Chapter 56

Rhysand arrives at Feyre's cottage and reveals the full truth of their connection: he has been watching her through dreams for years, orchestrated their meeting at Calanmai, and has been bound to her as her mate since Under the Mountain. He confesses his centuries of enslavement to Amarantha, his plan to kill her, and how discovering Feyre was his mate transformed his will to fight. Feyre accepts the mating bond by offering him food, a significant ritual among their kind.

Rhysand arrives at the cottage where Feyre has been painting, and she invites him inside. He explains he flew there without using his powers to avoid being tracked by Hybern. When Feyre offers to heat soup for him, Rhys explains the importance of a female offering food to her mate—it signifies acceptance of the bond. He then recounts his past: during the War, Amarantha captured and tortured him for weeks, trying to extract information about Night Court forces. Though he planned to kill her, she moved faster, using a spelled drink to strip his powers at a party Under the Mountain. To protect his court and people, he became her lover for fifty years, enduring torture while plotting revenge. Three years ago, he began having fragmented dreams of a beautiful human woman painting flowers—Feyre. When the wall fell and she entered Prythian, his dreams became clearer. He tracked her to Calanmai in the Spring Court, where he found her being dragged by picts. He rescued her, knowing instinctively she was his mate but walking away to protect her from Amarantha's notice. When he later discovered her living with Tamlin, he broke into her mind to frighten both her and Tamlin, hoping to drive her back to the human realm. He asked for her name but she lied; he vomited afterward, consumed by guilt. When Amarantha sent him to retrieve the girl he'd named, he discovered it was an innocent named Clare. He later eased her suffering by ending her life painlessly in her mind while Amarantha tortured her. When Feyre was brought before Amarantha Under the Mountain, Rhys was devastated, recognizing her from his dreams. During her trials, he helped her survive while maintaining his cover. When Amarantha snapped Feyre's neck, Rhys felt her die through their mating bond. In desperation, he clung to the bond and used it to hold her to life long enough for the High Lords to resurrect her. After her transformation to Fae, the bond locked permanently. For three months in the Night Court, he suffered watching her waste away with Tamlin, hearing of her planned wedding, and feeling her despair through the bond. He winnowed to her wedding to save her when he felt her panic. He has been unable to stay away from her, torn between loving her and fearing both that she feels nothing for him or that loving her will result in her being taken from him as his family was. Feyre sets down the soup before him and asks if he loves her. When he confirms he does, she tells him to eat, formally accepting the mating bond.