What will happen in Rule of Wolves (Warning: KoS spoilers)

[Cate]

1.Ehri will fall in love with/ agree to marry Nikolai (their wedding will be the climax of the book-- but they will never officially exchange vows, because Nikolai's demon and the Darkling will crash the wedding.)

2. Ravka will go to war with the Fjerdans.

3. Toyla will die during a battle with the Fjerdans.

4. Despite Nikolai's "military genius", Ravka will be outnumbered/ losing to the Fjerdans. When Ravka is almost beaten, Zoya will bust in during a climatic battle in dragon form, and cause all of the Fjerdan's to desert, allowing Ravka to win the war.

5. As a result of winning the war, Zoya will become beloved by common people of Ravka, who no longer hate/ fear her as a Grisha, but love her as a war heroine. (Note: this overcomes one major obstacle of her marriage to Nikolai-- since she's now the beloved hero of the people, they WOULD accept her as queen.)

6. The debt to the Kerch council becomes an issue. Nikolai tricks them by staging a bloodless coup/ buying off the Kerch guards. The Merchant council is forced to surrender, and Nikolai insists they forgive Ravka's debts, end indentured servitude, and fulfill a certain set of requirements (more human treatment of the Grisha) as the terms of their surrender.

With the Kerch and the Fjerdans defeated, everything looks like it's going to be okay, but...

8. On the night before his wedding to Ehri, Nikolai breaks down and confesses his love for Zoya/ begs her to marry him.

He argues that since she is a war hero/ beloved by the common people after defeating the Fjerdans, that they will accept her as queen. He also says that he can convince Ehri/ the Shu Han people to not take Ravka to war. (It is implied that he might not be able to do this, but that their True Love is worth the numerous lives of common Ravkans that would be lost.)

This would fit with the way Nikolai was introduced-- when Alina first sees him, she thinks, "He reminded me of the too clever fox, who mistakenly believed that because he had escaped the first two traps, he would be safe from the third one." In the story "The Too Clever Fox", part of Leigh Bardugo's fairy tale collection, the titular character outsmarts traps set by his mother and a bear, only to fall into the last trap, set by a pretty girl: love. Nikolai is the too clever fox, who has defeated the first two traps-- the Fjerdans and the Kerch-- only to be undone by the third trap-- his love for Zoya. Anyway, when Nikolai proposes he kisses Zoya, professes his love for her, and gets down on one knee.

Zoya tells him that she loves him, too, but that they can't get married. She notes that while Ravka may love her/ accept her as queen now, as she lives hundreds of years they will come to distrust her. The same will go for their children if they inherit their mother's grisha abilities. Furthermore, she'll note, he doesn't know that he can talk Ehri (who is now in love with him) and the Shu into a peaceful resolution, unless he marries Ehri.

(Little does Zoya know that Ehri's sister plans to assassinate Nikolai during the wedding, and try to conquer Ravka anyway.)

Nikolai continues to beg Zoya, telling her that he only loves her and could never come to love Ehri in the same way. Zoya refuses again, and insists he think of Ravka; Nikolai finally agrees to go through with the wedding, while protesting his undying love to Zoya.

9. The wedding of Nikolai and Ehri is the big climax to the whole book. Nikolai and Ehri start getting married, but Ehri's sister interupts the wedding, trying to kill Nikolai. This causes Nikolai to morph into monster form and start killing wedding guests, including Ehri's sister. Also the Darkling possibly emerges, having somehow got his powers back.

Amidst the panic, Zoya morphs into a dragon and fights Monster!Nikolai/ the Darkling. The battle is fierce, and in the end she sacrifices herself to defeat them, since "it is the only way." Zoya turns from dragon back into human girl, and falls to the ground, apparently dying.

10. However... Zoya doesn't really die. Remember how Mal "died" in Ruin and Rising, only for us to be told "oh, don't worry, he's not dead, just the amplifier in him died"? Similarly, Zoya will briefly die, then be revived, only to be brought back to life. But the Grisha/ dragon in her has died.

11. Since Ehri's sister died, Ehri is now queen of the Shu. She will return to Shu Han and be queen, ushering in a new age of more humane treatment of the Grisha.

12. With Ehri gone, peace made with the Shu, and her Grisha powers gone forever, Zoya will be free to marry Nikolai.

After they get married, the now human Zoya will become general of the First Army, thus repairing the split between the Grisha and non grisha.

[toointofiction]

I don't know what's going to happen, all I know is that I want Zoya and Nikolai to get together (not getting even one kiss from them for the whole of King of Scars is just cruel...and nuts and I want Zoya to become the badass Queen that we all know she can be. I also want Alina to show up again. I know she doesn't have her powers anymore and she's living her own life, so there's no real reason for her to be there but I need to see her reaction to her finding out that The Darkling is alive, and I need a scene where they interact with each other for the first time in three years (I know I'm hopless but what can I do 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ - Darklina forever!!). I'm okay with everything else that happens so long as I get what I want. (I don't want anyone from the Grisha Triumvirate to die, either - or Tolya and Tamar.)

[Cate]

Evi wrote: "I don't know what's going to happen, all I know is that I want Zoya and Nikolai to get together (not getting even one kiss from them for the whole of King of Scars is just cruel......"

Zoya and Nikolai will surely end up together, I promise you. Also, I'm sure-- he will end up confessing his love for her in the 11th hour, only for her to turn him down for The Greater Good/ Duty; she will defeat the darkling... but lose her powers. And they will surely end up together in theend, with her his babymaker, erm, queen.

It's all Leigh Bardugo's little fantasy, and this is clearly what she wants to happen. similarly, young girls across America are identifying with Zoya, so they want to see her and Nikolai "end up" together, so that's just what Bardugo will do. She clearly has had it planned since Seige and Storm.

As for Alina, I think she'll make an apperance at the Ehri/ Nikolai wedding (that will start, but never be completed.) When the darkling first emerges, she'll probably distract him by shouting "Alexander!" Or something small like that.

Anyway, I don't doubt that the revived Darkling will spend the book torturing Zoya like a sort of Hannibal lector character as she tries to banish/ defeat him, with him insisting that Zoya was always his favorite/ true love, Alina meant nothing to him. Finally Zoya will kill him in the end.

But.... yeah. Zoya and Nikolai will end up together, its super predicatble.

And Toyla (not Tamar) will die. He's the only one not coupled up, thus he's slated for doom. I can only hope that Bardugo doesn't have him die declaring his undying love for Zoya, with the ridiculous amount of Mary suifiying she's already done for Zoya's character.

[Roger]

I've recently become a far of Leigh Bardugo's works. What other authors do you recommend I read similar to her books?

[Paola]

So I don't really know what's going to happen but I suspect that Ravka will go to war with Fjerda. I hope I'm not the only one that feels as though there will be something happening between Nina and Hanne?? I do think Alina will make an appearance which I'm alright with but to be honest I'm not crazy about the whole "Darkling coming to life" thing. Hopefully, my mind will be changed after reading RoW but I do feel it is a bit unnecessary. As far as Nikolai and Zoya go I would love to see them together but I wouldn't mind an ending where, for example, Nikolai has to die in order for Darkling to disappear forever. All in all, I'm really excited to read it :)