BIG BIG SPOILERS ahead!
She was playing a very, very lethal game. And now that her targets were people in Rifthold-- now that it was Archer... She'd have to find a way to play it better. Because if the king ever learned the truth, if he found out what she was doing... He'd destroy her.
Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan's greatest assassin, has won the secret competition to become the king's Champion, but she still has to wait another 4 years to get what she really wants: freedom.
Since it's her job to do the king's dirty work, Celaena must decide between two equally unsavory options: kill the enemies of the man who destroyed her life, or risk the lives of those she loves. And if that weren't trouble enough, another visit from a familiar ancient queen reveals that her battle against evil abominations is not yet over.
When a secret organization to overthrow the king pops up claiming to be lead by the lost queen of Terrasen, Adarlan's Assassin puts everything she holds dear at risk to learn their plans. But Celaena soon discovers that we've all got secrets-- and she's not the only one willing to take them to the grave.
But death was her curse and her gift, and death had been her good friend these long, long years.
REVIEW
OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN!!!!!!!
Say what you want about this series, but Maas is the freaking queen of saving up all the CRAZIEST stuff until the last few chapters. Sure, she gives you great content along the way, but the ends of her books are OTHERWORLDLY. I finished this book at 3am and it took me an hour to fall asleep because my brain was so, so awake. (Not to mention the spooky creatures she throws in for good measure).
Let us go in order:
Maybe it had been a mistake to let him in; because the idea of him thinking that she was weak, that she needed to be protected, made her want to shatter someone's bones.
So this is another re-read and I feel kinda bad cause I was totally in love with Chaol the first time I read it, but I felt myself getting pretty annoyed with him this time. I guess I could see the red flags now because I know they aren't meant to be, but it just felt blatantly obvious to me that they should be with other people. They compliment each other well as friends but they always seem to be worried about the other person's safety and it hinders their focus. ALSO FRUSTRATING: what the relationship between those two knuckleheads did to Dorian...
He would move on. Because he would not be like the ancient kings in the song and keep her for himself. She deserved a loyal, brave knight who saw her for what she was and did not fear her. And he deserved someone who would look at him like that, even if the love wouldn't be the same, even if the girl wouldn't be her. So Dorian closed his eyes, and took another long breath. And when he opened his eyes, he let her go.
My poor cutie Dorian got the short end of the stick and was left in the dust while Celaena and Chaol went on their little love trip. I, personally, hated seeing what their relationship did to him. He was suddenly demoted to a cranky ex-boyfriend and that was it. I understand the awkwardness of it, but I really needed Chaol to grow up and just say something instead of continually denying it or pretending it wasn't real to avoid hurting Dorian's feelings. I am definitely a little biased over here because he's my favorite-- probably because I identify with him the most; he's got a crush on Celaena AND he loves books?! That's got "me" written all over it... Anyway...The frustration Dorian must have been feeling might have been what helped coax his powers out. YES, POWERS. My favorite character is full of magic-- the thing that has been outlawed (punishable by death) by his very own father. Ruh roh! Sound's like a disaster waiting to happen.
Not again. Not again, she told herself with each step, each pound of her heart. Please.
On a more serious note, Chaol's kidnapping was so horrendously devastating if you simply think about how Celaena must have felt after everything that happened with Sam. She sat at her apartment for hours waiting for Sam to come home that night, later discovering that he was being brutally tortured to death the whole time. And then over a year later, she's now waiting around for Chaol to stop by her rooms, only to find out he's been snatched away and held captive. The worst part is that she knows neither of those things would have happened if the two boys hadn't been involved with her. I do not blame her for a second for what she did at the warehouse-- you threaten to kill someone loved by Adarlan's Assassin, you get what's coming to you.
Her rage took her to a place where she only knew three things: that Chaol had been taken from her, that she was a weapon forged to end lives, and that if Chaol was hurt, no one was going to walk out of that warehouse.
Finding out that Chaol was fine and unhurt was a nice and happy surprise, but we should know by now that our happiness never lasts. Celaena finds out quickly that his kidnapping was just a distraction to get her out of the castle while her best friend, Princess Nehemia, was being slaughtered. And if that wasn't awful enough, these events are all only a few days after her and Nehemia had gotten into a huge fight. Celaena never had the opportunity to say sorry or goodbye to her. It's utterly heartbreaking reading about all of these horrible things happening to an 18 year old girl, fictional or not. I would have completely given up-- it is unbelievable to me that she still manages to pull herself together in any way after that. It was sad that she blamed Chaol for what happened, but I can't say she was wrong to do so. He knew that there was an anonymous threat on Nehemia's life and he didn't tell anyone. I understand that he was trying to keep both girls from worrying or whatever excuses he tried to reason up, but still-- good intentions or not-- her death was preventable.
On the other side of this coin, we do find out later that Nehemia both knew about and did not try to prevent her own death. She wanted Celaena to be forced into this rebellion and she knew that this kind of devastation was the only way to make her stand up and fight. This gives me some mixed feelings about Nehemia, obviously. Yes, again, she had good intentions, but at what freaking cost? Destroying your best friend's already fragile emotional state?? Instead of keeping secrets from her and sending her in circles, couldn't you possibly just be honest???
"You will not understand yet, but ... I knew what my fate was to be, and I embraced it. I ran toward it. Because it was the only way for things to begin changing, for events to be set in motion. But no matter what I did, Elentiya, I want you to know that in the darkness of the past ten years, you were one of the bright lights for me. Do not let that light go out."
Real quick, I wanna give a shoutout to Sarah J. Maas for absolutely scaring the hell out of me in each of these books. That creepy thing in the library was horrible and I know that there are far worse creatures coming in the next books. How dare you disrupt my night reading with your monsters! Extra yucky and stressful: some of these creatures are being created by the king! Excited and intrigued to find out what else he's been cooking up.
It had not forgotten, even in the twisted pathways of its memory, what had been done to it on that stone table. With a dripping maw, it smiled.
When Chaol catches Celaena singing at Nehemia's grave, we get what might be our most obvious first hint at her true identity... I'm very, very glad for this re-read because my brain forgot a LOT. I truly had it in my head that Chaol just like totally figured it all out on his own. NOPE! First, she sings a song in a Fae language. Then, she performs magic (with wyrdmarks that anyone can technically use, yes, but still). THEN, SHE OPENS A DAMN PORTAL AND CHANGES INTO HER FAE FORM RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM (when he goes in after Fleetfoot I actually wept!). And sweet little Chaol, cutie patootie, is still obliviously assuming that she's just a regular ole noblewoman from Terrasen. As if it isn't well known that the king and queen were slaughtered in their bed and Celaena coincidentally has ALSO mentioned her own parents dying in bed. And it is also well known that Aelin-- the lost princess-- was never found after all that................... I say all of this about Chaol's obliviousness with intense judgement despite the fact that during my first read-through I also had no freaking clue what was going on. Again, thank goodness for this re-read. This plot is packed so tightly with insane amounts of twists and turns that I truly can say that I have NO idea where this is all going. I hope Celaena ends up back on the throne in Terrasen and I hope Dorian rids the world of his terrible father, but it is very possible that it could go in a completely different direction. They could all end up on a softball team in South Dakota, for all I know. I'm not usually good at predicting what's going to happen in books, but this series specifically punches all of my guesses in the jaw.
"I want you to know," she whispered to the wind, to the earth, to the body far beneath her, "that you were right. You were right. I am a coward. And I have been running for so long that I've forgotten what it is to stand and fight."
With everything I've said about Chaol thus far, I do feel kinda bad for the guy. He made a mistake and lost his girl and then suddenly finds out that she's actually the literal coolest and most powerful girl in the world. And thinking she was a regular noblewoman from Terrasen, he risked it all to send her back to her allies in Wendlyn to stir up an army to face off against the king. So, I imagine he's feelin' pretty sucky. BUT OH BOY WE CAN'T WAIT UP FOR YOU, PRETTY BOY, CAUSE WE GOTTA GO MEET THE FAE!
Celaena Sardothien wasn't in league with Aelin Ashryver Galathynius. Celaena Sardothien was Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, heir to the throne and rightful Queen of Terrasen. Celaena was Aelin Galathynius, the greatest living threat to Adarlan, the one person who could raise an army capable of standing against the king. Now, she was also the one person who knew the secret source of the king's power-- and who sought a way to destroy it. And he had just sent her into the arms of her strongest potential allies: to the homeland of her mother, the kingdom of her cousin, and the domain of her aunt, Queen Maeve of the Fae. Celaena was the lost Queen of Terrasen. Chaol sank to his knees.
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NEXT READ: Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
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