Sera goes to the gates, where she sees that Veses has arrived. Veses insists that she needs to speak with Ash, so Sera jumps from the gates to confront her. Sera tries to force Veses to leave, but Veses goads her, calling her a “caged whore” (354). In response, Sera attacks her, breaking her nose and her arm. On the verge of killing her, Nektas stops her. He warns her that killing Veses will start a war. After hesitating, Sera rips out Veses’s throat and throws her. As Veses leaves, she warns Sera to accept Kolis’s offer.

When Ash returns, Sera tells him what happened. He assures her that she showed restraint, which she should consider a success in controlling her impulsiveness.

That night, Sera struggles to sleep as she thinks about her stepsister, Ezra, who is Queen of Lasania. She knows that a war among the Primals will affect the mortal realm. She expresses her concerns to Ash, and he insists that she can visit Lasania the next day if she chooses.

The next morning, Sera wakes up feeling sick. She ignores it, insisting that it must have been some food she had. She and Ash meet with Attes, who informs them that Kolis is spending more time meeting with Phanos, the Primal of Sky, Sea, Earth, and Wind. The thought worries Sera, as Phanos is a Primal they were hoping to convince to join them.

After, Ash gives Sera a new dagger. This one is made of the bone of an Ancient, crafted from the blade of Attes’s spear.

Sera and Nektas go to Lasania. To their surprise, Callum is already there eating with Sera’s family. Sera immediately attacks him. She tries to get information from him, but he taunts her instead of responding. Sera violently kills him in front of her family, knowing that he will come back again. Looking around at her shocked family, she tries to explain what has happened to her.

Sera asks about Callum. Ezra explains that he had only been there a few days. Other than eating dinner with them, he spent very little time in the castle. He didn’t say much, with Ezra noting that he just seemed to want to be in their company.

The information bothers Sera, as she wonders what Kolis’s plan is. She briefs Ezra on what has been happening with Kolis and the potential for war. Ezra insists that she will warn the mortal realm and prepare as best they can.

Before they leave, Sera’s mother asks to speak with Sera alone. She apologizes for having mistreated Sera her whole life. She explains that she knew about Sera’s destiny before she was born, causing her to feel conflicted about Sera’s birth. Although her mother’s apology helps, she is still unsure how she feels about her. She asks if her mother can tell her about her father one day, and her mother happily agrees.

When Sera returns to the Shadowlands, they question Callum in the dungeons. Callum insists that he visits Sera’s home because he was born near there and enjoys seeing her mother. He has done so frequently, as she often lets him walk through the gardens or join them for supper. Because she believes he is a god, she shows him respect that no one else does. Sera thinks of how the entire thing seems “sad,” yet she has no sympathy for him. They release him before they keep him long enough to violate the eirini.

Sensing a disturbance in the Abyss, Ash leaves to see what is wrong. Sera tries to go with him, but Ash warns her that she will be overwhelmed, as all the souls will be drawn to her.

After Ash is gone, Sera tries to calm down. However, she is still overwhelmed by a feeling of dread. She looks out from the balcony at the stars in the sky. Slowly, they disappear, then she sees that dozens of winged creatures are blocking them out. She knows that these are sekya, guards within the Abyss; they are half-human and half-bird. They begin landing and attacking the guards. Feeling the need to help, Sera draws on the eather to leap from the balcony into the fight.

For several minutes, Sera fights alongside Rhain, Bele, and others. Suddenly, a dark “mist” appears in the sky. Streaks of shadow fly from it, destroying each of the sekya. When they are gone, Ash floats down before them. Bele asks what happened, and Ash informs her that Kolis, now the true Primal of Death, controls the sekya.

Ash explains that Kolis likely called the sekya. It is unclear whether he ordered them to attack or if they did so willingly. Regardless, the vast majority are now gone from the Abyss.

Sera goes to the infirmary wing of the castle, where the injured are being treated. She goes from cot to cot, using her eather to heal those injured in the attack. As she does, she learns about each of them, her intuition telling her about their histories.

After, Ash takes Sera back to the bedchambers. Sera is certain that she is going to be scolded for risking her life in the attack without her dagger. Instead, Ash begins undressing her. He insists that he knew she would risk her life to protect her people—and that is what he loves about her. The two then have sex.

Just after they finish, Sera is overwhelmed by a panic attack as Ash holds her. She feels a “dual burst of lust and anxiety” (441) as she imagines that Kolis is the one holding her. Without even realizing what happened, she finds herself on the couch being held by Ash.

Ash tries to get Sera to talk to him about what happened in Dalos. However, because Kolis never had sex with her, she keeps insisting that “nothing” happened. She thinks of how he fed off her blood, lay with her, displayed her nearly nude before the court, and the many other forms of emotional and physical abuse that he put her through. At the same time, she tells herself that she was “lucky” because he never raped her. As she has these thoughts, Ash continues to try to convince her to talk about what happened, while she continues to insist that she is fine. When Ash tells her that he knows part of her is still stuck in the “cage” that Kolis had her in, Sera feels the overwhelming urge to get away. Her body reacts, changing her into her nota (animal form) for the first time: a cave cat.

In her new form, Sera flees, jumping off the balcony. She runs through the gates, then into the forest for hours. Eventually, she comes to the lake, which serves as a portal to the mortal realm. She instinctively knows that she can part the mist that hides the mortal. However, she then feels Ash come up behind her in his wolf form. He turns back into his human form, then convinces Sera to will herself to change back.

The next morning, Sera is sick again. She blames it on her change the night before, noting how sore her body is. She goes to the library for quiet, looking up at Ash’s portrait of his parents.

Thierran comes into the library with her. Sera asks what Theirran’s ability is. He tells her that he can control others’ emotions, even inventing a new emotion or turning an existing one back onto them. Sera wonders if it can somehow be used to control Kolis.

A while later, Aios comes into the library. Aios tells Sera how surprising it is that she has discovered her nota so soon. She surmises that Sera changed because she was upset last night. She urges Sera to talk about what happened with Kolis.

Eventually, Sera tells Aios everything. She explains that she is hesitant to talk about it, as it transports her back to that moment and makes her feel helpless. Aios assures her that it is normal for her to feel that way but that she needs to remember that they are both free now.

When Sera leaves, Nektas finds her. He tells her that Kolis has been summoned to the Pillars of Ashpodel due to an overwhelming number of souls arriving. Without hesitating, Sera shadowsteps to Lasania.

When Sera arrives in Lasania, everyone is already dead. When Sera sees her mother and Ezra, she is overwhelmed with rage. She then sees Kyn alongside Embris, the Primal of Wisdom, Loyalty, and Duty. Kyn taunts her, telling her that this is Kolis’s way of declining her offer for peace. Sera responds by drawing on her eather, fueled by her rage and fury. She attacks Kyn and Embris, but they both shadowstep. She manages to grab Embris before he leaves, shadowstepping to the fields outside Dalos.

When Embris and Sera land, Sera grabs him and bites his throat. She then removes all his blood. She promises him that he will never find peace or judgment, then destroys his soul.

In the wake of Embris’s death, the fields are destroyed. In their place, red trees rapidly grow, creating a “tomb” for Embris. The villages around them collapse, and Sera knows that people have died or fled. A large tidal wave forms in the ocean, taller than all the trees. However, Phanos then appears. He uses his eather to destroy the wave. In the silence that follows, Sera is overwhelmed by “wrath.”

Sera walks along the road to Dalos. When she arrives at the castle, she is attacked by guards. Despite arrows striking her, she kills them all. She then walks through the halls of the castle, killing anyone who tries to stop her. Eventually, she comes to where the Chosen are kept. As she looks at them, hiding in fear, she thinks of two things. First, the Chosen are mistreated and abused by Kolis—something she had promised to stop. Second, Kolis is not in the castle. The thought sobers her, and she returns to the fields.

Looking around at the newly-formed trees, Sera realizes that she killed hundreds of innocent people in her wrath. She kneels in the soil and calls on the eather, then watches as people rise from the ground, brought back from death by her power. She then shadowsteps back to Lasania.

Overwhelmed with grief, Sera starts to pull down the bodies from the castle walls, starting with Ezra and her wife. As she begins to call on her eather to bring them back, Holland appears behind her. He urges Sera to stop, pointing out that with each body she brings back, another must die in its place. However, Sera ignores him, insisting that she needs to bring back her family. She is overwhelmed by rage at Holland, thinking how cold he is for not caring. Holland transforms into his Ancient form, sprouting wings and growing several feet. Sera tries to fight him, but instead, he grabs her and transports her to the villages outside the city. He shows her all the death she has caused, taking the innocent lives of the villagers in exchange for the dead that she brought back. Seeing it firsthand, Sera backs down.

A while later, Attes appears. He begs Sera to go to Lotho, where a new Primal must be chosen to replace Embris before more chaos ensues. To Attes’s relief, Sera agrees to go with him.