Sarah J. Maas Reveals ACOTAR 6 and 7 Titles—and “The Valkyrie Cycle” Changes Everything
The wait for the next A Court of Thorns and Roses book has officially turned into something much bigger.
Sarah J. Maas has revealed the titles and covers for the next two ACOTAR novels: A Court of Splintered Harmony and A Court of Forgotten Melody. Even more surprisingly, both books belong to a newly named arc called The Valkyrie Cycle.
But the newly surfaced synopses reveal that the titles are only the beginning.
Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Prythian’s alliances are beginning to collapse. The Night Court is struggling with betrayals and newly revealed truths. The Inner Circle will eventually scatter across the world in search of an advantage—and something from Prythian’s past appears to be coming back with them.
After years of speculation over whether the next ACOTAR book would belong to Elain, Azriel, Lucien, Gwyn or another character, the scope of Sarah J. Maas’s next story suddenly looks considerably larger.
And yes, there is another enormous question hanging over all of this:
Is Nesta back?
ACOTAR 6 Is A Court of Splintered Harmony
The sixth ACOTAR book is officially titled A Court of Splintered Harmony and carries the subtitle:
The Valkyrie Cycle: Movement I.
It is scheduled for release on October 27, 2026.
Its newly revealed description opens with a warning that feels almost like a mission statement for the entire next era of ACOTAR:
What was broken will be remade.
And apparently, plenty is broken.
The synopsis confirms that Koschei the Deathless is finally moving toward the center of the story.
Still bound to his mountain lake after millennia, Koschei’s influence is beginning to spread across the Fae territories. Worse, he is attracting powerful allies who want to reclaim the human lands.
That places Prythian on the edge of another potentially enormous conflict—but this time, its courts are far less prepared to face it together.
The devastating war against Hybern may be over, yet Prythian has apparently never fully recovered. Attempts to unite against this new threat are becoming increasingly difficult, and the situation inside the Night Court may be even worse.
The Night Court Is Fractured From Within
One of the most revealing details in the A Court of Splintered Harmony synopsis has nothing to do with Koschei.
It concerns the people who rule the Night Court.
According to the new description, those responsible for ruling and protecting the court are struggling in the aftermath of recent betrayals and revealed truths, with the divisions between them seemingly becoming almost impossible to repair.
That is significant.
The Inner Circle has certainly disagreed before, sometimes bitterly, but the language being used here suggests something more serious than the occasional argument around a dinner table.
Something has fractured them.
Exactly what those betrayals and revelations are remains unknown.
There is an obvious temptation to connect the wording to recent developments elsewhere in Sarah J. Maas’s wider universe, particularly the events involving Nesta and Azriel in House of Flame and Shadow. But until Maas confirms how directly those events influence the next ACOTAR books, that remains theory rather than fact.
Whatever caused the division, however, the consequence seems clear:
The Night Court cannot defeat what is coming while divided.
The characters will need to repair their relationships and rebuild alliances they once relied upon if they hope to stop Koschei.
And that phrase—former alliances—opens several very interesting doors.
Could Old ACOTAR Alliances Be Coming Back?
A Court of Splintered Harmony appears to place diplomacy almost as prominently as warfare.
Prythian needs unity. The Night Court needs allies. And old relationships may have to be resurrected whether its rulers like it or not.
That immediately raises questions about several characters and courts whose stories remain unresolved.
Could the fractured Spring Court become strategically important again?
Could the Night Court be forced to work more closely with Eris and the Autumn Court?
What role will the human territories play when Koschei’s allies specifically want those lands reclaimed?
And perhaps most importantly, what does all of this mean for Lucien and Vassa, two characters already closely connected to the unresolved Koschei storyline?
The synopsis does not name them, so nothing should be treated as confirmation yet.
But Koschei is no longer a distant threat waiting somewhere beyond the main plot.
He is the plot.
ACOTAR 7 Is A Court of Forgotten Melody
Then things apparently get worse.
Much worse.
ACOTAR 7 is titled A Court of Forgotten Melody and is officially labeled:
The Valkyrie Cycle: Movements II & III.
It is scheduled to arrive on January 12, 2027, less than three months after A Court of Splintered Harmony.
Its description begins:
What was lost will be reclaimed.
But unlike the sixth book’s synopsis, which presents a world struggling to reunite, the seventh suggests those efforts may not go particularly well.
Prythian’s traditional alliances are crumbling.
Diplomacy is failing.
Koschei remains on the horizon.
And the united front desperately needed to defeat him is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve.
Then comes perhaps the most ominous promise of the entire reveal:
Bonds will be tested. Power will shift. Old enemies will return from the nightmares of the past.
That is an enormous amount to unpack.
“Power Will Shift” Could Change Prythian
The wording around power is particularly interesting because ACOTAR’s political structure has remained relatively stable despite everything the characters have survived.
Seven courts.
Seven High Lords.
Long-established territories and alliances.
But A Court of Forgotten Melody appears to be moving toward something that could challenge that balance.
“Power will shift” could refer simply to magical power or changing alliances.
It could also mean political power.
Until we know more, anything beyond that is speculation—but paired with collapsing alliances and enemies resurfacing from Prythian’s past, the phrase feels deliberately significant.
The new books may not simply be about defeating another villain.
They could be about what Prythian looks like afterward.
The Inner Circle Is Going to Split Up
Another major detail in the seventh book’s synopsis reveals that the Night Court’s Inner Circle will disperse far and wide, each searching for some advantage against Koschei and his allies.
That may tell us something important about the structure of the upcoming books.
Rather than keeping the main cast together in Velaris or following one isolated romantic storyline, Maas appears to be sending characters into different corners of the world.
Different missions.
Different alliances.
Possibly different points of view.
That would make sense for a story being divided into multiple “movements,” particularly one built around a conflict affecting all of Prythian.
It could also create space for characters who have been waiting years for their stories to move forward.
Elain.
Lucien.
Azriel.
Nesta.
Gwyn.
Emerie.
Tamlin.
Eris.
Vassa.
Maas has not confirmed which of these characters will receive POV chapters, and the synopsis deliberately avoids naming the central protagonists.
For now, the only certainty is that this story does not sound small.
So… Is Nesta Back?
This is where The Valkyrie Cycle becomes impossible to ignore.
Nesta Archeron ended A Court of Silver Flames alongside Gwyneth Berdara and Emerie after the three women revived the legacy of the Valkyries and survived the Blood Rite together.
Readers have spent years wondering whether that storyline would continue in the background while ACOTAR moved toward another Archeron sister.
Then Sarah J. Maas put THE VALKYRIE CYCLE directly on the covers of the next two books.
It would therefore be very surprising if Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie had no significant role in what comes next.
But there is an important distinction:
The Valkyrie Cycle does not automatically mean another Nesta romance novel.
Neither synopsis names Nesta.
Neither confirms Gwyn or Emerie as protagonists.
Neither reveals the primary romance.
And neither tells us who will narrate the books.
What the branding does tell us is that the Valkyries are connected strongly enough to this four-part story for Maas and Bloomsbury to name the entire cycle after them.
That alone makes Nesta’s continued importance considerably more likely than it seemed before this reveal.
What About Elain’s Book?
Elain remains one of the largest unresolved pieces of the ACOTAR series.
So do Azriel and Lucien.
The new announcement does not confirm an Elain-led book—but importantly, it does not rule one out either.
In fact, the scale of the newly revealed story may explain why Maas has avoided giving readers a simple answer to the “whose book is next?” question.
If The Valkyrie Cycle is a sprawling story told across multiple locations and movements, the series may no longer follow the exact structure readers expected after A Court of Silver Flames.
There may still be a central romance.
There may even be more than one.
But the synopses are currently selling a war for Prythian, not one couple’s love story.
That feels deliberate.
And Then There Is the Spider
The cover of A Court of Forgotten Melody adds another mystery.
Its central artwork features distinctly spider-like imagery.
That becomes particularly intriguing alongside a line in the new synopsis describing hope as something that can be spun from the darkest shadows.
“Spun.”
On the spider cover.
“Shadows.”
In ACOTAR.
Sarah J. Maas knew exactly what readers were going to do with those words.
For now, there is no confirmation that the imagery refers to Azriel, shadow magic, a literal creature, a connection to another Maas series or something entirely different.
But it is difficult to believe the combination is accidental.
And the musical language continues throughout the announcement.
Harmony.
Melody.
Movement I.
Movements II and III.
The looming crescendo mentioned in the seventh book’s description.
Even structurally, The Valkyrie Cycle is being presented like one enormous composition unfolding piece by piece.
And that makes Gwyneth Berdara especially difficult to overlook.
Gwyn is notably associated with music and singing in A Court of Silver Flames, which makes a title like A Court of Forgotten Melody particularly intriguing when it appears beneath the banner of The Valkyrie Cycle.
That is not confirmation that Gwyn will be the protagonist of the seventh book, nor does it prove any of the romance theories surrounding her. But the combination is striking enough to raise questions. If Maas is deliberately building this new arc around musical imagery, a Valkyrie whose singing has already been given narrative significance suddenly feels far more relevant.
Whether “forgotten melody” refers to Gwyn herself, something connected to her past, or something entirely different remains to be seen—but fans are almost certainly going to be watching that wording very closely.
The Next ACOTAR Story Is Much Bigger Than We Expected
For years, ACOTAR fans have been asking one question:
Who is ACOTAR 6 about?
After this reveal, that may no longer be the most interesting question.
A Court of Splintered Harmony begins with a divided Night Court trying to rebuild itself while Koschei gathers power.
A Court of Forgotten Melody appears to escalate that conflict dramatically, sending the Inner Circle across Prythian while alliances collapse, political power shifts and enemies from the past return.
And running through all of it is a name nobody expected to see printed across the next era of ACOTAR:
The Valkyrie Cycle.
Nesta may be back.
Elain’s story may still be coming.
Azriel, Lucien, Gwyn, Emerie and the other courts may all have larger roles than previously anticipated.
But one thing now seems increasingly clear:
Sarah J. Maas is not returning to Prythian for a quiet continuation.
She is setting the whole thing on fire.
A Court of Splintered Harmony releases October 27, 2026, followed by A Court of Forgotten Melody on January 12, 2027.
Read also:m
Read also:
Complete Throne of Glass Series Overview: Summaries, Review & Reading Guide