Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
About a month has passed since Maura Sargent left a note letting her daughter Blue, The Gray Man, all the psychics at 300 Fox Way, and the Raven Boys know that the Raven King, Glendower, is underground and so is she. She doesn't know how much time has passed since she went into the cave to search for Artemus, also known as Butternut, because time seems to have stopped. She passes around an underground lake and begins to hear a voice calling to her. She knows there are three sleepers underground and that one of them should definitely not be woken.
While Maura is gone, Persephone continues to teach Adam to control the power bestowed on him by Cabeswater using tarot cards and scrying. She thinks that if Maura were with them, Adam would be better able to focus on using the ley line's power, but if Maura were there, he wouldn't have to. She almost thinks that Adam would be a good replacement for Maura, but she doesn't want to replace her, she wants to find her. While helping Adam, Persephone realizes how young he is and how old she is. She knows there are three sleepers underground and that one of them should definitely not be woken.
Blue and Calla meanwhile are psychometrically looking for Maura. While touching Maura's pillow with Blue's boosting power, Calla can see her dreams and in them, she sees Maura at an underground lake. Blue asks Calla to touch the scrying bowl between the mirrors that Maura used before going underground. The last time Calla, Persephone and Maura used mirror magic together, they accidentally made Neeve disappear, so Calla's not a fan, but after looking, she knows there are three sleepers underground and that one of them should definitely not be woken.
Later, the Raven Boys and Blue are in Cabeswater, about to go into the cave to search for Maura. Matthew and Aurora are there, too, but Aurora will always be because she is a dream thing that has been sleeping since Niall Lynch, Ronan's father, died and Ronan correctly thought by bringing his mother to Cabeswater, she'd reawaken. Ronan sends Matthew out of Cabeswater to keep time for them since time doesn't seem to follow any rules in the dream place, and Noah offers to go with him. Gansey, Adam, Blue and Ronan put on spelunking equipment, tie themselves together, and enter the cave. Gansey tells Ronan to sing to keep time and he chooses a very annoying song about squash to sing over and over while they explore.
Suddenly Gansey disappears down a hole, pulling Adam to the ground. Ronan grabs Blue, saving her from falling, too. She lowers herself down to find Gansey who is panicking over the idea that hornets could be with him in the hole, but even though they know there aren't any, Cabeswater could produce them and, dream hornet or not, a sting will kill Gansey. The four work together to convince Cabeswater to keep them safe and soon ravens burst from the hole beneath Gansey and sing a song about The Raven King. They make their way out of the cave after that because it seems they can go no farther.
The next day, Adam goes to a park to attempt to do Cabeswater's work, but he doesn't have the $15 entry fee. While he's there, he sees, in another time, that there are others there looking for the ley line. A couple of days after this, Gansey, Ronan, Blue and Adam drive in The Pig to pick up Roger Malory at the airport. He's come from the UK to help them figure out the caves and investigate the ley line. Unfortunately he's got a ton of luggage and a service dog with him, so the ride back to Monmouth is dreadful, but on the way, he talks about a flag or a drapery that he found at his vacation home and the flag has Blue's face on, which... Why? What does that mean? It's another mystery. What's even more mysterious is that the walls of the building where it was found were weeping.
That night, Blue talks to Persephone who is knitting extra long sleeves onto a sweater. They talk about Maura going underground to find Butternut, aka Artemus, aka Blue's father, even though Maura's got the hots for Mr. Gray. Blue wonders why Maura would have gone looking, but Persephone mentions that maybe they should stop looking for her because maybe she would have asked for help if she needed it. Blue gets upset at this and decides to call Gansey. They talk for just a few minutes and both feel better for it, but also slightly ashamed because they know they shouldn't be feeling the way they both clearly do: 100% smitten.
The next day, Gansey, Malory, The Dog and Adam go off in search of another entrance to the cave that they found in Cabeswater, deciding that it doesn't matter where the cave is necessarily as long as it's on a ley line. They find a place on the map that Gansey visited long ago called Coopers Mountain or Giant's Grave. That definitely sounds promising because in English lore, Kings were often referred to as Giants, so what better place to bury the Raven King?
Blue isn't with Gansey on his journey this time because it's her first day of school. She and Noah, who tagged along, has a meeting with the guidance counselor about college, but like, does any of this even matter anymore? Her mother is missing, she's spent the last several months looking for a mythical king and realizing that magic is real ... What's the point of school? She has a college picked out, but according to the counselor in not so many words, it's not a school that she has any chance of getting into. As they're talking about safety schools, Noah completely freaks out and kind of explodes. The guidance counselor doesn't really seem to notice.
Blue goes to Monmouth Manufacturing after school but no one else is there, not even Noah. Soon enough though, Gansey, Malory and The Dog arrive in mid conversation about Glendower's family and a poet. Malory asks for tea and Gansey microwaves him a cup ((and Claire vomits in terror and disgust)) in the kitchen bathroom laundry room. Blue follows and they get very close in the small space which is awkward because they're still feeling feelings for each other that they shouldn't be feeling. After giving Malory his tea, he brings Blue and Gansey's attention to Noah who soon grows to immense proportions, freaks out and Blue has to essentially pull the plug on him, which is not something she's ever had to do before. It's a powerful bit of magic for someone who typically only boosts others' abilities.
That night, Blue thinks about pulling power away from Noah and how Gansey seemed to be impressed with her, but then she is asked to assist Calla and Persephone in a reading for a mysterious man who looks like a 30-year-old Aglionby student. It doesn't go well at all and ends with the man stealing the three of swords card and asking about Maura's whereabouts in an intensely threatening manner. Yikes.
School starts for The Raven Boys the next day. In Latin class, Ronan scrawls a dirty joke on the board, but soon enough, the new teacher comes in. If you will recall, the former Latin teacher, Barrington Whelk, was Noah's former best friend turned murderer who was trampled to death by magical animals in Cabeswater after he and Neeve, one of Maura and Blue's psychic relatives, tried unsuccessfully to wake the ley line at the end of book one. The new teacher corrects the grammar in Ronan's joke and is kind of standoffish and off-putting. He also seems to be staring at Adam, Ronan and Gansey. He introduces himself as Colin Greenmantle. Oh no. We know that name, but the boys do not. He hired The Gray Man to find the Greywaren in book two.
After school, Greenmantle goes to the farmhouse he has rented with his wife, Piper. Colin and Piper are an interesting couple who don't seem to like each other very much at all until they do (insert eyebrow raises and winks here). They're both very sharp and painful, but mostly to others. Greenmantle has come to Henrietta and taken the Latin job at Aglionby mostly just to fuck with The Gray Man for stealing/not stealing the Greywaren for him and Piper got dragged along, though she seems to be taking a shine to the psychic activity in the area.
Gansey and Ronan stop by 300 Fox Way that night. The Gray Man is there teaching the psychics how to fight but they're also drinking Manhattans, so it's unsure how serious they are about fighting. Maybe they're just wasting time because Maura has disappeared and no one knows what to do without her. Gansey asks about Greenmantle and the psychics realize that he's the menacing jerk who came by the night before. The Gray Man seems bothered and reveals to everyone that Greenmantle was his boss who sent him there to retrieve the Greywaren and is also the one who sent him to kill Ronan's father. Ronan immediately wants to kill him, but The Gray Man warns against it, calling Greenmantle a spider with a web made of murder and destruction, and offers to discover what he's up to. As this conversation is ending, Persephone chimes in that it's a good thing they've almost found Glendower. Have they?
Even later that night, when Adam gets home from work, he sees he's got a letter about a court date with his abusive father who beat him deaf in one ear. He hides it away though, which is good, because soon Gansey is there and talking about homework and Greenmantle and Malory and Ronan disappearing to The Barns and them all finding Glendower. Adam plans to use the wish he will get from Glendower to bring Noah back to life, which Gansey thinks is a good idea. As Gansey leaves, Adam thinks about the court date again and how, soon enough, when they wake Glendower, they'll all be kings.
The next day, Orla bullies Blue about her not having friends at school and reminds her that The Raven Boys aren't really her friends and that they're going to leave her behind as soon as they find Glendower or when they go to college or when they get tired of her. Luckily Gansey arrives then and together with Malory and The Dog, they go in search of a cave on Coopers Mountain. Blue suggests they ask people door to door about the cave and soon enough they find a giant of a man, appropriate for Giant's Grave, who guards a cave on his property that he claims is cursed. His name is Jesse Dittley and he's loud and big and delightful. He takes to Blue, who is tiny compared to him, almost immediately and, because of that, he turns them away. He doesn't want them to be affected by the curse.
After his day at school, Greenmantle comes home carrying cheese and taking off his pants. ((Greenmantle is Claire?)) He calls out to Piper about getting crackers but she doesn't respond because The Gray Man is holding her at gunpoint. He asks Greenmantle why they came to Henrietta, for life fuckery as previously mentioned, but also for the Greywaren even though The Gray Man tells him again that it's not a *thing.* Niall Lynch told Greenmantle about it, so of course he doesn't believe that it's not a *thing.* Greenmantle gives The Gray Man nine days to decide to either give him the Greywaren or the life fuckery will begin. Throughout this menacing conversation, Greenmantle and Piper nonchalantly eat cheese and crackers.
While the cave-discovering and cheese-eating is happening, Adam is alone at work fixing cars, hating the cooling weather for chapping his hands. Cabeswater begins to call to him in an eerie way, creeping him out until he grabs Persephone's tarot cards to help him discover what it wants. The cards show him three sleepers, but Adam already knows about them, one to wake, one to definitely not wake, and another one, and then Cabeswater shows him a part of the ley line to repair. As soon as he figures it out, the eeriness goes away. But then Adam hears something else. A clicking sound. It's Ronan's white dream monster from the night of Kavinsky's death and, thank goodness, Ronan is right behind it. He's come to ask Adam to do research about unraveling Greenmantle's evil spider web, but Adam is clearly busy with at least seven jobs and school and Cabeswater and his upcoming court date and everything else he does. He's going to do the research though, because of course he is. Ronan leaves and later, when Adam finally heads home, too, he sees a container of dreamed lotion for his hands in his car from Ronan.
Blue spends part of her evening bickering with Calla and learns a little more about the three sleepers. She and her friends are meant to wake one and Maura is meant to *not* wake another, but still there's not much about that third one. Blue then takes the list from the church watch from book one outside to her favorite beech tree to look over it. The Gray Man is out there, too, so she explains what the list of names is, that each person on the list is going to die within the year, and then she finds the name she was looking for. Not Gansey's, we already know about that one, well, The Gray Man didn't, but he does now, but another... Jesse Dittley's. Blue thought his name sounded familiar and she was right. So Jesse is going to die sometime in the coming year, but is he going to die because his cave is cursed or because of Blue and her friends or what?
Blue calls Gansey later that night so he heads to the privacy of the kitchen bathroom laundry and they talk about ducks for just a few minutes until Blue hangs up, but they're both completely satisfied with the few moments they spent together chatting. Ronan comes in shortly after and Gansey asks him if he's going to kill Greenmantle. No, he's not, he's got a better plan, but he doesn't say what it is. Then he gets a cold hot dog for Chainsaw and shares a new song he's just found with Gansey. Surprise! It's the squash song again! Ronan laughs and goes back to his room.
After school the next day, Gansey, Adam and Ronan have an interaction with another Aglionby student, Henry Cheng, who Gansey kind of has stuff in common with, but not really at the same time. Henry's a decent enough guy and his family is working on drone bee technology, which is kind of like Gansey in that he could be murdered by bees. See? Not alike at all, but kind of. Ronan and Adam leave Gansey and head to The Barns. The night before, The Gray Man asked Ronan to dream a Greywaren to give to Greenmantle, but fuck that. Ronan has another plan.
At The Barns, Ronan shows Adam something he's been working on. He's been trying to dream a way to wake up someone else's dream, a way to keep his mother awake outside of Cabeswater, and a way to keep Matthew awake if something were to happen to him, because surprise! Matthew is a dream creature that Ronan created when he was just three years old. Ronan shows Adam a couple of things, one is a globe with a piece of Cabeswater inside, but it doesn't do anything. Another is a blanket of moss, and another is something Ronan keeps wrapped up. They carry the moss and the wrapped thing to one of the dreamed cows that sleeps forever at The Barns. Ronan places the moss on it and its pulse quickens, which is amazing. Then he unwraps the wrapped thing, which keeps shifting and is slightly terrifying. It's a dream before it takes shape. Ronan places it in front of the cow and its ears and lips twitch, but it still doesn't wake. This is amazing, AMAZING magic, just like everything else at The Barns and is exactly why Greenmantle can't be given a Greywaren. Instead, Ronan wants Adam's help in creating a way to frame Greenmantle for an unspeakable crime.
Speaking of Greenmantle, he is looking for a way to find and destroy Maura to hurt The Gray Man, but she's disappeared and he doesn't know what to do. Piper asks him if he read any of the monotonous paperwork he had The Gray Man do while he was looking for the Greywaren and he says no. Piper read them and learned about the powerfully psychic underground lines and puts two and two together. Maura is a powerful psychic... there is powerful psychic power underground... ergo Maura is underground. Piper bought a lot of spelunking equipment and she and Greenmantle sexily try it out.
The next day, Blue and Noah drive out to Jesse Dittley's to bargain. Blue offers to tidy up Jesse's lawn and plant flowers if he will let them go inside his cave. He agrees, and since he's so giant, refers to Blue as an ant and it's pretty cute. Unfortunately, as they're working, Noah starts to go bonkers, destroys some flowers, mirrors Blue, and calls her Blue Lily Lily Blue. Blue tries to pull the power away from him like she did at Monmouth, but it doesn't work and it gets really creepy. Suddenly, Jesse runs out and shoves a mirror in Noah's face, making him scream and back away. Jesse tells Blue that it's the curse.
Inside Jesse's house, he explains that there is something inside the cave that is cursed and that it's not actually the cave itself, but whatever it is is sleeping and it kills Dittleys, and really, there's just no way around it. He can't leave to avoid it because this is his home. Soon enough, an angry Calla and a worried Gansey come knocking. Blue's been at Jesse's for six hours without telling anyone and, you know, when you're already dealing with one missing person in your family, you don't want to go through it all again. Before leaving, Blue and Jesse agree that she and her friends can explore the cave, curse or no curse.
Everyone meets up at 300 Fox Way and they decide to go into the cave the next day. Blue explains the curse and they talk about the sleepers again, and then Blue tells them about the list of names from the death watch and that Jesse Dittley's name was on it, meaning he's going to die which also probably means that his curse is real. Ronan morbidly admires the list and Adam asks to see it, but Blue quickly lies and says Maura has it. Persephone and Calla raise eyebrows and Adam notices, but no one else seems to. He deduces that one of them is on the list and drags Blue outside with him before he leaves for work. She reluctantly lets him know that it is Gansey who is on the list and he decides that they're going to wish for his life when they meet Glendower.
Blue calls Gansey much later that night to come pick her up. She's in a foul mood about her missing mother and Adam finding out about Gansey's name on the list, so she wants to get out of the house. They go for a drive and have another not-kissing makeout session like they did in the last book and decide to never speak of it again... again. As they drive back home at nearly dawn, they see Henry Cheng broken down on the side of the road. Gansey puts on his Richard Campbell Gansey III voice which Blue hates, so she's in a snit for the rest of the ride. She tries to call him out but doesn't do a good job. Luckily Gansey realizes she's not mad at him about being Richard Campbell Gansey III, but for some other reason (obviously his impending doom), but she refuses to tell him what's actually wrong.
The next day, Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Blue go into the cave. It feels wrong to Gansey and well, that's because it is. Shortly after they enter, Adam gets mad at Ronan for singing, but he isn't, then Adam realizes that he's hearing whatever he's hearing in his deaf ear. When he realizes, Chainsaw opens her beak and starts creepily singing, but it's more like she's just playing the song, not singing herself. When the singing stops, they decide to keep going deeper into the cave, and then, they come upon a door with an effigy of Glendower surrounded by ravens. Ronan kicks the door down, which angers Gansey, and then they enter. Inside the room is a tomb with another effigy of Glendower on the lid. They shift the lid off and instead of the sleeping king they've been searching for, they find a woman, tied, face down. And then she begins to laugh.
The cackling woman gets out of the tomb, bites at Ronan, then sings a song about kings and queens and crowns and birds that ends with "blue lily, lily blue." That's the same thing that Noah said when he went bonkers, which is a pretty clear indicator that this woman, who then proclaims that she is a witch, possessed Noah, and Chainsaw, too. They take her out of the cave and through Jesse's house. He asks her if she made his walls weep and if she did all the other bad curse stuff to him and she says she did, so it seems she is his curse and now he should be free. They then decide to take her to 300 Fox Way.
When they arrive, Calla is angry at them for waking the third sleeper but Persephone has been waiting for her to arrive and gives her the weird, long-armed sweater she was working on earlier and it fits perfectly. They learn that she is called Gwenllian, that it was Artemus, aka Butternut, aka Blue's father, who put her to sleep, and that she is Glendower's daughter. Calla sends Ronan and Adam to get supplies for her while they figure out what to do. Because of all the research he's done, Gansey deduces that Gwenllian is an illegitimate daughter of Glendower and that she was buried in a fake grave of Glendower's to trick grave robbers which means that Glendower's actual tomb is probably nearby.
While they're deciding where Gwenllian will stay, Blue has a conversation with Malory about why he has The Dog and he tells her that he can see auras, which is also why he knows that Gwenllian should stay at 300 Fox Way. Her aura is the same color as Blue's, blue, which makes Blue upset about her now very obvious name. Malory has The Dog as a support animal because when he's touched by too many auras he, for lack of a better word, gets anxious. He then tells Blue he likes Gansey so much because his aura is more neutral and explains the time they spent together years ago and that finally Gansey just left without a word. Gansey enters the room then and explains that he was a coward to leave but that he doesn't like goodbyes.
Adam and Ronan meanwhile have gone shopping for supplies for Gwenllian and while they're out, they see Piper Greenmantle with some thugs buying a lot of caving supplies. Adam has already begun his research on how they can get rid of Greenmantle, so after a rousing ride through the parking lot in a shopping cart followed by an extravagant crash, they go to the church where Ronan can be alone to dream. Adam insists on staying to help and together, they scry and dream some terrible murders and body parts and other incriminating evidence. When Adam returns to his body from scrying, he sees Ronan dying, back broken and covered in blood, but luckily that was a replacement Ronan that he dreamed up to protect himself. The boys watch as fake-Ronan dies.
At Adam's apartment later, his father comes to see him about the upcoming court case, which is definitely not allowed as Adam definitely has a restraining order. Robert Parrish yells at Adam about the case and how he should just drop it because no judge is ever going to believe that Adam has been abused, and while the yelling continues, Adam drifts away into the protection of Cabeswater. Since he's not speaking or seemingly paying attention, Robert Parrish raises his arm, either to hit Adam or maybe he already has, and he sees a thorn in his palm. He looks at his son who is obviously somehow responsible for this, tells him he's going to look like a fool in court and leaves. Meanwhile, the Greenmantles are spelunking but Colin feels uncomfortable as Piper can hear a voice calling to her that he cannot hear. They agree to hire some minions to return with them, but Colin never wants to see a cave again.
At 300 Fox Way, the psychics have cleaned out Neeve's attic room for Gwenllian, but they left the two scrying mirrors that they used to make Neeve disappear back in the first book. Gwenllian is kind of settling in but crazily because she's been in a tomb sleeping-not-sleeping for hundreds of years. She eats everything all the time, drags around the vacuum like a pet, and sings 40% of what she says. Basically she's quirky and off-putting and weird, but she takes Blue to her attic room and tells her that they are witches and asks if the others use Blue to make themselves more powerful. She explains that they are mirrors by asking "When you hold a candle in front of a glass, doesn't it make the room twice bright? So do we, blue lily, lily blue," then she pushes Blue between the mirrors. Blue expects to disappear like Neeve, but nothing happens to her at all, she's not even reflected in the mirrors because, Gwenllian says, "mirror magic is nothing to mirrors." Interesting. Instead of helping Blue understand, Gwenllian eats mayonnaise.
The Gray Man comes to visit and asks Blue if they can go to the cave where Gwenllian came from to see if it would be a good place to hide a body or at least body parts, because he has been roped into helping Adam and Ronan blackmail Greenmantle. It's not great at Jesse's when they get there. Jesse opens the doorway blocking the cave and a huge multi-headed monster comes out. The Gray Man kills it and Jesse explains that this has been happening since they took Gwenllian out and that she was probably holding back the curse and was not actually the curse herself. Now it's his turn to hold it at bay. The Greenmantles meanwhile are thinking of haunted objects (Colin) and listening to a disembodied humming whilst staring intently into a mirror (Piper). Colin wants to finish what they've started and get out of Henrietta, or just get out of Henrietta.
At school the next day, Gansey, Adam and Ronan run into Henry Cheng who is protesting outside of a building undergoing renovations. Henry is all about school politics and no one else seems to care much. Henry asks another friend to get him a coffee and when the friend doesn't, Gansey offers to go to the teachers' lounge and grab one. While he's inside, he hears a tremendous crash and runs back out to see scaffolding has fallen from the roof exactly where his friends were just standing. Ronan and Henry are covered with dust but Adam is in the center of the destruction, completely fine and surrounded by a dust- and debris-free circle. Adam leans to Gansey and tells him that he didn't even think but just imagined being safe and Cabeswater listened.
The next day is Adam's court date with his father. He didn't tell Gansey or Ronan or Blue because he wanted to get this over with on his own even though they all know about his shitty home life. As the judge calls for the hearing to begin, Gansey and Ronan arrive, impeccably dressed and ready to support Adam. Of course Gansey is friends with the judge who asks him if he's found his king. Not yet. Though we don't know the outcome of the hearing, we hope it goes well and in Adam's favor. Since Gansey is involved, surely it does.
Later, Adam takes Noah and Blue to do Cabeswater's work. As Blue is inside a gas station getting water and getting sleazed on by an old man, Adam thinks about blackmailing Greenmantle and how everything's probably ready to do that. Noah reads his mind and it's creepy. On the way, Blue and Adam argue about literally everything but then Blue turns on a tape that was in the tape deck. It plays the squash song, so she immediately ejects the cassette. It seems Ronan has made Adam a mixtape! They go back to the park from the beginning with $15 this time and head to a little rocky crevice.
Inside, Adam begins to scry to try to find out how Cabeswater needs his help this time. He learns there are rocks that need to be aligned in order to strengthen Cabeswater which then shows Adam images of his friends holding hands and bumping knuckles and picking each other up off the ground and Adam realizes that Cabeswater isn't the only dream place and it is stronger when it's connected to others, just like Adam is. Adam continues scrying and sees a woman and a man inside a cave near a red door. Something dark calls to him, promising answers, then a woman calls to him, and then Blue and Noah call to him, too, but he doesn't respond. After too long, Blue cuts Adam with her switchblade in order to bring him back to his body. After aligning the stones, Adam realizes that the woman he saw and heard was Maura and she's still alive.
Adam meets up with Persephone later at a little convenience store that is one of her favorite places. She gives him three dollars to get her a soda and then they talk about three being an important number and how Persephone thought that Adam could be a good replacement for one of the three psychics if something were to ever happen to one of them, but then she realizes that he is very much like her, an outsider. They talk about knowing when they're going to die and Adam asks if Persephone knew about Gansey's death and says that he's going to use the wish from Glendower to save him. Persephone asks for how long and Adam gets mad at her for being so disconnected from everything, but she gives him three more dollars to get himself a soda. When he comes back, Persephone is gone and it turns out was actually never there. Adam rushes back inside the shop to call 300 Fox Way because he knows something is wrong with Persephone after their morose conversation.
At 300 Fox Way, Adam scries with Calla grounding him and Blue boosting him. He searches for Persephone and then he, in her voice, calls out for Maura. Wherever Persephone is, she is looking for her. Adam shouts Persephone's name and then stops responding just like he did in the crevice. Calla yells for Blue to cut Adam's power off, so she does just like she did with Noah. Adam comes back to his body and says that Persephone is in the attic. They rush up there to find her body between the mirrors where Neeve disappeared. Persephone is dead.
Gansey arrives at 300 Fox Way to comfort his friends and declares that they're going back into the cave in Cabeswater the next day to find Maura. As Gansey is holding Blue, Gwenllian comes in the room with more riddles and songs, then she tells Gansey that he is very similar to her father, Glendower. She suggests, if they're looking for Maura who is looking for Artemus, then they should look for Glendower because Artemus will likely be very close by.
Greenmantle is greeted later by Adam and Ronan who present him with an envelope full of evidence of him doing terrible things to children and tell him to leave Henrietta or else everything in the envelope will come true. Greenmantle vaguely threatens Adam by providing the address of the trailer he grew up in, but really, he and Ronan are untouchable and everyone involved in this situation knows it. Greenmantle calls to Piper and tells her they're leaving, but she refuses and says they're going into a cave to find someone that will make that envelope disappear. Greenmantle isn't convinced.
The Greenmantles plus two thugs go to Jesse Dittley's cave. He's guarding it and refuses to let them pass, then The Gray Man sneaks up on them. Everyone gets into a tussle and The Gray Man kills one of the thugs and then Piper shoots Jesse and then points her gun at The Gray Man. Greenmantle is done with all of this which is going to make everything in that envelope look exceptionally true now that he's been involved in actual murders, so he leaves while Piper, one thug and The Gray Man go into the cave.
Meanwhile, Blue, Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Gwenllian go into the cave in Cabeswater, Adam and Ronan leading because they know Cabeswater won't let them die. They go down the same hole that Gansey fell in, but more carefully this time, and come upon a valley full of animal skeletons, some of them long extinct. It looks like they were frozen in mid gallop, making everyone think of the ghostly animals that trampled Barrington Whelk in book one. They decide that this valley is a test and that they have to wake the creatures in order to continue through the cave, but how are they supposed to wake bones? Gwenllian says the same way one would wake a dreamer.
Ronan and Adam get to work using Ronan's weird dream thing he created to wake the cows to try to wake the bones. They move rocks to boost the ley line and Blue tries to amplify the power and everyone can feel it, but nothing stirs. Suddenly, Gansey commands the bones to *wake up*... and they do. The animals begin to stampede toward an opening at the other end of the valley that is shrinking, so Blue suggests they ride the beasts to the opening, but only she and Ronan are able to make it through before it closes.
The animals Blue and Ronan ride disappear into a shallow underground lake in the new area they are in. As Blue and Ronan look into the water, they each see things they don't want to see. Ronan sees his dead father and Blue sees dead Maura, but Ronan reassures her that this isn't real. He knows his father is dead and buried, but Adam just saw Maura in the cave when he scried. Blue remembers what Gwenllian told her, that she's a mirror and that mirror magic doesn't work on her, and then the vision of dead Maura vanishes and Blue is able to walk across the lake.
Across the lake, Blue finds a chamber with a red door and she hears a voice calling to her from the other side of it... the voice of the sleeper they're not meant to wake, but she uses her mirror ability to put the voice back on itself. She then finds a man crouched on the ground who looks an awful lot like she does. This man is Artemus, her father. Not far away from him, Blue finds her mother. Both Artemus and Maura struggle with the intense desire to open the door and wake the sleeper beyond now that there are three people in the room since three is a very powerful number. Blue doesn't care at all about that and tries to usher them away from the door after calling back to Ronan to tell him to go back the way they came. Before they can make it very far away, Piper, a thug and The Gray Man come tumbling through another entrance to the cavern.
Unfortunately, Piper has come to open the door that Maura and Artemus have been trying so hard not to open. The Gray Man is tied up and the whole situation seems pretty terrible. Piper tries to shoo Blue and Maura out, but before she goes, Blue asks to hug The Gray Man goodbye. Piper agrees, disgusted, which is good because Blue takes the opportunity to cut his bonds with her switchblade. He reacts immediately and guns and flashlights and people go everywhere. The gun goes off and Artemus gets shot, not life-threateningly though he is bleeding, which is good, but what's not good is that somehow Piper ends up with a gun again and it's pointed at Maura. Then blood from Artemus' wound drips to the floor and runs uphill to the door, mesmerizing everyone. Artemus uses this distraction as an opportunity to knock the gun from Piper's hands.
Everyone scrambles after this attack and the cave begins to collapse. As Piper rushes to the door, The Gray Man bashes her with a rock after first knocking out the thug, then he ushers Blue, Maura and Artemus out. As they're crawling away, Piper follows and shoots again. The Gray Man tells Blue to lead the others to safety and somehow the cave completely collapses with Piper on one side and everyone else safe on the other. They make their way out of the cave and meet up with the others.
A week later, Gansey, Ronan, Blue and Adam take Malory to the airport so he and The Dog can go back home to the UK. Adam thinks that everything is kind of returning to normal now, or at least as normal as it's going to be. Maura is back home, but Persephone is gone forever and so is Greenmantle. Adam feels like, after all that has happened, he's finally awake, which makes him wonder if he's the third sleeper that everyone has been talking about. Gwenllian never really slept, after all, so it's possible that he is. Now, it's time to find Glendower, the one sleeper that they were meant to wake.
Piper comes to in the cavern, her leg possibly broken, but she's not alone. The thug is still there, barely alive, but there's also a woman with them. She explains that she and Piper will have to open the door and wake the sleeper together in order to get the wish he will grant. They open the door and look into the tomb, but they don't see a person. Instead, they see a large insect-like creature, perhaps a hornet, and while the woman, who turns out to be Neeve, prepares Piper to rouse the sleeper together, Piper shouts, "WAKE UP!"