C: Mm. ⁓ Okay. Now we are recording.

M: Alright. Whoa, you're back. And we're back. Hopefully you've gotten a little bit past the heartache and gut-wretching ending of A Court of Mists and Fury and have jumped foot first into the third installment of Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorn and series, ⁓ A Court of War Ruin. ⁓ here are. ⁓ Wings and Ruin. Damn it. I knew I was gonna do that. I said it three different times today. All right.

C: No, wings, a court of wings and ruin, not war and ruin.

M: A chord of wings in ruin. We are just read it. I'm M ⁓

C: I'm C

K: And I'm Kay.

M: And for me, this was the book I sped through my first read through of this series. So I am super excited for us to dive in. Today we're going to be reviewing chapters one through seven. Let's get started. Alright, you want me to redo any of that? Other than the wings and ruin, which I knew I was gonna mess up because well.

C: No, you're good. You said foot first first, not feet first, but we're gonna let it go.

M: ⁓ damn it. And you know what's funny? I wrote feet. It's written as feet.

K: I do that too. I stumble over my words even when I'm reading. So it's whatever.

C: That's too funny.

M: See, if I'm reading silently and I'm reading along with like the audio, I realize I don't stumble at all. The minute I try and speak it, I mess it up on everything. If I riff it, like the couple that I've just walked into without writing it down and done it at the camera, those have been my best intros, I swear to you. I just need to stop writing mine down. Like I need to think ⁓ and then just kind of go off the cuff.

C: It's different.

K: Mm. Well, I'm now realizing that I didn't add our intro into ⁓ mine when we did it, so there's that.

C: Okay, we can switch it up every time. Okay. We'll do one maybe we can get half of the second one done and finish it up on Wednesday. We'll see. Well let's let's let's see how far we make it. Okay. This first set of chapters is essentially Feyre back in the Spring Court. We get to start back in the Spring Court like we did in book two, which I hate because we all just want to be back in the night court hanging out with Rhysand and the Inner Circle. But no, we are back in the Spring Court hanging out with Tam Tam and Lucien who I have a love-hate relationship with. We get some additional characters coming to the spring court, which is gonna shake things up a little bit. ⁓ we get to see lovely Ianthe again and all of her ministrations. one of my absolute favorite parts of the book is actually in this first set of chapters. And it is the summer solstice ⁓ little scene at the beginning. Yeah, just one of my favorite. So we'll get into it in a couple minutes, but it is hands down one my favorite scenes in the entire book. I love it. And what's cool? Yeah.

M: I will say listening to that scene so much better than reading it, by the way. I am on the bandwagon for starting each book at least listening to the full cast audio now. Cause bigger impact than it was reading through it for sure.

C: Good. ⁓ yeah. Yep. That's why I try to read and listen because I missed up when I'm reading that I pick up when I'm listening to it. Excuse me. Okay. This set of chapters, like I said, we get Feyre back in the spring court. We finally have Feyre leaning into her Street Smarts, the conniving parts that she's kind of feeding from Rhysand on in the past. And kind of learning from him and his court from all of book two and even the end of book one, she is actually taking what she've learned she's learned from him and implementing it in the spring court which I love that we get to kind of see this development with Feyre And she's taking another step. I mean, yes, she is still kind of healing from under the mountain, but she's also mostly healed from it thanks to Rhysand And now she's kind of taking that a step further and really growing into herself and her powers, at least a little bit more over these these first couple of chapters. But we do get a little snippet from Rhysand at the very beginning of this book. And his snippet is two years before the wall goes up. So this is well over 500 years ago, during the war to free the humans in Prythian And the it's only a couple pages long for this little chapter of Rhysand ⁓ and it is essentially he has held the lines with his soldiers to ⁓ a keep, a fortress, from being taken over by ⁓ and the ⁓ Loyalists is what they call the army. ⁓ he is specifically fighting against Ravennia's legions. Which is the only other name in regards to a commander back in that time that we get outside of Amarantha. Which I think is interesting. We only get some of the names. He is scouring the battlefield after the battle hasn't been won, but the loyalists realize after three full days of fighting that they weren't going to win, so they have retreated, left all of their dead and injured bodies in the field. Rhys is scouring the battlefield looking for his friends. ⁓ at this point we know Azriel is most likely with Rhysand's dad as a shadow singer. His dad kept him pretty close. Cassian, we know, was sent to a completely different Illyrian legion than the one Rhys is over. So we know that all three of them were separated through the war after they'd become such close friends. And that is why Rhysand is looking over the battlefield, is he's trying to see if any of the Illyrians that are dead are either Cassian or Azriel We get little snippets throughout the chapters on the different things that are going on, kind of where he is. ⁓ he does mention that they're in the center or the heart of the continent where the supplies were guarded in this fortress, but that this fortress was also a place ⁓ where they were making weapons in order to supply the rest of of the army. So it is that doesn't make it any better, babe. He walks past like this so he can't see me. You're fantastic. I love you so much. Happy early birthday, baby. Okay. Now he's going over there so that he won't distract me anymore. ⁓ so yes, we know this is in the heart of the continent, but again, we don't know where it doesn't tell us the name of the fortress that he's guarding. ⁓ just that the loyalists are fighting to keep their slaves and they're not going to back down easily. And therefore Prythian the fae, and the humans are all fighting against the loyalists to keep the humans free. And they're fighting what they feel is a losing battle, a losing war. They're still putting up a fight, but they are they are losing forces very quickly. I did put on here to point out that the flag of the loyalists is emerald green with the tusked bore embroidered on it, which when we finished the second book, excuse me, we talked about the King of Hybern's throne being set on in Emerald Dais. So I don't know that I've ever put those two together. in my past reads or rereads of the book, that the King of Hybern, his color is at least in some regard, emerald green. Not that that matters very much, but interesting tidbit. ⁓ and that's pretty much all we get in these like three and a half pages ⁓ is him going over the battlefield trying to see if everyone who is dead there, if any of them are the Illyrians that he knows. He does mention that he always thought death would be some sort of peaceful homecoming, like a sweet, sad lullaby, but that instead of a lovely song, it was probably the droning of flies. Because there are flies everywhere because of how many are dead, because the battlefield at this point is littered with dead. And that flies and maggots were all death's handmaidens. And that's pretty much it. Then we jump into part one. And part one is called Princess of Carrion, which I love the name because Like Carrion is dead animals, usually on the side of the road, being picked away or picked apart by scavengers. So I think it's interesting that she chose to name the first part of the book, which is the part of the book where Feyre is back in the spring court, Princess of Carrion. It just makes me wonder why. We do get our first actual princess. I mean, we technically had a prince and princess in Adriata in the summer court, but the in the the night court, in the spring court, they don't really call them princesses. It's always just the high lord and then their offspring. But the king of Hybern is an actual king, and so we do get an introduction to a prince and a princess from Hybern. ⁓ we start the official first chapter with Feyre painting, which I think Is a good and bad thing because she finally gets to paint peacefully again, but at the same time it's all a front. Yes, she's doing it, she is enjoying it. I imagine she's enjoying it because she's wanted to do it. And she got to a point at the end of book two that she wanted to start doing it again, but she is now doing it in the spring court instead. And like I said, it is a front. She is carefully crafting pictures that she is painting to show not only kind of herself and her the healing journey she supposedly have gone through or is going through, but as she's doing this, she has also been carefully crafting the picture that she presents to everybody around her in the spring court, which is something we're going to talk about as we go through the set of chapters. Is what she's doing, kind of what her overlying goals are as she's in the spring court, but also the picture she is painting and trying to get everybody to believe her. And we'll talk about who does and doesn't believe her. Cause it cracks me up. Some of it cracks me up. ⁓ it has been a couple of weeks since she came to the spring court. We don't get an exact number, but it has been past weeks, few weeks, couple weeks ⁓ it just depends on which sentence, but it has been a few weeks that have passed that have gone past. And I love the way she describes the painting that she's working on. So she is essentially doing what she's calling a s an idle study of the rose garden beyond the windows. And I love that she says if I'd painted the glimpse into the court the way my gut had urged me, it would have been flesh shredding thorns. Flowers that choked off the sunlight for any plant smaller than them and rolling hills stained red. Like that is such a perfect description of the Spring ⁓ And then she does. She says, I suppose that in the past weeks I had crafted my div my demeanor as intricately as I was crafting my paintings. And then she goes to say, if I ch you know, showed myself as I feel I am, I would have been adorned with flesh shredding talons and hands that choked the life out of those now in my company. I would have left the gilded hall stained red. So very similar to what she thinks the painting should look like for the Spring Court. She is very carefully crafted this image. And we get pieces of that throughout these chapters. So when she's painting, she can feel she set up like snares around her. She is using her magic all the time now that she is in the spring court. Now that she has training and understanding of it, she is using it pretty much nonstop and will continue to use it nonstop through at least this set of chapters and into the next episode as well. ⁓ is now she has it set up to s to you know, notice if anyone starts coming close to her. That way she can put on a specific demeanor, a specific look before whoever it is gets to her to keep up that facade. So she can feel two people coming. It is Tamlin and Lucien She does essentially pretend to be very involved in her painting, very focused on her painting. ⁓ they come to ask if she wants to get ready for the meeting. ⁓ the meeting is for Ianthe to come and meet with them for the first time since she's been back. So Ianthe has not come to the estate at all. She has stayed at her temple for these first few weeks back. And it is now that she's coming to the manor to apologize to Feyre for selling out her sisters. ⁓ We do find out that she and Rhysand have talked a little bit through the bond, but not a whole lot. And she does tell us why she is trying to limit it. So they do initially she does ask, you know, she says Rhysand gives her swift reports through the mating bond, you know, that everybody is healing, but they're safe. They're not healed yet, but they are healing. Where was I going with that? I don't remember. I do think it's funny she says that this painting is some of her best work, even if its soullessness was only apparent to me. And we get that. Literally the next line, Talen walks up and says, ⁓ this looks great. And she says, It's still a mess. And his response is, Well, we all are. But we're trying. And she does mention in a couple pages that try is his new word. Like that's his new goal. Before it was let's just move past it. Now it's let's try. tam tam. ⁓ she is staying in a different bedroom than the last time she was in the spring court. She mentions going to that initial bedroom at one point after she first got there and finding that it was unlivable. ⁓ not only has everything been shredded apart, torn apart, smashed, there are vines that have grown over it almost as if it hadn't been lived in for hundreds of years and not just months. The bedroom was now a tomb. So now she conveniently sleeps in the room across the hall from Lucien which we talked about in the very first book that her bedroom was in the opposite side of the house from Lucien Like they were in completely different wings of the mansion. Now they're right across the hall from each other. Which plays perfectly into some of the schemes. Yeah.

M: Sorry, give me a second. Sorry, the cat is losing his mind back here and I don't know if he needs clean litter or what. But like he's literally scraping my door. Sorry. I'm like it normally I wouldn't have the door cracked, but it's to the point where it's so hot I can't. And he was literally like freaking out. Sorry.

C: No, that's okay. No, you're fine.

M: ⁓

C: babies are more important.

M: Alright. Yeah, well, he thinks he's more.

C: ⁓ my goodness. ⁓ okay, so Feyre goes with Lucien and Tamlin. She's gonna go change before they meet with and with Ianthe. ⁓ I do think it's funny that Lucien takes a moment to try and prepare her to see Ianthe and says, you know, she had her reasons. ⁓ and he says you're gonna she's going to spin you a story that you'll want to hear. And Sh Feyre's like, Well I can decide for myself. ⁓ but it sounds like you've already chosen not to believe her and he says, Well, she dragged two innocent women into this, not to mention one of those women is now his mate, or so he says. And we see we start to see Feyre's the image that she puts on because then her response is she was working to ensure Hybern's alliance held strong. And at that point, Lucien goes to stop her. And Feyre mentions that she has to let him stop her. He puts an arm ⁓ or a hand on her arm and she says, I had to allow it because not allowing it would ruin the ruse that I've started to put on. ⁓ so yes, he does kind of give her a, you know. A warning essentially to be smarter than that, to not believe everything that she says, that kind of thing. But we know Feyre's not going to believe her. We know Feyre already has it out for Ianthe. Nothing Ianthe sa can say is going to change Feyre's mind. He does ask where Rhysand has kept is keeping Elain And Feyre's response is it could be a hundred places and it'll be none of those because I know those places and Rhysand is smarter than that. Not necessarily the case because we know exactly where he's keeping them, because Feyre knows exactly where he's keeping them, because there is no reason for him to keep them anywhere else. So they do have their meeting with the high priestess. And I think it's again funny because Lucien has plenty of comments to say to Ianthe, whereas Feyre is just kind of taking her words at face value because that's part of the ruse that she is putting on herself. So she d Feyre does ask, why would you ever wish for my sisters to endure that? And Ianthe says, so that you could be with them forever. I thought that was something that you wanted. You were just too afraid to voice. And then Lucien says, if you expect our gratitude, you'll be waiting a while. And Tamlin, because he never, ever sticks up for Lucien, ever, ever, ever, gives him a warning shot or a warning look to shut his mouth or to be more careful in how he speaks to Ianthe. And Ianthe's response is essentially, I know, I don't expect you for to forgive me. I just hope that you understand why I did it. Yada yada yada. And she just spins more bullcrap. And Lucien again at the cost of how many others? Lucien demanded. And another warning look from Tamlin that Lucien ignores. So we start to see over these set of chapters the relationship between Lucien and Tamlin start to unravel even more. And Feyre is a driving force. for that because her goal is to completely shatter the spring court from within and she is doing that in some very systematic steps, one of which is to sunder the relationship between Tamlin and Lucien. ⁓ they start to discuss their bargain, the bargain that Tamlin made with the King of Hybern ⁓ that there is only so much they can do against the king or to stop the king, because they've agreed to certain things. So they've agreed to let the king as their ally come into the spring court, use the spring court as a way to launch an attack on the wall, and then to use his his resources in the spring court and branch out from there. And Tamlin said those darn words again. Even though they're our allies, we have to present a solid front. Which is exactly what he kept saying in in book two. A solid front. We have to be a solid front. No one can talk, can speak outside of me. You always have to agree with me. Yada yada yada. Again. He is he has tried to change. He is trying to change and not put so much on Feyre in regards to not letting her do anything, but he is still set in his ways. And we see that clearly throughout this set of chapters. And Feyre even mentions that he still trusted Ianthe. He just thought that Ianthe had made a mistake in selling out Feyre's sisters, but he still trusted her. But then again, that same blindness kept him from realizing what proud beneath my skin as well. So she's like, how can he be so stupid not to see this in Ianthe? But then she's like, but if he did, then he might see it in me too. So I guess maybe it's a good thing, at least for now that he can't see that. And then it can she can and then she uses that. She uses that to play into her destroying the court from within. Okay. Feyre does mention that now that she's back in the Spring Court, she is being included in more meetings, more discussions of things that's things that are happening, which is something she wasn't included in through book two, the last time she was at the Spring Court. But she does mention that they didn't seem to mind that the king had the cauldron, what he planned to do with it. All they had cared about was getting her back, and they didn't care what they needed to do or to give up to get her back. So we find out that Jurian, who has been resurrected, we found that out at the end of book two, is going to be visiting the spring court. And he's going to come along with two commanders of Hybern And they are the prince and princess of Hybern or one of the set. We don't know how many there are. ⁓ and that they're coming to survey the different holes in the wall because apparently the cauldron had been drained. in turning her sisters into fae. So it needs time to gather its strength again. So while it's gathering its strength, they're going to come and assess the different holes to figure out which one they're going to try and break through first. ⁓ again Feyre is able to send some information to Rhysand to let them know that Hybern is coming, ⁓ let him know that she is safe and well. And she mentions this is the first time she mentions it. She says, I didn't remember the bond being so hard to hear. We're gonna find out later on that one of the reasons it's hard to hear is because Rhysand is far away, farther away than the Night Court ⁓ he is doing some scouting along with the others in the inner circle and the night court itself, because they are trying to prepare for a war with Hybern. They know it's coming, they couldn't nullify the cauldron, so they know war is inevitable at this time, at this point. So they are trying to start gaining more information and trying to figure out what's happening. So that's why it's at least this time around, that's why it's so hard to hear him because of how far away he is. But he does assure her again that everybody is fine on on his side as well. So the prince and princess of Hybern come as along with Jurian. They winnow directly to the estate. They are high fae in appearance. Their skin the same ruddy hue and hair the identical inky black as the king, but their vacant, unfeeling faces that snagged the eye. A lack of emotion honed from millennia of cruelty. So they are commanders for Hybern, obviously very cruel, just like Amarantha was. Jurian introduces them as their highnesses, Prince Dagdan and Princess Brannagh. And they are the nephew and niece of the king. Twins. Feyre muses that they may be linked with in power and mental bonds as well. We kind of figure out in a couple of scenes that that is the case, or at the very least they are also Daemati And this is where Feyre starts to implement parts of her plan and start to feed to yeah, to sow discord amongst the spring court. As they are all kind of greeting each other, the princess says that her she and her brother will stay in the same bedroom, and Feyre is attempting to put on the picture of the lady of the house that Tamlin has wanted her to be, you know, since the beginning. And the princess looks her up and down. A lovely, a harmless, lovely package is how Feyre Feyre describes herself and how she looks right now. And her the princess's lip curls as she glances at her brother. And the prince kind of does the same thing, sneers back, and Tamlin lets out a snarl. And I love this. He says, if you're done staring at her. Perhaps we can move forward on the business between us, which I feel like this is a little similar to when they first went to the summer court and Tarquin stared at her, at her breasts specifically. And Rhysand's response was yes, they're fantastic breasts, are they not? But the difference is Feyre's response isn't to play into that, it's to distract from it. Because Tamlin is getting upset that someone else is looking at her for too long and she knows his rage is not a good thing. We wanna avoid that in this instance. But I think it's funny that the two the two scenes are very similar in that regard. And Jurian is just like, well, they're curious because it's been or it's not every century that a that the contested possession of a female launches a war. Especially a female with such talents. And we can talk about it at the end of the episode, what our thoughts are on Jurian. Because again, like Lucien, I feel like I have a love hate relationship with him because he is there for his own. his own thoughts, his own you know, his own stuff, just like Lucien is only there to push his goals and no one else's. So I think he's not good but not bad. He's just kind of on the sideline because he's doing his own thing. So he doesn't care to get involved. They do manage to go inside, and Feyre mentions she is very careful in wording what she says because she's trying to accomplish a couple of things before she goes back to the night court. So she does say specifically egg jurian into kind of threatening her now that he's come to to come to the spring court and her response is here's the first rule of this visit don't threaten me in my own home. Not necessarily that the Spring Court is her home, but the way she words it is all for Tamlin. And she specifically calls that out. It was not for Jurian who glowered, but for Tamlin who brushed a knuckle over my cheek as he passed. That was my first step to get Tamlin to believe me, truly believe that I loved him and this place and everyone in it, so that he would not suspect when I turned them on each other. So that's like goal number one. So we get a scene where they sit down and have some refreshments, like I said, very similar to the summer court when they first came, and then they sat down for some refreshments, this time in the spring court with the two princes and princesses of Hybern. Feyre does realize at this point that they are Daemati She mentions that they seemed like one soul in two bodies, ⁓ Prince Dagdan yielded to his twins every wish and order. as if he were the blade she wielded and that they often look at each other in a wordless exchange and she wonders if they were ha perhaps like me, perhaps Daemati And we do find that out ⁓ a little bit because ⁓ They Did I skip? Yeah, I kind of skipped over a few other things. ⁓ that's fine. We'll get we'll jump back. As they are sitting around at the table, Jurian makes some comments to rile everybody up. So he says, you know, I th I fought we fought together, me and your high lord. He's talking about Rhysand to Feyre I held the lines against the loyalist, battled side by ⁓ And Tamlin's response, of course, is he is not her High Lord. He brings up Jurian then brings up Miryam and Drakon Feyre says they're dead. He says the cauldron says otherwise 'cause at this point he's already tried to revive Miryam, even though he wasn't actually able to. And then Jurian says they they say you were sleeping with Rhysand before you ever jilted your own lover. So he's trying to rile them up. And it's at that moment that Feyre feels a tap against her mind and saw their plan clear and plain. Rile us up, distract us while the two quiet royals slid into our minds. So she is shielded herself. She always has a shield up now because Rhys is like drilled it into her that she has to have a shield up at all times. Lucien and Tamlin, she doesn't know if they have mental shields. When she first slid into into Lucien's mind in book two, she does mention he has somewhat of a shield, but that it's not much. And it's easy for her to slip through. So we're assuming that Lucien and Tamlin have a shield, but probably not a great one. So she then becomes that shield for them. She puts a shield up around their minds to protect them from the princess and the prince. And she says, two oily tendrils spearing for Lucien's and Tamlin's minds as if they were indeed javelins thrown across the table. And that's when she strikes. To the point where Dagdan and Brannagh actually jolt back in their chairs as if she had landed a physical blow. And they're powerful. Powers then slammed into a black adamant barrier that she has put up around Lucien's and Tamlin's minds. And then she kind of tries to play it off, gives her face a confusing look, furrows her brows when Tamlin asks what's wrong, and she just responds with, ⁓ nothing. And then she lunges mine to mine to them and finds a wall of white bone. They flinched as I dragged black talons down though down their mental shields, g gouging deeply. So she is able to make marks in their shields, but not get through, which she's not trying to get through. She's just trying to make it seem like she is a threat and that they shouldn't be trying to go into. these mines because she is here to protect them. They do talk about going to see the holes in the walls, that they will need somebody to show them to those holes. ⁓ Feyre says Lucien and I can go do it. Tamlin looks like he's about to object, but then she adds we'll take a couple of sentries as well, and he gives in and agrees that she and Lucien can be the ones to lead them to the holes in the walls. And I love this part because she says he was trying, at least he'd learned his lesson enough to start trying. And that he knows that she'd never be happy about that the girl he believed had been returned to him would always seek to protect the mortal homeland. So that she's not going to be happy working with Hybern, but that she would do it for him. And he thinks that she would stomach it for him, for us, for the spring court. to lead Hybern to the human world is pretty much what they're about to do. And she is just so sickened that he actually thinks she would undergo all of that just for him. Like really, Tamlin, you're you're you're fine.

K: Hang on, pause for just a second, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Bella's napping in here and she woke up. I need to let her out of the room. Okay, one second.

C: Okay.

M: telling you today. I didn't

C: Right? That works 'cause I'm actually gonna go pee.

M: Mm.

C: And I'm gonna take a little nap.

M: Just kick back. Mm. ⁓ is that why? I think I was on a different color. That shouldn't mess it up too bad, I don't think I can. Mm. Mm. I found a lavender oat milk creamer.

C: Yeah? What do you think?

M: And it's not bad. I didn't do the lavender lattes when ⁓ Starbucks had How what, six, seven months ago. ⁓ because I was kind of the idea of a lavender matcha kind of freaked me out. ⁓ am I too angled? I think I knocked it. So I moved it up a little. Is it too far or am I still good?

C: No, you're good.

M: Okay. ⁓ but I had Sosa had found me the plant like the oat plant world oat milk ⁓ Emily in Paris the other day at one of our little local markets. So of course he grabbed it 'cause well I thought of you. It was an old store. We used to go to that store like once a week when we first started dating. So I tried it, loved it, and I was like, Okay, well if their brand is about the same price as Coffee Mate, I'll give it a try.

C: Nice.

M: So I got a couple flavors and then I saw the Starbucks lavender latte was also on sale. So I was like, all right, cool. So I now have a chocolate lavender caramel macchiato iced. And it is kind of phenomenal. It's like

C: Ooh. Chocolate lavender macchiato.

K: Yeah.

M: And I I was surprised, trust me, I was surprised, but it's actually pretty good. If I do it plain, I don't like it. I have to add another flavor into it to cut the floral, but it's not bad.

C: I don't know like I like the smell of lavender. Thanks of. But I don't know if I could do the taste of lavender.

M: I feel like I'm ⁓ with lavender, I feel like I'm rosemary for anything edible. You either get just enough or it's past the line and it's too far. I'm super picky, but if I dilute it with something else, it's fine. But just straight the lavender one, it took me all day to drink yesterday.

C: I don't know. Yeah. And like I like Yeah. 'Cause I'm not a tea drinker. Like I struggle really hard with tea. It has to be like super fruity for me to make it through. So I don't know if I could do I'm I may have to try it. No. No. I have tried. I don't do like I don't do iced tea, sweet tea, I don't do black tea, green tea. I can do orange and lemon.

M: So you wouldn't like a matcha Steve then. Really?

C: But I tend to add like if I do orange tea I add tang to it. And if I do lemon tea, I add lemonade to it. Cause I hate the tea, the tea taste that you get with tea. And I can do a mint tea.

M: But I'm assuming it's all brands, not just like Lipton, but like all brands. You're just

C: Yeah, no.

K: Mhm. I must say my sweet tea kinda ruined me with it though. I can't drink anything but sweet tea. So

C: No. I can't even do that.

M: See, I can't do sweet tea. It's ⁓ too sweet. Like I will probably do about a third of sugar most people do in their sweet tea. ⁓ I would do it sweeter with him, and so I started doing agave because I could use less but still get the sweet. So that's been our kind of meat in the middle, but I'd happily drink unsweet tea all day long. Different flavors. I actually have boxes of tea. Literally just over my shoulder.

K: Just think about the taste. It makes me wanna throw up.

C: Ugh.

M: So you're telling me every time I tell you, ⁓ it's a hot tea day, you're just gagging in your mind.

K: No, I can't even imagine hot tea. Like I had to I would have to drown it in honey and anything else that I can think of to mask the taste of how nasty it is.

M: I do a mint tea and then I'll put agave in the bottom of it when it brews. So it brews as a hot sweet tea. But then every once in a while I'll just let it cool. And we'll do iced and then I'll put a little creamer in it so it's like a milk tea. Kind of like a boba. I'll do that too. I'll do jasmine and tea, but I wouldn't do jasmine and coffee. But yeah. The lavender latte Starbucks creamer, if you come across it and have something to mix it with, like a French vanilla, would probably be really good too.

C: Mm.

K: Mm.

M: I don't do French vanilla, so but I can imagine it would be really good with a lavender. But yeah, doing it straight, it wasn't great. But having it with something else to balance the flavor, it's actually not bad. I was like, okay, I didn't waste the four dollars buying this. We're good. But yeah, I ⁓ I go through phases where I will buy thino's this. I'll buy the Starbucks ⁓ espresso and the black coffee and just make my own little iced coffees at home. And I was like, it's too hot to brew hot coffee every day. I can't live like this. So the bottom of our fridge is filled with various bottles of iced coffee for me to mix together every day.

C: That's what I tried having today was some leftover iced coffee from Dutch Bros from Friday and my stomach was like, Nope, we're not having this today. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, that on top of everything else. Okay.

K: Yeah.

C: Okay, so we talked about Tamlin thinking that she would agree to or go with Hybern because she loved him and how much she just thinks Tamlin's an idiot for thinking that. And I feel like as we go through these chapters, that's what I keep thinking. It's like Tamlin, how are you so oblivious that you don't see it? How? Or do you just not want to see it so you choose not to? ⁓ it gets me.

M: I remembered this book made me dislike him more due to his obliviousness. Like, 'cause before it was okay, you're a jerk, you're malicious. Now it's more of you are that self-absorbed. You're stupid. Like you are completely ignorant of how awful you are, of the fact that your sentries are sitting here going, Was she really worth all this? And she's make you know, she's able to turn ⁓ as

C: Right? Exactly.

M: I love I forgot how much happened so early on in the book, by the way. ⁓ but I realized how much more I hate him. And then, like you said, at the end of this first one, we'll talk about Lucien and Jurian, because I forgot what kind of put me back toward a median balance with both of them. But it was again these first few chapters, because Jurian is like the likable idiot, but the likable jerk. Not idiot, jerk, the likable jerk, you know. He knows what's going on. He's catching everything Tamlin's missing. Anyway, we can talk about that more again. Sorry, now I'm gonna get all excited and ⁓

C: what yeah, let's let's talk about it at the end. Let's get through everything and then we'll we'll talk about that part. ⁓ Jurian does bring up Lucien's metal eye, wondering how what happened to his eye after Amarantha cut it out. Since Jurian was there, at least his eye and his consciousness was there all of under mo under the mountain. And Lucien merely says, I have an old friend at the Dawn Court. She's skilled at tinkering. We'll actually meet her later on with this in this book, which I think is really cool. But that she's great at blending magic and machinery. And then Tamlin got her to craft it for me at great risk. So that is how he has the eye that he has his his russet. No, not his russet, his mechanical eye is from the Dawn court. Okay. The next day they take Jurian and the two Hybern commanders to the first hole in the wall. They do go on horseback. ⁓ that morning at breakfast before they leave, Tamlin was really tense. Feyre mentions that she tried to test him and ask what was wrong, and all he responded with was that he had a headache. So they do go up to the walls. ⁓ the Bran Brannagh asks how this part of the wall was cleaved. This is the hole where Feyre came through when she came back, when she came to the Spring Court to begin with, when she went back from the Spring Court and then came back to the Spring Court again. So every time she's gone back and forth, this is the hole that she's gone through because it is very close. Do they ride horses to it or did they winnow to it?

M: The first one it was on horses 'cause they mentioned the horses being skittish and their hooves ⁓ stomping them on the way.

C: Okay, that's what I thought. Okay. Lucien says they don't know who created any of the holes. Some holes just appeared over the centuries. This one is barely wide enough for a a one person to get through. ⁓ they ask how many holes ⁓ are the the wall. Lucien says that there are three on their border plus one off the coast. ⁓ And know the one off the coast is where. Rhysand and the Night Court would travel through to get to the human realms. Because it is about a mile off of the coast of the Spring Court. Feyre asks why they don't just use a spot on the continent. Because surely there are plenty more. The continent is a lot larger than Prythian so the wall, there's a larger section of wall, most likely, ⁓ on that side. So she asks why they don't use one of those holes in the continent side. And Dagdan responds with their queens have an even weaker grasp on their people than you do. Which we don't get a whole lot of information on the Queens after everything that happened in book two. And we don't get a whole lot of information in regards to the Queens realms on their side, on the continent. So I think it's interesting that we get this little nugget, little nugget right here. So Feyre and Lucien step away to let them do whatever they need to do with the wall, which is essentially just examining it, trying to figure out if this is a good place to use the cauldron to break the wall apart. They do ask where the next one is. ⁓ because Feyre says, ⁓ well, as soon as you're done with this one, we'll just go to the next one. And Lucien's like, well, it's two days away, so we can't just go to the next one. And she then asks, can both of you winnow? So she's throwing in these little questions as nonchalantly as possible so that she can get answers without anybody getting suspicious. So Brannagh does not respond, but Dagdan does and says that he can, so we know she can't, but only a few miles if I bear others. So Lucien can winnow, Feyre can winnow, and Dagdan can winnow. And I love that Lucien's next sentence to Feyre is, whatever you're planning, stop because it'll land us in knee deep in crap. And she's like, I'm not planning anything. So this is the first time he's actually come out and said something as he starts to see and piece things together. She does ask what he can see with his metal eye and he doesn't respond. Feyre asks if he had been alive in the war if he would have fought on Hybern side or on the human side. And Lucien says he would have fought on the Human fae Alliance side. And Feyre says, and yet here you are ready to march with Hybern And his response is, I did it for you too. I went with him to get you back. And this is the first time we see a little bit of that guilt that he has because of everything that happened before she went to the night court and how little he did to try and stop it. And her response is, I never realized what a powerful motivator guilt can be. Which I feel like is so true. Like that's such a perfect representation of why Lucien did it is because he feels guilty for not standing up for her more. And then we get this interesting little piece of knowledge. Lucien says that day you went away not was kidnapped or left. The day you went away, I beat Tamlin back to the manor. We'd received a message when we were out at the border and I raced here, but the only trace of you was that ring melted between the stones of the parlor. I got rid of it a moment before Tam arrived home to see it. Why? Like, we put so much hate on Tamlin for his misguided decisions, but at the same time, everybody around him plays into it. So, like, how how would things have gone if Tamlin had actually seen the ring and known that she wasn't kidnapped, but that she left. How would things have been have gone differently if he known that? Or would he have just looked at it and not believed it because he's so delusional? I don't know. But I feel like part of the issue is that everybody around him kind of holds him with kid gloves. Like they don't want to poor Tamlin, they don't want to let him see it or make him feel it. So they try and protect him. Which is just ridiculous. But this is another time well this is one of the first times that we start to see Feyre playing into her ruse a little bit more. So she can hear the Hybern royals finishing up. And so she gets up and actually walks over to where Lucien is sitting down. She sits down beside him, feigning, you know, just wanting to be near him, the camaraderie, work on their friendship. ⁓ and so she sits down pretty close to him, kind of knocks her knee up against his just to make it seem friendly. But when the Hybern Ruler Royals and Jurian come back, they end up being with their hips, knees, legs pretty close together, shoulders pretty close together, and are staring at each other so that they're actually almost nose to nose. So it leads the Hybern Royals to believe something else is going on. And this is the first time that we start to see that. Lucien, as they're sitting there, does mention that going to Hybern a trap. What I thought we were to do there, it turned out not that way. Feyre says, Jurian is just trying to bait you. He's looking for weaknesses between us. You know, don't let him, don't let him bait you. And Lucien's response is, Well, I know. And Feyre says, ⁓ and then the royals come out and Jurian sees them and says, Careful, Lucien, you see what happens to males who touch the high lord's belongings. And Lucien's immediate response is to snarl back at him. And Feyre just looks at him like, Exactly. That's exactly what I just told you not to do. ⁓ we do find out that that morning at breakfast is when Ianthe decided to grace them with her presence because that's how she sees it. ⁓ that she had come down the steps in the middle and stopped in the middle of the sunbeams in the dining room to make it just seem like she is more powerful, better you know, whatever. Because it's Ianthe. And I love how Jurian and the Royals react to her because Feyre says she mostly cooed over Jurian, who had only scowled at her like some insect buzzing in his ear, and that the royals had listened to her fawn over them with enough boredom that I started to wonder if the two of them perhaps injured endured each other's or preferred no one's company but each other's. Which is pretty much the case, but they don't give a crap about Ianthe. Not one bit. She's just there. ⁓ as Lucien and Feyre are walking away from the hole and the wall, she does ask what happened between Ianthe and Lucien to change their their relationship between each other is different from how it was the last time she was in the spring court. So she can tell something has happened or something happened to change it. So she asks Free or Lee Lucien what it was. He says it's not worth repeating. So she starts to ask if Ianthe and Tamlin are the ones who perform the great right at Calanmai. Lucien says no, ⁓ that refused. Tamlin flat out refused to participate. I replaced him in the right. ⁓ And it was with Ianthe. So he took Ianthe into the cave to perform the great rite because she insisted and things were so bad that Lucien felt he had to do that for the court. Which I think is a lot of crap that he had to do it for the court because he didn't. He's just choosing he's choosing to do that for the court that he still thinks isn't as bad as it actually is. Feyre does wonder how she had forgotten when Calanmai happened and she realizes that it is because she was in the cabin with Rhysand. When it was happening and she was doing her own great right. And she even says perhaps we generated our own magic that night.

M: Hm ⁓

C: And Feyre actually gives him a little bit of con well, consoling isn't the right word. Feyre says, I wish I had been there to stop it. I should have been here to stop it. And Lucien's response is, you are a better friend to me than I ever was to you. Because yeah, Feyre would have s if she was there and Tamlin refused to do it unless she she was doing it with him and she refused to do it. She wouldn't have let Lucien go in there. Not a chance And then we have our first Alis scene, which we love Alis. Alis is fantastic. We loved her in the first book and the second book. We love her again in the third book. So she is again tending to Feyre, which is fantastic. ⁓ she is one of the people in the spring court who has a pretty good understanding of what is going on with Feyre and is okay with it, which we don't get. Most of them, if they see it, they're not saying something for one reason or another. Alis is like, I see what you're doing, and I think you're in the right because of the crap that was done to you the last time you were here. That's the sense that we're gonna get from her in the couple of scenes that we see here in this set of chapters. Feyre says, for a woman who had been tortured and tormented for months, I looked remarkably well. So Alis is putting it together. Because they're looking at dresses. Is that what they're doing? Yeah, they're looking at dresses because the last time she was here, she was so thin that they had to take a lot of her dresses in. And so there isn't enough material left for them to let the dresses out enough for them to fit her again. So Alis is realizing that she is saying one thing, saying that she was tortured and tormented the whole time she was in the night court. But

M: Mm.

C: She has come out of it in better physical and mental health and shape than she did when she went in. So that's one way in which what she's what her body says versus what she is actually saying don't match. Feyre does mention that she has kind of told some truths and some lies as she's been asked questions by the Royals and Tamlin and Lucien. And then any questions she can't evade, she feigns memory loss or trauma that she doesn't want to answer. And she says, But for all my careful expressions, Alis seemed the only one who noted the tiny tales that even I couldn't control. And Alis does tell her I was there the day the Morrigan arrived, the day that she got you out. I saw her reach into the cocoon of power and pick you up like a child. I begged her to take you out. And then Alis tells her again, same thing that Lucien did. She says, I never told Tamlin, never told any of them. I let them think you'd been abduc abducted, but you clung to her and she was willing to slaughter us all for what had happened. And Alis goes on to say, servants talk under the mountain. I never heard or saw Rhysand laying a hand on a servant. The guards, Amarantha's cronies, the other the other people he ordered to kill, yes, but never the meek, never those unable to defend themselves. Feyre's response is she's trying really hard to keep up the ruse. He's a monster. I don't know why you assumed this stuff. Those those are her responses. And Alis says, they say you came back different, came back wrong from the night court. I never bothered to tell them. I think you came back right at last. Which I love because Alis saw how much she went through after Under the Mountain and can see that she is finally. in her right mind, finally healing or healed, and is finally becoming like coming into her own. Then she goes so far, Alis, to say, I have a cousin who works in the palace of Adriata So we figure out that Alis knows Feyre went to the summer court with Rhysand and Amren And Feyre remembers this is where Alis was originally from is the summer court. that she left and brought her two nephews to the Spring Court during Amarantha's rule because her sister ⁓ you know, her nephew's mom was killed ⁓ during Amarantha's reign. And Alis says servants in that palace are not meant to be seen or heard, but they see and hear plenty when no one believes they're present. She said you visited and that you were healthy and laughing and happy. And through this whole thing, Feyre is thinking she is my friend. She helped me at great risk under the mountain. She had stood by me for months. But if she jeopardized everything, and then she kind of stops herself from thinking it, but essentially she is thinking, if she jeopardizes this, I will have to kill her. And she will do it to be able to. To continue doing what she needs to do in the spring court. Feyre's response is it was all lie, he made me act that way. Alis's response is a knowing if you say so. And then she pulls a creamy white dress out that it wasn't bride-like, but rather pure, clean, the kind of gown I'd have resented when I returned from under the mountain, desperate to avoid the comparison, any comparison to my ruined soul. But now I held Alis's stare and wondered. Which of my plans she deciphered? Because she's pulled out a dress that plays perfectly into the ruse that Feyre is trying to put on. And Alis says, I will say this only once. Whatever you plan to do, I beg you leave my boys out of it. Take whatever ref retribution you desire, but please spare them. And Feyre starts to say, I would never, because she wouldn't. They're innocent. She wouldn't hurt them for her retribution. So instead she says, all I want to do is settle back into life and to heal. And what she doesn't say is that she wants to heal the land of the corruption and darkness spreading across it, as in Hybern. And Alis seemed to understand this. So they do decide that she's going to wear this white gown to the solstice. ⁓ and this is the part that I love. This is my one of my favorite parts in this book. So they're going to celebrate the summer solstice. They're going have a party to celebrate the Hybern royals being there, but they're also going to celebrate solstice at this point, too. This is a holiday that we saw in the spring court in book one. It is the holiday where Feyre danced through most of the night with the people because she felt the music made her come alive or wake up. And this is the holiday where she and Tamlin first kissed for the first time. So that's This version a year ago, this holiday from book one. ⁓ so Alis has found her a nice white cloak to put on because now that Amarantha's here, she thinks that they need to have their religious ceremony in the morning to welcome the longest day of the year. So Feyre is in a white dress. She has a white velvet cloak on. Tamlin lifts her up into a moon moon pale mare. With wildflowers woven into her silver mane. And Feyre says if I wanted to paint a picture of serene purity, it would have been the image I cast that morning. Her hair is braided above her head, a crown of white blossoms upon it, and she had dabbed some rouge onto her cheeks and lips, a slight a slight hint of color, like the first blush of spring across a winter landscape. I love the way she words it. ⁓ so they all proceed to a hill in the middle of the woods where Ianthe has an altar, a stone ar altar set up where she is. And Feyre mentions smiling at Ianthe and wondering if she could spy the wolf grinning beneath. And at this point she can't, or if she does, she's not perceiving it. But we're gonna talk about it in a couple of chapters where Feyre lets the smile go a little bit so that Far it so that Ianthe can actually see the the wolf underneath. So they do the ceremony. And while Ianthe is working on this ceremony, going through the different prayers and statements and things, Feyre is kind of thinking through what Alis had said, what Lucien had said, thinking that she pitied Tamlin because not only had Lucien lied to him, but Alis as well, and she wonders how many others had seen the truth of my suffering and tried to spare him from it. Which is just crap. That's exactly why the Spring Court needs to fall. Okay, so throughout the whole ceremony, ⁓ Feyre worked with Ianthe to decide what to do for the ceremony. So Feyre said certain things to Ianthe to get her to make certain decisions in regards to certain parts of the ceremony. In the end, throughout the ceremony, Ianthe gets the two royals to come to her side. Of the altar because Ianthe is on one side of the altar and Feyre and everybody, including a couple hundred people of the Spring Court, are all behind her in kind of like a semicircle to see the altar and the prayers. So at one point, Ianthe gets the royals to come to her side of the altar, drink the wine as if they're agreeing to the alliance with Hybern. That's that's what it's symbolizing. She gets Jurian to come over to recite an extra prayer that. Feyre had asked Ianthe to include to honor the warriors who had fought for our safety each day. And she gets Ianthe to invite Tamlin over as well. And this is to the other side of the altar to light a candle for the souls extinguished in the past year and to bring them back into the light's embrace when the sun rose. So Ianthe, the two high burn royals, Jurian. and Ianthe no Ianthe, Tamlin, Jurian, and the two R high Hybern Royals are on one side. And Feyre and Lucien and all of the Spring Court are on the other side. And she says, and then Lucien and I were standing alone in the circle of grass. And she can see based on how rigid Lucien's posture is that he is now looking over the site and running through the prayers and figuring out that something is weird, something is off. He he's starting to put the pieces together. And Feyre says, because of how Ianthe had handled the winter solstice when she was here last time, she has a good idea of how she's gonna handle the summer solstice. So when the sun starts to crest over the hill, Ianthe is standing in a specific spot, her arms raised, her back to the people, thinking that the sun is going to come up and essentially be glowing through her arms, glowing through her or on her. But what they don't notice is that the marker stone that Ianthe had placed to tell her exactly where the sun was going to come up was moved by a phantom wind. We love that phrasing in all of her books. ⁓ that it had been moved by a phantom wind, so that the sun did not come up over Ianthe. It actually comes up and is shining directly on Feyre and Lucien's Lucien standing on the opposite side of the altar. So people in the crowd start murmuring, cry out. ⁓ Feyre mentions she didn't say anything, Ianthe didn't say anything. She goes so far as to say it took Ianthe longer than everything. Anybody else to look? Because Ianthe is just assuming it's people around. They're like, ⁓ my gosh, Ianthe is glowing. Nope. Feyre is glowing. So at that point, she releases the damper on her power that she had unleashed in Hybern, turning my body incandescent as light shone through. Pure as day. Pure as starlight. Again, she is glowing like a star. Foreshadow. And then people start smurmuring, curse breaker, blessed. She makes it look like she is surprised, but accepting of the cauldron's blessing. Tamlin's face is complete shock. The Hybern Royals are nothing short of baffled. And then she turns to Lucien, her light radiating so brightly that it bounces off of him as well. And she kind of takes some of her light and shines it on him as well. So it kind of looks like they're both shining together. And Lucien then takes her hand, puts ne kneels before her and puts her hand on his forehead. And What was it? And I love this part. Like stalks of wheat in a wind, the others fell to their knees as well. So Lucien falls to his knees in front of Feyre, and then the rest of the spring court is now bowing to her, not Tamlin or Ianthe, but to Feyre. Un or h Blessed, holy undimming before evil. And she talks about how for all of the preening rituals and ceremonies that Ianthe had done, never had she revealed any sign of power or blessing to this extent. Whereas Feyre Cursebreaker, who had led Prythian from tyranny and darkness, glows, is literally glowing as if she's a newborn god. And she says the light spread until it too rippled from Lucien's. bowed form, a night before his queen, when I looked to Ianthe and smiled, I let a little bit of the wolf show. And I love it. I just love that whole scene.

M: That whole scene I found myself thinking between Alis and A ⁓ Feyre, I was thinking Aelin and I Lysandra. And then during the part with Lucien, I was thinking ⁓ Aelin and Aedion where he was so frustrated with all her plans, but well, can't beat him, gotta join them, so I'm stuck doing it where Lysandra is like, cool, you do you. I see what you're doing. I'm for it. Just tell me how you want me to help. And the entire time reading that scene, I was seeing that.

C: Right.

M: But I didn't see it the first time. So then this time reading it through, I'm like, ⁓ the parallels. I just love it. So and that's part of where my my mindset starts changing with Lucien, because I'm like, okay, well, Aedion in the end, I came around to so maybe. Like I I feel like now after reading Throne of Glass, my mind's changing more than it did the first read through two. So I blame you. Again, see. Just figure it out.

C: Right? Of course. I'm okay with this. Blame me all you want.

M: But yeah, that was all I could think of that whole way through. I was just like remembering those moments in ⁓ Kingdom of Ash and leading up to it. Just how she plans and how she moves and yeah.

C: Yes, and that's exactly what we're seeing from Feyre through these chapters. And what I love about it is with Aelin, like you she had so many things she was working on at the same time, but then we had one big reveal of all of them at the end. Whereas with Feyre, you see the reveals ⁓ as she goes Like, okay, this I was trying to get Tamilin to believe me. She tells us exactly when she realizes that he does. I was trying to get to break apart, you know, put a wedge between Tamlin and Lucien and she can see when that finally happens. I was trying to break the spring court and get them to not believe in Tamlin and she can pinpoint pretty much exactly when that happens as well. So I love that we get to see those little reveals instead of just a grand reveal at the end, like we did with Aelin. But they're still very similar, very similar. So then the rest of the fest festivities for summer court, nope, for the summer solstice go on. Lots of food, breakfast, lunch, dinner, lots of dancing, that kind stuff. ⁓ through the whole thing, right? The whole the whole thing, Ianthe is trying to explain what had happened, that the cauldron had blessed her chosen friend. So she's trying to play it up and get some of her power back. Her what's the word that I want?

M: And Ianthe

C: Yeah, we'll just stick with her power. ⁓ excuse me. That Tamlin was still a little wary in regards to it because if this had happened like right after Under the Mountain the last time she was in the spring court, Feyre would not be okay with what just happened. Like not even a little bit would she be okay with it. Because as she's going through the day, people are coming up to her, trying to talk to her, thank thanking her for everything that she's done. And they did that to an extent. right after Under the Mountain and Feyre struggled with it so much. So Tamlin at least realizes that she is different now and she is able to handle this better than she would have back then. But he still doesn't put the pieces together. ⁓ they do end up dancing a little bit. ⁓ hold on. We'll get there in a second. Feyre does come back to the house at one point so that she can freshen up before she goes back out for dinner and dancing. And when she's there, she does send, you know, a few thoughts down the bond to Rhysand essentially shows him a couple pictures of what happened in the the ceremony and his response, of course. is laughter in regards to what she did. But at least we get that they still have a relationship like we still get a little bit of that back and forth that we were getting through the second book. ⁓ and she tells them, you know, Hybern here, it'll be soon then I come home. So she goes back to back to the this the ⁓ gosh. Back to the celebration, back to the festivities. ⁓ and she does mention that the music that had shaken her awake and made her dance last year does not have the same effect on her now because of how much she has grown and healed thanks to Velaris and all of the music that she heard there. But I think it's funny as she's dancing with Tamlin, she asks if he thinks Ianthe is mad. And he says, I don't know. I don't think she saw it coming. I don't think she handles surprises well. And she says, I should apologize. And he says, why? What for? Perhaps it was a blessing. Magic still surprises me. If she's angry, it's her problem. Which is not the attitude that he's had in regards to Ianthe in the past. And this is like the only time that he has different. attitude towards Ianthe through both books because we're gonna see in another chapter or two that he is back to believing Ianthe above everybody else. ⁓ Feyre does end up leaving the party ⁓ a couple hours after midnight. She does not dance the entire night through like she had done the year before. ⁓ she does mention that she danced with Tamlin quite a bit, and she did catch him looking at her mouth multiple times as if he was remembering what happened at the end of the summer solstice last year. So she has gone to bed a little bit early, partially to stop Tamlin from trying to. Get anything to happen because at this point nothing has happened between the two of them. ⁓ anytime he tries to push for something, she says, you know, because of everything that Rhysand did to her, she is not able or willing mentally to ⁓ that next step, even with him, which is really just a front so that she doesn't actually have to do anything with him. ⁓ she comes back to the house, puts on her ⁓ lacy nightgown, one of her smallest little things. Spends a good half hour or so in bed, tossing and turning, pretending like she's having a nightmare, drags up different thoughts, different feelings about the attor the weaver, her sister's being thrown in the cauldron, drenches herself in fear. And then she essentially wakes up knowing that everyone is still at the party, other than Lucien. And it's been long enough that she thinks Tamlin is coming back. Because she gave him lots of little shy looks throughout it, she thinks he may come to her bedroom on this night to see if she wants to, you know, enjoy themselves again. So she comes out of her room, she makes noise to sound like she is crying. ⁓ she goes to knock on Lucien's door, he opens it, says he I heard you, what's wrong? And she tells him That she dreamt about under the mountain, and that when she wakes up, she can't remember where she is or when she is. And the whole time she continues thinking about those things that have scared her in the past, so that her scent is drenched in fear. So Lucien does attempt to hug her, console her. So the dogs got up to bark. ⁓ so he does console her and hug her. And I think it's funny because she has to use seawater from Tarquin's own gift to slip from her eyes down her cheeks because she can't make herself cry. She is just putting on a front to try and make Lucien believe this. So he hugs her and is murmuring, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, as he's stroking her. She has put up snares again throughout the house to know when Tamlin is getting close. And she's put a bubble around them so Lucien can't hear Tamlin coming. And just before Tamlin gets there, Feyre looks up at Lucien so that when Tamlin catches them, they're holding each other, looking at each other very close. She is panting because of the nightmare. So she's doing a great job of this little act, putting on this little act. Because Tamlin comes around and immediately thinks that they're either just starting something or they've just finished something because she is disheveled. He is disheveled because he just got up. All he had time to do was throw on pants. So he's shirtless. His bed is his sheets are messed up because he was just laying on it. And Lucien didn't hear him coming because Feyre had a bubble around them and she p took it down right before Tamlin got there. Tamlin stood there, face a mask of cold calm. The beginnings of claws glinted at his knuckles. And then they push away from each other too swiftly to be casual. And she throws out there, it was a nightmare. I had a nightmare. I didn't want to wake the house, so I came to see Tam or came to see Lucien. It was just a nightmare. She grabs Tamlin, takes him out of the bedroom, shuts the door to Lucien's room before Lucien can say anything. Whether he knows he just got played or not, we're not quite sure. But she does distract Tamlin enough to get him out of Lucien's room, shut the door so there's a barrier between them. And then she tells him again, I had a nightmare. She goes into her room and then closes her door in Tamlin's face. I laughed out loud when I read through that part. Like, close it in his face. And then she stays there and listens to Tamlin for a couple of minutes. Kind of Tamlin's kind of gauging the distance between her door and Lucien's. And then finally he walks away, deciding not to kill Lucien. And Feyre has actually like this is this is one of the moments where she's really starting to drive that wedge in between Lucien and Tamlin. And that she had done a really good job of putting on this act, feigning the nightmare, the evidence, so that it looked like she was having a nightmare to Lucien, but it looked like something completely different to Tamlin. And I love that she says a nightmare, I told Tamlin. I was the nightmare, preying on what Tamlin had feared from my very first days here. Which is the truth, because Tamlin warned Lucien multiple times, even when Feyre just got there as a human. And then he did it again when Feyre was there after under the mountain. Now he's gonna do it again. So the next morning there is a set of keys to the estate that go missing. We don't know anything else about it until a couple chapters later. But I think it's funny because she says after last night's incident, Tamlin didn't seem to care about the keys. The Hybern Royals were all sullen because they hadn't gone to see the second hole in the wall because of the solstice. Jurian for once was too tired to do anything 'cause he had been up late celebrating. Tamlin and Lucien had spoken before the meal and Lucien has made it a point not to even look in Feyre's direction because of whatever Tamlin said. ⁓ and that Ianthe is carefully avoiding Feyre. So I just I love it how they're all just like not talking to each other. But then Ianthe comes in and says, I'm sorry to interrupt your meal, but there's a matter we need to discuss, High Lord. And so she's directing it at Tamlin. He asks her, you know, what is it? And then she pauses, looks at the royals, and is like, Well, we'll wait. I'll wait and tell you when you're alone. So this is what Feyre has been waiting for. She's kind of been baiting Ianthe, one with the solstice and then a couple other little things to undermine her. And so she's been waiting to see what other power play Ianthe was going to try to put herself back at the top with Tamlin and to undermine Feyre So this is where it comes in. ⁓ So Feyre says, if we can trust our our allies in Hybern to go to war with us, then we can trust them to use discretion. Go ahead, Ianthe. Ianthe doesn't even look in her direction. Like she is not interested. She is focused on Tamlin trying to gain some of her power back. And so Ianthe says, My Acolytes have discovered that the land around the temple is dying, which is a total lie. She's just made all of this up to make herself more more important. Jurian can tell he just rolls his eyes and goes back to his food. Brannagh says, tell the gardeners, because it sounds like an issue for the gardeners. And Ianthe says it's not a matter of gardening, it's a blight upon the land that nothing will grow. It's shriveled up and sickly and it reeks like the Naga. So we saw the Naga in the first book. You know, we know that they kind of take the life out of things. And then Feyre says, ⁓ no. Ianthe goes on to say there are other spots in the woods that have it as well. And then Feyre says, Ianthe, perhaps it is a case for the gardeners. And then she at last looks at her. Finally, Ianthe looks at Feyre. ⁓ Feyre then concedes a little bit, but it's more to make her seem like she is the one who is willing to assist instead of like she's the one who's willing to help, whereas others aren't. And Feyre says, We're going to the wall this afternoon, but when I come back, if it's still an issue, you know, I'll help you, Aunt I Ianthe. I don't mind. I'll help you when I'm done helping the Hybern Royals. So Ianthe tries to turn it around then and says, Will you be joining them to Tamlin? And she looks between Feyre and Lucien because of course Ianthe knows what happens the night before, because Tamlin tells her everything. And this is the first time Feyre mentions that she has a headache. And I'm gonna point it out multiple times because there is a reason she is getting headaches that we're gonna find out in a couple of chapters. But she said a faint low headache was already forming, made worse with every word out of her mouth. She says Tamlin will not be joining them, and immediately Tamlin says, I think I will. So she responds with, I don't need an escort. And I'll be fine with Lucien and the sentries. And she says Lucien seemed inclined to sink into his chair and disappear forever. Because again, she is putting herself with Lucien and not with Tamlin. And Tamlin is starting to see it more and more. She does talk about how she has been working to keep as many people here ⁓ protected from the Daemati from the prince and princess. And because of that, her power the power was wearing on her. ⁓ and she feels like a couple days away from the manor hopefully will help offer her some relief. And Ianthe tries to go a step further and say, Well, maybe you should go, because if you don't, ⁓ never know when the night courts may try to snatch her up again. And again, Feyre then switches gears and puts on a face, a front, a mask, another mask, to seem like she is afraid. So she dregs up images of Claire ⁓ to drench her scent in fear and terror. And the priest Jurian cuts in at that point and says, There is no news. Rhysand isn't stupid enough to Come in and steal her away again. And Ianthe says, he is a fool, yes, but he's also one with an with a vendetta. And then Ianthe mentions his sister and mother's wings and says, perhaps if you return to him his family's wings, he might settle. He might bargain. And Feyre has a really hard time of holding her face through all of this because when she first came, she actually searched the manor. For the wings. Every part of the manor she could get into. She su she searched it, trying to find hold on. Mace Macy. She's trying to eat one of the strings off of the couch. The couch cover. To like tie it underneath. We don't tie it. And she was trying to eat one of the strings. She's my window licker.

M: She just wants a little fiber in her diet, that's awful.

C: She needs to go outside, but Erin's asleep. Snoring in the other room. Let me let her out real quick, otherwise she's gonna pee in here. Give me one second.

M: Yeah.

C: Yes, come on. Ugh it is gross outside. Now that it's rained it is even more humid.

M: In you

C: I smashed my fingers on my s desk earlier, just smacked my elbow. You know, it's been a great day. Okay. At this point, Tamlin does say that he actually burned their wings long ago. And she thinks she can see something like remorse and shame in his words, but doesn't really faze her because she's like, Well, good, you should you should feel shame. ⁓ Then Feyre says, I'll be fine out there, let's not start down this road again because she doesn't want sentries, she doesn't want to be watched all the time. So Tamlin fixes Lucien with a very hard stare, his claws sliding free, embedding in the scar flecked wood in his chair's arms, and says be careful, and none of us pretended it was anything but a threat. So they do go to the next hole in the wall. They don't ride this time, they actually winnow walk, winnow, walk. ⁓ because enough of them can winnow that they're able to each take a sentry. ⁓ Dagdan takes Brannagh and Jurian with him. Feyre and Lucien each take a sentry with them as they winnow. They get to the hole just as it's getting dark, so they do decide to camp right there. ⁓ the sentries Set up all of the tents. Feyre and Lucien are actually going to share their own tent together as a way to protect Feyre. Lucien says maybe I should just sleep outside. And she says, no, that don't be stupid. And he says, Well, you know how Tamlin can be sensitive about these things. And she snaps and says, You can also be a pain in my butt. And then goes so far as to say, if you yield to him on every bit of paranoia and terror territ and territory. How do I say that? On every bit of paranoia and territorialism, you'll just make it worse. And then Lucien responds with, I think it you've made it worse because you two haven't, you know, been together. And he says, You haven't, have you? And she says, No, I don't want to be touched like that. She hates that it's a lie that she has to say because of how people feel about Rhysand and what they think about him. But she still hates having to say it. But at the very least, Lucien then responds with I'm sorry because he does feel bad thinking that that happened to her. They try or they talk about getting out of the bargain with Hybern. Lucien says, no, we're not going to be able to because that king crafted his bargain too cleverly, that magic bound them, and magic will strike Tamlin down if he does not allow Hybern into these lands. They talk a little bit more about magic when it comes to a bargain, that there is a balance, and if someone tries to break the bargain, then either their life is forfeit or the life of somebody that they're that they love. ⁓ just like when she and Rhys had their bargain that Tamlin couldn't oppose it, otherwise it may have killed him or taken his power away. Even the scholars at the Day Court didn't know how to break it. Believe me, I've asked. So we find out that one of the things that was being done while she was in spring the Spring Court the last time is that Lucien and Tamlin were going to other people to try and find ways to break her bargain with Rhysand ⁓ of those people was the Day Court. Which Rhys also told her that the Day Court had a ton of libraries with lots of information. So it could be from them. The libraries that they're trying to search as well. We don't know. And then Feyre asks, why didn't you tell me? Because knowing that may have had she may have felt a little bit better about them being gone so often and not taking her with him if she had known. And he says, Well, we didn't want to give you false hope. And we didn't dare let Rhysand get wind of what we were doing in case he found a way to stop it. And then Feyre says, so Ianthe pushed Tamlin to Hybern instead. Lucien says, well, he was frantic. The scholars of the day court were working too slowly. I begged him to give them more time, but you had already been gone for months ⁓ he needed to act despite the letter, because of the letter that you sent to him. And he says I finally told him to go ahead after that day in the forest. So the day in the forest when she winnowed away from Lucien to stop him from taking her back to the spring court, that's when Lucien finally told Tamlin, Okay, let's do it. Do what you need to. Lucien does tell her also that Tamlin trashed her bedroom, the study, his bedroom. He killed all of the sentries who were on guard the day she was taken, or the day that she left. After he got every bit of information from them, he executed them in front of everyone in the manor. And Feyre's response is And you didn't stop him. And Lucien says, I tried. I begged him for mercy, but he didn't listen, couldn't Listen. And the sentries, she says the sentries didn't try to stop him either. Lucien says they didn't dare. He is a high lord. He is a different breed. And she thinks, I wonder if he'd say the same thing of me if he knew what I was. And Lucien then says, it was either we go to war with the Night Court and Hybern, or we ally with Hybern, let them stir up trouble, and then use that alliance to our advantage further down the road. And Feyre wants to know what he means by that. But it's at that moment that Lucien realizes what he'd said. And as the co courtier, as the emissary, he then backtracks a little bit and just says, we have enemies in every court. Having Hybern as an alliance will make them think twice, which is a trained, clever lie. Jurian comes into their tent the next morning, finds them essentially cuddling because she is rolled into him on his side of the tent for warmth because it is still spring, which is a little bit cooler in the evenings and at night. ⁓ Feyre goes to a stream nearby to wash, bathe a little bit, and Brannagh is there and says, I'd pick Baron's son too. And she goes so far as to say the autumn court males have fire in their blood, and they, you know, use it when they're you're sleeping with them. So it's enjoyable, is how Brannagh puts it. And Feyre says, I suppose you know from experience and Brannagh essentially says, Yeah, why do you think I had so much fun during the war? ⁓ the reason Jurian has woken them up is because on the other side of the wall, about to come through the hole, are three humans, three children of the blessed. They look at the fae and only see their beauty. They don't fear them because of the stories that they've heard. Feyre goes into their minds and plants in their minds some of the horrible things that she has seen in the spring courts and in Prythian. tries to get them to fear coming over so that they choose not to come over and instead retreat. And I love that they say we have come to live in peace. And Feyre's response is there is no such thing here. There is only death for your kind. Eventually she does get them to flee because of the fear she's put into their heads. And she stops the royals from pursuing them. She says if you pursue them, then you and I will have a problem. And to emphasize that, she drags a mental talon down their shields, and the princess snarls back at her. So they think the royals have let them go. But we find out the next page that that's not the case. She does mention that spearing her power through the wall had left her with a lingering pounding headache all day, more than a bit dizzy. So we're starting to see her as she's using her powers get a headache afterwards. There is this a little interaction that Feyre has with Jurian that this is where we start to see Jurian's motives coming out a little bit more. He says, you know, I 500 years ago the the children of the blessed would have been flogged for coming across the wall because they were fighting for them to no longer be slaves and laborers for the Fae. And so many had fought and died, and yet. These children, because Feyre mentions that they were a couple years younger than her, so probably 15, 16, maybe 17 years old, are coming across in these costumes unaware of the danger or the history. And Feyre says, careful, or you might not sound like Hybern's faithful pet. And Jurian says, That's what you think I am, isn't it? His dog. And then she says, Well, what's the end goal? And he says, I have unfinished business. Again, Miryam gets brought up. And Jurian says, I did everything that I did for Miryam and our people in the war. So everything that he did with Clythia sleeping with her, torturing her, all of that. He says, I did it for Miryam and her people. And Feyre's response is, Well, I heard that she left you because you were so focused on Clythia and you lost sight of the real conflict. And he says, Well, Miryam told me to go ahead and sleep with her, do whatever I had to to get information. And Feyre's response is, so you're doing all of this just to get Miryam back? And he says, No, I'm doing all of this to get her and that winged prick to leave their nest. And Feyre says, So you have a second chance at life, and your response is revenge. And Jurian turns to her and says, Isn't that what you're doing? So he can see a lot better than Tamlin can. And she says, Well, against Rhysand she tries to play, put her mask on, put on the act again, and says, Against Rhysand, I would one day like that. And Jurian then tells, reminds her, that's what they all say when they pretend he's a sadistic murderer. But you forget I knew him during the war. We f you forget he risked his legion to save Miryam. So we find out why. Rhysand his legion were kidnapped by Amarantha. They actually went in to save Miryam ⁓ some of her people from Amarantha, but it was a trap for Prince Dra Drakon Rhys knew it was a trap and still sent his men in and went in with them, and that's when they were captured. So therefore, Rhys gave up his entire legion to protect Drakon and Miryam. And he says, and yet everyone still insists Rhysand is soulless, wicked. ⁓ the male I knew ⁓ the most decent of them all, better than that prick prince, Drakon. You don't lose that quality no matter the centuries. And Rhys is too smart to do anything but have the vilification of his character be a calculated move. So Jurian knows, despite what everybody thinks about him, you know, kind of losing his mind while in ⁓ ring. He is clever enough to have put all the pieces together because he knew them before or in the war. And he then he goes so far as to say, and yet here you are, his mate, the most powerful High Lord in the world, has lost his mate and has not yet come to claim her, even when she is defenseless in the woods. And then he chuckles and says, Perhaps that's because Rhysand has not lost you at all, but rather unleashed you upon us. Which I just love. I love that somebody has seen it. And what cracks me up is that he's not doing anything about it. He sees every part of it, everything that he's doing, and he's just like, it's it's not going to hinder my relationship with Hybern. It's not going to change Hybern's plans. You're all gonna die anyway, so why does it matter? So he's he's going to observe is all he'll all he will do. So the next morning they wake up to the scent of blood. She and Lucien have the same thought. They both exit the tent ⁓ as many weapons as possible. She does mention that she had a heartbeat to realize that this is perhaps the first time he and I had worked in tandem, which I love because we're gonna see them work in tandem in a couple of chapters. ⁓ but she mentions that in hunting it was never a joint effort. And under the mountain, they had always been looking after each other, but never a team or a unit. So the blood that they smell when they wake up is from the three children of the blessed that the hunters crossed the wall at night, brought them back, put up a barrier so that they couldn't hear their screams, and then butchered them. Lucien and Feyre have a little discussion after they find the bodies as far as what to do. Because Feyre says, Well, should we burn them? And Lucien says, Well, if we do, it means that it's send ⁓ sends the message that we're willing to clean up their message their messes And she says, Why do this? Why is this for sport? Is this to send a message that they're more powerful? What is the reasoning? And Lucien's response is I think this is. that they're not accustomed to being denied and this is an immortal tant temper tantrum that they're throwing. That's the reason that they did it. So then Feyre decides, then let's send them a different message. Which is is that where we're stopping tonight? Yes, okay. I guess we are.

M: If we're only gonna do the one yeah, that's where we're gonna stop.

C: Well, I mean, that's where we were stopping the first episode. Was at seven. I think that's okay. We can we can go a little bit further and do a second the first half of a second episode if you guys are up for it. But we can go ahead and end that one. Okay. So we will find out in the next episode how Feyre and Lucien retaliate in regards to the prince and princess killing the humans. ⁓ do we want to talk about Lucien and Jurian yet or do we want to save that for the next episode? Because I feel like we get a little bit more information then.

M: Kinda think we could hold it until end of chapter eight or end of chapter nine. ⁓ just that we get that. Yeah, exactly.

C: Okay. So we'll just add it to the middle of the next episode. Yep. Okay. So it is my turn. To end

M: To close than open, yes, ma'am.

C: Okay.

M: ⁓ before you start being yelled, 'cause it's been trying to come out.

C: Okay. I'm just gonna repurpose this one a little bit. Are we ready? Okay. And that's a wrap on today's fantasy-filled episode. Thanks for joining us as we dive back into the world of ACOTAR and started the first couple of chapters in ACOWAR A Court of Wings and Ruin. ⁓ we're super excited to get into the third and final book in the trilogy, original trilogy for ACOTAR. lots of plots thickening throughout these first few chapters. And we get to see Feyre kind of coming into her own and giving everybody a run for her money, a run for their money, which I love. I love that we get to see her ⁓ becoming more and more of herself and choosing who she wants to be as she continues to be immortal and learn all about her powers. ⁓ join us next time as we jump back into the last couple of chapters in the spring court for this book. And some Very amusing banter is to come. So join us next time as we jump back into that. Otherwise, have a great day and if you haven't, just read it, MCKay?