A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)

by Sarah J. Maas

The amber in his green eyes was glowing.

Tamlin went rigid, scanning the hall around us, taking in every sight and sound and scent.

I suppose the study was more of a library, as I couldn’t see any of the walls thanks to the small labyrinths of stacks flanking the main area and a mezzanine dangling above, covered wall to wall in books.

Each territory was marked and colored, some with intricate, ornate depictions of the beings who had once ruled over lands that now belonged to humans.

All of it, I remembered with a shudder, all of the world had once been theirs—at least as far as they believed, crafted for them by the bearer of the cauldron.

There were things in the shadows between those mountains—little eyes, gleaming teeth. A land of lethal beauty.

the isolated faerie kingdom to the west that seemed to have gotten away with no territory loss

the heart of that beautiful, living map. In the center of the land, as if it were the core around which everything else had spread, or perhaps the place where the cauldron’s liquid had first touched, was a small, snowy mountain range. From it arose a mammoth, solitary peak. Bald of snow, bald of life—as if the elements refused to touch it.

Why did Tamlin have children’s books in his library?

Tamlin behind me, a stack of books in his arms.

He set the books down on the table, his jaw tight. I couldn’t read the titles glinting on the leather spines.

I don’t know who you are, or what you really are, or what you want.”

someone who perhaps felt the same, perhaps understood—in my ignorant, insignificant human way—what it was like to bear the weight of caring for others.

maybe there would be someone, human or faerie or whatever, who could understand what my life—what I—had become these past few years.

to the nearest running water, which they hate crossing.”

occasionally glimpsed something shining in the corner of my eye.

Old—this forest was ancient. And alive, in a way that I couldn’t describe but could only feel,

the High Lord’s consort—the she whom Lucien had mentioned—that instilled such fear in them.

“I have not seen a human woman for an age.

They are not merely powerful—they are Power.”

“I am a member of no Court. I am older than the High Lords, older than Prythian, older than the bones of this world.”

“Across the violent western sea, there is another faerie kingdom called Hybern, ruled by a wicked, powerful king.

the King of Hybern has found himself unhappy with the Treaty the other ruling High Fae of the world made with you

he dispatched his most-trusted and loyal commanders, his deadliest warriors, remnants of the ancient armies that he once sailed to the continent to wage such a brutal war

As spies and courtiers and lovers, they infiltrated the various High Fae courts and kingdoms and empires around the world

when they had gathered enough information, he...

nearly five decades ago, one of his commanders disobeyed ...

“The naga—faeries made of shadow and hate and rot.

serpentine features

silvery forked tongue

The naga’s amber eyes

A white-hot flame went through me.

about wicked kings and their commanders and however they tied into the High Lord at my side and the blight

there are kinds—like me, like the High Fae—who are rarely able to produce younglings.

But they’re so rare—all our young are—and more precious to us than jewels or gold.”

He choked on a laugh, and shook his head. The firelight danced along his mask. “They’re fools. Fools for not seeing it.” He winced.

“Five hundred years ago, enough faeries were friends with mortals that they went to war on their behalf.”

Against slavery, against tyranny, I would gladly go to my death, no matter whose freedom I was defending.”

He smiled at me still, broadly and without restraint or hesitation. Isaac had never smiled at me like that. Isaac had never made my breath catch, just a little bit.

“Cauldron save you,” he said, reciting the words of a prayer that was probably older than the mortal realm. “Mother hold you. Pass through the gates, and smell that immortal land of milk and honey. Fear no evil. Feel no pain.” Tamlin’s voice wavered, but he finished. “Go, and enter eternity.”

wondering if he knew I’d lied when I’d sworn he would get his wings back, wondering if, wherever he had now gone, he had gotten them back.

His head was bowed. No claws, no fangs—there was nothing to be done against this enemy, this fate.

Tamlin carried the faerie through the moonlit garden and into the rolling fields beyond.

I could see all the way to the reflecting pool beyond the garden.

Where had he buried that faerie? A High Lord digging a grave for a stranger. I might not have believed it if I’d been told, might not have believed it if he hadn’t offered me sanctuary rather than death.

Not water, but something smoother, thicker. Not oil, but something purer, thinner. Like being wrapped in warm silk.

I didn’t go under, didn’t quite know if he’d been joking about the water making me mirthful

Falken

when he found an opportunity to pay them off, he took it, regardless of the risks.”

“When the ships sank, the creditors circled him like wolves.