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Summary
Chapter 23
Feyre rings the doorbell of her family’s mansion. The housekeeper is reluctant to let her in, but Elain and Nesta cautiously welcome Feyre inside. She tells them how she was killed and then remade as High Fae, then she explains that she needs to use their house to contact the mortal queens. Nesta rejects the idea because it could jeopardize Elain’s upcoming wedding to the son of a lord who hunts down faeries. Despite the risks to her future as a lady, Elain persuades Nesta to help Feyre, who helped them for so many years.
Chapter 24
Rhysand, Cassian, and Azriel arrive at the house, and Feyre thinks of how Tamlin helped her family recover their fortunes. Elain and Nesta both stiffen at sight of the three male faeries, and Nesta moves in front of Elain protectively. Cassian tells Nesta that Feyre sacrificed her life for others, while Nesta sits and sneers. Elain engages Azriel in polite conversation, asking about flying, and he and Cassian explain the differences between High Fae and lesser faeries. After dinner, Rhysand, Feyre, Cassian, and Azriel write a letter to the queens asking for their help.
Chapter 25
On their day off, Feyre convinces Rhysand to help her train in the woods around the house. He gives her a candle and tells her to use her magic to light it, douse it with water, and then dry the wick. She asks him to go far away so she can concentrate, but she cannot get the candle to light. Taking a break, Feyre and Rhysand send flirtatious notes to each other using magic. As she is waiting for a note to come back, someone overpowers her from behind. It is the Attor, an evil creature from Under the Mountain.
Chapter 26
Appearing out of nowhere, Rhysand binds the Attor to a tree. It confesses that it was sent by the King of Hybern to kidnap Feyre, and also claims that the King of Hybern is ready to invade. Azriel arrives and disappears with the Attor, and Rhysand says they will use it to send a message to the king. Angry that Rhysand didn’t tell her that he expected her to be attacked, Feyre shoves him and is surprised by her own strength. Reading her mind, Rhysand points out that she stopped fighting. In her rage, she grows talons and is able to winnow across a small distance to tackle him.
Chapter 27
Still angry, Feyre refuses to show Rhysand how she winnowed. He apologizes, but she remains upset and threatens to stop working for him if he intends to use her as a pawn instead of training her to be a weapon.
Chapter 28
After he eats breakfast and mails Feyre’s letter to the mortal queens, Rhysand leaves Feyre at the town house in Velaris. Later, he lets her into his mind to show her Azriel interrogating the Attor. Somehow the King of Hybern knew when Feyre went to the mortal lands, and he sent the Attor there. Rhysand orders Azriel to cripple the Attor and leave it off the coast of Hybern to send a message. Later, Feyre writes to Tamlin saying she left of her own free will, that she’s safe, and that she’s not returning. Bored of resting in the town house, Feyre asks Rhysand to show her Velaris at night, so he plans an evening with the rest of the Inner Circle. Amren arrives and when Feyre tries to return her amulet, Amren tells her that there’s no magic to it.
Analysis
The awkwardness of the reunion with her sisters at Feyre’s family mansion illustrates the complex dynamics that exist between the mortal and faerie realms. Even the housekeeper can tell at a glance that Feyre is no longer who she used to be, a reminder that Feyre’s transformation is not just internal but also external. Feyre’s people no longer accept her as one of them, but she doesn’t yet feel comfortable as a High Fae either. Her return isn’t joyful because the Feyre who left to save her true love Under the Mountain no longer exists. She has come back as a stranger in a new and different body, and she understands the extent of her transformation more fully when she reads the distrust on the housekeeper’s face. Elain and Nesta must find a way to accept that their sister has been remade as one of the creatures they have been raised to hate and fear. Nesta’s initial resistance to Feyre’s return, combined with Elain’s empathy, set the stage for a complex exploration of allegiances, ingrained fear, and the intricacies of family bonds.
For Feyre and Nesta, sweet-natured Elain embodies the human vulnerability they are trying to protect through their uneasy alliance. Elain is far more open-minded and tolerant about faeries than Nesta, even though she is about to be married to a man whose father hunts them down and has built a massive fortress around his estate, indicating a protectiveness that gives him something in common with Tamlin. Nesta’s initial reluctance to help Feyre is partly fueled by her desire not to be cast out by the wealthy and privileged circles that her family has only recently rejoined. She knows the social cost of being seen as a faerie sympathizer and wants to avoid losing her family’s influence and standing. Ironically, the Archeron family has been restored to wealth by faerie money from Tamlin, and the house is a reminder of how their fate is tied to that of Prythian.
Feyre continues to explore her new potential in these chapters, choosing to go out into the woods with Rhysand to train on her day off. Although she is eager to learn to wield her abilities to the fullest, she shies away from exploring shape-shifting because of its association with Tamlin. Her growing attraction to Rhysand feels fickle and wrong, coming so soon after her great, world-saving love affair with Tamlin, especially since she knows that Rhysand’s family was responsible for killing Tamlin’s family. Nevertheless, she is unable to resist indulging in flirtatious behavior with Rhysand, and his playfulness helps her cope not only with her past trauma, but also with her dread of what is to come. Their flirtatious exchange of letters highlights Feyre’s newfound literacy, something Rhysand helped her achieve. Once again, Rhysand’s interest in her seems to go beyond mere attraction as he proves himself to be invested in helping her achieve her full potential.
In these chapters, Feyre begins to appreciate that belief is a power almost as important as any of the magical powers she inherited when she was remade. When she is angry with Rhysand and wants to winnow after him, she is only able to do so once she lets herself fully believe that she can do it. Likewise, when she tries to return Amren’s amulet, and Amren says she can keep it because it contains no magic, Feyre realizes that her sheer belief in the amulet’s power was enough to give her the mental strength she needed to overcome her aversion to going underground. When Rhysand tells Feyre that she stopped fighting as soon as the Attor caught her, he is reminding her that she needs to have confidence in her ability to fight. Her power isn’t limited by its own boundaries, but rather by her lack of belief in herself.
