Chapter 38: Blood Rubies, Flirtation, and Night Terrors
Spoiler Warning: This analysis covers the events of Chapter 38 in detail. If you have not yet read it, proceed with caution.
Summary
Feyre wakes in the late afternoon after recovering from the Summer Court mission. She goes to the rooftop patio to enjoy the last of the warm sun and finds Rhysand already there, drinking and brooding. A mysterious box sits beside him. He reveals it contains three blood rubies from Tarquin—a formal declaration of a blood feud against Feyre, Rhys, and Amren for the theft of the Book. Rhys admits he made a tactical error by knocking out the guards instead of wiping their memories; he fears Amren’s response would be to destroy Adriata.
Feyre refuses to leave him to his guilt, engaging him in barbed, flirtatious banter. She teases him about buying lingerie on his household credit, and the conversation sharpens into a charged challenge. Rhys leans in with predatory focus, suggesting they go to the shop together so he can help her pick something. Azriel’s arrival interrupts the moment. As Feyre descends the stairwell, Rhys slips a vivid mental vision into her mind: an imagined scene of her emerging from a changing room in red lace while he dismisses the shop ladies and draws her close. Flustered, she curses him through the bond. Later, Mor laughs until wine comes out of her nose at the story, and Feyre feels a small, guilty sense of triumph for pulling Rhys out of his dark mood.
Past two in the morning, the town house shudders and groans. Darkness pours from Rhys’s room—wild, star-flecked, and full of pain. Guided by the thread between them, Feyre fights through the wind and shadows, finds him on the bed, and slaps him twice while shouting through the mental bond. He pins her, taloned hand at her throat, until she breaks through his nightmare. She lets her own darkness sing to his, soothing it. He returns to himself, naked, claws and talons receding, and apologizes. She kisses his cheek and leaves him kneeling in the moonlight—a dark, fallen prince. As she walks away, she realizes the hole in her chest is starting to heal over.
Key Events
- Feyre discovers the blood rubies from the Summer Court and learns she is now hunted.
- Rhysand expresses regret over the mission’s execution and worries about Amren’s potential retaliation.
- Intense rooftop flirtation escalates into a near-invitation to shop for lingerie together.
- Rhys sends a mental daydream of the lingerie-shop encounter, flustering Feyre and pulling him out of his brooding.
- Feyre confides in Mor and hears that only a miracle can shake Rhys out of a brood.
- Late at night, Rhys’s nightmare unleashes an uncontrolled storm of darkness through the house.
- Feyre reaches him, slaps and mentally shouts him awake, and uses her own darkness to calm his.
- She sees his vulnerability—naked, taloned, and exhausted—and kisses his cheek.
- Feyre recognizes that her inner emptiness is finally beginning to heal.
Character Development
Feyre Archeron: She moves from reacting to Rhys’s sadness to actively pulling him out of it, mirroring the support he offered her during her worst days. Her blunt honesty and playful challenge show a newfound confidence. Calming his nightmare with her own darkness demonstrates that she is learning to wield the bond and her power not as a weapon but as a source of comfort. Her final realization that the painting of the “dark, fallen prince” has filled the hole inside her marks a significant emotional turning point.
Rhysand: This chapter peels back the High Lord’s mask, revealing genuine guilt over the theft and blood feud, and deep-seated trauma from his time Under the Mountain. His nightmare and the uncontrolled power that spills from it show that he, too, is barely holding himself together. His initial deflection through flirting and his later raw gratitude expose the loneliness he usually hides.
Morrigan: Her reaction to the mental vision—laughing until wine shoots from her nose—reinforces her role as confidante and reminds us that Rhys’s rare lighter moods are treasured by his family.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Guilt and Consequences: The blood rubies are an irreversible consequence of the heist, and Rhys’s brood is driven by more than strategy—he genuinely regrets the broken trust with Tarquin.
- Shared Trauma and Healing: Feyre and Rhys’s parallel nightmares emphasize that neither is whole yet. When Feyre soothes his darkness and later feels the “hole” in her chest start to heal, it highlights that healing is a mutual, gradual process.
- Flirtation as Deflection and Connection: Their rooftop banter begins as a way to jolt Rhys out of his mood, but it also dances dangerously along the line of genuine attraction. The lingerie vision exposes the physical desire simmering beneath their partnership.
- The Bond and Mental Connection: Feyre uses the mental link to shout him awake, and her darkness sings to his, implying the bond is more than a tool—it is an intuitive, intimate bridge between them.
- The Dark Prince Image: The final image of Rhys kneeling with drooping wings, stark tattoos, and bowed head crystallizes his burden and foreshadows Feyre’s evolving perception of him.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 38 raises the stakes of the Summer Court mission by formalizing the blood feud with Adriata, setting up political friction that will ripple far beyond Velaris. More importantly, it deepens the emotional core of the series: Feyre and Rhys have now seen each other at their most broken, and instead of pulling apart, they choose to stay. Feyre’s ability to calm his nightmare mirrors her growing claim over her own power and her own heart—she is no longer just a survivor but an active participant in their shared recovery. The chapter also quietly reframes their relationship; what looked like mere flirtation now carries the weight of two people choosing not to be alone in the dark.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Rhysand consider the blood rubies a personal failure rather than just a political setback? He admits he should have erased the guards’ memories. The mistake stings because he wanted Tarquin’s friendship and because the feud could last centuries—costing him any hope of future alliance or personal relationship. It is a rare crack in his careful plotting.
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What does Feyre’s reaction to the mental fantasy in the stairwell reveal about her feelings toward Rhys? Her anger and embarrassment show she is not indifferent—the vision forces her to imagine a scenario where they act on their attraction. Later, her sense of triumph for pulling him out of his mood, and her own musing that she might have actually gone shopping with him, hint that her feelings are shifting away from Tamlin and toward Rhys.
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How does the nightmare scene parallel earlier events Under the Mountain? Rhys pins her with a taloned hand at her throat, reminiscent of the threat and control Amarantha wielded. But Feyre does not panic; she talks him down, uses her own darkness to soothe him, and he releases her immediately. The inversion—trauma triggered and then defused by trust—shows how far both characters have come and how they are learning to break old patterns together.