Crown of Midnight

Chaol, followed by Dorian, takes the unconscious Celaena to the castle dungeon and places her in the cell next to Kaltain. He orders Kaltain not to talk to, look at, or touch Celaena before he leaves with Dorian. Dorian thinks about how he stopped Celaena with his magic, and she was the only one to notice. Chaol suddenly sits on the stairs, head in his hands. Dorian asks what happened, so Chaol tells him about the incident at the warehouse. Dorian says that it couldn’t have been the king, as he was at dinner with his family when it happened and that the king wanted to talk to Nehemia afterward. Chaol says that he hand-picked the extra guards on patrol in the castle. Dorian wonders what it all means and asks how long he intends to keep Celaena in her cell. Chaol will keep her there as long as it takes for her to stop wanting to kill them all.

Knowing she’s in the dungeon before she opens her eyes, Celaena wakes, and Kaltain says she knew Celaena would end up here. She asks if it’s because they got tired of her, too. Celaena thinks Chaol’s blind loyalty to the king made him believe she couldn’t save Nehemia. Celaena was happy for a short time, but she now realizes that death is her gift and curse. She tells Kaltain they killed Nehemia, and Kaltain replies that if she doesn’t marry Perrington, she’ll stay in her cell for the rest of her life. Celaena asks why he wants to marry her after she betrayed him, but Kaltain doesn’t know. She also says her headaches are worse, and the wings still bother her. Celaena knows the guards lace her water with sedatives, but she drinks it all to escape the memory of Nehemia calling her a coward.

Chaol opens her cell four days later and carries her to her suite. He is suffering over Nehemia’s death, knowing he could have prevented it. He also knows he’s lost Celaena forever.

When Celaena wakes in her bed with Fleetfoot beside her, she feels that the Eye of Elena is warm. She refuses to leave her bed for days after learning she missed Nehemia’s funeral.

A slave girl works in the Calaculla mine. She’s survived for six months, longer than anyone else has. She’s from Eyllwe and has lost the rest of her family. Her father was a rebel who knew Nehemia was in the capital, working to free them. The girl is determined to make it out of the mine and join the rebellion. As she’s working, she learns of Nehemia’s death. She begins to cry, and when the overseer raises his whip at her, she lodges her pickaxe into his stomach.

One of Chaol’s guards, Ress, reports that Celaena only gets out of bed to sit in a chair and stare at the fire before returning to her bed in the evening. Chaol spends his days in meetings, grateful for the distraction, and learns the king has summoned his father to court.

Guards now follow Dorian for safety, and many lords have left the castle and the city after Nehemia’s murder. Roland stays and continues to support Dorian in their council meetings, even agreeing with Dorian that they should publicly apologize for Nehemia’s death. This suggestion enrages the king, but Dorian doesn’t care and writes her family a letter. He realizes he has spent a long time fearing and blindly obeying his father, and questions the kind of man he’s become. He thinks about how he stopped Celaena from killing Chaol and knows he must learn to control his power. Dorian tries to move a drinking glass in his room with magic but fails. He thinks of Nehemia’s promise to be there when he needs help, but now he wonders if he’s lost both a friend and any hope of finding answers.

As she watches the fire, Celaena thinks about how Nehemia’s assassin must have come from outside the palace. She thinks about Grave, an opponent she faced—and humiliated—during the tournament. She knows what he does to his victims’ bodies and that he would know the castle from his training here. He also knows what Nehemia’s death would mean to her.

Dressed in a dark cloak and hood, Celaena goes to Elena’s tomb and arms herself from a pile of weapons. She then takes Damaris—King Gavin’s sword—and travels through the castle sewer and into Rifthold in search of Grave. She arrives at The Vaults, a seedy underground tavern, and pays the entrance fee. The guards open the door for her, and she descends into the tavern. Everyone stops and watches her walk to the bar; she asks the bartender where Grave is.

Grave is in a different tavern; when Celaena walks into the room and calls his name, he immediately runs. He heads through numerous alleys and side streets, hoping to lose her. When he hits a dead end, he turns to the open street, but Celaena is not there. He returns to the street, somewhat disappointed he lost her. She emerges from the fog and approaches him. He rushes her with daggers drawn, but she easily dodges him. Celaena draws Damaris and slashes Grave across his shins. She then pins his hands to the alley wall with two of her daggers, and when he refuses to tell her who hired him, she buries a dagger into each thigh. He continues to deny killing Nehemia, so she removes the blades in his thighs and threatens to slice off one of his fingers. He begs her to stop and says he'll tell her everything.