The company camps in the gully. Experiencing sanctus withdrawal, Gabriel prepares a fresh supply. As Chloe explains that silversaints are palebloods, Gabriel smokes, his eyes turning crimson. He demands that Chloe explain why the inquisitors hunt them, but Saoirse stops her. When Rafa begins saying grace, Gabriel angrily forbids him from praying for him, declaring that God doesn’t care. He takes first watch, leaving Dior to mutter that Chloe’s description of Gabriel as a “faithful warrior” is nonsense.

Near dawn, Gabriel finds Dior missing and discovers him kissing Saoirse. Gabriel confronts Saoirse about their age difference and reveals that he knows she lied about her clan; she is a pagan from Clan Dúnnsair. He questions why a pagan would risk her life for a Christian relic. Saoirse deflects, claiming that it is not her fate to die. She calls Gabriel one of the “monsters who wear the skins of men” and tells him to mind his own business (310).

Chloe and Rafa argue over their route. Asked for his opinion, Gabriel simply states that they need one leader. Chloe asserts control, declaring San Michon their destination.

Five days later, they encounter a long line of refugees. A man named Lachlunn á Cuinn recognizes Gabriel from a past battle. He warns that the north is overrun with wretched and reveals that he named his son, Gabrael, after him, but the boy has died, as has his mother. Afterward, Gabriel questions Chloe’s quest, but she holds firm.

A blizzard strikes. The group shelters in the abandoned town of Winfael and takes refuge in a pub. Gabriel scouts the town and follows Dior into the ruined cathedral. He smokes sanctus and questions how a “gutter-born thief” knows the Grail’s location, threatening him not to hurt Chloe.

Chloe interrupts, saying that Saoirse and Phoebe bear news of trouble. She asks Gabriel for his trust and faith, hinting at secrets concerning Dior. Gabriel responds that faith is difficult to muster.

Saoirse reports that around a dozen wretched are heading for Winfael. Gabriel formulates a defense plan. They fortify positions and prepare holy water and fire arrows. As they do, Gabriel and Rafa debate prayer again. Gabriel argues that if God has a divine plan, prayer is pointless. Rafa counters with scripture, but Gabriel dismisses it. Suddenly, Saoirse returns with news that Phoebe, scouting, spotted at least 50 wretched—not 12. Gabriel sarcastically asks Rafa if he is sure he doesn’t “want to pray for angels” (333).

At least 50 wretched attack. The group fights from the walls, but their weapons soon run low. When wretched swarm Dior, Rafa, and Chloe use the holy light of the wheel and sevenstar to try to save him. However, the creatures overwhelm Bellamy and then Rafa, grievously wounding them.

The wretched biting Dior suddenly glow and explode into flame. The survivors kill the remaining attackers. Gabriel finds Rafa and Bellamy dying. Dior shoves Gabriel aside, smears his own blood on his hands, and presses them to Rafa’s torn throat, instantly healing it. He does the same for Bellamy. The healed Rafa looks at Dior, whom he suggests is the living answer to Gabriel’s earlier mockery about God.

Gabriel demands an explanation. Chloe reveals that the falling star marked Dior’s birth, and Bellamy and Rafa explain the Aavsenct Heresy: Michon did not catch the Redeemer’s blood in a cup, but in her womb. She gave birth to a woman named Esan, whose descendants were hunted as heretics. Dior is the last known scion of Esan’s line and the living Holy Grail. The prophecy speaks of “holy light” from a “holy cup” and “mere man […] end[ing] this endless night” (345). Gabriel is speechless.

Gabriel wakes to a beautiful vampire woman outside his window. She urges him to let her in. Overcome with desire, he opens the window and invites her inside.

Four days later, the group resumes their journey through Ossway, once a matriarchal region but now largely abandoned due to attacks by vampires. Gabriel attempts to give Dior a vial of his blood so that he can find him if they’re separated, but Dior rebuffs him. While camping, the group discusses sacrificing romantic love to serve God. Gabriel questions God’s fairness in giving humans forbidden desires. The conversation ends abruptly when Saoirse returns from scouting, announcing Danton is only miles behind. Wrestling with the possibility that Dior could end daysdeath, Gabriel decides not to use him as bait for Danton and announces that they must flee.

The company flees Danton, who pursues in a coach driven by the now enslaved serving girl from Dhahaeth. Gabriel crashes Danton’s coach, but the remaining thralls continue their pursuit. They reach a destroyed bridge over the Dilaenn River. Gabriel orders them to jump while he holds off the thralls.

Following the others into the water, Gabriel hears Chloe scream that Dior cannot swim. Gabriel dives and rescues the drowning boy. Danton stalks them from the opposite bank, offering Dior a crown and power, which the boy rejects. Gabriel and Dior reach the shore, but Gabriel has lost his bandolier with all his ammunition and sanctus.

The survivors shelter in a cave. Rafa insists that they alter course to the closer monastery of San Guillaume to resupply, but Saoirse warns the path there leads through the corrupted Forest of Sorrows. Gabriel proposes letting Dior decide, and he chooses San Guillaume.

As Gabriel begins to experience sanctus withdrawal, they enter the forest, which is dead and overgrown with a fungus called the Blight. They encounter a stag corrupted by the Blight, which Phoebe kills. Saoirse explains that she is under a magical oath to end the Blight, reciting a prophecy implying Dior is the key. After a fortnight, they finally emerge and see San Guillaume.

Approaching San Guillaume, Gabriel smells death. They find a deserted refugee camp and crucified monks on the walls. Inside, slaughtered monks lie arranged in the symbol of the Inquisition. Rafa collapses in grief as Dior blames himself for being the cause of the massacre. Gabriel finds the library burned. Bellamy plays a magical song on his lute that expresses their collective grief, bringing everyone to tears. He names the tune “Sorrow and Solace.” Gabriel organizes the group to burn the dead and search for supplies.

While burning bodies, Saoirse senses the masked highblood approaching; in the better light of day, Gabriel can see that her sword is made of her own blood. The vampire, Liathe, warns them that Danton’s army is hours away and claims that she has been protecting the group from the Inquisition. She then steps over the monastery threshold unimpeded, shocking Gabriel, who wonders if her powers flow from “sanguimancy.” A fight breaks out, and only Ashdrinker proves capable of blocking the blood sword, which otherwise simply “flow[s] around [the weapons] like liquid and re-form[s] on the other side” (385). Gabriel shatters her mask, revealing that most of her lower face is stripped of flesh. Liathe overpowers Gabriel, but he impales her with Ashdrinker, and Rafa’s glowing wheel then forces her to retreat.

Gabriel explains that the massacre “profaned” the monastery, making it no longer holy ground. Trapped as Danton’s army approaches, Gabriel rallies the group to make a stand. Desperate for him to be at full strength, Chloe offers her blood. He furiously rejects the offer.

The group prepares firetraps and develops a plan to retreat to the cathedral. Gabriel lies to everyone except Dior about which cathedral entrance is trapped, anticipating that Danton will read their minds.

That evening, over 100 wretched attack. Gabriel smokes the last of his sanctus but doesn’t bother stripping to his waist, as Bellamy recommends; Saoirse notes that Gabriel’s aegis wouldn’t glow because he has no faith. As the fighting begins, Danton outflanks them, directing wretcheds to approach the monastery from the cliffs and then appearing himself. As wretched attack Bellamy, Gabriel duels Danton but is overpowered and impaled. Saoirse saves him, but Danton, declaring himself a Prince of Forever, tears her throat out before killing Phoebe, who leaped at him to avenge her companion. The survivors retreat. Falling for the deception, Danton sends his forces down the trapped corridor, and Dior incinerates them. Danton himself, however, taunts Rafa until the priest’s faith falters and his holy wheel dies; Danton kills him. Bellamy, dragged to the cathedral by Chloe, has also died of his wounds.

Chloe, Gabriel, and Dior flee to the battlements and jump, but Danton catches Dior’s coat. Gabriel is holding each of his companions by the hand, so Chloe sacrifices herself, releasing Gabriel’s grip so that he can save Dior. Gabriel rips Dior’s coat off, freeing him as they fall into the river.

Gabriel survives the fall and finds the unconscious Dior, pulling him to shore. He removes his greatcoat to cover the freezing boy. With Dior’s coat and shirt gone, Gabriel sees chest binding and discovers that Dior has breasts. Dior awakens to find her secret discovered.

In the present, Jean-François calls his thrall Meline for more ink. She enters, and Gabriel feels intense desire for her. Jean-François muses on the revelations and says it is time for Gabriel to return his story to San Michon. Gabriel reflects on the pain of memory, saying he remembers everything.