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A Court of Silver Flames Chapters 13–26 Summary
This Sarah J. Maas A Court of Silver Flames chapter summary contains full spoilers.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 13
Nesta is working in the library, exhausted and sore from training, when she runs into Gwyn. Gwyn is in a panic because she accidentally gave her demanding supervisor, Merrill, the wrong volume of a research book. Nesta asks the House of Wind to find the correct volume, and the House places it on her cart.
To help Gwyn avoid trouble, Nesta heads up to Merrill’s office under the pretense of delivering books to the wrong person. While distracting Merrill with a fake case of mistaken identity, Nesta swaps the incorrect volume on the shelf for the correct one and slips out undetected. She finds Gwyn searching the reading area and hands Gwyn the book, sparing her from Merrill’s temper.
Back in her room, Nesta eats the meal the House left for her, soaks in a hot bath, and finally gets a full night’s rest. Sometime during the night, she stirs, aware of a familiar scent drifting into her room. But the scent vanishes before she can place it.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 14
Cassian waits in the training ring, uncertain whether Nesta will show. She eventually appears, stiff and miserable from the previous day. He works her through stretches and drills, and during the cooldown, she asks what happened at Sangravah. He explains that Hybern sent soldiers to steal a hidden piece of the Cauldron from the temple and that those soldiers slaughtered and assaulted the priestesses they found there. Nesta privately concludes that Sangravah is what Gwyn survived.
Later, Cassian accompanies Rhysand to the Spring Court to meet Eris, who proposes killing the human queens outright to neutralize the threat before it grows. Cassian and Rhysand argue that doing so would ignite a far worse war. Eris then warns that Beron may be waiting for the ongoing conflict to weaken the Spring Court enough for him to move against it. He promises to buy them a few months by stalling his father, but Azriel needs to act fast against Briallyn and Koschei.
On his way out, Eris drops a cryptic remark suggesting that Mor understands more than anyone realizes about why he left her at the border.
Back at the House of Wind, Nesta gets through her library shift without crossing paths with Gwyn, then pushes herself to descend 150 steps of the staircase before turning back. She returns to her room to find dinner, a bath with oils, and a book, all arranged by the House.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 15
Nesta wanders too close to Level Six while shelving books and becomes transfixed by the darkness below. She loses track of time and seems to hear her name rising from the depths. Gwyn finds her and hurries her back to the higher levels, holding her Invoking Stone to shield them from whatever seems to be trailing behind them. Once they’re safe, Nesta tells Gwyn that she was Made by the Cauldron, which may be why the darkness was drawn to her. Gwyn tells her to stay away from the lower levels.
The next morning, Cassian refuses to advance Nesta’s training beyond basic balance work until her posture improves. He then opens up about his childhood and how training has kept him grounded through every hardship he’s faced.
That evening, Nesta tells Cassian about the library, and he’s unnerved by her account, having once encountered Bryaxis himself. He shares stories about ancient creatures he helped imprison over the centuries. When he starts asking her about her powers, she gets defensive and tries to leave. But he blocks her path and goads her until her powers surface.
The tension between Nesta and Cassian turns physical, and they end up pressed close together before Nesta pulls back. Cassian leaves with a parting remark that flusters her. She spends the rest of the night unable to sleep, thinking of him.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 16
Nesta and Cassian share an awkward breakfast the morning after he told her what he intended to do. Neither can hold a proper conversation, and Cassian bolts before Nesta notices how affected he is.
Training doesn’t go much better. Cassian works Nesta through core exercises she can barely manage until she gets fed up and dares him to demonstrate. He obliges, pulls off his shirt, and runs through a harder version of the routine while Nesta tries not to stare.
Afterward, Nesta asks about female Illyrian warriors. Cassian says there are none and explains the Blood Rite, a week-long mountain ordeal where young warriors are dropped in with nothing and must fight to a sacred peak. He adds that he, Rhys, and Azriel won it together, reaching the summit as a unit when almost no one else had managed the feat in centuries.
Nesta then raises the idea of inviting some of the priestesses to train somewhere private and safe. Cassian is cautious, aware that even a well-meaning male presence can be difficult for women carrying that kind of trauma. But he agrees to train whoever Nesta brings. He doesn’t push when Nesta asks him to keep Feyre out of it. His genuine enthusiasm for the idea ends up meaning more to Nesta than she expected.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 17
Nesta asks Clotho whether the priestesses can train with her and Cassian each morning. Clotho agrees, and Nesta puts up a sign-up sheet near her desk. Days pass, and nobody signs up.
Training with Cassian continues. He works Nesta through footwork and body positioning before moving on to teaching her how to throw a proper punch, covering everything from fist formation to weight transfer. Nesta also pushes herself further on the staircase each night.
Elain arrives at the House to check on Nesta, and the conversation falls apart quickly. Nesta is still furious about being sent away. When Elain mentions their father, Nesta loses control of her power, and her eyes shift to silver. She accuses Elain of arriving too late to save him, though Nesta privately knows the blame belongs to her. Elain leaves unsettled but composed, and Nesta slams the doors behind her.
Cassian and Rhysand return from Windhaven to find Elain waiting for them, upset. They silently agree that future contact between the sisters should go through Cassian first. Rhysand flies Elain back home.
Back at the House, Cassian goes straight to Nesta to find out what happened. They argue. When the House lights a fire at his request, Nesta flinches and tries to put it out, but the House ignores her. She storms off toward the stairwell, and Cassian follows, pushing her to say what she’s really feeling. Nesta says nothing and disappears down the stairs.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 18
Nesta descends the stairs in a spiral of emotional pain, pushing herself down to step one thousand before her legs finally give out. She makes her way back up and finds Cassian waiting at the top. Nesta tells him she has no interest in sparring, and he asks what’s wrong. She admits she’d hoped the other survivors would sign up for training alongside her and that their absence has shaken her faith in her own recovery.
Cassian tells Nesta something he rarely shares. After gaining his strength, he returned to his birthplace only to find that his mother had died and someone had discarded her body. Cassian, Rhysand, and Azriel hunted down everyone responsible, including Cassian’s father, and killed them. He tells Nesta it took him ten years to process what happened and that she can take as long as she needs.
Nesta asks if Cassian regrets it. He says no. When Cassian tells Nesta she can throw whatever she wants at him and that he won’t break, Nesta insists she’s nothing like him. He says that has never mattered to him. They argue. Cassian grabs her wrist and dares her to break free using her training, and Nesta responds by pulling him down and kissing him.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 19
Nesta kisses Cassian in the hallway out of nowhere, catching him off guard. When she tries to walk away afterward, he pulls her back, and their encounter quickly becomes far more intense. They end up against the wall, and things escalate physically until Nesta brings Cassian to climax. When it’s over, Cassian goes quiet, and Nesta reads regret in his expression. Rather than let Cassian say it first, she fires off a cold parting shot and walks away.
The next morning, Cassian can barely function. He’s mortified by what happened, convinced he humiliated himself and wasted what might have been his only chance with Nesta. Azriel arrives, clearly having returned late the night before with news. He tells Cassian that Rhysand wants both him and Nesta at the river house. Cassian notices that something is off with Azriel, but he knows better than to press for details, so they simply get ready to go.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 20
Nesta and Cassian arrive at the river house for a meeting with Rhysand, Feyre, Azriel, and Amren. Azriel brings grim news. Queen Briallyn has formed an alliance with Koschei, an ancient death-lord confined to a lake. Koschei has been feeding Briallyn information and steering her toward a larger goal. Briallyn wants the Cauldron back so she can undo what it did to her body. Koschei wants the Cauldron as well, or at least the power that finding it would give him, which is his own freedom.
The way to locate the Cauldron is through the Dread Trove, three objects that the Cauldron forged in a forgotten age. The Mask can raise and command armies of the dead. The Harp can open any door in existence. The Crown can bend the minds of anyone nearby. Together, paired with Beron’s armies already pledged to Briallyn’s cause, the Dread Trove would make Briallyn nearly impossible to stop.
The Trove had apparently been hiding itself, nudging anyone who heard of it to forget it just as quickly. The exception was anyone the Cauldron Made. Amren points out that Briallyn falls into that category, and so do Nesta and Elain. The group agrees they need to find the Trove first, and before they can decide how to do that, Elain appears in the doorway and offers herself as the answer.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 21
Elain volunteering to use her powers to help find the Dread Trove immediately puts Nesta on edge. Amren steps in to explain that both sisters, having been Made by the Cauldron, can track objects the Cauldron created and are immune to its influence. Nesta refuses to let Elain go anywhere near the Trove, and the two get into a bitter argument. Nesta says something cruel enough to hurt Elain, and Elain fires back before leaving. Elain tells Nesta that she only ever thinks about how Elain’s trauma affected her, never about what Elain actually went through.
With Elain gone, Nesta tries to redirect the task to Feyre, but Feyre reveals that she’s pregnant and can’t risk using her more volatile powers. The news shifts the entire mood of the room. The Inner Circle celebrates while Nesta stands apart. Nesta then decides that she’ll search for the Trove herself rather than let Elain take the risk.
As things wind down, Feyre catches Nesta alone and tells her that the baby is a boy. Feyre says she wanted Nesta to hear the news first. She also admits that Elain’s parting words, though directed only at Nesta, struck a nerve because Feyre recognized the same truth in herself. Feyre wishes Nesta good luck, and it’s clear that Feyre means more than just the search ahead.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 22
Cassian and Azriel are relaxing by the fire in their shared sitting room, talking about whether Nesta has any real chance of finding the Dread Trove. Azriel thinks she should do a scrying, but Cassian argues that pressuring Nesta into it will only make things worse. Better to let her exhaust her other options first. Azriel accepts that. The mood lifts when they talk about Rhysand’s unborn son, and both brothers let themselves feel genuinely happy about it.
When Azriel turns the conversation around and asks Cassian whether he wants children someday, Cassian says he does, though no woman has ever made him want to pursue that kind of future. Suddenly, Cassian gets to his feet, tells Azriel to look the other way, and heads down to Nesta’s room.
Nesta lets Cassian in, and he tells her he owes her from the night before, when things ended before he could hold up his end. She tests him, suggesting he must have walked away because he regretted what happened between them, but Cassian immediately tells her that isn’t the case. They agree that whatever exists between them has nothing to do with training and nothing to do with anything else either. Nesta agrees to those terms, and Cassian pleasures her. When it’s over, Cassian gets dressed, tells her they’re square, and leaves.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 23
Cassian is still rattled from the night before and struggles to put it out of his mind by the time training starts. When Nesta arrives, Azriel takes one look at Cassian and immediately figures out what went on. Cassian proposes a sparring match so Nesta can watch and learn. During the fight, Azriel fakes alarm in Nesta’s direction, gets Cassian to glance over, and lands a solid hit to Cassian’s jaw. Nesta and Cassian trade sharp words before settling into her actual lesson.
Afterward, Nesta heads to the library and finds Gwyn at her desk. Nesta fills Gwyn in on the Dread Trove, a set of ancient and dangerous relics that need to be found quickly, and asks for her help. Gwyn agrees to look into it once she finishes her current work. Nesta also tries to talk Gwyn into joining the training sessions, but Gwyn refuses, and Nesta picks up on something raw and reluctant behind the refusal.
Later, Nesta stops by the sign-up sheet for training and finds no new names on it. She drifts to the stairwell and makes her way down into the lower levels of the library. Somewhere around the two-thousandth step, she comes to a decision.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 24
Clotho tells Cassian that Nesta has been ignoring Clotho’s repeated requests to stop practicing fighting in the library and asks him to handle it.
Cassian finds Nesta on Level Five throwing punches at books lined up as stand-ins for a body. When he corrects her elbow on the right hook, she asks him to show her, and he gives her a full session right there in the stacks.
On his way out, Cassian notices priestesses watching from the railings. He realizes that Nesta had orchestrated the whole thing. She’d practiced in the library knowing Clotho would send Cassian down, and she’d deliberately moved out into the open so the priestesses could watch him correct her without mockery and see that any contact between them was with her permission.
That evening, Nesta checks the sign-up sheet and finds it blank. It stings, and she spends the night wondering whether she had ever truly understood what the priestesses needed or whether she had simply been arrogant enough to assume she did.
Back in her room, Nesta finds a manuscript on military strategy on her nightstand, carrying Cassian’s scent. She reads through the night and finishes it with a deeper understanding of how Cassian thinks as a commander.
The next afternoon, Nesta dreads walking back into the library. Clotho points her toward the pillar. Someone has signed up. One name appears in bold letters: Gwyn.
A Court of Silver Flames Part 2: Blade
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 25
Nesta and Cassian are at the training ring when Gwyn arrives. The priestess has barely left her quarters in years. Nervous at first, Gwyn soon settles in, takes to the training naturally, and keeps the mood light with her humor. When Nesta asks afterward what drew her to training, Gwyn admits she never wants to be helpless again. Nesta says she feels the same way.
Later, Cassian takes Nesta to Windhaven before heading off to meet Eris. Nesta stops at Emerie’s shop and walks into a tense situation with Emerie’s drunk cousin, Bellius, who has come with a veiled threat from his father over ownership of the store. Nesta helps Emerie push him out.
Over lunch, the two women find common ground in their shared histories of difficult families and limited choices. Before leaving, Nesta invites Emerie to join the women’s training sessions at the House of Wind. Emerie declines, citing the demands of her shop and concerns about her reputation, but Nesta leaves the offer open.
Across the village, Cassian meets Eris on the Illyrian Steppes. Eris reports that neither he nor his father knows anything about the Dread Trove and warns that Briallyn appears to be cutting Beron out of her plans. Cassian and Eris part on uneasy terms, leaving Cassian unsettled.
A Court of Silver Flames Chapter 26
Cassian had picked Nesta up from Windhaven after her training and brought her back to the House of Wind, but he’s clearly in a dark mood and barely says a word to her. That evening, Nesta finds him sitting alone, brooding in the dining room. She sits with him and eventually coaxes him into talking. Cassian opens up about a meeting with Eris, admitting that Eris’s political cunning and sharp tongue leave him feeling perpetually outmatched and, on some level, ashamed of himself.
Seeing how much pain he’s in, Nesta decides to pull Cassian out of it. She kisses his neck, drops to her knees, and performs oral sex on him. Just as Cassian moves to take things further, Azriel walks in and the moment is over. Nesta slips out, and Cassian and Azriel share a brief, pointed exchange about the interruption.