Chapter 19: Feyre

Feyre hosts Lucien for a Solstice visit, during which tensions surface regarding Elain and his feelings of displacement. After he departs, Mor reveals to Feyre that Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel are engaged in their annual Solstice snowball fight at a mountain cabin, a centuries-old tradition.

Feyre greets Lucien in the sitting room with Elain present but silent. Lucien mentions he has been staying at a manor in the southeast with Jurian and Vassa, which they now call their base. When Feyre learns he spends more time with them than in Velaris, she presses him to move to the city permanently and work as their human emissary. Lucien reveals the three of them call themselves the "Band of Exiles" and that he cannot return to the Spring Court due to the lies Feyre spun about him. He also discloses that Tamlin recently sent his belongings to the manor and that Rhys recently visited Tamlin, potentially worsening their situation. Lucien leaves presents wrapped in silver and blue bows—a larger box for Feyre and a smaller one for Elain. After he departs, Feyre confronts Elain in the kitchen about her coldness toward him, but Elain firmly states she wants neither a mate nor a male, clearly still attached to Graysen. Mor finds Feyre on the stairs and advises her to stop interfering, noting that neither Lucien nor Elain is ready. Mor then surprises Feyre by winnowing her to a snowy mountain cabin where Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel are engaged in their annual Solstice snowball fight—a tradition they have maintained for centuries without magic, wings, or breaks.