Book Review: Crown of Midnight

Title: Crown of Midnight
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy

What It’s About:

Celaena sneaks through the window of the house—none of the servants of the house noticed her scaling up into the house, and through an open window, one that is promptly closed by a servant passing by, and who coincidentally does not even notice the wet footprints on the floor. Celaena makes her way to the bedchambers of the Lord and Lady, closing the door with the flash of the lightning, and then pulling out her sword against the Lord’s throat, who has woken up at that just moment.

Celaena makes her way through the Glass castle in Rifthold, to meet right away with the King. She makes her way into the Great Hall, where Chaol and Dorian are waiting as well, but they all pretend that there is nothing between them. Instead, Chaol pretends like he has to protect the king, and Dorian has a myriad of feelings flitting through him at what Celaena has had to do. She throws the head of the Lord at the King’s feet, along with a hand containing the Lord’s wax seal, and a female’s hand with a gold band—trinkets she got from the Lord she was sent to kill after she gave him a choice: to die right there and then, or to escape and never use his given name. This is a dangerous game that she has begun playing with the King, using bodies of the dead that are similar in build and look as the men that she was tasked to kill—one that if she were to be discovered, would lead to the death of Nehemia and her family as well as Chaol. The King tells her that he has another task for her—there are dissenters and rebels in Rifthold that will interfere with his plan, and he wants her to kill them. He will give her a name after every head she brings—the first name he gives her is Archer Fisher, the Courtesan that Celaena has known and grown up with, and who had let her flirt with him. She wonders just what he is involved in that he would end up on the King’s list, and wonders what she could do to save his life.

She heads to the sewers after being granted leave, and throws the heads and body parts into the sewers, watching them float away, while Chaol comes to speak with her. Dorian stays behind in the Great Hall wondering if Celaena played with his heart—she is very different in her actions in front of the king, and so he wonders if she would at all be able to string him along. Celaena returns to her rooms, and a few days go by without much eventful activity—Chaol and Celaena go for a run one day, and there are a gaggle of giggling women on their way back into the castle, clearly being interested in checking Chaol out. As they are returning back from this run, they run into Dorian and his cousin Roland, who starts making comments to Celaena that makes her want to murder him or figure out ways to murder him. Chaol doesn’t like Roland, and Dorian chuckles internally at Celaena’s faces. He later visits her and she tells him that she wants to be left alone—not for him to fight for her.

Celaena continues to hang out with Nehemia, who talks about doing something for the people in Calaculla, one of the labor camps, and doing something to save them, against the king. Celaena is uncomfortable with this train of thought and approach, so she shuts down during the conversation. Then one day, she cannot sleep and goes to the Royal Library where she runs into a dark figure—one that sets off her Eye of Elena. After that, she visits the tombs looking for Elena, instead finding herself face to face with Mort, a bronze knocker with an animation wyrdkey that talks to her and leaves her a message from Elena—to continue investigating, and that her saving these from being executed is just the first part of the process; there is more that is going on, and specifically the King has unusual power. Celaena visits Kaltain Rompier—the woman who had poisoned her under Perrington’s orders, though he had denied it after the fact—and realizes that someone keeps visiting Kaltain and abusing her while the night guard looks the other way. Kaltain doesn’t have much to tell her besides the fact that Perrington and the King are using her, and that she is meant to meet something that is coming. She makes a comment about flapping crows—the flapping wings—coming close by to the prison and the horrid headaches, which leaves Celaena feeling unsettled as the jail is too far down for her to even see or hear crows. She later tells this to Nehemia, who is outraged, and then to Chaol, who is extremely angry and who has words with the Night Guards, which he also changes out.

She eventually orchestrates—after having spied on him—a meeting with Archer Fisher. Celaena takes Chaol with her for a walk to a very popular tea place where they appear to be waiting in line for a spot, and at just the opportune moment, she runs into Archer. He is surprised to see her and though she had told him that Chaol knows, he refuses to say anything out loud that may implicate her as an assassin. He invites her to dine with him the next day—he will rearrange her schedule for her, but she just needs to send him information on where and what time. They head their separate ways and Celaena has to attend as a guard for an event that the king is holding in the Great Hall. Dorian watches Celaena watch Chaol and occasionally him, but always goes back to Chaol. It annoys him enough that she would look at his friend more than at him, so much so that he leaves the Great Hall before Roland—his father had been gone by that point—and Celaena follows him to ask him if everything is all right. He tells her not to worry, he’s fine, and Celaena communicates to him that she does not believe that Roland should be trusted. She feels that something is off with him, and has felt that way about Roland since her first meeting with him, when she felt that way and couldn’t put a finger on it as to why.

Celaena dresses provocatively the next day to meet with Archer, and leads Chaol to believe that she will be staying the night at Archer’s house. She meets with Archer, they talk, drink and laugh, and then she takes his carriage with him to his house, where she tells him that she’s been sent by the King to kill him. Archer swears up and down to her that he doesn’t know anything or has any connection to the rebel movement, but he might know some of his clients who are connected to the movement—including one that is purportedly trying to unite under Aelin Galathynius, the lost Queen of Terrasen. This bothers Celaena and she figures that this figure must be an imposter, but she agrees to let him live and put his affairs in order before leaving Rifthold to a distant land, where he will never use his name, in exchange for more information. He takes her the next day to a ball, where she is dressed in a mask as is everyone. There, he tells her that his client—an older man—is the one that has been in conversation with other clients of his own about this plot to unite under Terrasen, before taking her to this man’s office. He leaves her there, and Celaena searches the office for any information on the conspirators, but finds none. Unfortunately, before she leaves, she gets found out by the owner of the house, who ultimately reveals that there is no way anyone would have let her into this room as he is the only one that has the key. He attacks her, cutting her arm with a dagger infused with Gloriella, but she manages to subdue him and kill him, before tearing her dress apart, and escaping through the window from the office. She steals a cloak from a homeless individual, and makes her way back to the glass castle, having enough consciousness to find Chaol in his room, before promptly collapsing and losing consciousness. Chaol is freaked out and tears apart her dress wondering where all of the blood is from—there was a lot of it on her dress—only to realize that she has a cut on her arm, and the word that she had told him before she collapsed was the poison that had been used on her. He spends the night with her, while his soldiers find out what had happened—a man was killed with his own dagger that was tipped in gloriella—and get healers, who use an antidote for the gloriella but it makes her vomit because they don’t know how much of it they need. Dorian is pissed about this too when he finds out, but Celaena who has no recollection of what happened after finding her way to Chaol is only thankful.

Taking into consideration the advice of Mort—from Elena, Celaena decides to head to the Royal Library, where she explores the perimeter. As she explores it, she comes across another tapestry that is similar to the one in her room that has the connection to the Tombs, and finds the hidden paths that take her into a second, hidden library, confirming the rumors that Chaol had shared with her that there is a second, secret library. She recalls that the initial feeling of the vibration that she had in the library when she spent her time there with Chaol—and he had showed her that he was doing it with his knife—was really claws. She explores the hidden library, and then continues on where she finds an Iron door—it has not been rusted shut, but it does not open for her when she tries to open it. She uses what little light she can get, what little illumination to peer underneath the door using her daggers, and finds two green eyes staring back at her. She convinces herself that it is a rat.

Celaena eventually tells Nehemia the truth, after Nehemia tells her that she is considering dropping Celaena as a friend considering that she’s not doing anything to fight back and she’s different than who she thought she was. She tells Nehemia how she didn’t actually kill anyone and that the bodies were really of someone who had died from illness. Celaena also takes her to the tombs and shows her what she found. While in the tombs, Celaena notices that the wyrdmarks are in a constellation format and then discovers that there is an eye form in one of the walls—but it doesn’t go anywhere. Nehemia tells her that she will look into it to help her figure it out, but Celaena later comes on her own to try and see if the Eye of Elena will fit in the hole, but it doesn’t, and Mort makes fun of her.

There is a renowned harpist that comes to the Glass palace in honor of Hollin’s return from school. The woman sings about magic and Celaena, who had done anything that she could to get into that showing, cries during this song, though she is worried for the lady as the King had forbidden any mention of magic. He later kills the woman, and the violinist after telling her that it is forbidden to talk about magic. She tells the King in turn that she had been working hard to get an invite to this castle, just so that she could tell him that he’s killed all of her family. Then in a different ball for Hollin, Celaena is placed outside to watch for danger. She ends up listening to the music and dancing on her own, and Chaol follows her out to tell her that she has abandoned her post, but when he sees her happy and dancing, and when she tells him that it’s cruel to not be able to dance, he asks her to dance with him. Dorian watches them from a window, and Nehemia joins him to watch them as well, asking him to let them be, as they will never know the weight of crowns and responsibility that comes with them. Dorian tells her that he already let Celaena go, and she tells him good. She asks him to do what he can about Calaculla, asking if he knows how much Celaena suffered and how much other people suffer. She tells him to come find her when he needs help, as she senses things within him.

Dorian gets upset during a council meeting about Calaculla’s expansion, and he tells them all in anger that his vote is no, before storming out of the meeting. He heads over to a room, where he punches a wall and it cracks, ultimately shattering the window. He is shocked to find out he has magic, and that the magic even protected him from the shattered window. Dorian tries to find Nehemia later that night, but he is not able to find her, and instead finds himself in front of Celaena’s door. Celaena returns late at night with a chocolate cake after having said goodnight to Chaol and touched his face in a tender manner, finding Dorian in front of her door. He tells her it’s nothing, and that he had been looking for Nehemia but couldn’t find her as she’s not in the castle. He begins researching his family lines to see where he could possibly be getting the magic from, and eventually goes to see Baba Yellowlegs, when the carnival rolls in, to ask a few questions about magic and where it could potentially come from. He pays her for it, and some extra money for her to keep it secret, but doesn’t get much detail from her. Roland, who had seen him speak with Baba Yellowlegs but kept his distance because she bothered him, speaks with Dorian and tells him that he will support his decisions—Roland is his cousin and has come to be a part of the court.

Chaol’s birthday comes around, and he is gifted an Asterion horse by Dorian, which he tries to decline. Celaena tells him that she once had one—having stolen it from a Lord in the Desert—and both men are astounded, though Dorian thinks to himself that it’s only she who would be so daring as to steal the horse. Celaena invites Chaol for a birthday dinner, where she takes him to a greenhouse above an apothecary and he really is happy with the dinner. At the end of the dinner, she tells him that she hasn’t been killing the men that she has been sent to kill, and has been giving them a choice. He thinks that she’s crazy and that the King will kill her, but she tells him that she couldn’t go through with killing someone that only just wanted a better life—that dreamed of a better world. They return to the castle, and go into Celaena’s room, where they spend the night together for the first time, and Celaena is not willing to wait any longer to be with someone physically—she lost her chance with Sam, but she won’t hold herself back anymore because of her feelings for Chaol. Chaol sees himself marrying her down the line—sees himself having a family with her, and realizes that she is young and so is he, so he needs to take some time. They spend some time like this—spending evenings with each other in her bed. During this time, Chaol’s father beckons him for a visit, and talks with Chaol about not sharing his bed with some random woman, but one of noble birth. He also talks to Chaol about coming back to Anielle, because Chaol’s brother is not a warrior, he is a scribe/ intellectual at heart and won’t be a good fit to be the Lord of Anielle. Chaol tells him off for it, that he is not interested in this role and that he is not part of the family as his father had disowned him essentially for choosing to be the Royal Guard. The King also tells Chaol that there have been threats against Nehemia, so he needs to double her guard, and another day, not too long after, he tells Chaol that Nehemia will need to be brought in for questioning, but doesn’t elaborate further

One night, after love making, Chaol walks out of Celaena’s room to clear his head, and gets kidnapped. Celaena doesn’t think much of it as he may have left early for his Captain duties, but when he doesn’t show up later that night, she has a feeling—the same one she had about Sam’s disappearance—and runs to his room. There, she finds Chaol’s sword, and a note that he is being held elsewhere and she must show up. Her fury shuts down all emotions and turns her into a cold, calculated weapon—one that has been honed to do this. Celaena gets dressed up in her assassin gear, grabs all her weapons, including Chaol’s sword, and then finds her way to the warehouse, which she quickly assesses. Then she busts into the warehouse through an open window, killing two of the men trained with bows and arrows, and begins to fight against all of the men in the warehouse, furious at the fact that Chaol is chained. Chaol had awakened at the warehouse and had learnt that it was a trap for Celaena, so he watches as she does everything, killing so coldly and without remorse. Somebody— a man with silver hair, throws back his hood, and tells them enough, but Celaena does not stop killing. Suddenly, she finds Archer in front of her, calling her name, and bleeding—he had taken an arrow into the shoulder that was meant for her. Archer tells her that Nehemia has been working with them all of this time, and that they had intended to kidnap Chaol to find out the type of questions that Nehemia would be asked—as she is being interrogated, and also that there was a threat against Nehemia’s life. Celaena finds out that Chaol did know all about this, except she realizes that it’s not an interrogation—it’s an assassination, and she runs back to the castle—outpacing the horse that even Chaol had found to get back to the castle—only to find Nehemia dead, slashed from ear to ear. Dorian comes into her field view and she looks like she is about to strangle him, when suddenly Chaol comes in and she attacks Chaol—swiping at his face, and attempting to drive the dagger into his heart, while screaming that he is her enemy with a lot of hatred. Chaol watches her as she tries and he tries to hold her off, when Celaena suddenly snarls at Dorian because there seems to be something stopping her, restraining her. Dorian knocks her out, and Chaol then takes her to the dungeons, where Celaena spends the nights and a few days. She wakes up and Kaltain talks to her, telling her that the water contains sedatives, to which Celaena tells her good, and continues drinking them to stay out. Kaltain also tells Celaena that she is to go to Morath with Perrington, as his wife, and continues to talk about the flapping wings, and crows.

Chaol takes Celaena out of the dungeons eventually, and she continues to be despondent, only moving to her arm chair by the fireplace when Philippa, her lady maid, had complained of the sheets being soiled. She thinks through things, and realizes that there is only one person who could have done that to Nehemia—the gruesome type of torture—a former competitor named Grave. So she sneaks out of her rooms, which are well guarded by the window and the doors, through the hidden hallways, and takes the daggers, knives and even the sword, Damaris. She then uses the sewers to escape into Rifthold, goes to the Vaults, speaks to the barkeep at the Vaults, and finds Grave. She give chase to him, getting him into a dead end, before returning everything that he had done to Nehemia herself in a form of retribution. The next day, she shows up with the head in front of the King, who is holding council, dropping it in front of Mulligan, one of the members of the council, and explaining that she had figured out who was the one who had killed Nehemia. She also gives a list of the names of the dead that she killed at the Warehouse as part of the Rebellion against the king. Chaol and Dorian are both shocked, and both of them wonder just what the heck happened—how did she get out and what did she do to Grave exactly. Chaol does find out later what a gruesome scene she had left.

Celaena helps pack up and peruses Nehemia’s belongings, finding much information in the documents—including one that says don’t trust someone, but the symbol is a type of Wyvern, and at first Celaena believes Nehemia had said to not trust the King of Adarlan. She realizes the same phrase that she had identified in Davis’s book is also in Nehemia’s version of the book, written in several other languages, and wonders if she has a solution. She rushes to the tombs, where she uses Damaris to see the truth, for the words say “Time’s Rift,” but it’s really an anagram for “I am truth” as Mort, the talking Doorbell confirms. She uses the sword and finds a riddle. Not able to make heads nor tails of it after some time, she goes to Baba Yellowlegs, who tells her that Dorian had come to her and she is willing to sell his secrets to her as well. Celaena pays her asking for the information on the riddle, and Baba Yellowlegs tells her that it’s for the Wyrdkeys—those that will open the Wyrdgate, something that is a portal between worlds. She then tries to capture Celaena, but Celaena fights her off and kills her, even smashing through her mirrors. Celaena returns to Mort, who tells her that she just brought trouble to their doors because of how the clans of the Ironteeth will react. The King is later annoyed because he had been wanting to meet with Baba Yellowlegs for his own purposes—that is why he had orchestrated the whole festival under his wife—but never got a chance because she died.

Chaol follows Celaena one night as she goes to Nehemia’s grave in black, and then sings in a foreign language—one he doesn’t know himself at all. Celaena doesn’t care that Chaol had seen it, and decides to let him think whatever he wants. Celaena runs into Dorian the next day at the Royal Library in some dark areas of the book, and they start talking about things. He later invites her to dinner with him in his room, which she accepts. Chaol had seen them talking, and while it hurts him that Celaena is no longer with him, because he cared for her, he also knows that he had damaged their relationship irrevocably, but he is glad that she is at least talking to someone. Chaol asks the librarian about Dirges from Terrasen, to which the librarian tells him that there aren’t any that have been saved in written form, but when Chaol mentions foreign language, the librarian tells him that there were funeral dirges used only by the nobility in the Fae language. This has Chaol searching books on the nobility in Terrasen to try to determine who it is that Celaena might be. Celaena meets Dorian in his room, and they talk—including about his magic. She doesn’t plan on telling anyone, telling him that it’s safe with her. She also thanks him for saving her and a lot of people that night.

One night, while he is waiting for her in her room—unbeknownst to him, Celaena is in the tombs and has just checked the space underneath the gem on the tomb, during which Mort tells her that the King of Adarlan found that Wyrdkey years ago, when he was 20, and Mort surmises that he may have another one—Chaol discovers her will, which leaves everything to him and gives him freedom from his father, with only a request to share some with Philippa. Celaena tells him that she isn’t planning to change it at all, and then asks him to leave as she doesn’t want to speak with her. He leaves before he can answer and tell her that it means a lot, or even ask her about the potential houses that she could be from in Terrasen.

On a particular day, Celaena goes down into the hidden library, and makes her way through the labyrinth of Iron doors—ones she thinks are dungeons. She uses wyrdmarks to open the doors, until she finds herself underneath the clock tower. There, she feels a presence, and when she finally comes face to face with the creature—something that seems to have a bit of a semblance of humanity—she runs, and keeps running. Dorian had followed her into the library, after seeing her with her weapons, and comes to her aid. They manage to shut the door on the creature, while he returns to the hidden library to find the book called the Walking Dead, which has information on Wyrdmarks, and Celaena uses a combination of them to freeze the creature on the threshold. When they open the door, the creature freezes, and she kills it—later realizing that she had seen a flash of relief in its eyes. They lock the door down for good, and return back to the library, going their separate ways.

The following night, Celaena decides to go down to the landing where Cain called the Ridderak, and she prepares the wyrdmarks to open the portal to see Nehemia. Dorian in the meantime has a dream where he is speaking with King Gavin, the first king of Adarlan, who tells him that he needs to get down to the hidden pathway or else it will put Celaena in danger, and do things that cannot be undone. He runs to Chaol, and together the two of them head to Celaena’s apartment, breaking through the door to the bedroom, and finding the hidden door behind the tapestry—exactly as the dream had described. They begin ascending when they hear Fleetfoot bark, and an animalistic growl come from the halls, with Dorian refusing to stay behind despite Chaol’s request.

In the Interim, Celaena had opened the door and called in Nehemia, who tells her that she should not have opened this portal; that she has no need for the words that Celaena wants to say and had left unsaid—an apology to Nehemia for her own last words during their argument where Nehemia called her a coward for being selfish. Nehemia tells Celaena that if she tries to reopen the portal again, there’s no telling who will be coming through, before telling her that she’s made her peace with her outcome—that she run towards it because it was the only way to put things into motion. And then Nehemia leaves. Suddenly, Celaena hears a different voice—Archer—who is surprised that she had been able to open a portal; he had heard from Nehemia that she would be able to open the portal. He reveals to her that he knows who she is—Arobynn had confided in him after she went to Endovier, and that he has been working with Nehemia all this time. He blames Nehemia for certain things, and tells Celaena that she should help him get his hands on the WyrdKeys so they can defeat the king. She quicklly realizes that Archer is the man about whom Nehemia had warned in her notes—don’t trust the man with the tattoo of a wyvern-like creature. And she quickly gets him to admit that he had Nehemia killed; he was the one who hired Grave, and he orchestrated everything in an effort to gain her trust.

During this conversation, Celaena’s hand is coated in blood and changes one of the wyrdmarks, turning it into a portal to a different world. She stabs Archer, but she doesn’t kill him at all as he manages to angle himself away, when a creature comes through. She begins to fight it, but she is thrown back as Chaol arrives and fights the creature, calling Dorian to get her out. Dorian and Celaena start running, but then she hears that Fleetfoot gets taken by the creature, and she cracks Dorian’s head against the stone, turning back for Chaol, who had gone in through the portal to the other side to get Fleetfoot upon Celaena’s request. She runs into the portal, and her features change to elongated canines, sharper ears, and Chaol realizes that she is Fae. She uses her powers along the sword, slamming it down, and destroying the earth, while Chaol gets Fleetfoot back through the portal, and then grabs her back as well—causing her fae features to snap back to human. Dorian arrives at this time, and she asks to use his blood to create the wyrdmarks to close the portal. Chaol is shocked that Dorian has magic. Celaena runs after Archer into the pathways, and Chaol follows her. She gives Archer clemency momentarily, but then he tells her that he knew she was a good woman, and Celaena turns back around, comes to him and stabs him to death.

They all go to her room, where they call for a healer who discreetly treats them—Celaena’s fae features had healed her entirely, so she is the last to go and get treated. She then asks to speak to Chaol alone, telling Dorian that she will see him in his room. When they’re alone, she tells Chaol that her grandmother was Fae—Mab, the fairest of the Three Fae Sister Queens—and that she had always had a hard time changing between her human and fae forms. She also tells him that she opened the portal using the wyrdmarks, and that she knows he is not responsible for Nehemia’s death, but she is still not able to trust him so there is no chance for them. Chaol dreads everything that he has found out, knowing that this is the most dangerous place for her, so after he is done with her, he goes to his father to help him with a proposition: He will suggest that the King send the King’s Champion to Wendlyn, and wants his father to support it—in return he will come back to Anielle as the heir. Celaena goes and gets Archer’s body to return to the King to show that she did her job, and then she visits Dorian where she gives him the same story, but leaving much about. She tells him that he has a lot of power—raw power, she had realized, when she saw him use it against the creature—and tells him that there is someone that may help him, so she hopes to show him to Dorian.

The King loves Chaol’s idea, and finds it helpful that the Captain had thought to get help from the different lords on this side. After all, Wendlyn is not taking men but any women and children who are seeking refuge from Adarlan are welcome on their shores, and sending is Champion would surely send a message—she has to kill the King and Prince of Wendlyn, and find the naval maps to help them navigate the reef. He loves the idea, and wishes that Chaol was his own son, not the spineless one before him. He also wishes that Perrington was here to see and hear this idea, but alas Perrington had left with Roland and Kaltain to Morath as planned. Dorian is confused at this change in Chaol’s approach and the fact that he wants to send Celaena to Wendlyn, a place he considers dangerous. When they call Celaena in, she tells the King that she will do the mission, and he tells her that she is to leave tomorrow. That night, Celaena speaks to Elena who tells her to go to Wendlyn and follow that path, leaving the Wyrdmarks alone for now. Dorian also comes by, dropping off some books that he wants to keep hidden away from prying eyes of the servants, as he does his research into the royal bloodlines. While he shows Celaena one of the royal bloodline pages, she realizes that the Rompier family has had one of the strongest magic lines in the kingdom, so she heads to the dungeon, only to find Kaltain gone. When she questions the guards, they tell her that she had been taken with Perrington, and Celaena recalls that Kaltain had said something about that.

Dorian offers to get her out of going to Wendlyn the next morning, but Celaena declines—she has made her peace with it. She tells him that she will be back for him. Celaena heads to the ship, and before she gets up the gangplank, Chaol finds her—they talk, and she tells him that she will be back, and gives him the Eye of Elena amulet to protect him, the only form of protection she can give him. She also whispers into his ear—a date—and he demands to know answers, but she doesn’t speak anymore about it, shaking her head, and heading up on the ship. As the ship takes off, she keeps staring onto the shore until she can no longer see him.

Chaol is confused—all she had whispered to him was a date, one that had come and gone this year already, and it was the date that she had gone for a walk outside of Rifthold (the one Nehemia had said Celaena had taken the day off and that it must be related to her parents dying); the date that she had snapped in Endovier, and the date that she had lost her parents. He does his searches on the stack of books and pages in Celaena’s room—the royal bloodlines—finding an article about the King of Orynth being dead, along with his son and daughter in law, Evalin Ashryver. He looks the Ashryver up, noticing that Evalin comes from Wendlyn, and at the top there is a comment that Ashryver eyes are turquoise blue rimmed with gold. He realizes then that Celaena is not looking for Aelin Ashryver Galathynius. She IS Aelin Ashryver Galathynius—the sworn enemy of the King of Adarlan, and the rightful Queen of Terrasen.

My Thoughts:

Celaena is something else—lots of secrets, and I do understand why, since sharing who she truly is could lead to her death. But this book is just as exciting as the previous one, with her discovering the secrets underneath the castle, learning about the wyrdmarks, and also leaning on Chaol and Dorian. I particularly was stunned when she found Nehemia dead, and screamed at Chaol that he is her enemy—something that he realized has been done with a 10 years worth of hatred, and only later puts together the information when she leaves. When Chaol realizes who and what she truly is, he does try to protect her the only way he knows how—sending her to Wendlyn, not realizing that he may have put her into more danger than having her continue to live here within Rifthold. It does show that despite the broken bond that they had, that he is able to still care deeply for her to want her to live and survive, even when he struggles with the knowledge that she is not fully human. It just boggles my mind that Chaol or Dorian haven’t put it together who she is, before Chaol does it at the end, when she tells him that one date when her parents were killed.