This is going to be a hard one to write. I've condensed 624 pages of book into this summary so of course I've skipped over a lot that I feel isn't "relevant" to the plot but I need to say that if you haven't read the second book and are trying to get the full story from this summary you WON'T be able to. This is just the basic plot but I've skipped over most of the romance bits and a lot of details of the war to try to shorten this a little since it's already going to be so long. In other words, if you expect to be able to read only the first and third books and use this as the mediator for the second book, it's not gonna happen because you WILL be confused. This summary is only a refresher for those going into the 3rd book that have already read the other two first. On that note.....
This book picks up right where book one left off. Feyre is preparing for her wedding to Tamlin, but still has horrible night terrors about what happened under the mountain. Feyre is miserable because Tamlin has become super overprotective of her because although Amarantha is dead her minions still stalk the lands outside the court. He won't let her leave the castle grounds and she feels like a prisoner.
At the wedding, Feyre is doubting marrying Tamlin because he's become so controlling and Rhysand shows up to claim her debt (spending one week of each month at the Night Court). He whisks her away and tells her that he heard her screaming for help through their bond in her tattoo and that's why he showed up when he did.
Although Feyre expects to be treated as a prisoner while at Rhysand's, she is surprised to find that he treats her as a guest. He begins teaching her how to read and how to use her new found abilities gained from the resurrection by the other High Lords when she was dead under the mountain. Tamlin has been trying to hide these abilities out of fear that the other lords will try to kidnap her and use her as a weapon or even worse kill her for fear that she is more powerful than them now.
Rhysand explains to Feyre that she needs to learn to use her abilities because war is coming. She thinks he means that he is going to attack the other courts but he seems hurt by the statement and tells her that the king of Hybern is the one who will be attacking.
He tells her that Amarantha was one of Hybern's lieutenants and was a test of sorts to see how much the courts could be broken while he remained at a distance. Now that Amarantha is dead, Rhysand has no doubt that another larger attack will come since he knows that the king wants to take over not only the fae realms but the mortal lands as well. He asks that Feyre help him make Tamlin understand and to persuade him that they need to join forces for now against this bigger threat.
Morrigan, Rhysand's cousin, comes in to tell Rhysand that an attack has happened in their court in a place called Cesere and that many fae have been killed. She says they don't know who did it but that it has the same signs as another recent attack; the same type of tracks, bodies that showed signs of wounds from large blades, and no trace of where they came from or how they disappeared. She tells him that his lieutenants Azriel and Cassian are waiting to meet up with him to receive their orders.
After the week is up Rhysand returns and takes her back to Tamlin. When she tries to talk to Tamlin about the coming war and training to use her abilities he tells her it's too dangerous and goes back to being overprotective of her. Lucien tries to tell Tamlin that it may be best for her to learn but Tamlin denies even him and Lucien doesn't press the issue so at this point Feyre begins longing for the freedom the night court held for her.
Ianthe (a high Fae who has come to the spring court to help Feyre get ready for her wedding/friends with Tamlin) helps prepare Feyre for the upcoming tithe in which all the villagers bring their taxes to Tamlin. Feyre doesn't want to be the dress up doll they've turned her into but she's so broken from what happened under the mountain that she's just empty and allows it even though she feels like a caged animal under Tamlin's control.
During the tithe ceremony, some water wraiths show up but they don't have the money to pay their tithe. Tamlin gives them a short window to come up with it but Feyre feels bad for them and chases after them when they leave. She gives them all her jewelry to sell to be able to pay their tithe. Tamlin reprimands her for doing this saying that they must maintain order in the court but Feyre stands her ground.
Later on, Lucien reports to Tamlin that there is activity on the border closest to Hybern. When they start to leave Feyre begs to go with them, saying that she knows she can help them fight (more and more new abilities have been happening to her such as controlling fire, creating a shield around herself, and she even had talons like Tamlin's show up once when she was angry). Tamlin refuses and when she won't drop it he locks her in her room with a ward around it before he leaves with the troops.
In her anger and fear at being locked up and not understanding why Tamlin would do this since he knows her fear of being in another cell she envelops herself in darkness (another ability she didn't know she had) and begins screaming. Morrigan shows up and winnows (teleports) her back to the night court. When she awakes, she tells Rhysand that she doesn't want to go back right now and he tells her she can stay for as long as she likes. He tells her that although he is the one who broke Tamlin's shield around the room, since he didn't set foot inside the home no laws have been broken and Tamlin can't start an internal war to come get her without angering the other fae for breaking court laws.
She agrees to stay with him for a while to figure out what she needs to do. He tells her that he has to leave for now because he has business in another part of the court and after what she just went through she doesn't want to be alone so she begs him to take her with him. He tells her that if she comes with him she can't ever tell anyone about where they go and asks if she could keep that secret even from Tamlin and she tells him yes so they go to the city of Velaris.
Velaris turns out to be a beautiful city so normal compared to the rest of the fae world that Feyre doesn't understand how it hasn't been found, and Rhys tells her that there are numerous spells protecting the city. He chooses to let the rest of the fae see the night court as just the area called the Court of Nightmares in order to keep Velaris safe and so that it intimidates everyone else enough to where they won't try to attack them or find out more about the night court and discover Velaris hiding away.
They meet with Rhysand's command at a "family" dinner since Rhysand counts these Fae as family to him. There is Morrigan, Cassian (a warrior and commander of Rhysand's armies, Azriel (Rhysand's spymaster who can control shadows) and Amren, a small woman who we find out isn't actually fae or human at all; she was a prisoner in the Fae Prison and Rhysand released her. She drinks blood instead of eating and everyone is terrified of her and no one knows what she actually is.
At the dinner they talk about the threat of the coming war and Rhysand tells them that the king is planning to raise Jurian from the dead (he was the one that was trapped in the ring in book 1 and he is the extremely powerful warrior that had killed Amarantha's sister). Rhysand knows this because the ring was stolen and now Jurian's bones held at the memorial at Sangravah have been stolen too.
The others argue that this can't happen since the only way for someone to be brought back is for all the High Lords to agree to it and combine their powers as they did for Feyre and why would the king want Jurian brought back to life anyways? Morrigan says the High Lords would never agree to help Hybern in this way. Rhysand says he doesn't understand it either but he thinks that the king has found some other way to do it since he's taking such a risk stealing these items.
Since Feyre doesn't want to go back to the spring court right now she agrees to work with Rhysand and the rest to try to stop the king from taking over the fae and mortal realm and bringing Jurian back from the dead.
Feyre isn't fae or human now but a bit of both so it is decided that she will go with Rhysand to the Prison to speak with the Bone Carver, a being who is trapped in the Prison but with more knowledge than someone locked away should be able to have. He only talks to those he thinks can offer him something and since he will be interested in what Feyre is they think she will be able to offer him answers to questions he will have about her in order to gain answers to THEIR questions.
They go to the prison and Rhysand was right that the Carver will talk to Feyre. He answers all their questions when she provides him info about her death and resurrection and the Carver tells them that Hybern has been ransacking the temples to try to find the 3 feet of the Cauldron, an ancient device that was said to have held all the magic in the world but when it fell into the wrong hands and was used for evil it was stolen back and hidden. It couldn't be destroyed because it had been used to make all things so if it was destroyed life would be destroyed too.
The feet were removed from the base to dull the Cauldron's power and then placed in the separate temples that Hybern has now ransacked. The Carver then tells them that there is a book that was created from the last of the Cauldron's molten ore that was divided between the Fae High Lords and the mortal queens called the Book of Breathings that when put together can negate the Cauldron's power or control it wholly and in order to stop Hybern and the Cauldron's power they will have to have both pieces from the Fae lords (theirs is hidden in the summer court) and the mortal queens.
They go to Feyre's old home in the mortal realm to try to convince her father and sisters to allow them to hold the meeting with the mortal queens there to try to get them to give them their part of the book. Feyre's sisters didn't know that Feyre is a Fae now so they are in shock when they see her and what she is now and at first refuse to help but eventually agree.
Knowing that the summer court will not work with the night court and give up the book willingly, Rhysand says that there is another way they can get the High Lords piece of the book. They send a message to the summer court asking to meet with them to discuss court alliances and in the meantime Rhys tells Feyre his suspicion is that since she was resurrected by the High Lords and holds their power she can use her ties to them to detect where the book is hidden.
To test this, he sends her to the Weaver who he says has been guarding something of his for a very long time and won't let him have it back. He tells her that if he's correct, she will sense the item and as long as only his correct item is chosen amongst the Weaver's treasures the Weaver won't detect her since it is blind and only uses its sixth sense to catch thieves.
Feyre manages to get the item (a ring) because she does feel the tug of Rhysand's hold on it but he had lied to her about the Weaver not detecting her if she chose correctly and it attacks. She manages to escape and Rhysand winnows them back to Velaris. She figures out that he did this as a test to not only see if she could detect items belonging to the high lords but also to teach her to control and overcome her fear in order to use her abilities.
Feyre begins training with Rhysand and he reveals to her why he doesn't like Ianthe. She tried to seduce him and many others of his court before Amarantha had captured him and he reveals that someone like her would have done the same things Amarantha did, using them as slaves to gain access to the High Lord's kingdoms and take them over.
While Feyre is training one day the Attor shows up and tries to kidnap Feyre but Rhys saves her from it. She is grateful until she realizes that he had sensed someone following her around and he has used her as bait to try to capture whoever it was. Rhys and Azriel torture the Attor to try to figure out what it wanted with Feyre but the only thing it knows is that the king of Hybern had hired it to try to kidnap her and bring her to his court but it doesn't know why. When they realize they can't get any other info from it they throw the Attor out the high window, thinking the fall will kill it.
They finally get an acceptance from the summer court to meet with them so Rhys, Feyre, and Amren go there under the pretense of discussing court relations. Over their days there, they all do actually become attached to Tarquin (the High Lord of the court) and his family and do want to be friends and make alliances with them, but they need the book so badly that they know they have to steal it, because friends or no they feel like they don't know the summer court well enough to just ask for it outright and if they are turned down and then have to steal it the summer court would know they are the ones who had taken it and there wouldn't be an alliance.
After days of searching and trying to figure out where the book is hidden, Feyre sees a small tower in the ocean that is only visible when the tide is low and then disappears completely when high tide comes. She feels the tug of the book there and when she nonchalantly mentions to Tarquin that she might like to see the little tower while on their walk to the market the next day she notices from the look in his eyes that this is definitely where the book must be.
To be certain, Feyre slips into his mind and is able to get past his "mind shields" by making his own brain think that she is him using her ties to him from her powers. She sees that he is wondering why she is asking about the tower and "does she know what's there" and at that point she is certain so she speaks with Rhys and Amren that night and they agree to try to steal it the next day.
Rhys tells them that he had already mentioned to Tarquin they were thinking of leaving the next evening so he will just leave a note saying something urgent came up and they had to leave sooner than expected and no one will be the wiser.
They go forward with their plan and Rhys flies them to the island and tower while the guards are distracted. Amren and Feyre go inside and work their way down to the bottom. The entire tower is filled with deep water and Feyre knows they have to hurry before the tide comes back in and buries them inside. When they reach the door Feyre uses her powers to open the door and she is focused so hard on it that she actually manages to turn into Tarquin for a moment. The book speaks to them and tells her that it wants to know her name. She tells it her name is Tarquin and she is it's master. It tells her to take it. When she picks it up it calls her a liar and the door slams shut behind them.
Water begins pouring in and Amren uses her powers to force the door open so they can get out but when they are almost to the top of the stairs the door at the top closes and they are completely underwater. All of a sudden the door opens and they are pulled onto the shore and it is the water wraiths. They tell Feyre that their sister's debt is paid now and then they take off.
After Rhys winnows them back to Velaris he explains that he had to knock out some of the guards because they were coming back since Feyre and Amren took so long and that the summer court will now know it was them. Sure enough, a box with blood rubies in it shows up not long after and Rhys tells Feyre that whenever a grievance worthy of war has been committed against the summer court they send blood rubies as a sign to their enemy. They've sent 3; one for Amren, Feyre, and Rhys.
Rhys is upset not only because he did want to be allies with Tarquin and the summer court, but because he didn't think to glamour and erase the guards memories instead of knocking them out since that would have let them escape without knowing who took the book. Feyre tells him that she doesn't blame him and they'll figure out a way to make amends with the summer court after they've dealt with Hybern.
Rhys gives the book to Amren to decode since it is in an ancient language that she knows of. He tells her that whatever information is in the book may help free her from the fae body that she is trapped in.
The mortal queens finally agree to meet with them a few weeks later and they tell them that they will only give them their part of the book if Rhys can bring them proof that he is a man of peace as he says rather than one of war that they have heard rumors of. Feyre knows the only way to do this is for them to see Velaris and how he has kept it safe and Rhys knows as well but he won't reveal Velaris' location; instead they will go to the court of nightmares and steal an all seeing orb called Veritas from Morrigan's father. This orb is like a crystal ball that will show the queens Velaris without revealing its location and they know that the queens will accept this since they know of the orb and that it doesn't lie or play tricks.
While they are on their way to the court of nightmares a hail of ash arrows comes toward them (ash arrows are poisonous to fae). They try to track the attackers but know that they must get to the court before rumors are spread about the night court being attacked so they agree to come back later. They manage to steal the orb from Morrigan's father, the ruler in the court of nightmares, with Rhys and Feyre distracting him by putting on a "show" in front of the court; that she is now Rhysand's "pet" and with them being intimate in front of the court (not sex, but close, and it's right in front of all the others). They had set up this plan in advance as a distraction to show that she really WASN'T with Tamlin anymore and would be part of the night court, but at this point Feyre realizes she really does want Rhysand and not just for show.
When they get back to Velaris, Feyre goes to see how Amren is doing with her progress on decoding the half of the book she has but Amren tells her that it won't make sense until they have both parts. She also tells Feyre that the next day they will be heading to one of the Ilyrian war camps to try to track down the attackers from when they were headed to the court of nightmares and that Rhys won't be able to use his powers or winnow since this is how the attackers are tracking them; they can somehow sense Rhys's power and know where to find him when he uses it.
Rhys starts training Feyre again while they wait to hear back from the queens since they sent word that they now have the proof they require, and the whole time Rhys and Feyre are falling more in love though neither will admit it. During their training one day, Rhys tells Feyre about why he and Tamlin are enemies.
When they were younger they were friends since both of their fathers were violent vicious rulers and they were not which forced them to be allies since their other family members didn't understand them. As they became friends, Rhys taught Tamlin Ilyrian techniques of fighting and Tamlin's father saw this as a threat since he knew he was weaker than both Rhys and Tamlin.
One day, Rhys's mother and sister were supposed to be traveling to a war camp where he was training recruits. He was supposed to meet them halfway but was so busy with the training that he decided to stay at the camp. When Tamlin's father got hold of the message that Rhys would be traveling alone to meet his family, he and his sons (including Tamlin, although Tamlin only went because he couldn't/wouldn't disobey his father) went to the meeting spot to kill Rhys. When they didn't find Rhys there, they murdered his mother and sister.
That night for vengeance, Rhys and his father winnowed to the edge of the Spring court and snuck in and killed Tamlin's father and brothers. Although Rhys told his father not to, his father also killed Tamlin's mother and proceeded to Tamlin's room to kill him. Rhys tried to stop him but when he caught up to his dad, Tamlin had already killed him as soon as his door was opened. At that moment they had both become high lords as their parents died and rather than kill Tamlin Rhys ran away.
A few days after as Rhys and Feyre are training again, Lucien shows up with two other Spring court sentinels and tries to convince her to come back with them and he tells her how Tamlin is broken without her and that she must come back. When she refuses he tries to grab her but she winnows away from him and uses her new shapeshifting ability to form wings like Rhys's from her back and tells Lucien that he should have helped her when he saw that she was being kept prisoner inside her own home but he didn't and that she knows the same thing would happen if she went back so she will NOT go with him and if he tries to come back for her she will kill him regardless of whether she thought of him as a friend once or not.
After the encounter, they decide to go to another spot farther away to train so that Lucien won't be able to hunt them down again. On their way there, they stop at an inn to rest but not much resting happens as the inn is full except for one room and Feyre and Rhys have to share a bed. Feyre finally decides to fully let go of her emotions and be with Rhys and tells him it doesn't have to mean anything, just "a distraction".
The next day while they are flying through the woods they are attacked again while Rhys is distracted talking to Feyre. Rhys throws Feyre into the trees so that she won't get hit by thee ash arrows that are now hitting him. She runs back to find him but he's already been taken away so she uses new abilities she didn't even know she had until now such as being able to see in the dark to find him even though nightfall has come and night beasts are prowling the forest. She discovers him in a cave and assassinates ALL the guards around him (who turn out to be Hybern's men) but he's so weak from the poison of the arrows that he can't winnow them out so she is able to winnow them to a nearby cave.
She can tell that Rhys is getting weaker and she doesn't know what else to do so she once again traps the Suriel and it tells her that to save "her mate" she must give him some of her blood since so many high lords powers flow through her and that he needs to eat some sort of root that is nearby to help with the pain until he heals. Feyre is thrown off by the Suriel calling Rhys her mate since a mate in Fae terms means someone that you've always been destined to be with. She asks the Suriel if Rhys has always known this and it tells her he's known a long time.
She goes back to the cave and the Suriels advice rings true when Rhys does begin to get better. She then asks him about the "mate" thing and he reveals that he's known ever since she was still human because he kept dreaming of her and even seeing her dreams but he didn't know who she was until he saw her that night of the festival when she was with Tamlin and he had chased off the would-be rapists.
Feyre is furious after hearing him out because he did the same things Tamlin did; assumed he always knew what was best for her and kept her in the dark while everyone else around him knew that she was his mate too and that all of this had been a prolonged thing to get her to be with him.
When they get back to the camp she asks Morrigan to take her away somewhere that he can't find her because she needs to think. Morrigan sets her up in a cabin on a mountain where she, Cassian, Azriel, Amren and Rhys go sometimes to relax. Feyre stays up there a few days and begins to paint again to clear her head. She realizes why Rhys did what he did, not because he wanted to control her life but because he just wanted her to be happy no matter what choice she made, whether it be him or Tamlin and he wanted her to fall in love with him just because rather than it being "fate".
Morrigan had said she'd check on Feyre in few days so when Feyre hears a knock she thinks it's her but it's Rhys at the door and she offers to make him some soup since he had to trudge all the way up there rather than using his powers where the Hybern army could find them again. He tells her that when two people are mates that in the fae world the first rite to establish this is the woman making a meal for her husband. She asks him to tell her everything while she makes the soup, and they both know it's her way of saying that this is his time to prove himself to her and whether she will give him the soup or not after she makes it.
He tells her his story (I'm not going to recap all this since it's just a reiteration of how he knew she was his mate and what he endured under the mountain but you can reference pages 517-528 for it) and she gives him the soup and then they have a few wild days at the cabin together since they've fully given themselves to each other now.
When they go back to Velaris there has been word that the queens are ready to meet with them again, but when they go and show them the orb and Velaris the queens say they still need to think on it. Everyone rages at them to give them the book but the queens just winnow away. One of the queens (who is only referred to as the young golden haired queen) left the piece of the book on her seat and there's a note inside saying that she believes them and that if anyone asks they had stolen the queens piece of the book since she trusts them not to rat her out. With all they need ready to go they head back to Velaris to plan their next move to get into the king of Hybern's court.
Amren manages to puzzle out what needs to be done in order for the Cauldron to be nullified once she has both book pieces and she tells them Feyre will need to place her hands on the Cauldron itself and speak a spell that is in the book. Since she has the power of the high lords it will listen to her. Before they can put the plan into motion though they are attacked the next day.
Hundreds of Hybern soldiers show up with the Attor leading them. The soldiers throw the golden haired queen to the ground as they fly in and she is impaled and killed on a fence spike. Cassius is with Feyre walking along the pier when it happens and he uses his siphons to throw up a tremendous shield to protect them. He tells Feyre to go back to their home since it is protected by wards but Feyre refuses to when she sees the Attor and the soldiers killing innocents all around her and instead calls her powers and begins demolishing the Hybern army; turning water into wolves that attack and drown the soldiers and then when some try to fly away she turns the water into ice causing them to fall to their deaths. She then uses her winnowing ability to get to the Attor flying above and she kills him/it too.
After the battle is over (Amren, Azriel, Morrigan, and Rhys were all fighting too) they know that they are going to be attacked again since this was only one vanguard from Hybern so they immediately form a plan to get Feyre into Hybern's castle to nullify the Cauldron using the book.
They leave the next day for Hybern's court (Mor, Azriel, Cassius, Feyre, and Rhys) and Rhys stays behind after they winnow in since the king will sense his powers but not the powers of the others. They sneak in through an underground entrance Azriel had found on his scouting trips and Azriel and Cassius take down the few guards in this area for Feyre to go in. When they reach the Cauldron Feyre pulls out the book to begin using the spell but Jurian shows up along with the king of Hybern and they are all taken captive.
The king takes them to his throne room where Tamlin and Lucien are waiting for them along with the other queens. The queens told the king of Hybern about Velaris after Rhys and Feyre had shown it to them and it turns out they've been working with the king all along because he sent Jurian as an emissary to them as a sign of "goodwill toward mortals" and he has them brainwashed into believing he is the good guy and will provide them with immortality using the Cauldron and the night court is as bad as everyone says it is.
Tamlin's motives were simpler; in desperation he went to the king and agreed to allow the king to pass through his lands and use the spring court as a base while the wall was destroyed if he would break the bond between Rhys and Feyre (the agreement bond, Tamlin has no idea they are actually mates and thinks Feyre has had her mind controlled by Rhys this whole time and has been a captive) and allow Feyre to come back to the spring court with him.
Feyre keeps refusing to go with Tamlin and is trying to explain to the queens none of what the king says is true. Meanwhile they are all trying to use their powers while they stall to be able to attack but the king has nullified their magic in his castle.
The king then brings in Feyre's sisters and when Tamlin tells him this wasn't part of their agreement the king reveals that Ianthe sold out Feyre's sisters to him and Ianthe is a "friend of his". He turns to the queens and tells them that he will prove his honesty but turning these mortals into immortals with the Cauldron to show them it is safe to do so and that he really can make them immortal. He throws Elain in first and she comes back out of the Cauldron as a fae. Lucien runs up to her to give her his coat and when they look in each others eyes he tells her she is his mate.
Nesta is thrown in next but she fights the whole time and as her head is being pushed under by the guards she points at the king of Hybern as a sort of promise that she will destroy him. When she emerges she is fae also but Feyre senses in her a powerful rage in her blood and she knows that Nesta will not be just another lesser faerie.
As a last resort not knowing what else to do, Feyre uses her light from the day court to throw up a ball of light that blinds everyone in the court and destroys the wards in there without anyone realizing it. She then turns to Tamlin and runs for him and begs him not to let Rhys take her again and that she can't bear any more killing. She has made the light seem like it was the "power" Rhys had over her and she managed to break it when she saw Tamlin again.
He believes her and says that he will protect her and he tells the king that he's done enough damage and he needs to break the bond between Feyre and Rhys as promised. The king does it and Feyre's tattoos are gone, but no one knows that Feyre is actually the High Lady of the Night Court now because she and Rhys got married the night before after the battle in Velaris without telling anyone, and the only "bond" that has been broken is just the agreement bond and she and Rhys are still connected through their mating bond.
Knowing that the wards are down, Morrigan grabs Feyre's sisters and winnows away to take them somewhere safe because the night court members here understand that Feyre has a plan and is only pretending with Tamlin.
The queens begin going to the Cauldron to acquire their immortality and the king allows the rest of the night court to leave since he has no use for them now, but then he realizes that Feyre no longer has the book pieces because she had given them to Rhys.
When Rhys arrives back to Velaris he explains to Amren and Morrigan that the bond between him and Feyre isn't broken and that her plan is to now be his spy within the spring court to help bring down Tamlin and the king of Hybern. Cassian is present but the king shredded his wings with his magic so he's unconscious as is Azriel because the king shot him with a poisoned ash arrow when they were captured and now they are all waiting on a healer to come fix them since the wounds are too bad for Morrigan to fix with her healing abilities.
It switches to Feyre's point of view as they arrive back at the spring court and Lucien is looking at her like he knows that she's lying because she isn't panicking about her sisters being taken by the night court, but if he admits it he knows he'll never see Elain again and Feyre smiles at him as she walks back into Tamlin's house to become her new role as spy for the night court.
End of book 2
