Tamlin’s unexpected arrival shocks the meeting into silence, and every High Lord immediately reinforces their shields. Feyre sees at once that Tamlin knows the truth about her bond, her rank, and her return to the Night Court, and his hatred is open. When the others ask why he has come, Tamlin frames himself as the wronged lover who bargained with Hybern only to recover Feyre, then accuses Feyre and Rhys of destroying the Spring Court for spite and ambition.

Tamlin turns the gathering into a public attack on Feyre’s credibility and dignity. He mocks her relationship with Rhys, claims she wanted power when Tamlin refused to make her High Lady, and warns the other courts that Feyre and Rhys may be trying to become rulers of Prythian. His accusations force the room to consider whether the Night Court’s version of events can be trusted, especially because Tamlin can point to Feyre’s actions in Spring and Rhys’s long association with Amarantha.

The confrontation shifts when Tamlin challenges Kallias and Viviane to remember Rhys standing beside Amarantha during the murder of Winter Court children. Rhys, shaken, admits he could not stop the killings but explains that he had tried to redirect Amarantha’s rage away from Kallias, only to be confined and cut off from intervening when she sent others to slaughter the children. This revelation exposes more of Rhys’s suffering and helplessness Under the Mountain, and although the pain remains unresolved, Kallias listens instead of dismissing him outright.

Tamlin then insists that, whatever his anger, he truly stands against Hybern and produces papers detailing Hybern’s forces, weapons, and faebane stores. Yet he keeps baiting Feyre, Nesta, and Rhys with insults, trying to recast every atrocity as Night Court manipulation. When Tamlin’s abuse becomes openly vile and he starts another degrading tirade at Feyre, Rhys ends it by stripping away Tamlin’s ability to speak, reminding everyone in the room of just how much more dangerous his power is than theirs.