Jump to Chapter Recap of Throne of Glass: 1–13 | 14–24 | 35–44 | 45–55 // ToG Book 2 Summary | ToG Book 3 Summary | ToG Book 4 Summary
Throne of Glass Chapters 25–34 Summary
This Sarah J. Maas Throne of Glass chapter summary contains full spoilers.
Throne of Glass Chapter 25
Celaena dreams she’s following the scent of roses through a secret underground passage until she stumbles into a hidden tomb. Inside, two stone sarcophagi lie side by side, and she realizes they belong to Gavin, the first King of Adarlan, and Elena, the first Princess of Terrasen. Among the treasures in the chamber, she also spots Damaris, Gavin’s legendary sword.
Then Elena appears and warns Celaena that something evil hides within the castle walls. If Celaena doesn’t stop it, the evil force will tear open a permanent portal between worlds. Elena tells Celaena the first step is to win the competition and become the King’s Champion, since Erilea needs someone in that role who understands the suffering of its people. Before monsters can reach them, Elena presses a golden amulet into Celaena’s hand for protection and pushes her out of the tomb. Celaena runs and wakes in her bed.
Celaena nearly dismisses the whole thing as a nightmare until she finds the amulet in her hand. Rattled, she puts it on. Winning the competition doesn’t trouble her since she intended to win anyway, but the prospect of hunting a dark force inside the castle gives her pause. She eventually resolves to return to the tomb and search for clues, driven by fear that Nehemia, Chaol, and Dorian could be hurt if she does nothing.
Throne of Glass Chapter 26
Chaol storms into Celaena’s room, demanding to know where she was the night before. He tells her that Xavier, a thief from Melisande, was found dead and half-eaten. Celaena plays it cool, insists she never left her room, and turns the conversation back to Chaol until he backs off and leaves.
Once Chaol is gone, Celaena sneaks into the secret tomb beneath the castle, hoping to find a clue about the evil force Elena warned her about. She comes up empty-handed and heads back.
Later, on her way to the library, Celaena passes the crime scene. It’s far worse than Chaol described. Someone removed Xavier’s organs and brain, and Wyrdmarks are smeared across the nearby wall, pointing to something ritualistic rather than a brawl or a killing driven by rivalry. She runs into Grave near the scene, and they exchange a few cool words before moving on.
Meanwhile, Dorian and Chaol spar. Dorian lets slip that he visited Celaena the previous night, and Chaol admits he assigned extra guards to her room. After they finish, Chaol heads off to examine Xavier’s body again while Dorian retreats alone to his tower.
Throne of Glass Chapter 27
Near the clock tower, Celaena and Nehemia are confronted by Cain and Verin. Cain mocks Nehemia’s standing as a princess, then quietly tells Celaena that he knows who she really is and that his sponsor is no cleaner than her sponsor. Celaena wants to hit him, but she knows a brawl would cost her freedom, so she and Nehemia walk away.
Later, Chaol brings Dorian to watch Celaena train without her knowing. Dorian notices she’s gotten stronger, and when he sees her working with Nox, Chaol recognizes the look of jealousy on Dorian’s face. Chaol worries Dorian is about to make things complicated for everyone.
A few days later, Celaena has been trying to connect the Wyrdmarks she saw at the murder scene to the ones around the clock tower. She digs through the library looking for answers, with Chaol nearby but unaware of Celaena’s true purpose. She pieces together that Wyrdmarks are an ancient alphabet linked to a force called the Wyrd, and that Wyrdgates can be opened using Wyrdmarks to let things through from other realms.
At some point, Celaena finds a strange book about the undead that she doesn’t remember pulling from the shelf. Suddenly, strange sounds rattle her until Chaol reveals that he was scraping his dagger on the floor. Shaken and annoyed, Celaena takes a couple of books and leaves.
Throne of Glass Chapter 28
Celaena is alone in the gaming room late at night, trying to teach herself billiards and failing badly. Dorian walks in and catches her mid-meltdown, biting the cue out of pure frustration. He picks up a cue and tries to show her how to play properly, using the lesson as an excuse to get closer to Celaena than he really needs to. Both end up flustered.
Hours slip by as Celaena and Dorian play game after game until two in the morning, working through a spread of desserts Dorian had sent up and talking freely about books, history, politics, and theater. Dorian somehow ends up promising to take Celaena to a play after the competition. Eventually, Celaena falls asleep in her chair mid-conversation.
Dorian wakes Celaena and walks her back to her room. He blows out the candles in her room and grabs a stack of books before leaving. On the walk back to his own room, Dorian wonders whether the version of Celaena he’s been getting to know tonight is real or just a performance calculated to win her freedom.
Throne of Glass Chapter 29
The Test has each Champion spar to avoid elimination. Cain takes down Grave with ease, which rattles Celaena. When Verin makes a vulgar remark about her, she fires back, and Brullo sends Verin and Celaena into the ring to settle it. She drops Verin in seconds without drawing her sword, kicks him out of the ring, and then tells Brullo he should be giving her real opponents. Walking straight up to Cain, Celaena lets him know she intends to win the competition. Cain brushes her off, and Celaena leaves it at that.
Back in her room, Celaena thinks about how alone she feels and wishes Sam were still with her.
Meanwhile, Kaltain sits beside Queen Georgina during a performance and steers the conversation toward Dorian. The queen mentions she’s heard Dorian has taken an interest in some unknown woman, which privately frustrates Kaltain. When Georgina says Kaltain would’ve been a fine match for Dorian, Kaltain takes it as an opening and starts thinking about her next move.
Throne of Glass Chapter 30
Celaena and Chaol are pulled out of a training session when guards report a body in the servant’s passages. The victim turns out to be Verin.
At the scene, Celaena works out what happened. Someone had slashed Verin’s tendons to stop him from running, then apparently summoned some kind of creature to finish the job. She also notices two Wyrdmarks drawn near the body, and the connection hits her. The force killing off the Champions might be the same evil force Elena warned her about.
Later that night, back in her room, Celaena digs through books trying to find anything about the Wyrdmarks when Dorian shows up. Their conversation turns warmer than either Celaena or Dorian probably intended, and Celaena admits to herself that she actually likes him.
Meanwhile, Chaol sits at dinner watching Perrington from across the room. A few times, Chaol catches something unsettling in the duke’s expression, a brief, strange darkness that passes over Perrington’s eyes before disappearing. It’s nothing Chaol can act on yet, but it’s enough to keep him watchful.
Throne of Glass Chapter 31
Celaena’s sleep is interrupted when the ghost of Elena appears in her room. Elena urges Celaena to win the competition and leaves her with one cryptic piece of guidance before disappearing. Whatever Celaena is looking for, she’ll find it to her right.
The following day, Celaena faces a Test that requires her to identify seven poisoned goblets, rank them from least to most dangerous, and drink from the safest one. She works through most of them but hits a wall when she reaches the final two.
Running low on time, Celaena glances to her right and spots Pelor, a poison specialist. He’s already finished and catches her eye, giving her a subtle signal about which goblet to choose. She trusts his signal, drinks the correct one, and Brullo declares both Celaena and Pelor winners.
Afterward, Celaena realizes Elena’s advice had been pointing her toward Pelor the whole time. Celaena feels grateful but remains uneasy about Elena’s motives and is unwilling to let the ghost steer her choices going forward.
Throne of Glass Chapter 32
Celaena and Nehemia take a break from their usual language lesson to walk through the castle. Nehemia notices that Celaena seems troubled, and the conversation brings them closer.
During their walk, Nehemia mentions she’s been invited to watch a play with the queen and asks Celaena to come along as a translator, but Celaena can’t go. Nehemia also reveals she’s been deliberately cultivating a relationship with the queen to improve Eyllwe’s position with Adarlan.
The two wander into the kennels and run into Dorian. Celaena notices a fifth puppy sitting alone and learns the puppy will be killed if the puppy can’t be placed as a pet. She refuses to accept that, and Dorian promises to find the puppy a home.
On the walk back, Nehemia asks if Celaena has feelings for Dorian, and Celaena dismisses the idea immediately.
Walking alone near a window, Celaena briefly thinks about escaping the castle. Her thoughts break when she spots Cain’s reflection behind her. He’s behaving strangely, gasping and clutching at his throat, and when Celaena turns to face him, he bolts down the hall. Shaken, she returns to her rooms and sends warnings to Nox and Pelor, telling both men to stay inside and not open their doors to anyone.
Throne of Glass Chapter 33
Kaltain is in the middle of smoking opium when Duke Perrington shows up unannounced. She scrambles to compose herself before letting him in, spending most of their conversation fighting through a drug-induced fog. Perrington mentions that Dorian spoke highly of her, but that Lady Lillian cut Dorian and Perrington’s conversation short. That’s enough to get Kaltain’s mind working.
During the exchange, Kaltain nudges Perrington toward suspicion, suggesting that Lillian’s origins might not be as respectable as she presents them and that someone loyal to the crown ought to investigate. He seems convinced.
Across the palace, Celaena reads alone when Nehemia slips in, clearly devastated. Nehemia had left the play early. A letter from Nehemia’s father brought word that Adarlan’s army had captured five hundred Eyllwe rebels and then slaughtered all of them, children included, after some of the rebels attempted to flee. Celaena holds Nehemia while she cries, at a loss for anything useful to say.
Throne of Glass Chapter 34
Celaena spends the evening curled up by her window, suffering through painful menstrual cramps that have returned after months of near-starvation left her body malnourished. Philippa brings her tea and offers a word of sympathy before leaving Celaena alone.
Not long after, Chaol walks in, unaware of what’s wrong with Celaena, and launches into a surprisingly vulnerable confession about the slaughtered Eyllwe rebels and his doubts about his role. Celaena tries to warn him several times that she’s about to be sick, but Chaol keeps going until she vomits on the floor mid-sentence. She explains that her cycle has returned, and he practically sprints out of the room.
Dorian arrives next, tipped off by Chaol, and tries to distract Celaena with a card game. She’s not interested, but they fall into their usual teasing rhythm anyway. When Dorian finds her romance novel, Celaena manipulates him into taking it by implying that Chaol had already refused it.
The tone shifts as Dorian confesses his shame over his father’s cruelty toward conquered peoples, including Celaena’s homeland of Terrasen. He admits that he chose Celaena as his Champion mostly to irritate his father, the only small freedom available to him. Celaena tells Dorian that she doesn’t hate him, and for a moment, they’re genuinely honest with each other. He kisses her cheek before leaving.
Alone afterward, Celaena wonders briefly whether Chaol had been building up to an invitation to the Yulemas masked ball before everything went sideways.
Hours later, while lying awake, Celaena can’t stop thinking about the hundreds of Eyllwe rebels buried in unmarked graves.