A Court of Wings and Ruin Chapter 2: Here, Meet Some New Villains

Previously, Matthew recapped the plot of the previous two books to the tune of the Fresh Prince theme song. Also, Feyre reminds us like a hundred times that she’s spying on Tamlin and friends for the Night Court. We get it, Feyre.

A Court of Wings and Ruin Chapter 2:

I’d barely heard a whisper of Jurian these past weeks— hadn’t seen the resurrected human commander since that night in Hybern.

That is just so funny because we’ve barely heard a whisper about him for two whole books. 

Feyre then recaps to us that Jurian was reborn through the cauldron using the remains Amarantha kept of him. It always cracks me up in first-person stories when characters randomly just start recapping things like this to themselves.

When Feyre returned to the Spring Court, Tamlin promised that this time around things would be different, that she’d be involved in all the meetings and have all the information. Matthew has already called this out, but I can’t believe Tamlin’s biggest piece of character development is becoming the dumbest fuck alive. He chooses to involve Feyre in all his plans now that she is super obviously a spy? Come on, Tam Tam.

And he was true to his word when he explained that Jurian would arrive with two other commanders from Hybern, and I would be present for it. They indeed wished to survey the wall, to test for the perfect spot to rend it once the Cauldron had recovered its strength.

Okay, but it sounds more like Jurian and his lackeys are construction workers than The Big Bads of this series.

Also, apparently the Cauldron is super tired since it turned Feyre’s sisters into Fae because that’s just how this magical item works now, I guess.

Feyre reminds us, yet again, that she needs to gather more information about how long it will take the Cauldron to recover so she can get the information to Rhys. She then explains how their mating bond is basically like two tin cans you tied to a string so you could try to talk to your BFF if they lived next door. But not in those words.

I didn’t know if someone could monitor such things— the silent messages between mates. Not when the mating bond could be scented, and I was playing such a dangerous game with it.

This is very confusing, but it’s my job to provide you with this information. Can they smell the messages? Who knows!

Everyone believed it had been severed, that Rhys’s lingering scent was because he’d forced me, had planted that scent in me.

They believed that with time, with distance, his scent would fade.

Well, everyone at the Spring Court is an idiot.

Jurian shows up, and Feyre is really upset.

I willed ice into my veins, the coldness from a court I had never set foot in. But I wielded its master’s gift on myself, turning burning rage into frozen calm…

So let me get this straight. She uses the power of the ice kingdom to metaphorically calm herself down? She can’t possibly be using these powers to actually will ice into her veins…so what the fuck does this mean? THE POWER WERE METAPHORS THIS WHOLE TIME?

Jurian has two commanders with him that Feyre tells us are very scary.

“May I present Their Highnesses, Prince Dagdan and Princess Brannagh, nephew and niece to the King of Hybern.”

Twins— perhaps linked in power and mental bonds as well.

I don’t know how Feyre jumped to that conclusion (maybe Rhys mentioned something about twins having mental bonds? I don’t remember) but it was super abrupt and obviously the case.

Tamlin and Lucien go to greet their allies, and Feyre quietly seethes.

He’d sold us out. Sold out Prythian— for me. To get me back.

Tamlin is such a ding dong.

Smoke curled in my mouth. I willed frost to fill it again.

I continue to not understand Feyre’s powers.

Tamlin says he has rooms prepared for everyone, and gets a weird, and very Game of Thrones response.

“My brother and I shall reside in one together,” the princess said. Her voice was deceptively light— almost girlish. The utter lack of feeling, the utter authority was anything but.

I could practically feel the snide remark simmering in Lucien.

I mean, hard same, Lucien.

Feyre is super polite to them, and she tells us that because she is dressed very innocently, her enemies are convinced she’s no threat. The whole premise of this book rests completely on the assumption that every character on the opposing side is a total dumb dumb. 

“It’s not every century that the contested possession of a female launches a war. Especially a female with such … talents.”

I only turned on a heel and stalked up the steps after him. “Perhaps if you’d bothered going to war over Miryam, she wouldn’t have left you for Prince Drakon.”

Feyre claims she was clever enough to set Jurian up for this so she could be like, “Don’t you sass me in my own home.” This pleases Tamlin, and Feyre again spells out the plan to get him to trust her so she can betray him. YES, WE GET IT!

They all have a very tense and unpleasant dinner where Jurian tries to rile everybody up so that the twins can try to read everyone’s minds. Feyre ain’t having that, though, and she somehow puts up mind shields for everybody. Again, I do not understand how her powers work, but apparently she can do anything.

I kind of get Jurian’s plan, but I don’t quite understand why acting so antagonistically towards his supposed allies is his strategy. Surely, he could get everyone to relax and like him to achieve the same result. I mean, Lucien and Tamlin aren’t meant to have mind-protection abilities, so they probably didn’t even need to bother getting them angry by saying that Feyre’s sister/Lucien’s mate is probably being fucked by half the Illyrian army or accusing Feyre of sleeping with Rhysand before she left Tamlin.

But it was Tamlin’s snarl that rattled the glasses. “You will behave as a proper guest, Jurian, or you will sleep in the stables like the other beasts.”

Wow, you sure told him, Tamlin.

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