Love & Betrayal. A faery world gone mad
The Iron Daughter | |
Author | Julie Kagawa |
Cover Designer | N/A |
Publication date | August 1, 2011 |
Publisher | Harlequin Teen |
Pages | 304 |
Cover Creature | Meghan Chase |
Cliffnotes | Cliffnotes: The Iron Daughter |
Cover Gallery | Gallery: The Iron Daughter |
Publication Order | |
Preceded by The Iron King |
Followed by The Iron Queen |
Summary | |
Half Summer faery princess, half human, Meghan has never fit in anywhere. Deserted by the Winter prince she thought loved her, she is prisoner to the Winter faery queen. As war looms between Summer and Winter, Meghan knows that the real danger comes from the Iron fey—ironbound faeries that only she and her absent prince have seen. But no one believes her.
Worse, Meghan's own fey powers have been cut off. She's stuck in Faery with only her wits for help. Trusting anyone would be foolish. Trusting a seeming traitor could be deadly. But even as she grows a backbone of iron, Meghan can't help but hear the whispers of longing in her all-too-human heart.. |
The Iron Daughter is the second book in the Iron Fey series written by Julie Kagawa. Meghan Chase is featured on the cover.
Detailed Plot Summary
The Iron Daughter starts off with Meghan in the Winter Court. Meghan is having a dreadful time, seeing as it is always freezing in the Unseelie Court.
When Ash returns to the UnSeelie Court he treats her like dirt. With Meghan still hurting from Ash’s cruel remarks, Rowan later talks to Meghan and tricks her into eating a spill-your-guts. Ash walks up to this watching it unfold. Meghan then reveals that she loves Ash. Ash says that he doesn’t love her and walks away leaving Meghan broken hearted. A couple days later, during the festival of seasons, Sage, the oldest prince of the Unseelie court, takes Meghan to see the Sceptre of the Seasons, the famous scepter that each court posses to mark the change of each season. They are interrupted by Tertius, Ash’s look-alike from the Iron Realm, and a couple other Iron knights who kill Sage and steal the Scepter for their “new king”. After the attack, Mab appears and Megan tries to convince Mab that the Iron Fey killed Sage and stole the scepter, but Mab isn't convinced so she freezes Megan and declares war the on the Seelie Court.
Ash comes and saves Meghan after Mab had gone revealing that he was only being crude to her to protect himself from the Winter Court. He wants to get her back to her own court before war breaks out. As they were escaping, they were interrupted by Rowan. Rowan challenges Ash to a duel. Ash and Rowan start to battle and Ash almost kills Rowan. They make their escape through the castle and down an underground passage in Ash’s bedroom. Meghan and Ash make their way to a little bar with a couple rooms upstairs. While Meghan sleeps, Ash pays a Goblin named Sweetfingers to take them through the mysterious goblin tunnels to safety. Before the leave, Ash informs Meghan that he made up his mind to never see her again and that his Court comes first.
Ash and Meghan go with Sweetfingers to the goblin tunnels. When they get there, they learn that Sweetfingers betrayed them by selling them out to Rowan’s Thorneguards for a better price. Sweetfingers then leaves Meghan and Ash to fight Rowan’s Thorneguards. The head Thorne guard tells Ash that they work for the new Iron king. He tells Ash how Rowan works for him and how they will become immune to iron. He shows Ash the Iron Ring around his finger and Ash informs him that he is slowly dying of Iron poisoning. It then occurs to Meghan that Rowan let the guards into the palace to take the Scepter and kill Sage. Ash battles the Thorneguards to the death and emerges victories. Him and Meghan escape on the back of the Thorneguards steeds to go the wyldwood. All of a sudden, they get chased by these gremlins into the forest. Ash feels Meghan to hide in a little fort in the wood that he and Arreilla used to camp at. Ash tries to fight the gremlins but is falling behind. Out of nowhere, Puck comes out of the blue to help Ash fight the gremlins.
After the battle, Ash hands Meghan over to Puck and he goes out on his own to try and find the Scepter. Puck try’s to take Meghan back to the mortal world but they are interrupted when Meghan was being summoned. After they got to a little Goblin village, she finds Grimalkin and IronHorse, Machina’s first lieutenant. Ironhorse explains to her that he is no longer working for the new Iron King, as he was only loyal to Machina. He vows to protect Meghan with his life if she accompanies him to the location of the Scepter. Grimalkin informs them that the Scepter is in Silicon Valley and that the fastest way through is through the Briars. The Briars are a huge trod that makes up most of the wyldwood. As they go through the Brairs, they meet a couple of kids, around Meghan’s age, who are being chased by a dragon. Since the dragon was coming, Meghan, Puck, and IronHorse ran down the Briars to the nearest trod. After entry, they find out they are in the Beetween.
The Between is the land between the Nevernever and the Mortal world. It is ruled by Leanansidhe, Queen of the Exiles. (Titania, Queen of the Summer Court, banished Leanansidhe for becoming to powerful within the Summer Court)
Meghan asks Leanansidhe for her help on getting back the sceptre. Leanansidhe agrees but in the meantime while her and her exiles get the information, Meghan and her friends have to wait. A couple days goes by and everyone is on edge, just when Meghan thinks it’s going to be forever, Leanansidhe comes back with some great news. Her exiles and misfits got the location of the of the Scepter. Leanansidhe announces that the location of the Scepter is at SciCorp, a huge tech corporation. She also says that her spies found this code out to get to the 29.5 floor that the scepter is being held. She tells Meghan to figure out the code in a couple days before the mission. That night as Meghan was stressing out about the code, Puck comes into her room. Puck tries to make his move on Meghan and Meghan gives in and kisses him. After the encounter with Puck, Meghan and Grim figure out the code. The next day the gang prepare for the mission.
Meghan manages to get into SciCorp but their plans were ruined by Virus, who wields the scepter, saying she wants to take over the Iron Kingdom with her mind controlling bugs, which are made of iron. She had captured Ash and planted one of her mind control bugs in him and ordered him to kill all of them. Meghan realizes that he is slowly dying of iron poisoning.
They barely managed to escape. When they get back to Leanansidhe’s, a couple exiles of hers had also been controlled by one of the bugs. The exiles say that they are moving the sceptre to another secure location and that Virus ordered Ash to kill Meghan’s family in cold blood. Meghan begs Leanansidhe to let them use the trod directly to Meghan’s house for time. After Leanansidhe complies, Meghan and Puck go to save Meghan’s family.
Meghan and Puck go back to Meghans house and find that it is completely encased in ice. She discovered that the boogey living under Ethan’s bed helped him so that he would get frozen by the ice. She tells Ethan to stay put so he doesn’t have to see the battle. When she goes down the stairs, she sees that her parents are completely frozen. Ash then tries to kill Meghan but she stops him for a little while. Due to the fact that she has the power of the Iron King she is able to tell the bug to leave his system.
Once the bug had left Ash, Meghan sees that he is already half dead and that they need to find a healer.
They find a healer and she helps Ash. She says that they need to find a place where there is a lot of glamour,so she suggests the Winter Formal at Meghan's old school. They agree and then make their way to the school.
Once there, Puck starts to flirt with Meghan. He asks her to dance, and she accepts, until finding out that Ash is surrounded by girls in a corner. She gets jealous, and then Puck offers to go get some punch. She accepts, and while he is gone, her old school-girl crush Scott Waldron comes and asks her to dance. And Scott, like Puck, flirted with her and clearly doesn't remember her. He invited her to a party after the Winter Formal. She tells him that she already has plans, he pouts (suprisingly) and tells her to drop her other plans for the evening. They are then interrupted by Ash, Scott is intimidated by him and leaves at once. Ash explains the girls were there because there was tons of Glamour in that one corner. Meghan blushes, thinking she was being too obsessive over Ash, but Ash doesn't seem to mind. He asks her to dance.
After while, Puck and Ash decide to go outside. They find that it is snowing, which is something that never happens. Ash explains that it is because the sceptre is in the wrong place.
They find the location of the sceptre and they wait on the roof. Iron Horse causes a distraction and bursts in through the skylight. Soon after Meghan, Ash, Puck and Grimalkin jump down. Meghan uses her Iron glamour to stop the fighting.
Virus appears and sends a group of Iron bugs at them but Meghan uses her glamour and they avoid them. Whilst Virus and Meghan were battling, Ash jumps from the wall and kills Virus. They retrieve the sceptre but Ironhorse is dying. He says his final words to Meghan, calling her his Queen, and then he dies.
After returning the Scepter of the Seasons back to Mab, Mab said that Meghan must answer her about "forcing" Ash to go with her. Ash explains to Mab that it was his choice to follow Meghan, and she had nothing to do with it. Mab keeps talking to Ash until he admits that he's in love with Meghan. Mab says that he must swear a vow never to talk to Meghan ever again, never to see her again, and to break up with her and return to court. Ash refuses, so he is banished from the Nevernever and exiled from the Winter Court. Oberon asks Meghan if she will swear the oath, and she also refuses, Oberon declares that she is no longer family, despite Puck's pleading. Meghan is also exiled then both walk out of the Nevernever.