FAE GUARDIANS SPIN OFF!! The ✨fae devils✨. I wasn't originally gonna liveblog this but then I had SO MUCH FUN I had to. so full book summary/review incoming <3
doing this in one post so I have fewer images I can use. bear with me! (update: got a little long...enjoy?)
we need some backstory first. OKAY SO! what is fae devils? it's a spin off series of the fae guardians series, following Willow (daughter of the couple from book one, now 22-23) and the six sluagh
what are the six sluagh? so in this universe everything is based around the well, and the 12 fae guardians protect it, drawing from the light side of its power. the six sluagh are the balance to that, and are protectors of the well who draw from the inky side. they're a six person telepathic hive mind and feed on souls, so everyone's scared of them, no one trusts them, they're monsters, etc.
we didn't even learn they were people until book 4 of the first series. before that everyone was like "dont fucking go NEAR their house dont look at them dont even THINK near them or they'll eat you and also they eat babies--wait what do you mean they've had names this whole time"
the six sluagh are kind of demigods, and they function around a queen. they've changed queens a couple times, and most recently were under Maebh (I called her the evil queen in my liveblogs). but they did not like her at ALL. and have been scheming for centuries for freedom in the form of a new queen, an equal.
Enter Willow. they've been manipulating events leading to her creation. it sounds a little weird, but turns out they got fae bargained in this whole process and did not anticipate her being a child first. dont worry about it its mostly fine. point is they've been bidding her time for her to reach her full potential to challenge Maebh to become their queen. this happened in book 9, but something went wrong and they didn't bond as expected. it was also the middle of a huge battle. the sluagh disappear, Willow's magic vanishes, they part on bad terms
all of THAT bring us to the beginning circumstances of this book. we start off with a prologue from the six
it turns out when Willow was raising that army of the dead in her battle against Maebh, she actually woke up an entire continent of people across the sea--the court of dreams and the court of nightmares. and queen titania of the court of dreams was the six's original queen, and they disappeared because she called them back
she's placed them under like. magic leashes. their abilities are bound, their will is bound to hers, their hive mind connection is severed, and their memories are tampered with--except. they managed to save one of them from this fate. Fox. The Fifth. he fakes being bound, and must see to it events come to pass as they should. no pressure
five years later (that was the prologue), Willow's having a shit time of life. recall she was kidnapped at about eight and held hostage by the big bad for ten years, she's the first halfling, and her magic's fucked. and it's all the sluagh's fault for manipulating her life
she stealing portal stones and manabeeze (life essence) to power them, and I honestly dont remember why, but she's getting help from Tinger, Peaches sexual predator bunny from book 4 (u read that right), who is her only friend in the world. but in this process he dies and Willow's like. fuck my stupid baka life i hate everything, everyone hates me. stupid sluagh
and that night when she dreams, she dreams of them. until Titania, the queen of the court of dreams, waltzes into her dream like HA! EYE have the six sluagh <3. thank you for crushing their hearts for me. also get CURSED BITCH
Willow wakes up ugly and is like right. that's it. I need to take inspiration from Cloud
remember those portal stones she stole? somehow one of them she saw in the dream, so it'll send her where she needs to go. how does that make sense? I dont really know dont question it
but willow packs up, activates the portal, and is outta there. she arrives on this continent across the sea (this is where we learn it exists. previously only elphyne was thought habitable). and everyone's like alright traveler you're here for the Trials aren't you?
turns out the court of dreams is holding a competition for mortals where the winners get a single dream granted by the queen at the end. if you lose you're conscripted into the war between dreams and nightmares. willow's like...yes...that's totally what I'm here for...definitely nothing nefarious at all...
pretty standard competition environment. there's the favored mortals/humans called the "nevers" and "chasers", and the ignored/scorned called the "nothings." there's five houses, each with a dragon/hunt (i dont fully understand the hunts except for one, sorry). these houses will sponsor one participant each. everyone else competing has to figure it out for themselves
before this selection Willow makes friends with a few nothings--and she learns they're all humans from the old world who woke 5 years ago. she starts to put together the dots she was the one who woke these entire courts.
they go through the selection ceremony, and everyone's like...the house of shadow never chooses a protege. avoid the house of shadow. and who's in the house of shadow...the six sluagh. and who chooses a protege for the first time? them. and who do they choose? willow. (btw their dragon is currently a itty bitty baby <33)
willow's like great. now i'll be in their house so I can Fucking Stab Them With This Knife I Brought. but right before the ceremony she talked to one of them and he...doesn't remember her. she's like ??? RUDE but I will still stab you later
Fox comes to collect her and she realizes the six has forgotten her...except for him. they have some banter and he takes her to their castle in disrepair. to do so they have to cross a moat of water, and willow is petrified of it after watching Rory die in a lake bc of Cloud. Fox sees this memory in her mind--this will be important later
the human staff are nice, they say cryptic things about the castle moving in the night. willow goes to sleep like idk what that means. when she wakes up the only door to her room now leads to someone elses bedroom. whose? Fox's.
they have a small altercation. she's like--he's asleep. Time To Fucking Stab Him. but when she goes to do so...
she stabs him like a dozen times while pinned to the wall, and he lets her. it doesn't kill him. they part heatedly. willow steals his clothes and goes to class--everyone's being trained before the trials
for some reason there's a fight demonstration, and guess who's picked? that's right, willow. it's her versus one of the other house-chosen people. it's meant to be a mockery of her, bc remember willow's ugly and a "nothing" right now. but willow has that really fucked up childhood and lot of rage and beats the SHIT out of her opponent.
time skip a week of classes (what these classes entail is really vague and nebulous) and there's a fancy dinner the houses must attend. we get barely any mention of it, but during it the six mention that recently several bodies of black haired men with tattoos have been turning up around the place
remember how I said it'd be important Fox saw Willow's memory of when Rory died? turns out he's been fucking going around killing people who look like Cloud bc willow was so traumatized by it lmaoo
dinner's interrupted by a monster attack and Fox is tasked w bringing Willow home. she demands answers as to what the hell is going on with the six and everything. bc they've been kinda protecting her. they kiss a little. but split
I didn't mention earlier, but one of the other house-chosen is Alfie. Willow's best friend and fiance from when she was held in the human city. Willow wasn't really into him romantically but she didn't really have a say in that, and he was her best friend. she thought he was dead the past five years until she arrived here, and he wants to look out for her and has invited her to this mysterious location called Burn After Reading
it's a clearing/bar that moves locations, and the main schtick is when you leave you can't remember anything that happens inside except for vague impressions. all bets are off, great for under the table deals, etc. he's like dont u worry fiance of mine we're gonna get you a favor from a higher up here to help you in the trials.
but it turns out, Fox is also here. he appears to be fucking someone, but he's actually feeding on her soul. recall he's the only one who can hunt and has to provide for all six secretly right now.
Willow gets real drunk, and it turns out the person Alfie wants her to earn a favor wants her to earn it by sucking him off. Fox, who has been fighting Emrys (sluagh #3), realizes she's wandered off in the knick of time and in a burst of rage murders the absolute shit out of this guy
fortunately no one will remember when they leave, but turns out that's because the owner uses Fox to erase their memories. so when Willow and Fox leave, their memories are intact. unfortunately, they guy they murdered was the son of one of the other houses, so that house leader is PISSED and wants to find out who did it
but we'll get to that in a second. Willow's drunk, almost got sexually assaulted, and just watched Fox murder a guy. he brings her home, but as they're walking across the moat she drops Tinger's pendant--she's been keeping Tinger's last manabeeze in a necklace. she falls in the cold water, Fox has to save her and the pendant, it's a whole thing and this night is what finally makes them click and trust each other
Fox brings her inside, they put her in a bath to warm her and discuss repercussions.
Recall the guy Fox absolutely murked? he's still holding onto the soul because it's his responsibility to hunt for and feed everyone. how does this work? GREAT QUESTION IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED :D
VIA MOUTH 2 MOUTH BABYYY
Fox and one other sluagh (Varen, number 4. he's the psychic and was bound twice so Fox would be free and has lost touch w reality bc of it) lay next to willow in bed for warmth. She wakes up in his bed in the morning and the dynamic is Different
Fox is at his desk doing research, and Willow walks up to him. Here she asks a lot of questions about the Sluagh (they're demigods, were formless monsters for a lot of their existence, only recently became people and are still learning how to be them), why they left her (Titania made them), what's actually happening, the plan, etc. She learns about the mind fuckery the others are under and how, right now, Styx (number 6--formerly named spike. reason for name change unknown) is currently stuck as Stone somewhere only mortals can access and everyone but him is forgetting about him. and everyone else is planning to trade her, a mortal, for him. Fox doesn't want this, but he's working alone.
They're also bantering during all this, since the damn broke the night before. and they get freakayyyyy. there's actually a pretty cute moment. Fox is like "Just say when," so willow tells him "when" and he eats her out--he has only ever done this once before ages ago, bc he was practicing for her and was like. no. no practice actually. Only Her
and then Willow flips the tables on him and:
might not be as cute w/o the context of how much he adores her, but I was charmed. sue me. "when" becomes their lil thing <3
after this Bodin walks in (num 2), and is like. Fox we specifically said not to fuck her. and Fox, who still has some soul left to distrubute
DAMN BOY OKAY 🎉🎉
Bodin leaves this encounter flustered and confused and next time he trains Willow they have a mild make out (she does have a knife to his throat).
plot wise the father of the guy Fox absolutely murdered and fed to the others is named Lord Sylvanar, and he's pissed. He goes to Puck Goodfellow, Queen Titania's most trusted advisor, as Titania after cursing Willow went to sleep for several months. she does this annually during the war, and the time she's asleep is the "Graceful Interlude" where the war btwn dreams and nightmares is paused and the tournament willow's competing in it hosted. turns out it's actually part of a deal with Oberon, King of nightmare court, but the population doesn't know that
ANYWAY! point is Sylvanar complains to Puck that he WILL have revenge. Puck is like...your son usually traded favors, look for whoever left the secret bar with one of his trinkets (the magic favors are stored in them) (willow has them. fox took them when he killed the guy).
Puck then reports to the queen in her dreams (dangerous. risky. but this is important) that heyy I think the sluagh are not actually fully chained bc this guy just got so fucking murdered to death. and also they took a protege in the tournament?? Titania realizes who (willow) and is like. Catch The Rogue.
At this time Willow's like Fox. I'm all in I want to help save the hive. And Fox is like Thank Fuck I was literally on my way to ask for your help. Lord Sylvanar's dragon has left hunting for the murderer, so we'll sneak into the place and search for Styx's stone statue.
They do. Fox has searched everywhere but one place, bc a mortal needs to access it. Because Willow's lost her magic, she counts. She Finds Styx's statue--for some reason he's naked. She grabs his dick on accident when she trips. And then realizes if Fox holds her hand, she can pull him through as if he were mortal.
Styx's statue is in full sluagh form, which is important bc it means at some point in the years he's been stuck, he broke out. because he was originally trapped in normal human form.
They're not really sure how to get him out, and in this failure start having a bit of a heart to heart. it gets a little steamy. they fuck right there in front of Styx's statue inside the secret area. there's a bit about how they've each waited for each other. they bite each other (wolf thing--recall willow's dad is a wolf shifter)
here is also where they have the revelation of where Willow's power went. five years ago on that battle field she accidentally woke the courts of dreams and nightmares and titania stole it.
on their way out they look around and find the stones used to bind each of the six, but they can't break them and can't take them, so that's just info for later. Willow DOES take a jar of manabeeze from the queen's stash, and says this out loud (relevant later). then they leave
the next morning Willow's like hey. about those charms we stole from that dead guy. can you put some magic in them so I can give them to my friends? (recall the "nothings" she met at the very beginning. she's been sitting with them in class and they're kinda a group, but willow lives separately so we dont see them much)
he's like of course my queen. here u go. I did not realize these people meant so much to you I am so glad to help I will do anything for you. willow goes to their dorms to find them before class
HOWEVER. right as she arrives someone's running out because one of them just got fucking MURDERED. willow's like holy shit oh no. i have...charms? I'm so sorry. and they're like...willow what the fuck is up with you where were you. dont sit with us anymore
immediately after willow realizes Oh No they're looking for the people with those charms I just gave my "friends." she asks them to take it off, but they dont trust her and wont. so when they show up to class and Lord Sylvanar goes Where The Fuck Did You Get My Dead Sons Charms. willow inserts herself and is like me I gave it to them
the whole time they've struggled to discipline her bc only her house is supposed to be allowed to. somehow here they catch her on a uniform violation? doesnt make a lot of sense here but point is she has to strip. and they find her tinger necklace, which is illegal. so she has to do a walk of shame naked in the cold around the campus while everyone mocks her for being ugly and they try to pour water all over her (recall: scared of water)
by the end of it she's miserable, and bleeding, and dissociating, and feels so alone. until
everyone's forbidden to bring her clothes, so her friends, realizing she is on their side after she just took the fall for them, find her and physically surround her to keep her warm until someone who can bring her clothes does. she's shivering and almost collapsing, asking them for stories of her families she can hold onto
it's actually like. really sweet imo and one of the more emotional parts of the book
a person who's allowed to bring her clothes arrives (peablossom. i haven't talked about her but she's sweet if stressed) and takes her to her house's tower to clean and tend to her, because all six of the sluagh were called away during this. specifially so they weren't there to protect her
when Fox returns and learns of this lets just say. SO pissed. he's ready to rampage (he's also arranged for her friends to all move into the sluagh's castle), but Willow and Legion (number 1) talk him down
SIKE.
he doesn't intend to kill anyone, but then he gets so enraged he murders the SHIT out of a couple people and Lord Sylvanar. unfortunately, Puck picks this time to arrive. and he reveals that--remember when Willow said out loud she stole manabeeze from the queen? he had a recording device that captured her confession. so if Fox doesn't cooperate, she's toast
Fox returns home. He's a little cagey about what happened and is like, "if you had one night, what would you do with it?" Willow wants him to help her bathe because she's trying to overcome her aversion to water, and it leads to hot n steamy Lana sex
In the morning he's like hey. Let's go back to Styx. i don't remember his reasoning why but they do. and Fox is all I'm so sorry it has to be like this. i've been backed into a corner bc I lashed out after you and Legion told me not to.
he gets naked. and instead of Willow taking Styx's place as a Statue, Fox takes his place. why naked? why not just bring Styx a change of clothes? the world will never know
Willow's like. wait wait wait no no no. fox. my dearest darling. no. but it's too late. but in her rage she has a revelation that her ugliness curse is all within her own control and she breaks it, just as Styx is freed from his statue. as the curse breaks the mating bond between the seven of them snaps into place
Styx, now free, looks at her and says, "Who are you?"
AND SCENE THE BOOK ENDS THERE! guys it sounds kinda goofy silly but I'm actually a little bit genuinely obsessed with it. maybe my meter for books is broken but they were funnn they were cuteee they had nice moments. and I am SO down for a hive mind and ensuing fuckery.
only 2 of the 6 books are out in this series. each one will follow one of the different sluagh, and I am. curiousss
