Heir of Fire

In the streets of Varese, a Fae warrior named Rowan approaches Celaena and tells her that Maeve has summoned her. He has a striking tattoo in Fae writing going down his face and body. Celaena initially feigns her usual bravado, but she follows Rowan anyway because she needs to see the queen of the Fae.

Chaol is plagued by his knowledge of Celaena’s true identity and the threat she poses to Dorian. His loyalty is split between them, but his main priority is to protect Dorian. While Chaol and Dorian attempt to mend their friendship after the events of Crown of Midnight, Aedion Ashryver, the “infamous General of the North and cousin to Aelin Galathynius” (20), arrives at the castle, summoned by the king. Chaol wonders how an Ashryver can serve his enemy but notices that Aedion is wearing a black ring like the king’s and his most faithful servants, revealing that he may be mind-controlled. Aedion also carries the Sword of Orynth, an Ashryver heirloom that technically belongs to Celaena.

Manon Blackbeak, heir to the Blackbeak clan of Ironteeth witches, hides as three village folk pillage her cottage and try to kill her. She traps them and guts them with her retractable teeth and claws, characteristic of the Ironteeth witches. Manon enjoys the kill after weeks of unsuccessful hunting for Crochan witches, who are from an enemy clan. After she killed her first Crochan witch 100 years ago, Manon stole the witch’s distinctive red cloak and has been wearing it ever since.

As Rowan and Celaena make camp for the night, the latter notices Little Folk, or faeries, watching her from the shadows. The creatures always recognize her as a descendant of Mab, one of Maeve’s sisters, and honor Celaena’s presence with gifts and trinkets wherever she goes.

Dorian meets Sorscha, a healer, when he needs some cuts on his hands seen to. He recognizes her from the many times she has healed him, Chaol, and Celaena, and he thanks her for keeping quiet about their unusual injuries (those events are related in Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight). Unbeknownst to him, Sorscha has been secretly in love with the prince for years.

Rowan leads Celaena to Mistward, a mountain outpost still miles away from the Fae city of Doranelle. Maeve is waiting for her there and greets her as “Aelin Ashryver.”

Maeve, who is powerful and intimidating, tells Celaena that Prince Rowan will train her at Mistward. The queen wants Celaena/Aelin to prove herself before she is allowed to enter Doranelle. However, Celaena and Rowan do not have a good rapport. Celaena also vaguely remembers that her parents wanted to keep her away from Maeve, although she does not know why.

Manon and her coven have been summoned by her grandmother, the Blackbeak matron. Manon’s coven, the Thirteen, is the most feared and respected among the Ironteeth witches. Mother Blackbeak speaks with a human duke before instructing the Thirteen to summon all witches from the Blackbeak, Yellowlegs, and Blueblood clans to gather in the Ferian Gap. There, the duke has been breeding wyverns for the king’s army and now needs riders to lead them.

After noticing that some of his men deserted their posts to go to one of Aedion’s infamous parties, Chaol seeks the general out. Despite searching the tavern, Chaol realizes that Aedion is not attending his own party.

Celaena, who decides to go by the name Elentiya to prevent her from being identified, starts working as a scullery maid at Mistward. In the kitchen, she befriends an older half-Fae cook named Emrys and his younger helper, Luca.

The witches gather in the carved halls of the Omega, the mountain next to the Ferian Gap. They have a memorial service for Baba Yellowlegs, the eponymous clan’s matron, whom Celaena killed in Crown of Midnight. Human servants of the king lead the Blackbeak, Blueblood, and Yellowlegs matrons and their respective heirs (Manon, Petrah, and Iskra) on a tour of the wyvern hatcheries. They show the witches a bull named Titus, the biggest wyvern they have, and Manon decides he will be hers.

After her kitchen duty, Rowan leads Celaena to a training site. He asks her to shift into her Fae form, but she cannot do so on command. Rowan then takes her to a field covered in wights’ barrows, challenges her to walk through it, and promises to take her to Doranelle once she crosses it.

Although she expects to see a wight, Celaena finds a strange dark figure waiting among the barrows instead. She is overtaken by a flashback to the night her parents were killed and she woke up in their blood-soaked bed. She then remembers the scene of Nehemia’s murder before Rowan suddenly drags her from the darkness. He does not know what the dark presence is either.

Dorian calls on Sorscha’s services again, and they get to know each other better. The healer shares that the king’s men decimated her village, but she now works for him because she has nowhere else to go.

Manon and the Thirteen try flying on the wyverns for the first time and successfully complete the Crossing, a test of their flying skills over the Gap. Her grandmother then makes her the Blackbeak Wing Leader and orders her to win the upcoming War Games by any means necessary.

Beaten and bruised, Celaena suffers through another day of training with Rowan but still cannot shift into her Fae form. That night, she listens to Emrys tell scary stories about dark faeries to a captive audience and incidentally learns that Rowan can shift into a hawk.

While Dorian is visiting Sorscha again, she asks him about the mysterious creature that killed people in the castle during the events of Throne of Glass. Overwhelmed by traumatic memories, Dorian accidentally lets out a wave of magic. Sorscha decides to help him conceal his abilities and find a way to control them.

One night, Chaol follows Aedion to a rebel lair after the general only pretends to attend one of his own parties again.

After discovering that Aedion is working with rebel leaders Murtaugh and his grandson Ren, Chaol is caught. He learns that Aedion had a replica of the black ring made, so he is not under the king’s control and decides to tell him about Aelin being alive. Now tentative allies, Chaol and Aedion make a bargain to share information.

After weeks of unsuccessful training, Celaena and Rowan are still at each other’s throats. However, she finally shifts when Rowan bites her during one of their fights.

Now, in her Fae form, Celaena accidentally lets out her magic and sets the surrounding forest on fire before Rowan, who can control air, smothers it. They have a climactic fight, which leads to Celaena leaving Mistward, still intending to fulfill her promise to Nehemia. That night, as she camps in the forest, she is awakened by a strange silence.