Celaena lounges on the rooftops of Varese, having already decided not to carry out the king's assassination mission.

Rowan Whitethorn finds Celaena in the streets of Varese and escorts her toward Maeve's domain.

Maeve tells Celaena that Rowan will train her at Mistward and she must prove herself worthy before being allowed to enter Doranelle.

Rowan leads Celaena to a field of wight barrows as a test; she is overwhelmed by a dark presence and flashbacks to her parents' murder.

Rowan bites Celaena during a sparring fight, triggering her first successful shift into Fae form.

Celaena accidentally ignites the surrounding forest with uncontrolled fire magic and storms away from Mistward.

Skinwalkers ambush Celaena in the forest; Rowan rescues her and the two reach a tentative peace.

Rowan leads Celaena to a frozen mountain cave where she frees the stranded Luca and discovers the ancient sword Goldryn.

Rowan confesses that his mate Lyria was killed while he was away on a mission for Maeve; he and Celaena vow to heal from their grief together.

During the Beltane celebration, Celaena nearly burns herself out keeping the fires; Rowan sees the slave scars on her back and she shares her past with him.

Rowan explains the carranam bond to Celaena, and she successfully creates a controlled fire shield for the first time.

Narrok's full garrison and three Valg princes launch a coordinated assault on the fortress of Mistward.

Rowan shares his magic with Celaena through their carranam bond; she burns Narrok and all three Valg princes to ashes.

Celaena confronts Maeve in Doranelle and forces her to release Rowan from his Blood Oath; Rowan immediately swears a new oath of loyalty to Celaena.

Celaena resolves to return to Adarlan to reclaim the Wyrdkeys, raise an army, and fight for her throne as queen of Terrasen.

Celaena arrives in Wendlyn having refused to carry out the king's assassination mission, seeking instead to find Maeve and learn about the Wyrdkeys. Sent to train under the harsh Fae warrior Rowan at Mistward, she struggles to unlock her fire magic and confront her crippling grief. Through a series of trials — including battles with skinwalkers and the discovery of the legendary sword Goldryn — Celaena and Rowan forge a bond rooted in shared trauma and mutual loyalty. When Narrok's army and three Valg princes assault Mistward, Celaena fully unleashes her fire magic through the carranam bond with Rowan and destroys them. She then travels to Doranelle, forces Maeve to release Rowan from his Blood Oath, and earns his undying loyalty as the first member of her court. The novel closes with Celaena resolving to return to Adarlan as Aelin, queen of Terrasen, determined to reclaim the Wyrdkeys and defeat the king.

Celaena's journey from hopeless assassin to heir of fire.

Aedion Ashryver arrives at the king's castle carrying the Sword of Orynth; Chaol notices Aedion is wearing one of the king's black rings.

Manon slaughters three villagers who ambush her cottage and reflects on the stolen Crochan red cloak she has worn for over a century.

Dorian visits Sorscha the healer for the first time and thanks her for her past discretion regarding his and his friends' unusual injuries.

The Ironteeth witches tour the Ferian Gap wyvern hatcheries; Manon decides the massive bull wyvern Titus will be her mount.

Chaol trails Aedion and discovers the general is secretly meeting with rebel leaders Murtaugh and Ren.

Chaol reveals to Aedion that Aelin is still alive; the two form an alliance and agree to share intelligence about the king.

Iskra shoves Manon into the wyvern fighting pit; Manon and the small bait wyvern team up to kill Titus, and she claims the survivor as her own, naming him Abraxos.

Dorian and Sorscha discover that iron suppresses his uncontrolled magic; elated by the breakthrough, Dorian kisses her.

Manon tricks the Stygian Spiders of the Ruhnn Mountains into surrendering their legendary spidersilk to repair Abraxos's damaged wings.

Iskra publicly whips Abraxos when he refuses to complete the Crossing; Manon beats Iskra savagely in retaliation before the entire coven.

The king quashes a slave uprising by massacring every prisoner in the Endovier and Calaculla mines; the news devastates Celaena and shocks those in Adarlan.

Chaol and Dorian conduct an experiment together and deduce the mechanism by which the king cast the spell that annulled magic across the land.

The War Games begin at the Ferian Gap; Iskra deliberately attacks Petrah and her wyvern during the aerial competition.

Manon saves Petrah's life against her grandmother's explicit wishes; the Blackbeaks win the War Games and Manon is crowned Wing Leader.

The Ironteeth witches receive orders to march to the fortress of Morath to serve under Duke Perrington's command.

While Celaena trains in Wendlyn, Adarlan is rife with secret alliances and shifting loyalties that will determine the fate of the realm. Chaol discovers that Aedion Ashryver is a double agent working with the rebels, and together they begin probing the king's dark magic while preparing for Aelin's return. Dorian finds unexpected hope in a romance with the healer Sorscha, who helps him suppress his forbidden magical abilities and keeps his secret safe. Meanwhile, the Ironteeth witches arrive at the Ferian Gap to claim wyvern mounts, where Manon defies expectations by bonding with the small but fierce wyvern Abraxos. Manon's bond with Abraxos slowly awakens her capacity for empathy, culminating in her public rebellion when she saves a rival's life against her grandmother's wishes during the War Games. The three storylines converge toward crisis as the king tightens his grip and the witches receive orders to march toward war under a dark commander.

Dorian's secret, Chaol's alliance, and Manon's rise among the witches.

Rowan leads Celaena to Mistward, where Maeve appears and greets her by her true name, Aelin Ashryver, for the first time.

While discussing past castle incidents with Sorscha, Dorian accidentally releases a wave of uncontrolled magic; she immediately offers to help him conceal it.

Celaena begins recovering childhood memories of her parents secretly discussing Maeve's long-standing desire to acquire Aelin's fire abilities.

Murtaugh tells Chaol his theory that a spell simultaneously cast from three separate locations caused magic to vanish from the land.

Manon and Abraxos successfully fly together for the first time after weeks of failed attempts.

Chaol and Aedion investigate the suspected sites and confirm all three triangulated locations are marked by towers of black stone matching the one in the king's castle.

Murtaugh brings word that the king's navy is sailing to attack Wendlyn; Aedion and Dorian each pressure Chaol to stop staying neutral and pick a side.

Manon and Abraxos triumphantly complete the Crossing together, silencing all who doubted the small wyvern.

Celaena makes the connection between the creature she and Rowan have been hunting in Wendlyn and the monsters she previously encountered in Adarlan.

Celaena formally and aloud claims Rowan as her friend with every ember left in her heart as they prepare to face the incoming assault.

A flashback reveals the night Adarlan soldiers murdered young Aelin's parents at their court; her lady-in-waiting Lady Marion sacrificed herself to allow Aelin to escape.

Celaena realizes the Amulet of Orynth — her family's heirloom — contains the third and final Wyrdkey and that Arobynn Hamel currently possesses it.

News of Aelin's victory over the Valg princes spreads back to Adarlan; Aedion, Chaol, and the rebels celebrate her return in Wendlyn.

The king exposes Sorscha as a rebel spy and executes her; Dorian uses his magic against his father to help Chaol escape and is punished with a Valg collar.

Chaol formally renounces his vows to the king and disappears into hiding, swearing to fight for a better world and free his captured friends.

The story's pivotal revelations begin when Maeve acknowledges Celaena's true royal identity and when Dorian's uncontrolled magic forces Sorscha to become his covert ally. As the rebel investigation deepens, Murtaugh uncovers the three-tower theory explaining magic's disappearance, and Chaol and Aedion confirm the physical evidence of the king's sinister scheme. Celaena's recovered childhood memories illuminate why Maeve always coveted her power, and her identification of the Valg creatures hunting the Wendlyn countryside reframes the danger gathering around Mistward. The climactic battle triggers a shattering flashback to the night Adarlan soldiers murdered young Aelin's parents while Lady Marion sacrificed herself to save the child queen. After the battle, Celaena realizes the Amulet of Orynth conceals the final Wyrdkey, while back in Adarlan the king's court unravels as Sorscha is executed and Dorian is enslaved, finally forcing Chaol to choose a side and step out of the shadows.