A Court of Wings and Ruin Chapters 61-63: But The Real War Was THEIR FEELINGS

Previously, the war really started for real this time again and the superfriends’ armies have been chasing Hybern’s army all over the map. Feyre went to go find the Suriel – a character who magically answers all her questions whenever the story can’t figure out another way to move the plot forward – to ask, no, really, where’s the real army, but this time the Suriel can only magically answer some of her questions! Because reasons. It’s a book on this blog, there’s not usually a lot of internal logic to follow.

A newly-healed Ianthe shows up for the first time in forever to kill the Suriel, but then Ianthe gets killed off immediately (I think? How “dead” does anyone ever really get in this story anyway?). The Suriel dies in Feyre’s arms as it tells her she was his best friend, which was simultaneously the saddest and funniest thing that’s happened in this book.

A Court of Wings and Ruin: Chapter 61

Helion pulls a “and then someone unimportant shows up to rescue them at the end of Lord of the Flies” and teleports Feyre back to Rhysand and the superfriends’ war tent. Feyre learns that they barely won the battle and that Cassian was gravely injured and only survived because Azriel literally held in his intestines for him. (But he’ll be fine. Somehow.)

And then the bickering begins:

• Mor gets mad at Feyre for leaving without telling anyone to go on a secret mission
• Feyre gets mad at Mor and the others because she thinks they must just see her as young and reckless
• Rhys says he isn’t mad at Feyre, and she doesn’t need anyone to “let” her do anything, but she really should “leave a note the next time”

• Rhys gets mad at Cassian for ignoring his order to wait and nearly getting himself killed
• Cassian gets mad at Rhys because he didn’t agree with the order
• Rhys gets mad at Cassian because he’s kind of in charge here
• But Rhys and Cassian can’t both be in the boat at the same time because then the chicken will eat the seeds
• Cassian gets mad at Rhys for “pulling rank” (which feels stupid even for this story about a close group of friends running an entire country) and for “your self-sacrificing bullshit” (which actually lol good)
• This goes on for a while

• Mor gets mad at Feyre again for lying to her about leaving to go on a secret mission
• Feyre gets mad because they needed the information she got
• Mor is also mad because if Feyre, her High Lady, doesn’t trust them to help her or respect her
• THEN THINGS ACTUALLY GET BUCK WILD

“You are my High Lady. Do you understand what it means when you imply you don’t trust us to help you? […] When you lie to us?”
“You want to talk about lying? […] How about the fact that you lie to yourself and all of us every single day?”
She went still, but didn’t loosen her hold on my arm. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Why haven’t you ever made a move for Azriel, Mor?”

“Why did you invite Helion to your bed?”

“So before you accuse me of being a liar, I’d suggest you look long and hard at yourself—”
“That’s enough.”
“Is it? Don’t like someone pushing you about it? About your choices? Well, neither do I.”

HOLY SHIT I’M DYING WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING

Chapter 62

Amren advises Feyre to give Mor some time and space so they can both cool off after (checks notes) Feyre told Mor that not making a move on her friend that Feyre thinks Mor has feelings for is the same thing as Feyre lying to Mor about leaving a battle to go on a dangerous secret mission without telling anyone.

Amren has a plan to locate the Cauldron, which involves Nesta standing over a giant map, casting her mind toward “the bond that links you [and the Cauldron]”, and casting three stones and four bones over the map to pinpoint the location once she does so. I have no idea how small or large these four bones she’s holding in her hand are, so just go with whatever mental image you’re most amused by, I guess.

It doesn’t seem to work at first but suddenly Nesta’s clearing going through something, which immediately prompts Feyre to step into Nesta’s mind, because the sanctity of entering someone’s mind without their consent – despite Nesta previously explicitly tell Feyre she doesn’t want her to do this to her – isn’t as important as having the main character able to narrate what’s going on.

I took a step into her mind.
The images slammed into me.
One after one after one, I saw them.
The army that stretched into the horizon. The weapons, the hate, the sheer size.
I saw the king standing over a map in a war-tent, flanked by Jurian and several commanders, the Cauldron squatting in the center of the room behind them.
And there was Nesta.
Standing in that tent, watching the king, the Cauldron.
Frozen in place.
With undiluted fear. […]
The Cauldron seemed to sense us watching. Sense us there.

Feyre helps Nesta keep calm and come back to her physical location to cast the stones and bones, which form a perfect circle on the map…

While Hybern had been driving us northward, letting us chase them in these two battles …
The king had amassed his host along the western edge of the human territory.
Perhaps no more than a hundred miles from our family’s estate.

The chapter ends with Varian wordlessly walking into the tent and making out with Amren, because why the hell not.

Chapter 63

Amren and Varian didn’t even bother to join us [for dinner].
No, she’d just wrapped her legs around his waist, right there in front of us, and he’d stood, lifting her in one swift movement. I wasn’t entirely sure how Varian managed to walk them out of the tent while still kissing her

Anyone remember who Varian is? Nope? Ok, cool. Glad these crazy kids are finally making out.

That night, Feyre, Nesta, and Amren all wake up in a panic, feeling that something is wrong, that the Cauldron is there, “looking”. I’m sure they don’t mean this literally, but nope, sorry, I have a mental image of a cauldron sneaking around at night and that’s never going away now.

No one else notices anything (except for Azriel who notices that the shadows and the wind are “recoiling”), and Amren supposes it’s because the three of them were Made. They then realize, hey, shouldn’t Elain also have noticed… oh shit.

Nesta was already moving, sprinting for where we’d heard that voice. Luring Elain out. […]
We reached the copse of trees at the edge of the camp, […] Nesta let out a sound that might have been a sob as I realized what [Rhsyand had] found at the edge of the forest. What the Cauldron had left behind in its haste to return to Hybern’s war-camp. Or as a mocking gift.
Elain’s dark blue cloak, still warm from her body.

Oh shit! Stakes! Or Elain’s just secretly walking around the woods naked. Neither one seems particularly likely at this point in the story though, so guess we’ll find out.

Wow, that’s nine chapters down since last week’s existential crisis! Eighteen chapters to go! Is this story finally getting ready to wrap up… somewhere? Anyone remember what Lucien’s supposed to be doing? I’m glad we had those hundreds of pages about meetings about alliances. I mean… actually thinking about it, this is definitely an improvement since the big issue with the last book was that Rhysand and the superfriends tried to do everything themselves and that was why they failed. But gosh, what a grueling, glacial way to get here – wherever “here” is. Does anyone feel like any of these alliances we’ve painstakingly gained this book add anything essential to the plot? Or does it all just add up to a plot device, a hundreds-pages-long way of adding numbers to the nameless masses fighting the war? I mean, those people are important, but I don’t feel like ACOTAR‘s ever really been that interested in them when the book’s largest fight scene’s biggest casualty was the main characters’ patience with each other.

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