Rule of Wolves
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2.Ravka will go to war with the Fjerdans.
3. Toyla will die during a battle with the Fjerdans.
4. Despite Nikolai's "military genius", Ravka will be outnumbered/ losing to the Fjerdans. When Ravka is almost beaten, Zoya will bust in during a climatic battle in dragon form, and cause all of the Fjerdan's to desert, allowing Ravka to win the war.
5. As a result of winning the war, Zoya will become beloved by common people of Ravka, who no longer hate/ fear her as a Grisha, but love her as a war heroine. (Note: this overcomes one major obstacle of her marriage to Nikolai-- since she's now the beloved hero of the people, they WOULD accept her as queen.)
6. The debt to the Kerch council becomes an issue. Nikolai tricks them by staging a bloodless coup/ buying off the Kerch guards. The Merchant council is forced to surrender, and Nikolai insists they forgive Ravka's debts, end indentured servitude, and fulfill a certain set of requirements (more human treatment of the Grisha) as the terms of their surrender.
With the Kerch and the Fjerdans defeated, everything looks like it's going to be okay, but...
7. On the night before his wedding to Ehri, Nikolai breaks down and confesses his love for Zoya/ begs her to marry him.
He argues that since she is a war hero/ beloved by the common people after defeating the Fjerdans, that they will accept her as queen. He also says that he can convince Ehri/ the Shu Han people to not take Ravka to war. (It is implied that he might not be able to do this, but that their True Love is worth the numerous lives of common Ravkans that would be lost.)
This would fit with the way Nikolai was introduced-- when Alina first sees him, she thinks, "He reminded me of the too clever fox, who mistakenly believed that because he had escaped the first two traps, he would be safe from the third one." Note-- in the story of The Too Clever Fox, part of Leigh Bardugo's fairy tale collection, the titular character outsmarts traps set by his mother and a bear, only to fall into the last trap, set by a pretty girl: love. Nikolai is the too clever fox, who has defeated the first two traps-- the Fjerdans and the Kerch-- only to be undone by the third trap-- his love for Zoya. Anyway, when Nikolai proposes he kisses Zoya, professes his love for her, and gets down on one knee.
Zoya tells him that she loves him, too, but that they can't get married. She notes that while Ravka may love her/ accept her as queen now, as she lives hundreds of years/ doesn't age they will come to distrust, and, eventually, hate her. The same will go for their children if they inherit their mother's grisha abilities. Furthermore, she'll note, he doesn't know that he can talk Ehri (who is now in love with him) and the Shu into a peaceful resolution, unless he marries Ehri.
(Little does Zoya know that Ehri's sister plans to assassinate Nikolai during the wedding, and try to conquer Ravka anyway.)
Nikolai continues to beg Zoya, telling her that he only loves her and could never come to love Ehri in the same way. Zoya refuses again, and insists he think of Ravka; Nikolai finally agrees to go through with the wedding, while protesting his undying love to Zoya.
8. The wedding of Nikolai and Ehri is the big climax to the whole book. Nikolai and Ehri start getting married, but Ehri's sister interupts the wedding, trying to kill Nikolai. This causes Nikolai to morph into monster form and start killing wedding guests, including Ehri's sister. Also the Darkling possibly emerges, having somehow got his powers back. (Hey, she brought him back from the dead. This stupid plot twist could clearly happen, somehow.)
Amidst the panic, Zoya morphs into a dragon and fights Monster!Nikolai/ the Darkling. The battle is fierce, and in the end she sacrifices herself to defeat them, since "it is the only way." Zoya turns from dragon back into human girl, and falls to the ground, apparently dying.
9. However... Zoya doesn't really die. Remember how Mal "died" in Ruin and Rising, only for us to be told "oh, don't worry, he's not dead, just the amplifier in him died"? Similarly, Zoya will briefly die, then be revived, only to be brought back to life. But the Grisha/ dragon in her has died.
10. Since Ehri's sister died, Ehri is now queen of the Shu. She will return to Shu Han and be queen, ushering in a new age of more human treatment of the Grisha.
11. With Ehri gone, peace made with the Shu, and her Grisha powers gone forever, Zoya will be free to marry Nikolai.
After they get married, the now human Zoya will become general of the First Army, thus repairing the split between the Grisha and non grisha.