Chaol And Yrene’s Complete Relationship Timeline

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If you are new to this blog, you may be unfamiliar with my undying love for Chaol Westfall. And let’s be so real, CLEARLY Sarah feels the same as me because Chaol got his own book in the series!

If you’re a diehard Chaol and Yrene fan like me, then this post is for you! Below, I’ve covered everything you need to know about Chaol and Yrene’s relationship, from quotes to my favorite moments between the couple.

*This post WILL contain spoilers for the whole Throne of Glass series, so read on with caution!*

Who Is Chaol Westfall?

Chaol is one of the first characters introduced in Throne of Glass. He is the captain of the guard for the King of Adarlan, and he accompanies Dorian to Endovier.

The prince and Chaol take Celaena as Dorian’s champion to compete in the King’s trials for his new assassin. Here, an unlikely friendship between the assassin and the Caption of the Guard forms.

If you want to go more in-depth, check out my Chaol character outline post here!

Who Is Yrene Towers? 

Yrene is an apprentice at the Torre Cesme, and is first introduced in The Assassin’s Blade before she has begun her training and moved to the Southern Continent. Yrene is a healer and flees her home in Adarlan when the king begins killing healers, and magic leaves the continent.

She runs out of money and is stuck in Innish when she meets Celeana, who teaches her to defend herself and gifts her money to go to the south so she can train her healing because “the world needs more healers.”

Yrene is a very gifted healer, and when she meets Chaol, she is just about done with her training and is heir to the Healer on High. 

Part 1: Tower of Dawn 

When Yrene is first asked to heal Chaol by the Healer on High, she is hesitant due to her experience with the King of Adarlan, as Yrene’s own mother was killed by the king when she was a child.

This led to her hiding her powers and working in dingy bars (as we see in The Assassin’s Blade) till Aelin gifted her enough money to leave the continent and be trained at the Torre Cesme. 

Yrene And Chaol Meet

Yrene and Chaol first meet in chapter 5 when Yrene visits the palace to do a physical assessment of his spinal injury. The meeting is prickly at best!

Yrene struggles to keep her composure around Chaol, knowing that he worked under the King of Adarlan. Also, Chaol in his dark and twisty mood is just a prick all the time tbh.

During the physical, Yrene writes the names of the last four generations of women in her family who had been killed by the King.

When Yrene leaves Chaol’s room, he finds the paper. Though he can’t make sense of the list of names at first, he puts it together and loses all hope that he will be healed by Yrene. 

“Chaol knew what had gone on in Fenharrow during their youth. Knew what Sorscha had endured there—and what she’d endured in Rifthold…No, Chaol realized as he held that piece of paper. Yrene Towers would not be returning.”

Yrene returns to Chaol in chapter 8 and informs him that she has decided she will help him walk again. In this visit, Nesryn and Chaol are being VERY passive-aggressive with each other.

Honestly, they’re really just being straight-up aggressive. Chaol and Nesryn’s relationship is hanging on by a thread after she did not return when Chaol thought she would, and they get into it.

Chaol waited for Nesryn to come to his room so they could kiss and make up but she never came so now they are just fighting in front of Yrene. She pockets the dynamic change between them to think about later.

Yrene starts to work on Chaol’s back and she tries to learn more about his character by asking him if he has ever owned slaves. Chaol tells her that he does not believe in such things, which Yrene responds by telling him she finds it hard to believe that the King of Adarlan let him live with such beliefs.

Chaol tells her that he serves Dorian and that he is fighting to fix the things from his past that he regrets. 

“Dorian Havilliard is not his father. It was him I served these years…There are choices in my past, that I have come to regret. But I can only move one—and attempt to fix them. Fight to make sure they do not occur again.”

When Yrene goes to work on the spot where the King of Adarlans magic hit his spine, she tries to learn more about what type of magic made this wound. Chaol, however, cannot speak of it because he is traumatized.

Yrene realizes that this injury will require healing of the body and mind but she cannot stomach the idea of working so closely with someone who she still sees as an enemy. When Yrene finally lets her magic touch the place of the injury she feels the wrongness of the dark magic that is inside Chaols spine.

“And then that echo of nothingness…it seemed to awaken.”

Yrene is physically pushed back by the dark magic in Chaol’s injury. She asks him to tell her what happened, and Chaol talks about the Erawan and the Valg. The only thing he continues to hide is the Wyrdkeys and who inflicted his injury. 

Chaol asks Yrene why she came back to heal him, and she tells him it’s because she feared that when she returned to her home continent, refusing him would be held against her. When Chaol tells her that he is not the type of person who would hold a grudge against her or punish her for not helping him, she calls him out “for serving a man who did such things.” 

“Would you believe me if I told you that he left his dirty work to others beyond my command, and I was often not told?” Her expression told him enough. She reached for the doorknob. “I knew,” he said quietly. “That he had done and was doing unspeakable things. I knew what forces had tried to fight aginst him when I was a boy, and he had smashed them to bits. I—to become captain, I had to yield certain…privileges. Assets. I did so willingly because my focus was on protecting the future. On Dorian. Even as boys, I knew he was not his father’s son. I knew a better future lay with him, if I could make sure Dorian lived long enough.”

Chaol tells Yrene before she leaves that no one hates him more than he hates himself.

Chaol really needs some mental health help!

Yrene Tells Chaol What Happened In The Torre

In chapter 10, Yrene is in the Torre library reading The Song of Breathing and looking for information to heal Chaol. As she reads the book, she learns more about Erawan and the Valg and starts to feel an evil presence watching her. As she escapes the library, she trips over the body of a healer who is now a husk of a person (just like what happened in Heir of Fire when the Valg princes were killing demi-fae)!

She escapes in time but is very shaken up when she arrives at her appointment with Chaol the following day. Chaol tells Yrene that he will help her any way he can. She asks him to come to her self-defense class she leads and help instruct the other healers and acolytes.

She teaches this class because the person who taught her told her to pass on her knowledge to as many women as possible (which we know was Aelin, and I just LOVE how connected these two are!!!!!)

Yrene tells Chaol that she wonders “if it was not just what I was researching, but also that I’m healing you.” 

This healing of the dark magic IS IMPORTANT because, as we will see later in the book, it leads to the cure that Yrene invents.

Chaol Needs Therapy

In Chaol’s second healing session at the beginning of chapter 12, Yrene tries her magic on his wound again. She cannot get past the “echo,” and she tells him that she believes that the dark magic is feeding off something within him.

She asks Chaol to discuss what happened to him and tells him he’ll need to talk through how he’s feeling.

The injury in his spine is feeding off his self-hatred, but neither Chaol nor Yrene knows this yet. 

Chaol Looks Out For Yrene 

After Yrene works on healing Chaol in chapter 13, we learn that she is unable to remove the dark magic from him.

However, through Chaol’s injury, she gets a glimpse at what Erawan is up to. She sees Morath and the evil going on there but does not tell Chaol to prevent him from worrying about his loved ones more. 

Chaol and Yrene are both exhausted physically and emotionally. Chaol has been screaming for the last five hours from the healing, but when his servant brings them tea, he makes sure to have Yrene drink first and looks after her well-being.

Though Yrene takes note that Chaol is putting her well-being first, she still feels negatively toward him. 

“Yes, she’d work with him; no, he was not the monster she’d initially suspected he’d be, not in the way she’d seen men be; but letting him this close, letting him tend to her like this…”

Chaol asks her to stay and eat with him to rest before she has to return to the Torre, but that pushes Yrene too close to being friends, so she leaves. 

Chaol Helps Yrene With Her Self-Defense Class

Yrene arranges for Chaol to ride a horse to the Torre in chapter 14. Though it’s a struggle for him to get onto the horse, it gives Chaol some dignity back. This is something Yrene does consistently throughout the book: helping Chaol feel like a man, like himself. 

When they arrive at the Torre, Hafiza tells Chaol that he is “As handsome as Yrene said,” and Yrene shuts down a little too fast. Hehe!

The student healers are the ones who help Chaol off his horse, and he becomes very embarrassed. Hafiza tells him that Yrene meant well. She wanted to use it as a teaching moment for the other healers. She also tells Chaol that the scar on Yrene’s neck is only one of many. 

Chaol is reminded again of Aelin when he sees how thoroughly Yrene has been teaching the girls, and he sees that this is something she’d love to see. 

In chapter 15, Yrene tells Chaol how her mother was was burned alive. This leads right into chapter 16 were we switch to Chaol’s perspective.

As Yrene heals Chaol, he sees his trauma. And it’s A LOT!

As Chaol begins to think that all the physical and emotional pain is not worth even coming back from, we can see that the darkness IS feeding on those thoughts. He sees a light through that darkness which is Yrene’s powers. 

“Perhaps it would be a mercy. He wasn’t entirely certain his presence—his presence beyond made any sort of difference. Not enough to warrant trying. Coming back at all. The darkness liked that. Seemed to thrive on that.”

Chaol’s First Signs Of Getting Feeling Back In His Legs

At the end of chapter 16, after Yrene has done another round of healing on Chaol, she tells him that she saw Morath and some of his memories from before he traveled to the Southern Continent. 

“But then I heard your screaming. Not out here, but…in there…And I realized that attacking that solid wall was…I think it was a distraction. A diversion. So I followed the sounds of your screaming. To you…It was so focused upon ripping you apart that it did not see me coming…I don’t know if it did anything, but…I couldn’t stand it. To watch to listen. I was startled when I leaped in, but I didn’t know if it would wait the next time. If it will remember. There’s a…sentence to it. Not a living thing, but as if a memory were set free in the world.”

After Chaol hears all this from Yrene, his only response is to apologize for what happened to her mother.

Yrene and Chaol start to let down some walls with one another. Chaol confides in Yrene about what happened with Sorcha and Dorian, how Dorian told him to run and how much Chaol regrets listening to that order. 

As they sit in his bed, Yrene sees Chaol move his toes on his own. She whips her head up and calls him by his name for the first time.

Tehome’s Day

The tension between Chaol and Yrene really starts to show more in chapter 21. Hasar has asked Yrene to find out the location of Aelin, needing to get close to Chaol to do so. Hasar threatens to keep Yrene from traveling to the Northern Continent if she does not follow through with this task.

At the party for Tehome’s Day, Hasar insists on separating Nesryn and Chaol, instead sitting Yrene next to him.

Part of the festivities of the party includes hot dancers and opioids, and to save Yrene from awkwardness with Kashin (and also cause Chaol can’t help himself), Chaol asks Yrene to sit with him among the dancers. 

Yrene tells Chaol that Hasar has asked for information about where Aelin is. He tells her Skulls Bay because he thinks she would never go there but OOPS.

Anyways, when they are sitting all cozy on the couch, they both get caught up in each other. 

“He told himself that as he continued to hold Yrene’s gaze, continued to press her hand against his upper arm. Continued to watch the color stain her cheeks. The tip of her tongue darted out to moisten her lips.”

“Yrene’s eyes dropped to his mouth, and every instinct, every bit of focus, narrowed on that movement.”

As Yrene leaves, Chaol can feel the space between them, and it leads to one of my favorite Chaol/Yrene quotes!

“As if that white light he’d glimpsed inside himself two days ago was a living rope. As if she’d somehow planted herself in him that afternoon.”

Yrene Is Jealous Over Nesryn

Already flustered about thinking about staring at Chaol’s mouth, Yrene arrives early the next morning to Chaol’s room at the palace and is shocked, embarrassed, and jealous when she sees Nesryn and Chaol lying in bed together.

Though us readers know they were just having a late-night chat (and avoiding breaking up but are SOOO headed there), Yrene assumes that they were intimate with each other. 

Yrene returns to the room after Nesryn leaves and tries to be professional but is clearly upset. 

“Chaol studied her. Weighing her tone. Her words. Her expression. He saw it—heard it. That tightness, that brittleness. I expected nothing, she wanted to say. I–I am nothing. Please don’t ask. Please don’t push. Please. Chaol seemed to read that, too. He said quietly, ‘I didn’t take her to bed.’”

And he explains what really happened that night!

At the start of chapter 23, Chaol and Yrene begin another healing session, and this time we get a look into Chaol’s relationship with his father and the guilt he feels about leaving his mother and brother behind, as well as the men who got hurt. We also see his guilt about the death of Nehemia and the information he withheld about Aelin.

As he sees more things from his past that hurt him, he starts to give into the darkness until he is shown a memory from Yrene’s childhood where she is learning about herbs with her mother. 

“For it was love that shaded the entirety of the world here, gilded it. Love and joy. Happiness.”

When he wakes from the pain, he can move his whole foot, and Yrene is moved to tears by seeing her mother again. She confides in Chaol that her mother broke her healer’s oaths to never harm someone the night that Yrene fled. 

“She saw the soldier grab me, and she…she leaped on him…She killed him. To buy me time to run. And I did. I left her. I ran…” 

I think this is another way that Yrene and Chaol can help heal each other because of their similar trauma and guilt for running when someone they loved put themself in harm’s way to save them.

We can also see how much Yrene is helping Chaol when she tells him that he deserves better than how his father treated him.

“The words hit something sore and festering—something he had locked up and not examined for a long time.”

Chapter 23 ends with Chaol asking Yrene to stay and eat with him, and this time she does! 

Nesryn And Chaol Break Up (Kinda)

In chapter 26, Chaol’s guilt over leading on Nesryn rises up again when, after a great night with Yrene, Chaol returns to his room to find a letter from Nersyn telling him that she left with Sartaq and she holds Chaol to no promises. 

“She might not hold him to any promises, but he…he held himself to them. And he had let this thing between them go on, had used her her like some crutch.”

After reading this letter from Nesryn, he’s a little a-hole to Yrene in their healing session the next day. 

Yrene leaves the healing session upset with Chaol, and after going into the city to heal people, she heads straight back to Chaol’s room to give him a piece of her mind.

Yrene Is Attacked At The Palace

In chapter 27, as Yrene makes her way to Chaol, she notices she’s being followed just like the night in the library. She runs to Chaol’s room and he quickly lets her in. 

He tells Yrene that he will keep whatever is chasing her occupied, giving her time to run. But she refuses to run!

They both have survivor’s guilt over letting loved ones protect them in the past, so they decide to face whatever is hunting Yrene together. 

“Chaol held her face tightly. Did not break her gaze. ‘We will face this,” he said. ‘Together.’ Together. Live or die here—together.”

When they opened the door, the Valg had disappeared. Kashin summoned the guards, scaring it away…for now. 

When Kashin offers to escort her home to the Torre, Yrene declines, saying that she feels safer saying where she is with Chaol.

“’I feel safer here.’ Chaol tried not to blink at her. At the words. With him. She felt safer here with him.”

Yrene And Chaol Sleep Together For The First Time 

Okay, not THAT kind of sleep together. Yet 😉 

In chapter 28, after Yrene decides to stay in Chaol’s room, she tells him that he shouldn’t stay in his chair all night and invites him to lie next to her.

While they lay next to each other, Chaol tells Yrene about killing Cain (the first person he ever had to kill), and she tells him that she is grateful that he was willing to kill whatever was on the other side of the door for her. 

“’I think—I might have tried to kill whoever it was tonight. I was that…’ He waited for her to say frightened. Frightened, with my only defender in a chair. ‘I was that decided against running. You told me you’d buy me time, but… I can’t do that. Not again.’ ‘Thank you,’ she said softly. For being willing to take that death upon yourself.”

Yrene And Chaol Have Dinner At The Torre 

I love this scene in the book! I think it is such a sweet moment between them. 

In chapter 32, Yrene asks Chaol to stay at the Torre for dinner after they had been studying in the library. 

“She knew it was not mere fear that spurred her. Knew that she just wanted to spend a few more minutes with him. Talking to him in a way that she so rarely did with anyone else.”

CUTE.

Chaol tells Yrene that he has never had dinner like this before, a meal when he was just himself, just Chaol, not Captain of the Guard.

Because no one at the Torre knew who he was or had any expectations as to who he should be, he feels liberated having dinner just as himself with her. 

“He clinked his glass against hers. ‘To being Chaol and Yrene—even just for a night.’”

Chaol And Yrene’s First Kiss 

Chaol and Yrene kiss for the first time in Chapter 39 of Tower of Dawn. At the end of chapter 38, Yrene confronts Chaol about his sour mood, which turns out to be because of his failed attempt to meet with the Khagan that morning and not being able to get around the guards because of his chair.

He wants to be able to fight with his men for his kingdom, so Yrene tells him that he better “get up.”

They both start fighting. Yrene tells Chaol to get his sorry butt up and stand, and Chaol takes quips at her till he takes it too far, insinuating that Yrene has been idle since the loss of her family. Yikes!

He knows he’s gone too far at this point. As she is heading out the door, Chaol walks over to her, finding out then that not only is he freaking walking, but also she has a wicked little twinkle in her eye, and pushing him to fight with her was her plan to get him to stand all along! 

When Chaol finally catches up to her, they kiss for the first time. 

“She was trembling. Not with fear, not as she looked up at him. And it was only when Yrene settled her hand on his chest, not to push him away but to feel the raging, thunderous heartbeat beneath, that Chaol lowered his head and kissed her.”

And as a Chaol simp, I love to read any and every romantic scene he has hehehehe. 

Yrene’s Birthday

For Yrene’s birthday, Yrene has convinced Hasar to take a trip to Aksara. Yrene set this up so that they could look around the sacred city where only the royals are allowed. They arrive at Aksara after a very cute horse race in chapter 44. 

When looking around, they discover that the lost city is a fae burial site, and that the Valg are not new to this continent as they once believed.

Yrene and Chaol start to wonder about the origins of the healers and if they have the power to defeat the Valg, which would explain why Yrene is being hunted! 

Chaol’s Birthday Gift for Yrene 

After Yrene pushes Hasar for insulting Chaol (it’s the end of chapter 44; you gotta go read it), her and Chaol retire to her tent for some privacy and to let the princess cool off. 

Chaol tells Yrene about Aelin, which I love because the reader knows that Aelin and Yrene have met, but Chaol and Yrene still don’t know. 

“Aelin was very important to me. She still is—though in a different way. And for a while…it was not easy, to change the dreams I’d planned for my future. Especially dreams with her.” 

Yrene asks if Chaol still loves Aelin, and Chaol tells her, no, he doesn’t still love Aelin…OR Nesryn. 

In chapter 45, Chaol gives Yrene her birthday gift, an oval locket engraved with the words “Mountains. And seas.” 

“So you never forget that you climbed them and crossed them. That you—only you—got yourself here.”

Chaol tells her that the locket is for her to keep the paper she’s always holding onto in (we know it’s the note from Aelin, but shhhh). 

Yrene loves her gift so much that they make out a bunch! And even more 😉 

Yrene And Chaol SLEEP TOGETHER For The First Time

At the end of chapter 45, after Chaol gives Yrene the locket for her birthday, they have sex together for the first time. Chaol is a consent king, of course. 

“He realized that here, among the dune and stars…Here, in the heart of a foreign land…Here, with her, he was home.”

Yrene Heals Chaol

After Yrene develops a theory about the Valg being a parasite, and that heat was the way to drive them out (it’s giving Stranger Things season two), she decides it’s now or never baby, and she is going to HEAL Chaol!

Chaol enters his dark place and gets a montage of every mistake he has ever made. However, he finds the will to fight for the self-worth that Yrene has instilled in him during the last 500 pages of this book!

At the end of chapter 54, after Chaol has decided to turn from the darkness and follow through with the promise to save his friends and kingdom, he is met by Yrene in sort of a dream-like healing space (kinda like when Harry is at King’s Cross Station with Dumbledore). Yrene tells him that the darkness now belongs to Chaol and he can give power to it or render it harmless.

Chaol asks Yrene if the darkness will grow again, and she responds:

“’Only if you let it. Only if you do not fill it will you have better things. Only if you do not forgive.’ He knew she didn’t just mean others. ‘But if you are kind to yourself. If you—love yourself…’ Yrene’s mouth trembled. ‘If you love yourself as much as I love you…‘” 

Chaol stands and takes Yrene’s hand, following her out of the healing state, and he wakes up fully healed. 

Chaol Tells Yrene He Loves Her For The First Time

In chapter 56, Chaol tells Yrene that he loves her for the first time! After he wakes up healed, they do it (by it, you know, I mean IT 😏), and Chaol rocks Yrene’s world with his fully healed sexual abilities.

After a while, they’re cuddling, and the whole Yrene saying she loves Chaol thing is finally brought up. Yrene tells him he doesn’t need to say it back, but oh baby does he! 

“Then it is a good thing, Yrene Towers, that I love you as well…From the moment you walked into the sitting room that first day…I think I knew, even then…You looked at me without an ounce of pity. You saw me. Not the chair or the injury. You saw me. It was the first time I’d felt…seen. Felt awake in a long time.”

Yrene’s Plan To Heal The Valg

Yrene tells Chaol about her theory to heal those who have been infected by Valg demons in chapter 58. She tells Chaol that Aelin healed the King, and she thinks she burned the Valg out of him.

After healing Chaol’s Valg injury, she also believes that the Valg are a parasitic infection and that they’re feeding off their hosts. She thinks that she can heal the valleys of people, which would be a game changer in the war on the Northern continent.

Duva Breaks Chaol’s Back Again

Chaol wants to convince the Khaganate to join Aeiln in the war, so he and Yrene head to the Torre to find more information about Yrene’s theory of healing the Valg.

At the Torre, they are looking for the Healer on High, Hafiza, and find her missing under sus circumstances.

When they go into the tunnels of the library to search for her, they are met by Duva, who is possessed by a Valg Princess and holding Hafiza hostage. To make the stakes higher, she is also pregnant, and the Valg is threatening the baby, Hafiza, and Yrene. 

The Valg princess who is possessing Duva admits to being the one who killed Tumelun, and that the reason she’s here IS for Yrene.

In chapter 62, Duva tells them that Erawan has sent her here to bring Yrene, Silba’s heir, to him, and she has a Valg ring for Yrene. 

Chaol fights Duva to protect the others but it ends with Duva attacking him and the full brunt of the impact landing on his back, undoing all the work that Yrene had done at the end of chapter 62. 

Chapter 63 starts with Duva beating the crap out of Chaol’s spine over and over again, and Chaol once again loses feeling in his legs. 

Yrene Saves Chaol

In chapter 63, Yrene manages to get hold of a knife and pin Duva down to where she can end the fight (and Duva’s life)!

Yrene is conflicted because she swore to never take a life, and Duva’s baby would also die. However, she WOULD take a life for Chaol. Her healing magic can sense that Chaol is dying, but Chaol calls out her name and tells her to stop and spare Duva. 

As Chaol’s dying, a classic Sarah J. Maas trope occurs: Chaol doesn’t die and instead comes back to life! The healers all come together to create a living chain of power and they bring Chaol back.

“The healers of the Torre lowered their hand, severing that bridge of contact, as Chaol’s feet moved. Then, his knees. And then his eyes cracked open, and he was staring up at Yrene, her tearing plopping onto his blood-crusted face. He lifted a hand to brush her lips. ‘Dead?’ ‘Alive,’ she breathed and lowered her face to his. ‘Very much alive.’ Chaol smiled against her mouth, sighing deep, and he said, ‘Good.’ Yrene raised her head, and he smiled up at her again, cracked blood sliding away from his face with the motion. And where that scar had once sliced down his cheek…only unmarred skin remained.”

Okay, I am in tears over the scar for Crown of Midnight healing, which is such a beautiful symbol of Chaol healing from his past. 🥲

But Yrene’s healing of Chaol didn’t come without a cost…Yrene and Chaol’s lives are now tied together, so if she dies, so does he! Chaol’s use of his legs is also tied to Yrene’s power, so when Yrene’s power is drained, he will be affected by his injury, causing him to need use of a cane or chair on some days. 

However, Chaol no longer thinks of the chair as a prison, and you can see how much he has grown as a person, finding his self worth from Yrene. 

“’Using the chair is not a punishment. It is not a prison,’ he said. ‘It never was. And I am as much of a man in that chair, or with that cane, as I am standing on my feet.’ ‘I wanted to heal you,” she breathed. ‘You did,’ he said, smiling. ‘Yrene, in every way that truly matters…You did.’”

CUTE! Chaol is healed in his mind, and we love that! Self love baby! I know I love Chaol enough for the both of us, but I’m glad he feels that way about himself now too. 

Yrene Gets The Khagan To Send Aid To The Northern Continent! 

Yrene uses her theory of healing the Valg and is able to get the Valg princess out of Duva, who’s a little traumatized but delivers a healthy baby and is no longer possessed.

The Khagan tells Yrene she can have anything she wants in return for saving his daughter, and she asks them to join the war to “save her people”.

Chaol And Yrene Are Married

Though we don’t get to read the actual wedding ceremony, we learn that Chaol and Yrene are now husband and wife in chapter 68! The two newlyweds are on a ship sailing to the north to join in the war.

They are accompanied by many healers from the Torre, as well as the Khaganate army, Nesryn, Sartaq, and the Ruk riders. Chaol teasingly calls Yrene “Lady Westfall”, and I swoon every time I read it.

Yrene Learns That Aelin Wrote The Note In Her Locket

At the very end of the book (chapter 68), Yrene finally shows Chaol the note in her locket.

Yrene tells Chaol that she supposes she no longer needs the note she’s been holding onto all these years because she’s no longer alone and has found her courage. She shows Chaol the note and he recognizes Aelins handwriting immediately and is filled with many emotions.

Chaol tells Yrene she might want to hold onto it a little longer because there is someone who will want to see it.

The book ends with them sailing off into the sunset (literally! well kinda…more like sailing off into the sunset to go to war, but you get it), and Chaol tells Yrene the full story of Aelin. 

Part 2: Kingdom of Ash

Yrene Is Pregnant 

We learn that Yrene is pregnant in chapter 6 of Kingdom of Ash. Her and Chaol are still traveling to the Northern Continent, and though she knows and the reader knows, she has yet to tell anyone (including Chaol!!!) that she is expecting their baby! 

Yrene Meets Chaol’s Father 

In chapter 18, Yrene and Chaol travel to Anielle after the Ruk riders scout that Morath’s armies are headed straight for Chaol’s homelands. As soon as they arrive, they are greeted by Chaol’s dad, and let’s just say it’s a little icy.

He dismisses Yrene for her “lack of nobility” and also treats his son like crap. Yrene quickly sets him straight and speaks up for her husband. 

“I am the heir apparent to the Healer on High of the Torre Cesme. I came at your son’s behest, back to the lands of my birth, to help in this war, along with two hundred healers from the Torre itself. Your son spent the last several months forging an alliance with the Khaganate, and now all of the Khagan’s armies sail to this continent to save your people. So while you sit here in your miserable keep, tossing insults at him, know that he has done what no other could do, and if your city survives, it will be because of him, not you.”

Chaol Learns About His Baby

Chaol learns that Yrene is pregnant at the end of chapter 40. Morath has arrived and is preparing to attack Anielle.

Chaol tells his father that if he does not lead the men of Anielle, then he will. His father responds by telling him that Yrene is pregnant.

Chaol is shocked! His father observed Yrene’s mealtime sickness and how she often touches her belly, but Chaol hadn’t noticed. Before he can process or respond, Morath begins their attack on Anielle. 

Yrene Meets Aelin

Aelin and Yrene meet in chapter 48 of Kingdom of Ash. Aelin and the rest of her party arrive as reinforcements for Anielle, and she is reunited with both of the Westfalls.

Yrene gives Aelin back the note she left her in The Assassin’s Blade and tells her, “thank you”. 

Aelin and Chaol introduce their spouses to each other and it is SO cute. 

“But Aelin’s gaze fell upon the wedding band on Yrene’s finger, and when she glanced to Chaol, he grinned. ‘No longer Yrene Towers,’ Chaol said softly, ‘but Yrene Westfall.’” 

Aelin is full of joy, and she, in return, introduces Rowan to Yrene as her husband and mate. 

Yrene Tells Chaol She’s Pregnant

Yrene and Chaol finally talk about the baby in chapter 54 and it is ABOUT time. Chaol is taking care of Farasha in the stables, having a moment of quiet, when Yrene joins him.

He tells her that he “knows”, and when she asks what he knows, he simply places their joined hands on her belly. 

Chaol isn’t angry that Yrene hadn’t told him because he knew that she just didn’t want him to worry with, ya know, them being in the middle of a war and all. 

“’I am happier than I can ever express, Yrene, to share this with you. Anything you need, I am yours to command.’ Her lips twitched upward. ‘Dangerous words.’ But Chaol ran his thumb over her wedding band. ‘I’ll have to win this war quickly, then so I can have our house built by the summer.’”

Yrene Saves the World

Chaol has been fighting the army of Morath alongside his best friend/brother Dorian (after he and Aelin close the gate but don’t kill Erawan blah blah blah, it has nothing to do with Chaol and Yrene), when it’s time for Yrene to take action. Chaol at first objects in fear of her safety, but he knows that only she can end this. 

“’You can’t.’ Yrene put her hands atop Chaol’s and brought them brow to brow. ‘You are my joy,’ was all she said to him. Her husband, her dearest friend, closed his eyes. The reek of Valg blood and metal clung to him, and yet beneath it—beneath it, that was his scent. The smell of home. Chaol at last opened his eyes, the bronze of them so vivid. Alive. Utterly alive. Full of trust, and understanding, and pride. ‘Go save the world, Yrene.’” 

Yrene leaves with Dorian, but before they leave, Chaol tells Dorian to “keep her safe”.

“Perhaps the only order, Yrene realized, he would ever give his king. Their king.”

In chapter 113, Dorian shape shifts to appear as Yrene, trapping Erawan in a Wyrdmark. Once he is trapped, Yrene uses her healing powers (which Dorian amplifies with his own magic) to take down Erawan until he is destroyed forever. 

“His dark power rose, a wave to devour the world. Yrene did not let it touch her. Touch any of them. Hope. It was hope that Chaol had said she carried with her. Hope that now grew in her womb. For a better future. For a free world.”

Chaol and Yrene Reunite

After Yrene saves the world like the baddie that she is, she’s reunited with Chaol in chapter 116. 

“Chaol slid his arms around her waist and buried his face in her neck. ‘It’s over then,’ he said against her skin, unable to stop the shaking that took over, the mix of relief and joy and lingering, phantom terror.”

Chaol and Yrene can now start their new family together and are both so filled with joy for the life that is just beginning for them. 

Chaol and Yrene Leave Terrasen

At the end of the final chaper of Kingdom of Ash, Dorian, Chaol, and Yrene prepare to leave Terrasen and Aelin. 

Aelin wishes Yrene and Chaol “every happiness.” 

“Such light shone in Chaol’s bronze eyes—that she had never seen before.”

Because of Yrene! They promise to see Aelin again, and they ride off back to Adarlan.

And they all live happily ever after hehe!!!

If I missed any of your favorite Chaol and Yrene moments, please let me know in the comments, and we can fangirl together! 

xx happy reading!

-Paisley 

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