A Court of Mist and Fury

Back in the Night Court, Rhys confides that he’s worried about Feyre. The mental bond he shares with her has gone silent except for the occasional disruption when she and Tamlin fight. He asks again about training her, but Feyre refuses, fearing that any alliance with Rhys might jeopardize her relationship with Tamlin.

Rhys disappears for nearly the entire week, leaving books for Feyre to read. When he returns, he offers to give her what she needs to move beyond her past and accept her future, but she continues to push him away. After a week, Feyre returns to Tamlin who vows to find a way to end the bargain. 

Feyre reads voraciously while Tamlin and Lucien are away dealing with a “nameless threat.” When they return, Tamlin confers privately with Ianthe. Lucien’s red hair gives Feyre a frightening flashback (Amarantha also had red hair), and her fingernails grow into claws, a manifestation of her growing power. Lucien promises to talk to Tamlin about training her.

That evening, Feyre overhears Tamlin, Lucien, and Ianthe arguing. If Feyre’s powers become known to the other High Lords, they will likely try to kill her or kidnap her for breeding purposes. Ianthe suggests that Rhys may take Feyre away permanently, and hints at assassinating Rhys first. Lucien objects and pleads with Tamlin to let Feyre master her powers. Again, Tamlin refuses.

Later, Feyre asks to accompany Tamlin and Lucien as they address danger on the western border, but Tamlin says no and warns her not to follow them. Feyre threatens to follow “whether [he wants her] to or not” (122), so Tamlin erects an invisible barrier around the manor, locking her inside. Distraught, Feyre searches for a way out. She tries to access her own power, but before she can wield it, Feyre feels hands carrying her out of the manor and senses Mor’s presence. Mor teleports, or “winnows,” Feyre to a place of darkness where Feyre hears Rhys’s voice. The darkness envelops her, and Feyre falls asleep.

Feyre awakens in the Night Court, and Rhys explains that Mor had to take Feyre from the manor “by law and protocol” (127). If Rhys had done it, the violation could have started a war between him and Tamlin. Rhys offers Feyre sanctuary, and she accepts, hoping Tamlin will eventually realize the toll his “protection” took on her. She lists her growing catalogue of powers—darkness, wind, ice—and tries to determine which High Lord they came from. 

Rhys prepares to leave on business, and Feyre asks to come along. He consents on the condition that she never reveal to anyone what she sees.. When Feyre asks about their destination, Rhys replies, “Velaris—the City of Starlight” (130). Feyre takes Rhys’s hand, and they winnow to a lavish but “lived in” manor located in a vibrant, living city—not the ruins she had imagined.

Rhys explains that Velaris has been kept secret for five thousand years to protect it, then invites Feyre to roam the city as she chooses. Illyrians in service to Rhys arrive. Illyria is a city in the Night Court and home to a warrior race of winged faeries; Rhys is half Illyrian. Rhys suggests that Feyre rest while he deals with them. Rhys’s spies, Nuala and Cerridwen, escort Feyre to her bedroom. Feyre asks how Rhys has kept the city protected while the rest of Prythian was destroyed by Amarantha, but the spies say only Rhys can answer that question. 

Feyre explores Velaris and notices a river that curves into the sea. Rhys points out his second home, the House of Wind, on a plateau at the northern border of the city. Rhys and his ancestors have been “ruthless” about keeping Velaris hidden. Feyre chastises Rhys for not opening Velaris as a refuge during Amarantha’s reign, but he ignores her. Rhys escorts Feyre to the Artists’ Quarter, a brightly painted neighborhood of art galleries and amphitheaters which reminds Feyre of her love of painting in her human life. Seeing the people of Velaris—content and oblivious to the ruin of Prythian—angers Feyre, but Rhys insists “My people are blameless” (147).

Rhys explains his Inner Circle: the Illyrians Cassian and Azriel, and Amren, his powerful second-in-command who is older than Velaris. Exhausted, Feyre contemplates ending her life. Rhys chastises her: “Don’t you ever think that” (140), and for a moment Feyre sees herself through his eyes—gaunt and joyless. Feyre somehow penetrated Rhys’s mental shield, a remnant of his power instilled in her. Rhys warns her to keep her own shields up to prevent other daemati—those with the power to enter other minds—from finding out about Velaris.

Rhys flies Feyre to the House of Wind for a meeting with his Inner Circle. Awed by the view, Feyre confesses that her love for Tamlin may have developed only because he was the first person to show her love and offer an escape from poverty. Now she has changed and so have her feelings for Tamlin.