Gabriel de León wakes badly injured in a mountain cave after his fall from the Cairnhaem bridge, tended by the duskdancer Phoebe á Dúnnsair. She inexplicably wears an elaborate ballgown Dior had packed in his saddlebags. Guilt-stricken over Dior’s capture by Kiara, Gabriel burns to pursue her. He discovers his silver aegis tattoos poison Phoebe, searing her on contact. Phoebe reveals her eyes have turned permanently gold—a mark of the “Time of Blighted Blood,” a period in which duskdancers shapeshift faster and more often than usual, which impacts them physically and emotionally.

Gabriel confesses he struck Dior in anger before the battle, an act he bitterly regrets. Through their blood bond, he senses Dior alive, borne away on horseback. Phoebe, who recovered Ashdrinker from the battlefield, argues against reckless pursuit and shows him a tattooed troth ring marking her own loss. Tenuously allied, they agree to seek supplies and a horse in Redwatch.

After a fortnight of travel, Gabriel and Phoebe arrive at the fortified city of Redwatch, which is besieged by a massive refugee camp of Ossians fleeing the Dyvok advance. The city gates are closed to outsiders. To gain entry, Gabriel devises a ruse, pretending to be a silversaint named Frère Philippe Montfort who has captured a dangerous duskdancer. The city guard, terrified by Phoebe’s apparent unholy nature, allows them inside.

They make their way to a tavern called The White Rabbit, where Gabriel struggles with his ever-present thirst for blood, heightened by the crowded city. He examines a golden vial that he saw Kiara drink from, realizing it contains soured blood. Phoebe questions him about the legendary bliss of the vampire’s “Kiss,” but Gabriel, irritated, states he is not a vampire and no longer drinks from the vein. Their conversation is interrupted by the tavern’s proprietor, a stout, scar-faced woman who recognizes Gabriel.

The tavern owner is Sœur Fionna, a former swordsister of Gabriel’s who fought alongside him during the Ossian campaigns. As they share a drink, Fionna gives Gabriel grim news: The Dyvok have conquered the fortress of Dún Maergenn, and Nikita “the Blackheart” Dyvok killed the legendary warrior Niamh á Maergenn and three of her daughters. This confirms Gabriel’s fears that the Dyvok have acquired a dangerous new power.

Fionna agrees to help secure them a horse and supplies. As musicians play, Phoebe insists Gabriel dance with her. He reluctantly agrees, but during the dance, the proximity and sight of the pulse in Phoebe’s throat overwhelms him with bloodlust. Terrified by his own thirst, he abruptly ends the dance and flees to his room.

Later that night, Gabriel has a vivid, erotic dream about his deceased wife, Astrid. He is jolted awake to realize the dream was real, but that it was Phoebe performing the intimate act. In his sleepy state, he had mistaken her for Astrid. Mortified and ashamed, Gabriel angrily confronts her, revealing his mistake. A humiliated Phoebe argues that it isn’t a betrayal for him to find a “sliver of joy” without his late wife (411). When Gabriel tries to apologize, he accidentally burns her again with his silver tattoos. Enraged and hurt, Phoebe declares their alliance a mistake, states she should have left him in the snow, and storms out of his room.

In the frame narrative, Gabriel explains to the vampire historian Jean-François that Phoebe abandoned him that night. The next morning, Fionna provides Gabriel with a warhorse named Argent and supplies. After a sad farewell, Gabriel rides south alone, resuming his pursuit of Dior. He soon realizes he is being tracked by a mousehawk, a small bird of prey. On the third night of his journey, he is ambushed by several silversaints. The force includes his former apprentice, Lachlan á Craeg, and another silversaint, Xavier Pérez. Despite his preparations, Gabriel is shot with silver ammunition, outnumbered, and ultimately beaten unconscious by a furious Lachlan.

Gabriel awakens as a prisoner, shackled and slung over his horse. His captors include Lachlan, Xavier, a young silversaint named Arash “Robin” Sa-Pashin, and the inquisitor Valya d’Naél. They are transporting him to the capital city of Augustin to be executed for the murders at San Michon. Lachlan is filled with righteous rage, believing Gabriel has betrayed the Order by killing their brethren to protect a witch. Gabriel’s attempts to explain that Dior is a “miracle walking” who can end the curse of daysdeath are ignored.

He warns them not to travel through the cursed Forest of Sorrows, but Valya ignores him. As they journey through the blighted woods, the company is plagued by a series of terrifying, seemingly supernatural events. Men disappear, leaving behind small twig effigies, and unseen forces torment the group, creating an atmosphere of intense fear and paranoia.

The unseen presence in the forest escalates its psychological attack, filling the night with horrific screams. Lachlan, Xavier, and most of the soldiers venture into the woods to investigate, leaving Gabriel guarded by Robin and a soldier named Thibault. Gabriel tries to convince Robin of the truth about Dior and Abbot Greyhand’s villainy, but the young silversaint remains hostile. Just as Robin aims his pistol at Gabriel, Phoebe attacks the camp, having tracked the group through the forest. In the chaos, Gabriel frees himself. He convinces Phoebe to spare Robin’s life, and together they escape on horseback, leaving their pursuers behind in the haunted woods.

Sheltering from a severe storm in a ruined keep called Ravenspire, Gabriel finds he has lost his psychic connection to Dior. He despairs that they can no longer catch her before she reaches the nigh-impregnable fortress of Dún Maergenn. He proposes a desperate new plan: travel to the Highlands and ask the duskdancer clans for an army at their Wintermoot gathering. Phoebe warns that as a silversaint, he will be killed on sight.

As they talk, Phoebe shares the story of her late husband, Connor, and their unborn child, explaining the grief that led her to seek the prophesied Godling. The conversation turns to Gabriel’s own loss, and the shared vulnerability leads to a passionate sexual encounter. Overwhelmed by his long-suppressed thirst, Gabriel feels his control slipping, but their tryst is cut short by the sound of crunching glass outside.

Gabriel and Phoebe are interrupted by the arrival of the silversaints. Robin bursts in and shoots at Gabriel, igniting a brutal fight. Gabriel battles Xavier while Phoebe takes on Robin. Lachlan, having climbed the tower wall, surprises them and shoots Phoebe twice with silvershot, gravely wounding her. Consumed by a “beast” of rage, Gabriel kills Xavier and attacks Lachlan. Their fight sends them tumbling from the tower.

Below, Gabriel overpowers his former apprentice but spares him, finally telling Lachlan the truth: Dior is the Holy Grail. He rushes back to Phoebe, who is dying from the silver poison still lodged in her body. Recalling that Phoebe’s aunt, Cinna, is a renowned healer, Gabriel resolves to take her to the Highlands. He escapes with the unconscious Phoebe, warning Lachlan not to follow.

For six days, Gabriel rides toward the Highlands, using his knowledge of herbs to keep Phoebe alive. As he enters the deeply blighted Daesweald, a dark, freezing forest region, his sword Ashdrinker speaks to him, urging him to let go of the grief for his dead wife. He is soon stalked by a group of owls and then attacked by a monstrous, blighted bear. In the ensuing fight, Gabriel is mauled and severely wounded but manages to break the bear’s jaw with his bare hands.

He discovers the bear is a duskdancer in her animal form and is immediately surrounded by a party of female Highland warriors called Moonsmaidens. The bear-shifter, a woman named Brynne á Killaech, confronts him. To save himself and Phoebe, Gabriel declares that the Godling has been found and announces his full, infamous name.

The Moonsmaidens escort Gabriel and the dying Phoebe to the secret site of the Wintermoot: a hidden, unblighted valley called Ma’dair Craeth. The area is protected by priestesses, and Gabriel is forced to surrender Ashdrinker. Phoebe is taken to be healed while Gabriel is confined to a tower.

The next day, a recovered Phoebe visits him with her aunt, Cinna á Dúnnsair, and her cousin Breandan. Cinna, a powerful seer, confirms she will allow them to present their case to the moot. However, she reveals a critical obstacle: Two years prior, the Highland clans, ravaged by internal conflict and the Blight, forged a truce with the vampire Lilidh Dyvok. In exchange for peace, they swore never to venture into the Lowlands again. Aiding Dior would mean breaking this oath and declaring war on the Dead.

The Wintermoot convenes in the Elderhold, the duskdancer stronghold, where Gabriel observes the deep-seated rivalries among the duskdancer clans—the wolf-kin (velfuil), bear-kin (úrfuil), and lion-kin (leófuil). Phoebe addresses the assembly, announcing that the prophesied Godling has been found in the Lowlands. Gabriel testifies to Dior’s divine power, but his presence as a silversaint incites hostility. The clans erupt in argument, torn between their ancient feuds, the prophecy, and their non-aggression pact with the Dyvok. Keylan á Meyrick, the powerful leader of the lion-kin, challenges Phoebe to reveal the Godling’s location. Phoebe declares that Dior is a captive of the Dyvok, and they must wage war to free her, sending the hall into chaos.

The day’s debate ends in a stalemate. Phoebe informs Gabriel that the wolf and bear clans refuse to break the truce with the Dyvok. While Keylan and the lion-kin are sympathetic, they will not act without the other clans, fearing betrayal. Feeling hopeless and drawn together by their desperate situation, Gabriel and Phoebe give in to their passion. During their encounter, Gabriel loses control to his bloodlust and drinks deeply from Phoebe, succumbing to the vampire’s Kiss. Their intimacy is interrupted when the warrior Brynne bursts through the door.

Brynne bursts in, having mistaken Phoebe’s scream of ecstasy for one of pain. Seeing Gabriel with fangs bloodied at Phoebe’s throat, she furiously attacks him, throwing him from the tower. He lands on the roof of the Elderhold below. Empowered by Phoebe’s blood, Gabriel discovers he possesses supernatural strength. He fights off Brynne, and their brawl crashes into the main hall. He effortlessly defeats dozens of warriors, including Keylan, and shatters a giant stone statue in the process.

Phoebe appears and halts the fight. She reveals the source of Gabriel’s newfound power by presenting the golden vial of duskdancer blood. She explains that this is the secret to the Dyvoks’ recent success: They have been hunting duskdancers and harvesting their blighted blood, violating the truce. This revelation of the Dyvoks’ ultimate betrayal unites the clans. With fire in her eyes, Phoebe declares war.

In his cell in Sul Adair, a drunk Gabriel de León tells his historian, Jean-François Chastain, that he never hoped Dior Lachance was alive—he had faith. Chastain expresses envy for Gabriel’s mortal capacity to love and feel, noting that for immortals, there is only loss. As Chastain prepares to leave for the night, Gabriel asks for more to drink. Chastain departs, ordering his majordomo, Meline, to bring Gabriel another bottle.

Accompanied by his thralls and guards, Chastain descends to a lower-level cell where Celene Castia is imprisoned across a small river. Celene warns him against leaving Gabriel alone with Meline. Dismissing her concern, Chastain asks Celene to continue her story. After he throws her a bottle of blood, she agrees, saying, “Let us end.”