Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands (2024) is the second installment in the Emily Wilde series, an adult cozy fantasy romance trilogy by Heather Fawcett. The sequel follows Professor Emily Wilde as she ventures to locate a nexus—or traveling faerie door—into the elusive Irish faerie realm of the Silva Lupi on behalf of her potential fiancé, Wendell Bambleby, who wishes to return as heir and reclaim the kingdom from the stepmother who usurped him. Heather Fawcett is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

This guide refers to the e-book edition published by Del Rey in 2024.

Plot Summary

Since completing her “encyclopaedia” of faeries, Cambridge Professor Emily Wilde has begun compiling a map book of the various faerie realms and their doors. Since learning her friend and coworker, Wendell Bambleby, is secretly an Irish faerie monarch who’s been usurped by his stepmother, Emily has agreed to aid him in his search for a backdoor into his realm so he may take back his kingdom. Yet, the conflicted Emily has yet to accept or reject Wendell’s marriage proposal.

Meanwhile, Emily’s niece, Ariadne, now attends Cambridge, where she’s appointed herself as Emily’s assistant. The dryadology Department Head, Dr. Farris Rose, has become increasingly suspicious of Wendell’s academic fraudulence—as he often falsifies his discoveries—and is also suspicious of Emily by association. Once he has definitive proof, he plans to fire them both. When Rose attends one of Wendell’s lectures intent on collecting more proof of his ineptitude, the class is attacked by faerie assassins from Wendell’s realm—sent by his stepmother to kill him. While the students flee, Rose witnesses Wendell use his magic to protect himself and Emily and to dispatch the faeries. This reveals Wendell as a fae.

Emily’s research into possible locations for a nexus—a revolving faerie door—has led her to the mysterious disappearance of scholars, Danielle “Dani” de Grey and Bran Eichorn, from St. Leisl during the early 1860s. De Grey was studying the local tree faun, which are Irish in origin, hinting that a nexus to the Irish realms is present in the St. Leisl area. After informing Ariadne of Wendell’s identity, Emily plans an expedition for St. Leisl to locate the nexus. Rose invites himself along as he has expertise on the Folk of the Alps. In exchange, he will reconsider his decision to fire Emily and Wendell.

Just prior to the start of the novel, Emily acquired the foot of an Irish tree faun that de Grey was studying before her disappearance. Ever since, an apparition of a strange man draped in ribbons has periodically visited Emily and spoken in riddles. He visits her before she leaves Cambridge and again on the train to St. Leisl but does not seem to be lucid. When Wendell’s magic becomes increasingly erratic on the train, Emily theorizes he was likely poisoned by his stepmother during his birthday festivities a few days prior.

When they arrive in St. Leisl, they’re given a cottage by Julia Haas and her family. They’re advised to leave food on their doorstep for the nocturnal fae and not to leave the cottage at night. They’re also informed about the ribbon system locals use when roaming the forest to track their path and avoid getting lost. Despite leaving food offerings every night, deep scratches in the cottage door multiply. This is later revealed to be Danielle de Grey assaulting the door with the horn of her tree faun; like Eichorn, who carries the teeth of the same tree faun, Danielle is being summoned to Emily through her possession of the tree faun’s foot.

After disagreeing with Rose about how to conduct research, Emily takes complete leadership over the expedition. She surveys the surrounding area with Wendell and Ariadne; they manage to locate 14 faerie doors, none of which are Wendell’s. Wendell briefly tells Emily about his cat, Orga, whom he trusts with his life.

Next, Emily and Rose allow Julia Haas’s father-in-law, Roland, to lead them down the last path supposedly traveled by Danielle de Grey. After they reach the spot where her last ribbon was found, Emily and Rose stay behind to survey the area. Emily is reckless and inattentive, which ends in Rose being severely injured by vicious fox faeries. Emily, however, is saved by her grim, Shadow, and her cloak, which Wendell has enchanted for her protection. Though Wendell is able to heal Rose, Emily feels guilty over her careless arrogance. Emily is visited by the beribboned man again, whom she now knows is Eichorn. He regains enough lucidity to mention that he’s been stuck in the Otherlands for 50-years searching for Danielle de Grey, then promptly vanishes.

When inspecting the Grünesauge mountain one day, a group of elder huntsmen—Folk from Irish folklore who appear from ominous clouds and hunt mortals from horseback—arrive to assassinate Wendell. Wendell is forced to use his waning magic to spirit Emily, Rose, and Ariadne to safety while he dispatches the huntsmen sent by his stepmother. His excessive use of magic exacerbates the poison’s symptoms and a death omen—fluttering bird shadows—appears on his chest. Emily becomes concerned about Wendell’s life and seeks out the local fox faeries. One, whom Emily names Snowbell, owes Wendell a favor, and Emily asks him to take her to Poe—a little faerie Emily befriended while researching in Hrafnsvik, Ljosland months ago. Emily asks Poe for something to relieve Wendell’s symptoms and he gifts her special scones. Poe tells her the silver key he gifted her before, which she wears as a necklace, is a door from his tree, which will allow him to come and go from her person as he pleases.

The scones temporarily strengthen Wendell, yet don’t cure him of the poison. One night, Emily hears Eichorn in the distance and chases his voice, coming across one of his ribbons, which she pockets. She briefly spots Danielle de Grey instead, who promptly vanishes. Emily becomes lost in the wilderness but is eventually found by Wendell, who comes searching for her. At Emily’s insistence, Wendell tracks Eichorn using his ribbon and successfully pulls the scholar out of the Otherlands, but the death omen on Wendell’s chest becomes more prominent. Emily becomes determined to find de Grey and locate the nexus before Wendell succumbs to the poison. Her desperation causes her to inspect the wilderness for faerie doors after dark with Rose and Eichorn. The locals are forced to save them from a tree faun attack, but a local is accidentally harmed by Shadow in the chaos.

When the pounding and scratching on the cottage door becomes worse, Emily realizes it’s de Grey being lured to her by the tree faun foot. Emily allows her inside, where Wendell pulls de Grey from the Otherlands and collapses, near-to-death from the poison. Emily accepts Wendell’s marriage proposal, and he uses his time-manipulation magic to replay their conversation about his cat, Orga. Emily realizes Wendell’s cat, Orga, can cure him of his poison.

De Grey and Eichorn bring Emily and Ariadne to the nexus—a simple door in the mountainside that leads to a brownie home, which contains another door inside that leads to Wendell’s realm. De Grey gifts Emily her faun horn, which has a poisonous tip harmful to faeries. Before they enter, Poe visits Emily and gifts her a magical compass from Lilja and Margret—Emily’s friends from Hrafnsvik—that can determine who is trustworthy. The compass later advises Emily to trust the fox faerie, Snowbell, and Wendell’s cat, Orga.

In Wendell’s kingdom, Emily and Ariadne travel for several days, and Emily grinds the horn’s tip into a poisonous powder and stores it for future use. They eventually discover Snowbell following them, who leads them through a shortcut to the castle, which is guarded by the queen’s gargoyles. Emily enters the castle grounds by acting like a helplessly enchanted mortal scholar yet is soon discovered by another lucid human named Callum who helps her find Wendell’s chambers. She finds Orga, yet Wendell’s stepmother intercepts their escape. Emily subtly poisons the queen’s wine with the faun horn poison and escapes with Orga to reunite with Ariadne and Snowbell. Pursued by the gargoyle guardians, Emily and her allies reach the nexus and return to St. Leisl.

Upon their return, Orga’s magic swiftly combats the poison in Wendell’s body so he may recover. When the gargoyles arrive in St. Leisl, Wendell fights them off, but he shows mercy to them and their leader, Razkarden, instead of killing them, earning their loyalty. Wendell also banishes the tree faun back to his realm. The townspeople gather at the cottage to say farewell. Emily expresses pride in Ariadne’s hard work and her immense help during the expedition. Wendell expresses appreciation for Poe’s help, and Emily encourages him to not overlook the little ones as his fellow courtly fae often do.

After discovering the brownie whose home contains the nexus has sealed his door to St. Leisl, Emily, Wendell, Shadow, and Orga travel to Greece—another location she knows the door opens to. Though they believe Wendell’s mother has died from the poison, they’ve gathered an army of the little Folk and plan to reclaim his kingdom. While Wendell doesn’t plan to return to academia, Emily has decided to take a long sabbatical and only return occasionally. While she still plans to complete and publish her map book of the Otherlands, she also wants to focus on marrying Wendell and ruling the Silva Lupi realm at his side.