A Court of Mist and Fury

Feyre rings the bell at her family’s estate while the others remain hidden. A housekeeper is suspicious of Feyre, but Feyre’s middle sister Elain appears and sobs with joy, having assumed Feyre was dead. Nesta, Feyre’s oldest sister, orders tea service in the drawing room.

Over tea, Feyre reveals her High Fae appearance to her sisters. She tells them about Amarantha, her death and resurrection, and of the plan to acquire both halves of the Book of Breathings. She asks to use the family estate as a meeting with the mortal queens, but Nesta refuses. Elain is betrothed, and her future father-in-law fears and despises faeries. Elain urges Nesta to agree, suggesting they send the servants away to maintain secrecy. Nesta finally relents. 

After Elain dismisses the staff, Feyre invites Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel into the house. Dinner is tense as resentments simmer between Nesta and Feyre, but Cassian challenges Nesta, citing Feyre’s sacrifices for both realms. They end dinner on a strained but civilized note, Nesta agreeing to let them stay the night.

As they retire for the night—Cassian and Azriel in one room, Feyre and Rhys in the other—Rhys tells Feyre he’s paying her a monthly wage for her services. They discuss her birthday—the Winter Solstice—and Rhys confesses anger with Feyre’s sisters for not protecting her when she was young.

Rhys takes Feyre into the forest for training. He produces a candle and asks her to light it, douse it, and dry it, magically. Feeling the pressure of his presence, she sends him away to practice alone. After an hour with no success, she exchanges a few flirtatious messages with Rhys telepathically. She is so focused on Rhys, she doesn’t notice the Attor arrive, an evil bat-like faerie formerly in service to Amarantha. The Attor grabs Feyre and threatens to snap her neck if she struggles.

Rhys appears in an explosion of darkness and binds the Attor to a tree. Rhys tortures the Attor and learns it was sent for Feyre by the King of Hybern, but he doesn’t know why. The king has allies throughout Prythian, and his armies are vast. Azriel appears, and, using his Siphon, he and the Attor vanish. They will use the creature to send a message to the king: “[I]f they want to hunt the members of my court, they’ll have to do better than that” (268). Rhys suspected Feyre was being hunted and left her alone on purpose, as bait. In a rage, Feyre lunges at him, but he winnows out of reach. She pursues him and taps into another new power. To Rhys’s surprise and delight, Feyre anticipates his next move and winnows directly in front of him, tackling him to the ground.

Feyre warns Rhys to never use her as bait again. He admonishes her for her helplessness against the Attor, telling her that she forgot how to fight. He’s right, and that makes Feyre even angrier. He apologizes, and they head back to her house. 

Nesta and Elain send a letter to the mortal queens requesting a meeting. Rhys and Feyre fly back to Velaris, and Rhys goes to check on Azriel and the Attor. When he returns he warns Feyre that “What we did to the Attor wasn’t pretty” (274). If she wants to be an integral part of his circle, she must be able to hear violent things. Feyre understands. Rhys allows her into his mind where she sees the dungeons below the Hewn City. Azriel questions the Attor, who reveals that everyone thinks Rhys stole Feyre from Tamlin. In the Attor’s mind, Rhys sees the King of Hybern’s vast naval fleet and Tamlin’s closed borders, but no Cauldron or Book of Breathings. The Attor has told the truth, and they have no further use for him. Azriel breaks its legs and shreds its wings but doesn’t kill it.

Feyre retreats to her room and drafts a letter to Tamlin. She thanks him for his protection but informs him she’s not coming back. Relieved at her decision, she is eager to get back to work. Rhys offers her dinner and a chance to see Velaris at night. As she dresses for dinner, Amren enters her room to tell her about Rhys’s court: rules are flexible so long as the main objectives—“to defend, to honor, to cherish” (280)—are upheld. When Feyre returns Amren’s amulet, Amren confesses that it has no magical power; she lied, hoping to give Feyre the self-confidence to believe she could escape the Prison on her own.

Feyre, Rhys, and his Inner Circle stroll through Velaris. After a great dinner, Rhys and Feyre walk along the river while the others go dancing. Rhys tells Feyre about the dual nature of the Night Court—the Court of Dreams and the Court of Nightmares, the dark half which wards off spies and helps keep Velaris secret. They pass a group of musicians, and Feyre recognizes the music, sent to her by Rhys when she was imprisoned Under the Mountain, a lifeline to keep her from breaking. At the time, Feyre thought Tamlin had sent the music. That night, Rhys invites Feyre to his bedchamber, and she is attracted but declines. She sleeps, dreaming of the Attor.