Jump to Chapter Recap of A Court of Mist and Fury: P–13 | 14–27 | 28–35 | 41–54 | 55–69 // ACOTAR Book 1 Summary
A Court of Mist and Fury Chapters 36–40 Summary
This Sarah J. Maas A Court of Mist and Fury chapter summary contains full spoilers.
A Court of Mist and Fury Chapter 36
Feyre spends a miserable day touring the mainland with Tarquin, going through the motions of smiling at the Summer Court’s people while dread builds inside her. By the time Tarquin kisses her cheek goodnight, she can barely hold herself together. Back in her room, Illyrian fighting leathers and weapons are waiting for her.
Rhysand flies Feyre and Amren to a tidal island at low tide and stays airborne to keep watch while Feyre and Amren wade into a ruined temple buried in muck. The Book of Breathings pulls at Feyre from beneath the ground, and the two women dig through the mud by hand until they reach a sealed lead door. Drawing on the essence of Tarquin she has absorbed, Feyre fools the blood‑lock into believing its master has come to open it.
Feyre and Amren descend into a flooded staircase and push through a submerged passage to a second lead door, which is far more draining to crack. Feyre impersonates Tarquin again and barely stays on her feet afterward. On the other side is a dry chamber, completely empty except for a lead box sitting on a pedestal, with the Book whispering from inside the box.
The tide is already creeping back. Feyre grabs the box, and the moment she does, the Book sees through the deception and calls her a liar. The door slams shut.
A Court of Mist and Fury Chapter 37
Amren forces open a locked door, but the moment it gives way, a flood of water pours in and knocks Feyre off her feet. They fight through the rising water toward the stairs, but a wall of water crashes down from above, and the door at the top of the stairs slides shut, sealing them in. Just before Feyre and Amren drown, three water-wraiths rip the door open and haul them out into the open bay.
Rhysand finds Feyre and Amren on the shore and explains that he spent the whole time tracking down guards before the guards could sound the alarm. Feyre confirms she still has the box, and when Rhysand notices activity stirring in the castle across the bay, he grabs Feyre and Amren and winnows them all back to the town house, where the rest of the Inner Circle is waiting.
Feyre tells the group that the water-wraiths saved her and Amren because Feyre had once covered a wraith’s debt during the Tithe out of pity. She then unlocks the box, which holds metal plates carved in an unreadable script. Amren immediately recognizes the script as the Leshon Hakodesh, a holy tongue belonging to beings who no longer exist in this world. Rhysand admits he’d suspected as much and that the text might hold a spell capable of sending Amren home.
The group then discusses Jurian. Azriel notes that Jurian’s resurrection still doesn’t quite make sense, and Rhysand theorizes that the resurrection ties back to Jurian’s obsession with Miryam and his desire for revenge on the man who won her away from him.
A Court of Mist and Fury Chapter 38
Feyre finds Rhysand alone on the rooftop, drinking and staring out at the city. He shows Feyre a box containing three blood rubies from the Summer Court, a formal declaration that the court has marked Feyre, Rhys, and Amren for death over the stolen Book.
Rhysand blames himself for the fallout, saying he should have wiped the guards’ memories instead of just knocking them unconscious, since they woke up and reported straight to Tarquin. Feyre tries to pull him out of his guilt, and the conversation gradually turns flirtatious before Azriel arrives and interrupts.
Feyre heads back inside, and shortly after, Rhysand pushes a suggestive vision into her mind past her mental shields. She vents about the vision to Mor over dinner, and Mor tells Feyre it’s actually a good sign, since pulling Rhysand out of a dark mood usually takes something close to a miracle.
Late that night, Feyre is jolted awake by the house shaking and Rhys’s power flooding out of his room uncontrollably. She goes to him, finds him deep in a nightmare, and slaps him awake. She draws on her own power to settle Rhys’s power, and he slowly comes back to himself.
When Feyre asks how often that happens, Rhysand tells her it happens just as often to him as it does to her. Before Feyre leaves, she kisses Rhysand on the cheek. Walking away, Feyre notices something inside her has started to heal.
A Court of Mist and Fury Chapter 39
Feyre visits Amren and brings jars of lamb’s blood to sustain her while she works on the Book. Amren explains she must relearn the ancient language before she can make real progress on decoding it. They also briefly discuss the blood ruby and a peace offering Varian sent to Amren to smooth things over.
Weeks pass in a waiting game. Azriel’s attempts to place spies in the mortal queens’ courts go nowhere. Meanwhile, Feyre trains with Cassian every morning, beginning with physical defense before progressing to an Illyrian blade. But one morning, Cassian makes a trip to the human realm to check on Feyre’s sisters and returns in a bad mood after running into Nesta.
On afternoons when Rhysand is present, he and Feyre work through the magical powers Feyre took from the High Lords. When Rhysand is away, Feyre and Rhysand fall into a habit of exchanging playful written notes, and their connection grows.
The waiting ends when the queens finally agree to meet. Rhysand leaves Feyre a note that the queens will arrive the next day at Feyre’s family’s estate. The group travels to the human lands overnight, and by morning, everyone is assembled. At exactly eleven o’clock, five queens materialize in the room, revealing they can winnow.
A Court of Mist and Fury Chapter 40
Feyre and Rhysand host five mortal queens in a diplomatic negotiation, joined by Mor, Cassian, Azriel, and Feyre’s sisters. Their goal is straightforward. They want to warn the queens about the coming war and convince them to surrender their half of the Book, which they need to stop Hybern’s king from destroying the wall.
The queens are unmoved. They know war is coming but have written off human territory as too small and too costly to defend. Nesta calls them cowards to their faces. Feyre makes her most personal appeal, recounting her own death at Amarantha’s hands and what a Hybern invasion would mean for everyone. The eldest queen responds with condescension, and Rhysand shuts her down.
Mor then steps in. She invokes her identity and reputation for truth and tells the queens about Miryam and Prince Drakon, two figures from the old war who built a hidden island where Fae and humans have lived in peace for five hundred years. Few people know about the island, and Rhysand cuts Mor off before she can say more.
The queens leave without agreeing, but they don’t leave without conditions. They’ll consider surrendering the Book if Rhysand can bring them proof that he’s genuinely a ruler of peace. He agrees. After a brief power struggle over authority, the queens depart. Elain, who’s been silent throughout the meeting, says she hopes the queens all go to hell.