Before dawn, Gabriel sees Astrid on the opposite bank. She warns him that if she can find him, so can Danton Voss. Back in the cave, Gabriel affirms to Dior that he desperately needs sanctus. He dismisses returning to San Guillaume as too dangerous. Instead, they will go to the Night Market in a city called Redwatch. They begin their journey, Gabriel fighting the violent urge to feed on Dior.

The pair travels for three days while freezing and starving. Gabriel’s withdrawal only intensifies. Dior asks about Ashdrinker’s origins. Gabriel explains the sword was forged from a fallen star but has changed since breaking.

They signal a trade barge, and the captain welcomes them aboard after Gabriel proves he is a silversaint. Dior notices a refugee with a gangrenous leg. Gabriel warns her not to use her healing powers, fearing accusations of witchcraft. Dior pickpockets a flask of liquor and gives it to Gabriel, who drinks it and collapses.

They reach Redwatch, where Gabriel notices the man with the leg injury has been miraculously healed and that Dior has a fresh bandage on her hand. They navigate to the hidden Night Market and a shop called The Price, run by an ancient woman, Madame Souris. Gabriel asks to buy vampire blood. Souris agrees but demands payment in blood—a phial of Dior’s. Gabriel refuses.

Outside, Gabriel explains the danger if Dior’s abilities become known. They rent a room as Gabriel’s withdrawal becomes agony. Dior leaves for alcohol, returns, and throws it at him. He drinks himself unconscious.

The next morning, Dior presents Gabriel with blood and the supplies needed to distill it, revealing that she stole them from The Price. Relieved, Gabriel begins preparing sanctus. While they wait, they apologize to one another for prior behavior. However, when Gabriel reveals his plan to leave Dior in Redwatch with an escort, Dior is visibly hurt.

The door smashes open. A dozen soldiers and two inquisitors enter—the same women from Dhahaeth. The refugee girls whose father Dior healed stand in the doorway; they betrayed Dior to the Inquisition.

Gabriel awakens naked and hanging from a meat hook. Inquisitor Sœur Talya d’Naél dismisses his silversaint status, calling him an excommunicated apostate. She tortures him with a clawed gauntlet, demanding that he sign a false confession implicating Dior, Chloe, and Rafa in the murder of a bishop and himself as part of their “coven.” When he refuses, she flogs his back with a metal-spurred whip.

A young sister interrupts with a message. Talya’s enforcer opens the door and is immediately stabbed. Dior enters holding Ashdrinker, quipping, “[T]he witch is loose” (600).

Guided by Ashdrinker, Dior fights Talya. When Talya moves within reach of the chained Gabriel, he wraps his legs around her throat. Dior fatally stabs her and then immediately gives Gabriel sanctus, easing his withdrawal. After freeing him, Dior reveals that she used hidden lockpicks to escape her own bonds. They flee as the priory alarm bells ring, stealing nuns’ habits as disguises and sneaking past the city guard. Gabriel scales down the outer wall with Dior on his back. They procure a rowboat and escape across the Volta.

That night, they camp in a hollow oak. Dior admits that it was her fault they were captured and that she feels everyone betrays her. Gabriel apologizes for planning to abandon her. Dior tells her full story: She was in a criminal gang in Lashaame. Her lover, Toff, had previously been sexually abused by the Bishop Merciér; when she and Dior attempted to rob him, Toff lost control of herself and stabbed him. He stabbed Toff in return, and when Dior tried to save her, her healing power manifested for the first time. The terrified gang, including Toff, turned her over to the Inquisition, blaming her for the murder. She was placed in a gibbet, which Chloe and the others eventually rescued her from.

Gabriel comforts Dior, vowing not to leave her. He gives her fine clothes he stole, including a grey gentleman’s frockcoat. Dior admires it, and Gabriel declares it “magik”—the term Dior had used for her prior coat.

A noise startles Dior and Gabriel, but it proves to be Jezebel, thought lost at San Guillaume. They are overjoyed.

Two weeks later, Dior, Gabriel, and Jezebel reach the frozen Ròdaerr River. Gabriel realizes that with the rivers frozen, Danton Voss can cross the Volta and hunt them. He proposes a new destination: Château Aveléne. As they cross the ice, three wretched appear. Panicked, Jezebel bolts, shattering the ice and plunging Gabriel into the freezing water. The current traps him under the ice sheet. As he is about to drown, Dior stabs downward through the ice with Ashdrinker, impaling his stomach to stop him. The strike weakens the ice, allowing Gabriel to punch through, and Dior hauls him out. Jezebel survives and returns. They rename her Fortuna.

Ten days into their journey through the blighted northern forest, the corruption is far worse. They pass a tree hung with corpses. That night, Dior asks if Gabriel believes the prophecy about her. They discuss a potential connection between Esan, daughter of Michon, and the Esani vampire line; the words mean “faith” and “faithless,” respectively. As Dior falls asleep, Gabriel sees a pale shape watching from the darkness and follows it into the woods.

The shape is Astrid. She confronts Gabriel violently, begging to feed. She accuses him of forgetting his true purpose—their family—and caring too much for Dior.

Awakened by his shouting, Dior finds him; Astrid has disappeared. They argue fiercely, but then Gabriel hears giant footsteps, and a horde of monstrous, blighted creatures emerges. They flee on Fortuna, who gallops off a cliff before Gabriel can stop her. As they fall, Gabriel shields Dior. They land in a snowdrift. Gabriel’s leg is horribly broken, and Fortuna is dead. Gabriel resets his own femur. He then eviscerates Fortuna’s corpse and shoves the unconscious Dior inside the warm body cavity for shelter.

At dawn, Gabriel recognizes that he is in his homeland. He and Dior continue their journey, and four days later, they see Château Aveléne; Gabriel explains that this was where he and Astrid married, as well as where their daughter was born. They are challenged by the guard, but when Gabriel gives his name, she fetches the capitaine. The drawbridge lowers, and Baptiste Sa-Ismael and Aaron de Coste emerge. Gabriel introduces Dior, telling them they need help.

After Gabriel recounts his story to Aaron and Baptiste, he confirms Dior’s powers and warns that Danton is pursuing them. He outlines his plan to kill Danton before escorting Dior to San Michon. Aaron and Baptiste vow to fight for his cause. Baptiste takes them on a tour of the château’s formidable defenses. Gabriel realizes they’ve created a true fortress and allows himself to believe he and Dior have found safety.

A feast fills the hall. Dior sits with Gabriel, and their banter leads him to reminisce about Astrid and Patience. Gabriel offers to teach Dior to dance, promising to train her with the sword, which he says is similar. As the festivities continue, a “shadowed melancholy” overtakes Gabriel. He escapes to the chapel, where he recalls his wedding day. Aaron joins him. Gabriel questions how Aaron maintains his faith after being cast out of San Michon. Aaron argues that men, not God, wronged him. Enraged, Gabriel calls God a “sadist.” Aaron, sensing that there is more to Gabriel’s anger, asks where Astrid and Patience are; Gabriel says that they’re at home but only grows more furious as he vows to kill Fabién Voss. Alarm bells ring.

Gabriel and Aaron rush to the battlements. Danton stands alone below and demands Dior. When Aaron refuses, Danton reveals his army: a dozen highbloods and hundreds of wretched. He threatens to slaughter everyone in Aveléne unless they surrender Dior. He presents a chained, newly turned wretched—Père Rafa—and then leaves, giving them one night to decide. At Dior’s plea, Gabriel shoots Rafa with a flaming arrow. The people of Aveléne stare at Dior, weighing her life against their own.

In Gabriel’s bedchamber, Dior insists on leaving. Gabriel argues that staying is the only option. He sees Astrid outside. Dior reveals that she knows his quest is driven by loss. Dior confronts him with the truth she’s deduced from his sleep-talking: Astrid and Patience are dead. Overwhelmed by grief and rage, Gabriel hurls Ashdrinker through the window and collapses. Dior kneels beside him, offering herself as a shoulder to cry on. Gabriel decides to tell her about the “Worst Day.”

The narrative flashes back a year to Gabriel, Astrid, and Patience’s lighthouse home. Eleven-year-old Patience is outside at dusk when a sudden silence alerts Gabriel to danger. Three knocks sound at the door. Astrid opens it to find Fabién Voss holding Patience and threatening to kill her unless Gabriel invites him inside. Gabriel complies. Voss sits at their table; he needles Gabriel about the pain of losing a daughter and demands that he confess his greatest sin, which Voss eventually declares is sloth—for abandoning the war. Voss states that he keeps his vows, unlike Gabriel, and cuts Patience’s throat.

In a rage, Gabriel attacks Voss with Ashdrinker, but the blade shatters on the ancien’s skin. Astrid attacks with a knife, but Voss grabs them both and hurls Gabriel through the floor into the cellar. As he loses consciousness, he hears Voss promise to “await [him] in the east” (676).

Gabriel awakens trapped under rubble. Beside him is Astrid’s body—transformed into a vampire. Realizing that this is not his wife, he stabs her with Ashdrinker. Overcome with grief, his mind turns to vengeance. To gain strength, he drinks Astrid’s blood one last time, vowing never again to drink blood directly. He escapes, sets fire to the ruins, and begins his new path.

In the present, a weeping Dior holds Gabriel’s hand. He explains why Dior is his hill to die on—she is his all, just as his family was. He tells Dior she must stay at Aveléne. He spends the night planning with Aaron and Baptiste. As morning comes, Aaron speaks of divine providence, feeling that his suffering led him to this moment to help save the empire. However, when Gabriel goes to Dior’s room, he finds that she has escaped.

Gabriel learns that Dior has climbed from her window and stolen a dog sled to continue to San Michon alone. However, he tells Aaron and Baptiste that he can track her using a phial of his blood he secretly placed in her coat. He demands a sled and dogs to pursue her but insists that Aaron and Baptiste remain behind.

Gabriel races down the frozen river, spotting Dior’s trail and Danton’s pursuing horde. As the vampires close in, Dior lights fuses on barrels of black ignis she stole from Aveléne. The explosion kills over 100 vampires and shatters the ice, but Danton and most of his highbloods survive and continue pursuit. Gabriel throws silverbombs, and Dior fights her way to his side. They stand back-to-back, surrounded. Danton offers Gabriel a deal: surrender Dior and live to continue his quest for vengeance. Gabriel refuses, and as he realizes he has faith in his love for Dior, his aegis ignites with crimson light.

Liathe appears, declaring Dior is hers, and begins fighting the highbloods. Meanwhile, Gabriel duels Danton, but his blade gets stuck. Danton then disarms him. As Danton prepares to kill Gabriel, Dior retrieves Ashdrinker, coats it in her blood, and stabs Danton in the back. The combination of starsteel and Grail blood causes him to burst into flame.

Liathe battles the remaining highbloods with sanguimancy. Four silversaints charge in, their aegises glowing. Already wounded and losing, the highbloods flee. Outnumbered, Liathe escapes as a swarm of moths.

Gabriel recognizes three of the silversaints: de Séverin, Finch, and Greyhand, who he learns is now abbot. Greyhand reveals that his hawk has been tracking them. Chloe Sauvage then appears, having survived her fall. She and Dior have a tearful reunion. Gabriel confirms Dior’s blood can kill highbloods. Though tension exists between Gabriel and Greyhand, who voted to expel him, Gabriel insists on accompanying Dior to San Michon, and Greyhand agrees he can stay one night.

At San Michon, Chloe takes Dior to prepare for a rite at dawn to end daysdeath. In the Cathedral, Greyhand confronts Gabriel. They argue bitterly about the justice of Gabriel’s expulsion, and Greyhand inadvertently reveals that the rite Chloe discovered requires Dior’s death. Enraged, Gabriel attacks Greyhand and flees to warn Dior. He is intercepted by silversaints and, though he fights fiercely, is wounded and overwhelmed. Greyhand orders a ritual execution. They take a barely conscious Gabriel to Heaven’s Bridge and cut his throat.

Greyhand pushes Gabriel from the bridge. As Gabriel tumbles, anticipating reunion with his family, he feels moth wings against his cheek.

Gabriel awakens, tasting powerful ancien blood healing his wound. Liathe kneels above him. Enraged that she broke his vow, he argues with her, only growing angrier as she taunts that he was “raised better.” She questions whether he has forgotten her and reveals her mutilated face, which he now recognizes: She is Celene. She explains that it was not her body in the cathedral. She was with a boy at the time of the Lorson massacre, and Laure found and turned her after mauling her face. Gabriel doesn’t understand Celene’s command of sanguimancy, as Laure was of the Voss bloodline, but Celene simply explains that she has spent 15 years embracing her vampiric nature. She says that she hates Gabriel, blaming him for what happened to her, but saved him because she needs him to retrieve Dior, as she can’t enter San Michon. She warns that if Dior’s blood is spilled, “all will be undone” (721).

Gabriel scales the pillar, equips himself in the Armory, and storms the Cathedral as Chloe begins the sacrificial rite over a bound Dior. Gabriel cuts down the charging silversaints, including de Séverin and Finch. He duels Greyhand, and as Chloe prepares to stab Dior, Gabriel forces himself forward on Greyhand’s blade, seizes his throat, and uses sanguimancy to turn him to ash. He reaches the altar and drives his sword through Chloe’s chest. He frees Dior, and they embrace. To ensure the ritual can never be repeated, Gabriel burns the ancient book that Chloe found it in. He then invites Dior to meet his sister.

Jean-François packs his chronicle, noting that they must stop now that it is morning. As Jean-François rises, Gabriel asks for more sanctus. As the vampire produces it, Gabriel seizes the vampire, using sanguimancy to burn him. Meline rushes in and stabs Gabriel as Jean-François’s body dissolves into rats that flee. Meline grabs the chronicle and escapes. Wounded, Gabriel smokes the stolen sanctus. Jean-François appears at the window, filled with rage. Gabriel smiles and bids him farewell until tomorrow.

The narrator describes Gabriel as the Forever King’s murderer, “still waiting to die” (734). He stands at his cell window, smoking and watching the sun rise. He looks at his blood-stained hands—“[h]ands that had slain things monstrous. Hands that had saved an empire. Hands that had allowed the last hope for his species to slip and shatter like glass upon the stone” (734). The red horizon reminds him of the last time he kissed his wife. He runs his thumb across the tattoo on his knuckles and says, “Patience.”