Heir of Fire Review

Chapters 29-35

A LOT happened in the last few Celaena chapters. I learned more about Rowan in chapters 33, 34 and 35 then every other chapter he's been in combined. We start out with a big Rowan Celaena fight after she brings him and his friend some food.

"You know it would be better if you just slapped me instead."

"Instead of what?"

"Instead of reminding me, again and again, how rutting worthless and awful and cowardly I am. Believe me, I can do the job well enough on my own. So just hit me, because I'm damned tired of trading insults. And you know what? I'd you'd said something I never would have come. I'm sorry I did. But you just left me downstairs."

Saying those last words made a sharp quick panic rise up in her, an aching pain that had her throat closing. "You left me" she repeated. Maybe it was only out of blind terror at the abyss opening up again around her, but she whispered "I have no one left. No one."

His features remained impassive, turning vicious, even, as he said, "there is nothing that I can give you. Nothing I want to give you. You are not owed and explanation for what I fo outside of training. I don't care what you have been through or what you want to fo with your life. The sooner you can sort out your whining and self-pity the sooner I can be rid of you. You are nothing to me, and I do not care."

I know that Rowan is broken inside like Celaena and that what she said triggered him, but what he said was terrible. Celaena is obviously desperate for someone, anyone to kind of 'latch'. She was so desperate she 'latched' onto someone who has been nothing but an asshole to her. I was just about ready to punch Rowan but Emrys stepped in and took care of everything. I like the Cook well enough, I've never been particularly attached to him, but when he stood up for Celaena against Rowan, the guy who it's considered suicide to go up against, and told him to check himself my respect for the demi-Fae went up about 1,000

levels.

"I see her slipping away, bit by bit, because you shove her down when she so desperately needs someone to help her back up."

We also got to hear that Evalin Ashryver had been there 25 years previous petitioning for equal rights between demi-Fae and the Fae. I thought that was really interesting.

After getting scolded by Emrys he kind of tries to make it up to her, - at least I think that was what he was trying for - but fails on a spectacular level. Rowan used Luca to get Celaena to control her powers in order to save him from the middle of a frozen lake where he's chained to the ice and in the process almost got them all killed by an unknown creature. All in all not his finest day. The only really good thing that came out of that is that Celaena gets an explanation for why she has so much trouble controlling her powers.

"You can control your powers in human form - keep them dormant. But the moment you switch, the moment you get agitated or angry or afraid, the moment you remember how much your power scared you, your magic rises up to protect you. It doesn't understand that you are the source of those feelings, not some external threat. When there is an outside threat, when you forget to fear your power long enough, you have control. Or some control."

My favorite part from these chapters came right after they make it back to the Mistward. Celaena turns on Rowan and punches him and they proceed to beat the living daylights out of one another. Not only did Rowan get what he deserved but Celaena voiced some more of her feelings about Nehemia and actually told Rowan about how she died. Nicely done Celaena, talking is the first step to healing. YAY! After that, Rowan stopped being such an ass and ate and washed the dishes with her. Despite how he's treated her I stand by the fact that I want them to be friends eventually.