A Court of Mist and Fury Book Recap
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If you remember A Court of Mist and Fury as the book where Rhysand went from questionable villain to everyone’s favorite High Lord, you are technically correct.
But there is a lot more going on.
Feyre is dealing with everything that happened Under the Mountain. Her relationship with Tamlin is falling apart. Rhysand keeps appearing at inconveniently convenient moments. War is brewing with Hybern. There is a magical book, a terrifying Cauldron, several questionable political decisions, and one very important mating bond.
So if you need an ACOMAF refresher before reading A Court of Wings and Ruin, here is everything you need to remember.
Obviously, major spoilers for the entire book are ahead.
Need to go back to the beginning? Catch up with my full A Court of Thorns and Roses recap first.
Buy the Books
Where A Court of Mist and Fury Begins
A Court of Mist and Fury begins about three months after Feyre defeated Amarantha Under the Mountain in A Court of Thorns and Roses.
Feyre may have survived, but she is absolutely not okay.
She was tortured, forced to kill innocent faeries, murdered by Amarantha, and then resurrected as High Fae by the seven High Lords.
Now she is living at the Spring Court with Tamlin and preparing to marry him.
From the outside, Feyre has gotten the happy ending she fought for.
Inside, she is falling apart.
She has nightmares about Under the Mountain, regularly wakes up vomiting, barely eats, has lost weight, and is consumed by guilt over the two innocent faeries she killed during Amarantha’s final trial.
Tamlin is struggling with his own trauma too, but instead of helping Feyre regain control of her life, he becomes increasingly protective.
And by protective, I mean controlling.
Feyre wants to leave the manor.
Tamlin wants guards with her.
Feyre wants to train.
Tamlin refuses.
Feyre wants to help him deal with the threats still lingering throughout Prythian.
Tamlin wants her safely inside the Spring Court manor.
Meanwhile, Ianthe, a High Priestess and friend of Tamlin’s family, takes control of the wedding preparations.
Feyre slowly realizes what her future at the Spring Court will actually look like.
She will marry Tamlin, become his consort, attend social events, produce heirs, and smile beside the High Lord.
But there is no High Lady of the Spring Court.
Feyre will never be Tamlin’s equal.
Feyre and Tamlin's Wedding
On the day of the wedding, Feyre walks down the aisle toward Tamlin and realizes she cannot do it.
She is panicking.
She desperately wishes someone would save her from having to make the decision herself.
And apparently the universe says:
Rhysand will do.
Rhys arrives in the middle of the wedding to collect Feyre for the bargain they made Under the Mountain.
Remember that bargain?
Rhys healed Feyre after the Middengard Wyrm trial in exchange for one week of every month at the Night Court.
Tamlin is furious, but bargains between faeries cannot simply be ignored.
So Feyre leaves her wedding with Rhys.
Feyre Goes to the Night Court
Feyre expects the Night Court to be horrifying.
Instead, Rhys takes her to a beautiful palace beneath a star filled sky.
Even more surprising?
He doesn’t imprison her.
Rhys gives Feyre choices.
He also decides it is time for Feyre to learn how to read.
The reading lessons start out as peak annoying Rhysand, but there is a reason behind them. Feyre’s inability to read almost killed her Under the Mountain, and Rhys wants her capable of protecting herself.
He also begins teaching her how to shield her mind.
That becomes especially important when they realize Feyre inherited far more than immortality when the High Lords resurrected her.
She received a piece of power from every one of them.
Feyre can potentially wield abilities belonging to all seven courts.
Rhys wants to train her.
Tamlin does not.
The King of Hybern Is Coming
Rhys also reveals the much bigger problem happening outside the Spring Court.
The King of Hybern is preparing for war.
Hybern wants to destroy the magical wall separating the faerie lands from the mortal world and reclaim the human territories.
Amarantha’s occupation of Prythian was not completely separate from this plan. Her rule weakened Prythian and made the courts more vulnerable to what Hybern intends to do next.
Rhys believes war is coming.
And Feyre may be one of their greatest weapons.
When Feyre returns to the Spring Court, she tells Tamlin and Lucien what she learned.
Tamlin still refuses to let her train.
The Tithe
Things continue getting worse between Feyre and Tamlin.
During the Spring Court’s Tithe, Tamlin’s subjects are required to pay him tribute.
A water wraith explains that she cannot pay because there are no fish left in her lake.
Tamlin refuses to excuse the debt.
Feyre secretly gives the wraith her jewelry so she can pay what she owes and still afford food.
Tamlin sees Feyre’s actions as undermining his authority.
Feyre sees Tamlin’s actions as cruel.
Their argument becomes another example of how differently they now see the world.
Then Feyre asks Tamlin for more freedom.
Tamlin loses control of his power and destroys the room around them.
Feyre instinctively shields herself with magic.
Instead of being terrified by what she can do, Feyre wants to understand it even more.
Tamlin still refuses.
Tamlin Locks Feyre Inside the Manor
Eventually, Tamlin prepares to leave the Spring Court to deal with another threat.
Feyre insists on coming.
Tamlin says no.
Feyre tells him she will follow anyway.
So Tamlin uses magic to seal Feyre inside the manor.
This completely breaks her.
Being trapped sends Feyre spiraling back into her memories of Under the Mountain.
She panics and desperately tries to escape.
Mor arrives and rescues her, taking her to the Night Court.
This time, Feyre doesn’t want to go back.
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Welcome to Velaris
Rhys offers Feyre sanctuary and finally reveals his greatest secret.
Velaris.
The City of Starlight.
For thousands of years, Velaris has remained hidden from the rest of Prythian. Even Amarantha never discovered it.
And this is where Feyre finally meets the people who become her family.
Rhysand’s Inner Circle
Morrigan
Rhys’s cousin and third in command. Mor is powerful, confident, fiercely loyal, and quickly becomes one of Feyre’s closest friends.
Cassian
Rhys’s general and an incredibly powerful Illyrian warrior. Cassian eventually takes over Feyre’s physical combat training.
Azriel
Rhys’s spymaster and shadowsinger. Quiet, observant, deadly, and surrounded by literal shadows.
Amren
Rhys’s second in command. Amren appears High Fae but is actually an ancient being from another world who became trapped inside a Fae body.
For the first time since Under the Mountain, Feyre begins finding somewhere she actually belongs.
She also begins training.
The Cauldron and the Book of Breathings
Rhys takes Feyre to meet the Bone Carver inside the Prison.
The Bone Carver reveals what Hybern is planning.
The King of Hybern possesses the Cauldron, an ancient object containing enormous magical power.
He wants to use it to destroy the wall separating the human and faerie lands.
There is potentially one way to stop him.
The Book of Breathings.
The book contains a spell capable of neutralizing the Cauldron, but it has been divided into two pieces.
One half belongs to the faeries.
The other belongs to the mortal queens.
And because Feyre was made rather than born High Fae, she may be capable of wielding it.
Finding both halves becomes their mission.
The Weaver
Before trusting Feyre with the mission, Rhys gives her a test.
He sends her into the cottage of the Weaver.
Yes.
That Weaver.
Feyre has to retrieve an object Rhys left inside without getting eaten.
Completely reasonable training exercise.
Feyre discovers a star sapphire ring and manages to steal it, but the Weaver realizes someone is inside her cottage.
Feyre barely escapes.
She later learns that the ring belonged to Rhys’s mother.
His mother decreed that any female wishing to marry Rhys would have to retrieve it from the Weaver herself.
Rhys basically sent Feyre to retrieve her own engagement ring before either of them had admitted what was happening between them.
Sir.
Feyre Returns to Her Sisters
To obtain the human half of the Book of Breathings, Feyre needs access to the mortal queens.
That means returning home.
Nesta and Elain are shocked when Feyre appears as High Fae.
Feyre explains what happened Under the Mountain and warns them about Hybern.
She asks permission to use their estate as neutral ground for a meeting with the queens.
Nesta initially refuses.
Elain convinces her to help.
Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel eventually join Feyre at the estate, which leads to some very interesting interactions between Cassian and Nesta.
Subtle, these two are not.
Feyre Officially Leaves Tamlin
Back in Velaris, Feyre finally sends Tamlin a letter.
She tells him she left willingly.
She is safe.
And she is not returning to him.
Her relationship with Tamlin is over.
Meanwhile, Feyre continues training with Cassian and Rhys.
She learns to fight.
She practices controlling the powers she inherited from the High Lords.
She learns to winnow.
And slowly, she begins becoming herself again.
Not the human Feyre who entered Prythian.
Not the broken Feyre who left Under the Mountain.
Someone new.
The Summer Court
The faerie half of the Book of Breathings is hidden in the Summer Court.
Rhys, Feyre, and Amren travel there and meet Tarquin, the young High Lord of Summer.
Unfortunately, Tarquin is actually nice.
Which makes stealing from him considerably more awkward.
Feyre eventually senses that the book is hidden inside a submerged temple.
She, Rhys, and Amren break into it.
Feyre uses the powers she inherited from Tarquin to bypass the magical protections and retrieve the book.
The temple floods while Feyre and Amren are escaping.
Feyre nearly drowns, but the water wraiths save her.
Remember the water wraith Feyre helped during the Tithe?
Her sisters have not forgotten Feyre’s kindness.
Once they return to Velaris, Amren begins trying to translate the strange language inside the Book of Breathings.
Tarquin realizes they betrayed him and sends blood rubies to Rhys, Feyre, and Amren.
They are now officially marked as enemies of the Summer Court.
Oops.
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The Mortal Queens
The mortal queens refuse to simply hand over their half of the Book of Breathings.
They don’t trust Rhys.
Which, considering his reputation, isn’t entirely shocking.
They demand proof that he actually protects humans and cares about peace.
Rhys decides to reveal something almost no outsider has ever seen.
Velaris.
But first they need a way to prove the city exists without physically taking the queens there.
That requires stealing a magical truth orb from the Court of Nightmares.
The Court of Nightmares
Feyre accompanies Rhys to the Hewn City.
Here, she sees the version of Rhysand that most of Prythian knows.
Cold.
Cruel.
Terrifying.
Powerful.
Feyre plays the role of Rhys’s plaything while sitting on his lap before the court, giving Azriel enough time to steal the orb.
The performance gets considerably more convincing than either Feyre or Rhys anticipated.
Their attraction is becoming impossible to ignore.
Rhysand Is Feyre's Mate
Eventually, Feyre discovers the truth Rhys has been hiding.
They are mates.
And Rhys knew.
Feyre is furious that he kept something so important from her and leaves to spend time alone.
Rhys eventually comes to her and finally tells Feyre the entire story.
He explains how he began dreaming about her before they ever met.
How he realized she was the human woman connected to him.
How he went to Calanmai hoping to find her.
How he saw her with Tamlin.
How he tried to protect her Under the Mountain.
How he sent her the music that helped her survive.
And how, when the High Lords resurrected Feyre, the mating bond between them became unmistakable.
Rhys knew Feyre was his mate.
But he wanted her to choose him.
He didn’t want the mating bond to make that decision for her.
And Feyre finally does choose him.
She accepts the mating bond.
Feyre and Rhys are officially mates.
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The Second Half of the Book of Breathings
Rhys and the Inner Circle meet with the mortal queens again.
Using the truth orb, they reveal Velaris and prove that Rhys has protected an entire city from war.
Most of the queens still refuse to help.
But after they leave, they discover that the youngest queen secretly left behind the second half of the Book of Breathings.
They finally have the complete book.
And they can finally try to stop the Cauldron.
Unfortunately, the other queens have made a very different choice.
They betray them to Hybern.
Hybern Attacks Velaris
Hybern’s forces suddenly attack Velaris.
The city’s magical protections have been compromised because the mortal queens revealed its location.
The attack is devastating.
Cassian, Azriel, Amren, and Feyre fight to defend the city.
Feyre finally unleashes the powers she has spent the entire book learning to control.
She summons water.
She freezes enemies.
She uses fire.
She winnows through the battle.
And when she finds the Attor, the creature that tormented her Under the Mountain, she kills it.
The Feyre who once needed everyone else to protect her is gone.
The Mission to Hybern
Amren finally translates the spell needed to neutralize the Cauldron.
Feyre, Mor, Cassian, and Azriel travel to Hybern while Rhys remains outside because the king would recognize his power.
They infiltrate the castle and find the Cauldron.
Feyre joins the two halves of the Book of Breathings and attempts to use it.
But something goes wrong.
Jurian appears.
Yes.
Jurian.
The human warrior whose eye and finger bone Amarantha kept as jewelry has been resurrected.
Then the King of Hybern traps them.
And he reveals the people who helped him do it.
Tamlin and Lucien.
Tamlin Made a Deal With Hybern
Tamlin believed Rhys had kidnapped and manipulated Feyre.
So he made a bargain with the King of Hybern.
Tamlin would allow Hybern access through the Spring Court.
In exchange, Hybern would help him get Feyre back.
Tamlin thinks he is rescuing her.
Feyre realizes he never believed the letter she sent him saying she left voluntarily.
And somehow things are about to get even worse.
Nesta and Elain Are Taken
The mortal queens didn’t only betray Velaris.
They revealed information about Feyre’s sisters.
Hybern brings Nesta and Elain into the throne room.
The King intends to demonstrate the Cauldron’s power by turning humans into High Fae.
Elain is thrown into the Cauldron first.
She emerges immortal and High Fae.
Then Lucien looks at her and realizes something enormous.
Elain is his mate.
Nesta is next.
She fights every step of the way, but the guards force her into the Cauldron.
Nesta does not simply emerge High Fae.
She takes something from the Cauldron.
Something powerful.
Something the Cauldron apparently did not intend to give her.
Nesta comes out furious, staring directly at the King of Hybern and promising without words that this is not over.
Feyre's Plan
Everyone is trapped.
Cassian and Azriel are badly injured.
Nesta and Elain have been transformed.
Rhys and Feyre’s powers have been suppressed.
So Feyre does something extremely clever.
She pretends Rhys controlled her.
Feyre acts as though Rhys manipulated her mind, kidnapped her, and forced her into believing she loved him.
She runs back to Tamlin.
Tamlin believes her.
The King of Hybern believes her.
And Feyre begs the king to break the bond between her and Rhys.
He does.
At least, he thinks he does.
With Hybern’s wards temporarily shattered, Mor escapes with Nesta and Elain.
Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel escape too.
Feyre stays behind.
And returns to the Spring Court with Tamlin.
The Ending of A Court of Mist and Fury Explained
Here is the extremely important part to remember before A Court of Wings and Ruin.
The King of Hybern did not break Feyre and Rhys’s mating bond.
He broke the bargain they made Under the Mountain.
Their mating bond still exists.
Rhys knew exactly what Feyre was doing when she pretended to choose Tamlin.
Feyre has deliberately returned to the Spring Court as a spy.
But there is one more reveal.
Before leaving for Hybern, Feyre and Rhys secretly married.
Feyre isn’t simply Rhysand’s mate.
She is High Lady of the Night Court.
The first High Lady Prythian has ever known.
And Tamlin has unknowingly brought the High Lady of the Night Court directly into his home.
Feyre intends to learn everything she can about Tamlin’s alliance with Hybern.
And then?
She plans to destroy the Spring Court from within.
Continuing your ACOTAR reread? Browse all of my Fantasy Romance Book Recaps to refresh your memory before the next book.
Where Everyone Is at the End of ACOMAF
Feyre
Feyre is Rhysand’s mate and High Lady of the Night Court. She has returned to the Spring Court undercover and is pretending that Rhys manipulated her.
Rhysand
Rhys knows Feyre’s plan and remains connected to her through their mating bond. He is preparing the Night Court for war with Hybern.
Tamlin
Tamlin believes he successfully rescued Feyre from Rhys. He has allied himself with Hybern and allowed Hybern access to the Spring Court.
Lucien
Lucien returns to the Spring Court with Tamlin and Feyre, but he is suspicious of Feyre’s story. He has also discovered that Elain is his mate.
Nesta
Nesta has been forcibly transformed into High Fae by the Cauldron and appears to have stolen some of its power in the process.
Elain
Elain has also been transformed into High Fae. Her human engagement is now in serious jeopardy, and Lucien has identified her as his mate.
Cassian
Cassian is badly injured during the confrontation in Hybern but escapes with the Night Court.
Azriel
Azriel is also severely wounded after Jurian shoots him with an ash arrow, but he escapes.
Mor
Mor gets Nesta and Elain safely away from Hybern and brings them to the Night Court.
Amren
Amren remains one of Rhys’s most powerful allies and has successfully translated the Book of Breathings.
The King of Hybern
Hybern has the Cauldron, powerful allies, access through the Spring Court, and every intention of destroying the wall separating the human and faerie lands.
War is coming.
