using powers she barely knew she possessed a few months earlier.

And she’s doing it because she wants to protect the people who gave her somewhere to belong.

Not because someone told her she had to.

That distinction is everything.

The ring, and Rhysand’s mother

Remember the ring Feyre retrieved from the Weaver’s cottage?

We’re finally getting an explanation.

As the group prepares for its mission to Hybern, Rhys gives Feyre the ring and tells her where it came from.

It belonged to his mother.

She left it with the Weaver as a test for the woman who would one day become her son’s bride.

And Feyre, without knowing any of that, went into the cottage and retrieved it.

So, to recap.

Feyre was sent into a building full of horrifying objects belonging to an ancient creature that wanted to eat her.

She survived.

She retrieved a ring.

And it turns out she has unknowingly passed a test set by her future mother-in-law.

I feel like meeting the parents is already stressful enough without having to survive a visit to the Weaver first.

But apparently, that’s what passes for family tradition in the Night Court.

The ring is more than a piece of jewellery now.

It’s a connection to Rhys’s mother, his past, and the future he and Feyre are beginning to imagine together.

And after everything they’ve been through, Feyre finally gets to understand why Rhys sent her after it.

Hybern, and the Cauldron

Amren manages to translate the Book of Breathings and work out the spell they need to use against the Cauldron.

So the Inner Circle prepares to infiltrate Hybern.

The plan is to reach the Cauldron, use the spell to neutralise its power, and get out before anyone realises what’s happening.

Rhys cannot simply walk into Hybern’s stronghold without risking detection, so Feyre and the others must carry out the mission without him beside them the entire time.

They manage to reach the Cauldron.

But the Book is ancient, powerful and very much capable of getting into Feyre’s head.

The mission goes wrong.

The group is discovered, their powers are restricted, and suddenly they’re facing the King of Hybern with very few options for escape.

And then Jurian appears.

Alive.

Which is a fairly spectacular development considering what happened to him during the war five hundred years earlier.

Jurian was a human commander who fought against the faeries who wanted to keep humans enslaved.

Amarantha captured him, tortured him and preserved his eye and finger bone, trapping his awareness in the objects she wore.

Now he’s been resurrected through the Cauldron and appears to be working with Hybern.

Which is not exactly the reunion anyone was hoping for.

Azriel is wounded during the confrontation, Cassian is also placed in terrible danger, and the King has Feyre and the Inner Circle exactly where he wants them.

And then Tamlin walks into the room.

With Lucien.

Oh, Tamlin.

What have you done?

Tamlin’s deal with Hybern

Tamlin has made a bargain with the King of Hybern.

In exchange for helping him recover Feyre, Tamlin has agreed to allow Hybern’s forces access through the Spring Court.

Which is a fairly significant concession to make to a king who wants to invade the human lands.

Tamlin believes he’s rescuing Feyre from Rhysand.

He refuses to accept that she might have chosen to leave him.

And now he’s standing beside Hybern, expecting her to be grateful that he’s come to take her home.

Meanwhile, Feyre has a mate she loves, a new home and a family waiting for her in Velaris.

And she absolutely does not want to go back to the Spring Court.

But the King of Hybern has another surprise.

One that changes everything.

Nesta, Elain and the Cauldron

The mortal queens have betrayed the Night Court.

And Hybern has found Feyre’s sisters.

Ianthe provided the information that allowed the King to locate Nesta and Elain, and now the two women are being brought into the throne room against their will.

The King intends to demonstrate the Cauldron’s ability to transform humans into immortal High Fae.

And he’s going to use Feyre’s sisters to do it.

Elain goes into the Cauldron first.

She comes out transformed into High Fae, terrified and completely overwhelmed by what has happened.

Lucien covers her with his jacket.

And then it’s Nesta’s turn.

Now, I know this is an absolutely horrific scene.

But Nesta Archeron, human, unarmed and being forced into an ancient magical object by a king who thinks he’s already won, decides that she’s going to give him one final message on the way down.

She points her middle finger at him.

Absolute icon behaviour under duress.

She might not be able to stop what’s happening, but she is absolutely not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her submit quietly.

And when she comes out of the Cauldron, she’s High Fae, too.

Feyre’s sisters have been transformed against their will.

Whatever lives they had planned for themselves on the human side of the wall have just been taken away.

And as if the situation wasn’t already complicated enough, Lucien has something to say.

Elain is his mate.

Oh, for goodness’ sake.

Can this family have ONE normal afternoon?

Feyre’s decision

At this point, the entire situation looks hopeless.

Nesta and Elain have been transformed.

The Inner Circle is trapped.

Azriel and Cassian are badly injured.

Tamlin is standing beside Hybern, convinced that he’s finally getting Feyre back.

And Rhys is in danger.

So Feyre does something unexpected.

She pretends that Rhysand’s control over her has finally been broken.

She acts as though she’s suddenly realised that she still loves Tamlin and wants to return to the Spring Court.

Tamlin believes her.

And Feyre uses the performance to create an opportunity for the others to escape.

She asks the King of Hybern to break the bond between her and Rhys.

The King severs their original bargain, removing the tattoo that marked their agreement from Under the Mountain.

But that’s not the same thing as breaking their mating bond.

Feyre also manages to disarm the protections preventing the Inner Circle from escaping.

Mor takes Nesta and Elain to safety.

Rhys gets Azriel and Cassian out.

And Feyre leaves with Tamlin and Lucien.

To everyone who doesn’t understand what she’s doing, it looks like she’s been taken back to the Spring Court.

But this is not the same woman who left that house.

And she is absolutely not going home to play the grateful bride.

The High Lady of the Night Court

Then comes Chapter 68.

And we get Rhysand’s point of view.

For the first time, we see what happened in Hybern through his understanding of the situation.

He knows Feyre hasn’t abandoned him.

Their mating bond is still intact.

And the King of Hybern, who thinks he’s successfully separated them, has no idea what Feyre is actually doing.

Then Rhys reveals something else.

The night before their mission, he and Feyre secretly had a ceremony in which she was sworn in as High Lady of the Night Court.

Not simply Rhysand’s consort.

Not a title she holds because she’s married to him.

High Lady.

His equal in rank and authority.

Remember when Tamlin told Feyre there was no such thing as a High Lady?

Well.

Apparently, Rhysand had other ideas.

Feyre is now the High Lady of the Night Court, and she’s just walked straight into the Spring Court with Tamlin.

As a spy.

Ready to gather information, undermine Hybern’s plans and take apart the alliance that has been formed against her people.

And the best part?

Tamlin thinks he’s rescued her.

Oh, this is going to be interesting.

The last page

Feyre returns to the Spring Court with Tamlin and Lucien.

She’s back in the manor where she was once trapped.

Back with the man who believed keeping her contained was the same thing as keeping her safe.

But everything has changed.

She has her powers.

She has her training.

She has a family waiting for her in Velaris.

And she has a mating bond with Rhysand that Hybern couldn’t break.

Feyre conceals the marks identifying her as High Lady and plays the part of the woman Tamlin believes he’s brought home.

But she’s there for a reason.

She’s going to find out what Tamlin and Hybern are planning.

She’s going to protect the people she loves.

And she’s going to make them regret underestimating her.

The woman who once begged someone to get her out of the Spring Court has now walked back into it willingly.

Not because she belongs there.

Because she knows exactly what she’s doing.

And that is how you end a book.

The moments everyone actually talks about

Now that we’ve covered what happens, can we talk about some of the moments that make this book so ridiculously good on a reread?

Because knowing the ending changes how you experience so many of the earlier scenes.

And apparently, listening to them again on GraphicAudio has done absolutely nothing to improve my ability to behave like a normal person about this series.

“Hello, Feyre darling”

The wedding.

Three words.

One spectacularly timed entrance.

And an entire room full of people suddenly realising that the High Lord of the Night Court has arrived to collect a bargain.

What gets me about this scene on a reread is knowing that Rhys heard Feyre asking for help.

He wasn’t planning to call in the bargain that day. He intervened because she needed someone to stop the wedding.

And after watching Feyre spend the opening chapters struggling to make anyone understand how badly she was doing, having someone finally listen feels enormous.

Also, the dramatic entrance?

Ten out of ten.

No notes.

The Bone Carver

The Bone Carver is one of those characters who makes me feel like the book has just opened a door to a much bigger, much stranger world.

He doesn’t have one fixed appearance.

He shows Feyre something that means something to her, even though she doesn’t understand what she’s seeing.

And rather than explaining everything, the book leaves us with questions.

Who is he really? What does he know? And why does he choose that particular appearance?

I’m not answering those questions here because this is a book 2 guide.

But I will say that he’s one of the characters I pay much closer attention to during a reread.

Especially when he seems to know considerably more than he’s prepared to share.

The Summer Court heist

I still have mixed feelings about this one.

The actual heist is brilliant.

The magical protections. The hidden temple. Feyre wearing Tarquin’s face. The Book recognising that she’s lying.

And then the water-wraiths coming to the rescue.

But Tarquin.

Poor Tarquin.

He welcomed them into his home, and they robbed him.

And the fact that Rhys genuinely likes him makes the whole thing even more frustrating.

I love that the book allows a decision made for understandable reasons to have consequences.

The Night Court gets what it needs, but it loses a potential ally in the process.

And three blood rubies are a fairly effective way of letting everyone know that Tarquin is not interested in receiving a thank-you card.

The music Under the Mountain

This is one of my favourite little details to revisit.

Knowing that Rhys was responsible for the music Feyre heard while she was imprisoned gives those earlier scenes an entirely different emotional meaning.

The music wasn’t a random moment of beauty in an otherwise horrible place.

Someone was trying to help her.

And when you go back to book one knowing who sent it?

Well.

Excuse me while I sit here thinking about that for a moment.

Chapter 48, and the one-bed situation

Forced proximity.

An inn.

One bed.

A ridiculous amount of unresolved tension.

This is one of those scenes where I am entirely happy to admit that I know exactly what the author is doing, and I am enjoying every second of it.

Rhys and Feyre have spent so much time circling around their attraction that putting them in a room with one bed feels almost unfair.

To the characters, obviously.

Not to me.

I was having a wonderful time.

The Suriel knows everything

Poor Feyre.

She’s trying to save Rhys from a poison that could kill him.

She captures the Suriel because she needs medical advice.

And the creature decides that now would be a wonderful time to tell her she’s mated to the man she’s currently trying to keep alive.

Imagine going to ask how to treat a medical emergency and coming home with an entirely unexpected relationship status.

I’d be furious too.

But the scene matters because Feyre learns the truth from someone other than Rhys.

She gets to be angry about it.

She gets to ask questions.

And, most importantly, she gets to decide what she wants to do with that information.

Even if the answer eventually involves soup.

Chapter 55, and the paint

I don’t think Chapter 55 needs much of an introduction.

If you’ve read the book, you know.

If you haven’t, I’m not explaining it here, because you really should experience that particular chapter for yourself.

What I will say is that the paint makes the scene more meaningful than it would have been without Feyre’s earlier struggles.

She has rediscovered something she loves.

She’s started imagining a future.

And she’s finally allowing herself to be happy with someone she’s chosen.

The romance and her return to painting come together in a way that makes the whole scene feel earned.

Also, yes, the build-up was doing the most.

And yes, I enjoyed the payoff.

Some things are between me, my Kindle and my questionable fictional taste.

Nesta and the Cauldron

Nesta’s middle-finger moment is going to live in my head forever.

She’s absolutely terrified, she’s being forced into something she cannot control, and she still manages to communicate exactly what she thinks of the King of Hybern.

I love that her defiance doesn’t suddenly disappear just because she’s powerless in that particular situation.

And when she comes out of the Cauldron?

Well, I think Hybern may have seriously underestimated the woman he just transformed.

Which is his problem now.

Lucien and Elain

Of all the possible moments for Lucien to discover that Elain is his mate, this has to be one of the worst.

She’s just been forcibly transformed into High Fae.

Her entire life has changed.

Her sister has also been transformed, everyone is in danger, and Lucien has just realised that he shares a mating bond with a woman who has absolutely no reason to welcome yet another unexpected complication.

And I’m supposed to process all of this in the middle of the Hybern disaster?

Absolutely not.

I’m staying out of the great fandom debate for now, but I have opinions warming up in the background.

The last-page reveal

This is the moment that made me want to go straight into book three.

Feyre has spent much of this book trying to escape the Spring Court.

Then she walks back into it.

But this time, she’s not trapped.

She’s there with a plan, and she has the Night Court behind her.

The same place that once represented everything she was afraid of has become somewhere she is willing to risk everything for.

And the man who believes he’s brought her home has absolutely no idea what he’s invited back into his court.

I love an ending that makes me immediately reach for the next book.

And this one absolutely delivers.

To the stars who listen

The line.

You know the one.

The one that has appeared on tattoos, bookmarks, candles, jewellery and approximately half the bookish things I’ve ever wanted to buy.

It’s from this book, and knowing the story behind it makes it so much more meaningful.

It isn’t simply a romantic declaration.

It’s about hope, dreams and the possibility of a future that might actually be worth fighting for.

Which, after everything Feyre and Rhys have been through, is a pretty significant thing to believe in.

And yes, I still love it.

I’m not even going to pretend otherwise.

A Court of Mist and Fury characters

Book two is where the ACOTAR cast really expands.

We meet Rhysand’s Inner Circle, discover the hidden side of the Night Court, spend more time with Feyre’s sisters, and get a much clearer idea of who is involved in the coming war.

There are also several characters whose roles become considerably more important than they first appear.

Here’s who’s who in book two, without wandering into later-book spoilers.

Feyre Archeron

Former human huntress, now High Fae, carrying magic inherited from all seven High Lords.

At the beginning of the book, Feyre is deeply traumatised by everything she experienced Under the Mountain.

She’s struggling to adjust to her new body, her powers and a life at the Spring Court that has become increasingly restrictive.

Her journey through book two is about reclaiming her independence.

She learns to read properly, discovers what her powers can do, begins training as a fighter and slowly finds her way back to painting.

She also discovers Velaris, falls in love with Rhysand and finds a family among the Inner Circle.

By the end of the book, she has become High Lady of the Night Court and is willingly taking on a dangerous mission inside the Spring Court.

And that is one hell of a character arc.

My favourite part isn’t that Feyre becomes powerful.

It’s that she gradually starts believing she has the right to decide what happens to her.

The powers are wonderful.

The wings are spectacular.

But watching her start to imagine a future she actually wants?

That’s the part that gets me.

Rhysand

High Lord of the Night Court, professional keeper of secrets, and the fictional man responsible for raising my standards to a frankly unreasonable level.

I went into book two knowing there was more to him than the man we met Under the Mountain.

What I wasn’t prepared for was discovering just how much he had been hiding.

Velaris. His Inner Circle. Everything he endured under Amarantha. The real reasons behind some of his decisions.

And then there’s the mating bond.

Do I think every single thing he did in book one was perfect? No.

Do I understand him a hell of a lot better now?

Absolutely.

The man has spent centuries convincing everyone he’s a monster while secretly protecting a city full of people who love him.

And apparently, somewhere in the middle of all that, he found time to teach Feyre to read, help her discover her powers and develop an absolutely ridiculous correspondence habit.

Honestly, how am I supposed to have normal expectations after this?

Tamlin

High Lord of the Spring Court.

And a man I have been side-eyeing since Under the Mountain.

I know Tamlin has his own trauma, and I don’t think his actions in this book are as simple as waking up one morning and deciding to be awful.

But understanding why someone behaves a certain way doesn’t mean I have to agree with what they do.

And I do not agree with what he does to Feyre.

He refuses to let her train, repeatedly dismisses her requests for independence, loses control of his magic during an argument and eventually traps her inside the manor.

He believes he’s protecting her.

But he isn’t listening to what she’s telling him she needs.

And when Feyre leaves, he refuses to accept that she might have made that choice herself.

By the end of the book, he’s made a deal with Hybern to get her back, exposing the Spring Court and the human lands to enormous danger.

I didn’t defend him in book one, and I am certainly not about to start now.

I will, however, give Sarah J. Maas credit for writing a character whose actions can be understandable from his own perspective without asking me to pretend those actions are acceptable.

And that is considerably more interesting than a villain who simply enjoys being horrible.

Morrigan (Mor)

Rhysand’s cousin and Third in Command of the Night Court.

Mor is warm, funny, powerful and one of the first people to make Feyre feel genuinely welcome.

She’s also the person who physically rescues Feyre from Tamlin’s shielded manor, takes her to safety and later helps her find somewhere private to process the revelation about her mating bond.

Her history with the Court of Nightmares and her father, Keir, is awful.

But I love that the book allows her to be joyful and affectionate despite everything she’s experienced.

She has her own complicated relationships, loyalties and secrets.

And she’s exactly the sort of friend Feyre needs when everything else in her life feels as though it’s falling apart.

Cassian

Illyrian warrior, commander of the Night Court’s armies, seven red siphons, and absolutely no filter whatsoever.

Cassian grew up alongside Rhysand and Azriel, and the three share a brotherly bond forged through difficult childhoods and years of fighting together.

He becomes Feyre’s combat instructor, helping her develop the skills and confidence she needs to defend herself.

He’s also one of the few people who can take the mickey out of Rhysand without looking remotely concerned about the consequences.

And then there’s Nesta.

The tension between those two starts the moment they meet.

Cassian is loud, confident and not particularly interested in being intimidated.

Nesta is Nesta.

I could happily read an entire book consisting of those two arguing across a dinner table.

Which probably says something about my taste in fictional relationships.

Azriel

The Night Court’s spymaster, shadowsinger and one of Rhysand’s closest friends.

Azriel has seven blue siphons, scarred hands and a mysterious presence that has apparently convinced a substantial portion of the fandom that the quiet ones are always worth paying attention to.

He grew up in an abusive household before finding a home with Rhysand and Cassian.

Now he’s responsible for gathering intelligence, protecting the Night Court and carrying out some of the Inner Circle’s most dangerous missions.

He’s also the one who retrieves the Veritas orb while Rhys and Feyre distract the Court of Nightmares.

His feelings for Mor remain unresolved in book two, and there is clearly more to his story than he’s prepared to share.

Which is fine.

I can be patient.

Probably.

Amren

Rhysand’s Second in Command.

Small. Ancient. Silver-eyed. Extremely fond of jewellery.

And absolutely not someone I would want to upset.

Amren was not born High Fae. She’s an ancient being who has taken on a fae body, drinks blood and possesses abilities that make even the other members of the Inner Circle wary.

She was once imprisoned in the Prison, and her exact origins remain mysterious in book two.

Her knowledge of ancient languages and magic becomes essential when the Night Court retrieves the Book of Breathings.

Without her, the group would have an extremely dangerous magical book and very little idea what to do with it.

She also has a developing connection with Varian from the Summer Court.

Which I find particularly entertaining, given that his court has just sent her a blood ruby.

Apparently, even a death warrant cannot completely ruin a promising conversation.

Ianthe

A High Priestess who becomes closely involved with the Spring Court after Amarantha’s defeat.

Ianthe initially presents herself as helpful, religious and devoted to supporting Tamlin and Feyre.

She takes charge of the wedding preparations and repeatedly interferes in Feyre’s life.

But as the book progresses, her behaviour becomes increasingly concerning.

Rhys and Lucien both have reasons to distrust her, and her treatment of Lucien makes it clear that her disregard for other people’s boundaries is not limited to wedding planning.

By the end of the book, she’s working with Hybern and has helped the King find Nesta and Elain.

Which makes her involvement in the Spring Court considerably more dangerous than it first appears.

Honestly, I disliked her almost immediately.

And unfortunately, she gave me absolutely no reason to reconsider.

Lucien Vanserra

Tamlin’s friend and emissary, and someone who spends much of book two caught between his loyalty to Tamlin and his concern for Feyre.

Lucien knows Feyre is struggling at the Spring Court.

He attempts to help at times, but he doesn’t ultimately prevent Tamlin from restricting her freedom.

When he later finds Feyre in the Night Court’s territory, he tries to persuade her to come back.

She refuses.

And by the end of the book, Lucien is standing beside Tamlin in Hybern when Feyre’s sisters are forced into the Cauldron.

Then he discovers that Elain is his mate.

A woman who has just been transformed against her will, is engaged to someone else and has absolutely no reason to welcome this news.

And now I’m supposed to work out how I feel about Lucien.

I have sympathy for him.

I also have questions about some of his decisions.

And I think his situation at the end of book two is considerably more complicated than he ever expected it to be.

Nesta Archeron

Feyre’s older sister.

Protective of Elain, suspicious of faeries and not particularly interested in making anyone feel comfortable.

Nesta agrees to help Feyre arrange the meetings with the mortal queens, but she has no intention of suddenly becoming best friends with the Night Court.

Her interactions with Cassian are particularly entertaining.

She also stands up to the queens when they show so little concern for the human populations near the wall.

At the end of the book, Nesta is forced into the Cauldron and transformed into High Fae.

But even while facing the King of Hybern, she refuses to submit quietly.

And when she emerges, Feyre recognises that something extraordinary has happened to her.

I cannot wait to see what comes next for this woman.

Elain Archeron

Feyre’s other older sister, engaged to Graysen and hoping to continue the life she has built in the human lands.

Elain is gentler in her manner than Nesta, but she isn’t completely passive.

She helps Feyre arrange the meetings with the mortal queens and tries to navigate the increasingly complicated situation her family has become involved in.

Unfortunately, Hybern destroys the future she had planned when she’s forced into the Cauldron.

She emerges as High Fae.

And Lucien immediately recognises her as his mate.

Which is an awful lot for someone to discover in the middle of a magical transformation she never wanted.

By the end of book two, Elain has been taken to safety with Nesta, but her future is very uncertain.

Tarquin

High Lord of the Summer Court.

Young, hopeful and interested in changing the way Prythian operates.

Tarquin wants a future where the different faerie courts can work together and lesser faeries have a greater voice.

He welcomes Rhys, Feyre and Amren to the Summer Court and appears genuinely interested in forming a friendship.

Unfortunately, they steal the Book of Breathings from him.

He responds by sending three blood rubies, marking them for death.

I still think he deserved better.

And I hope he eventually gets the opportunity to do something with those ideas about a fairer Prythian.

The King of Hybern

The main external threat in book two.

The King wants to bring down the wall separating the human and faerie lands and restore the old order, in which humans were enslaved.

He possesses the Cauldron, has powerful allies and is willing to manipulate anyone who might help him achieve his goals.

His actions lead to the attack on Velaris, the capture of the Inner Circle and the forced transformation of Nesta and Elain.

By the end of the book, he’s preparing for war.

And Feyre is heading back to the Spring Court to find out what she can about his plans.

Jurian

A human commander who fought against the faeries seeking to preserve human slavery during the war five hundred years earlier.

Amarantha captured him, tortured him and preserved his eye and finger bone, trapping his awareness in the objects she wore.

Hybern resurrects him using the Cauldron.

And now he’s apparently working alongside the people he once fought against.

His motives aren’t entirely clear in book two, and I am not going to speculate about what later books might reveal.

But seeing him alive in Hybern after everything we learned about him in book one is certainly an interesting development.

The mortal queens

The six human queens who hold the second half of the Book of Breathings.

Five attend the first meeting at the Archeron estate, while only two attend the second.

Despite being shown Velaris through the Veritas orb, the queens publicly refuse to surrender the Book.

The golden-haired queen secretly helps the Night Court by leaving it behind, along with a warning about the others.

She is later killed, while the surviving queens’ betrayal helps Hybern locate the Night Court and capture Feyre’s sisters.

Their decisions have consequences for both the human and faerie lands.

The Bone Carver

An ancient being imprisoned inside the Prison.

He appears in different forms to different people and possesses knowledge that makes him extremely valuable, if you can survive a conversation with him.

He tells Feyre and Rhys about the Book of Breathings and its connection to the Cauldron.

His true nature and the significance of the appearance he chooses for Feyre remain mysterious within book two.

The Weaver

An ancient, terrifying creature living in a cottage in the Middle.

She guards a collection of objects taken from her victims, including the ring Rhysand’s mother left for his future bride.

Feyre enters her cottage to retrieve the ring and barely escapes alive.

One of the best horror sequences in the series.

And further proof that I will never be accepting a casual invitation to visit a mysterious cottage in a magical forest.

Keir

Mor’s father and steward of the Court of Nightmares in Hewn City.

Keir represents the crueler, traditional side of the Night Court’s ruling structure.

He holds the Veritas orb, which the Inner Circle needs to show the mortal queens the truth about Velaris.

He’s also responsible for some of Mor’s most painful experiences, which makes his interactions with the Inner Circle particularly uncomfortable.

The Suriel

An ancient faerie creature known for possessing valuable information.

Feyre captures the Suriel while trying to find a cure for Rhysand’s poisoning.

It tells her how to save him.

And, because apparently it enjoys delivering more information than anyone asked for, it also reveals that Rhys is her mate.

Possibly the most consequential medical consultation in the entire series.

A Court of Mist and Fury FAQ

How many chapters are in A Court of Mist and Fury?

A Court of Mist and Fury has 69 numbered chapters and a prologue.

It’s considerably longer than A Court of Thorns and Roses, and there’s a lot happening between Feyre leaving the Spring Court, discovering Velaris, finding her mate and becoming involved in the conflict with Hybern.

And yes, Chapter 55 has its reputation for a reason.

But if you’re skipping straight to it, you’re missing all the tension, the character development and the absolutely ridiculous amount of flirting that makes it work.

What book comes after A Court of Mist and Fury?

A Court of Wings and Ruin is book 3 in the ACOTAR series.

It picks up after Feyre returns to the Spring Court, where she’s pretending to have chosen Tamlin while secretly working for the Night Court.

After that, the reading order continues with A Court of Frost and Starlight and A Court of Silver Flames.

The sixth book, A Court of Splintered Harmony, is scheduled for release on 27 October 2026, followed by A Court of Forgotten Melody on 12 January 2027.

I’m currently working my way through the series again on GraphicAudio before the new releases, because apparently I enjoy getting emotionally invested in fictional people and then immediately doing it all over again.

Why does Feyre leave Tamlin?

Feyre leaves Tamlin because their relationship has become increasingly controlling and restrictive, and she no longer feels safe or free in the Spring Court.

After Under the Mountain, she’s struggling with trauma, nightmares and guilt.

She wants to learn how to use her new powers, become more independent and play an active role in her own life.

Tamlin repeatedly refuses to let her train or leave the manor without guards.

When he eventually seals her inside the house with a magical shield, Feyre experiences a severe panic response.

Rhysand breaks the shield, Mor rescues her, and Feyre chooses to remain at the Night Court.

It’s not simply that she stops loving Tamlin and starts loving Rhys.

It’s that the life she’s living at the Spring Court is making her miserable, and the people at the Night Court give her the opportunity to begin rebuilding her independence.

And, if I’m being perfectly clear, I don’t think she should have needed a magical rescue to be allowed to leave her own house.

When does Feyre find out Rhysand is her mate?

Feyre discovers that Rhysand is her mate in Chapter 50.

After Rhys is captured and poisoned by Hybern’s soldiers, Feyre rescues him and captures the Suriel to learn how to treat him.

The Suriel reveals that Rhys is her mate and that he already knows about their bond.

Feyre is angry that Rhys has kept the information from her.

She later asks Mor to take her to the mountain cabin, where she spends some time alone before Rhys arrives and explains why he didn’t tell her.

Feyre accepts the mating bond in Chapter 54.

What happens in Chapter 55 of A Court of Mist and Fury?

Chapter 55 is the famous cabin scene.

After Feyre learns the truth about her mating bond with Rhysand and accepts him as her mate, their relationship finally moves beyond the romantic tension that has been building throughout the book.

It’s one of the most talked-about spicy chapters in the ACOTAR series.

And yes, there is paint involved.

If you want to know where all the spicy chapters fall, how the romance develops and whether the GraphicAudio version is worth listening to, I’ve covered that in my ACOMAF spicy-chapter guide and reread review.

Why does Feyre give Rhysand soup?

In Prythian, a female offering food to her mate is a traditional way of showing that she accepts their mating bond.

During Chapter 54, Feyre listens to Rhys explain their connection and why he kept it secret.

She then chooses to give him a bowl of soup, signifying that she accepts him as her mate.

The important part is that Feyre makes the decision herself.

The soup doesn’t create the mating bond, and it isn’t a magical ingredient that makes their relationship official.

It’s a traditional gesture of acceptance.

And I think it’s hilarious that the man who rules the Night Court has one of the most important moments of his romantic life over a bowl of soup.

What kind of soup does Feyre make Rhysand?

The book doesn’t specify what kind of soup Feyre gives Rhysand.

Which is frankly a missed opportunity for those of us who spend an unreasonable amount of time thinking about fictional food.

I am going to plant a flag here.

Chicken soup.

Something warm and comforting that feels like an actual home-cooked meal.

Do I have proof?

Absolutely not.

Am I prepared to discuss this at length with anyone who has a different theory?

Obviously.

Tell me what you think it was, because apparently this is the kind of important literary question that keeps me awake at night.

Who saves Feyre from Tamlin’s magical shield?

Rhysand breaks the magical shield Tamlin places around the Spring Court manor, but Mor is the person who physically rescues Feyre.

Mor enters the house, gets Feyre out and takes her to the Night Court.

This happens in Chapter 12, after Tamlin refuses to let Feyre accompany him and Lucien and seals her inside the manor.

Why does Feyre go into the Weaver’s cottage?

Rhysand sends Feyre into the Weaver’s cottage to test whether she can use her newly inherited powers to locate an object hidden through High Lord magic.

The object is a ring.

Feyre successfully retrieves it, but she doesn’t initially know that it belonged to Rhysand’s mother.

Later in the book, Rhys explains that his mother left the ring with the Weaver as a test for his future bride.

So yes, Feyre essentially passes the world’s most dangerous test set by a future mother-in-law.

And she doesn’t even know she’s taking it.

Why does Tarquin send Rhysand, Feyre and Amren blood rubies?

Tarquin sends three blood rubies after discovering that Rhysand, Feyre and Amren stole half of the Book of Breathings from the Summer Court.

The rubies signify that their lives are forfeit because of their betrayal.

Tarquin had welcomed the Night Court’s representatives into his home and was interested in building an alliance.

Instead, they stole from him and damaged the possibility of that friendship.

Personally, I think Tarquin had every reason to be upset.

What happens to Nesta and Elain at the end of A Court of Mist and Fury?

Nesta and Elain are captured by Hybern’s forces and forcibly transformed into High Fae using the Cauldron.

Ianthe helps Hybern locate the sisters, and the King uses them to demonstrate the Cauldron’s ability to turn humans into immortal faeries.

Elain is transformed first, followed by Nesta.

Afterwards, Lucien recognises that Elain is his mate.

Mor takes both sisters to safety while Feyre remains behind to carry out her plan to return to the Spring Court.

Is Feyre really High Lady of the Night Court?

Yes.

In Chapter 68, Rhysand reveals that he and Feyre secretly had a ceremony the night before their mission to Hybern, in which she was sworn in as High Lady of the Night Court.

She is his equal in rank and authority, rather than simply holding the title of his consort.

By the end of the book, Feyre has returned to the Spring Court while concealing her identity as High Lady from Tamlin.

Does Hybern break Feyre and Rhysand’s mating bond?

No.

The King of Hybern breaks the original bargain Feyre made with Rhysand Under the Mountain.

That bargain was represented by the tattoo on Feyre’s hand and required her to spend one week every month at the Night Court.

Their mating bond remains intact.

Rhys confirms this in Chapter 68, after Feyre has left Hybern with Tamlin and Lucien.

Can I skip A Court of Thorns and Roses and start with A Court of Mist and Fury?

You could.

But I really wouldn’t.

So much of what makes book two work depends on understanding what happened in book one.

Feyre’s trauma. Her relationship with Tamlin. Everything Rhysand did Under the Mountain. The bargain. The High Lords bringing her back to life.

Even the little moments, like the music Feyre heard while imprisoned, become more meaningful when you know the full story.

And Rhysand’s character development hits completely differently when you’ve experienced him through Feyre’s eyes in book one.

So start at the beginning.

Trust me.

The payoff is worth it.

So, was it any good?

It’s my favourite book in the series.

A Court of Silver Flames is an extremely close second, and on a different day I might argue myself into swapping them, but not today.

What I love about A Court of Mist and Fury is that it gives us so much more than a new romantic relationship.

Feyre doesn’t simply leave one man and fall in love with another.

She finds somewhere she belongs.

She learns how to defend herself, discovers her powers, makes friends, starts painting again and builds a future that she actually wants.

And while I absolutely adore the romance, I think watching her rediscover herself is just as important.

Then there’s Rhysand.

The hidden city. His Inner Circle. Everything he was protecting. All those little moments from book one that suddenly mean something different.

And the bat boys.

Good grief, the bat boys.

I came into this reread knowing exactly what happens, and somehow I still found myself getting completely caught up in it.

I laughed. I got emotional. I wanted to climb into the book and have dinner with the Inner Circle.

And I am still not over that bloody soup.

It’s a book that rewards a reread because there are so many little details you can appreciate once you know how everything fits together.

And the ending?

The ending makes me want to pick up book three immediately.

Which is exactly what I’m doing.

What book 2 sets up

By the end of A Court of Mist and Fury, there are quite a few things left hanging.

The war with Hybern is approaching, and the Night Court needs to work out how to stop the King before he destroys the wall.

Nesta and Elain have been transformed into High Fae against their will, and neither knows what the future holds.

Lucien has discovered that Elain is his mate, which is going to make an already complicated situation considerably more interesting.

The Night Court’s relationship with the Summer Court has been damaged by the theft of the Book of Breathings.

And Feyre?

She’s back at the Spring Court.

Playing the part of the woman Tamlin believes he’s rescued.

While secretly working for the Night Court.

With her powers, her training and her mating bond intact.

And absolutely no intention of letting Hybern get away with what he’s done.

I would not want to be Tamlin when he eventually works out what is happening.

That’s all I’m saying.

My next stop: A Court of Wings and Ruin

I’m continuing my GraphicAudio reread of the ACOTAR series ahead of the new releases, and A Court of Wings and Ruin is next.

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how Feyre handles being back at the Spring Court, what happens with Nesta and Elain, and how the Night Court prepares for the war.

And, obviously, I need more time with the Inner Circle.

Because apparently one book full of winged men, questionable decisions and romantic tension was not enough.

If you’re rereading the series with me, have a look at my ACOTAR book 1 summary and character guide or catch up on the latest ACOTAR book 6 news.

And now I need to know something.

Was A Court of Mist and Fury your favourite book in the series, or does another one have your heart?

And, more importantly, what kind of soup do you think Feyre made?

Because apparently, we have important things to discuss.