The books and shows diverge after Alina has to kill Mal to use him as an amplifier. Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov and Archie Renaux as Malyen Oretsev in Shadow and Bone. In Leigh Bardugo's books, the answer is yes, they end up together.
Alina and Mal end up marrying each other by the end of Ruin and Rising.
During the season, Alina agrees to marry Nikolai, who is next in line for the Ravka throne. After the Darkling is defeated, unlike in the book, she still agrees to marry Nikolai, because she thinks Ravka needs help healing and protection (and, unlike in the book, she still has powers).
Well, fans will be happy to hear that Alina and Mal marry in the books, more specifically in the third book of the series, Ruin and Rising. They take on new names and are married. Afterward, they rebuild their childhood orphanage in Keramzin together, which they then run as a married couple for the rest of their lives.
Nikolai proposes to Alina one last time after she has lost her powers, by which point it would no longer be a political match but a genuine one. In King of Scars, Nikolai admits that he really grew to love Alina, and that her rejection hurt him.
In the beginning, the Darkling and Alina felt drawn to one another. Before Alina left the Little Palace, the Darkling kissed her abruptly by the lake, after he told her about the stag he was hunting. He then kisses and touches her at the winter fete, before they are interrupted.
Mal was oblivious to Alina's love from before book one even began. He slept with Zoya and countless others before he realised who was waiting by his back door.
Mal leaves to take on the role of privateer as the new Sturmhond and Alina is left to fend for herself once again as Nikolai's future wife.
The night before the big battle, Alina and Mal finally have sex and it's Alina's first time and they're worried about not making it through the next day and I am just so sick of seeing this. This sort of thing pops up in so many fantasy novels that it just annoys me now.
From there, Alina again refuses to marry Nikolai. She fakes her death, letting the legacy of Santka Alina stand on its own. She and Mal return to their hometown under aliases and rebuild the orphanage at Keramzin where they grew up—and live happily ever after.
She drove Inej's sword through The Darkling's heart to kill him. There was no way the two of them would end up together in the end. Alina would have had to go through some sort of head transplant to choose to be with that man. Instead, Alina chose Nikolai.
While she doesn't lose her powers as a punishment, she isn't in the clear either. Instead, her consequences are darker – literally. In the final scene, Alina uses her powers again and finds them changed. To Alina's surprise, she performs the Cut with shadows like the Darkling rather than her former light.
Ultimately, though, Mal and Alina are endgame. After three books of will they or won't they, Alina's dalliance with the Darkling, and near-engagement to Nikolai, the pair end up together running the old orphanage where they grew up in Keramzin.
Barnes explained to Deadline that his character really does have feelings for Alina, and when he loses her, his army, and his palace everything “brews into this storm.” Not only is he tormented, but he's also angry about losing everything he had, and as the actor behind him said, The Darkling has “gone off” which is ...
Packed in there are so many couples: Jesper and Wylan, Nina and Matthias, Genya and David, of course Mal and Alina (and perhaps briefly Alina and Nikolai), and Kaz and Inej, though their relationship is less straightforward than the others.
As skilled as Alina is, though, the Darkling has to place higher than her in terms of power rankings once you take a look at everything he was capable of across the Grishaverse books.
Indeed, the entire second season of Shadow and Bone should come with a warning for non-book readers. There were too many plot points, too many characters, and too many details to keep track of. Even said superfans might find themselves a bit befuddled! The changes from the books were sometimes absolutely insane.
Zoya destroys the remains of The Darkling when she realizes what is happening, but The Darkling's spirit goes into the body of a man named Yuri Vendenen. So, while The Darkling does return in some form, he does not return in the one that people recognize him as.
While they manage early on to find and kill the ice dragon Rusalye, aka the sea whip, it takes them until the end of the season to realize that the final amplifier, the firebird, is actually Mal.
While searching for the last amplifier, Mal and Alina find out the truth about Mal's heritage. He is descended from Baghra's sister, making him a great-nephew of the Darkling.
In the books, Alina and Mal go into the Fold, but the Darkling finds them and they don't have a chance to execute their plan. Mal tells Alina to stab him. And she does, but unlike in the show, he's not already dying when she does so. However, instead of the power surging into her, she loses her powers.
It is Alina who brings Mal back to life, and then she gets access to shadow magic. After he's revived, he questions whether or not he should stay by her side—and Nikolai says he should take on the mantle of Sturmhond as he finds himself.
Zoya was initially infatuated with the Darkling. Upon Alina's arrival at the Little Palace, Zoya instantly hates her for becoming the Darkling's new favorite, and expresses her jealousy by cheating during a duel and injuring Alina.
To Alina's surprise, Zoya is jealous of Alina for being the Darkling's favorite. Later, Alina wakes up to see the Apparat appear in the infirmary from the shadows. People on the borders are making altars to Alina.
After a demonstration at the Grand Palace, in which Alina proves to the king that she is in fact the Sun Summoner, the Grisha embrace Alina with open arms, with the exception of Zoya, who whispers in Alina's ear that she a "half-breed" and that she "stinks of the orphanage."