In a fae army camp, Emonie wakes in the prison cart. When she asks for water, a guard spits in her face. From her cage, she witnesses King Carrick berating two identical fae, furious that a single Orean defeated his soldiers and created a barrier at the bridge. Learning his forces in Highbell are also unresponsive, Carrick decides to handle the invasion of Orea himself. He orders the full “second wave” of his army to march to the bridge, while another contingent heads for the city of Lydia.

Emonie plans her escape. When her jailer approaches the cart, she uses her glamour magic to take on his appearance. She then grabs him and smashes his skull into the bars, holding him upright with one arm while fishing for his keyring with the other. After stealing his keys and freeing herself, she changes into his uniform. She is confronted by a superior officer, lies about the prisoner being moved, and is ordered to take a horse to King Carrick and join the army marching to Orea. Forced to comply, she is swept into the formation just as Carrick commands his army forward. Trapped, Emonie marches toward the bridge of Lemuria.

In Seventh Kingdom, Queen Malina and Dommik are jolted awake by the sound of her ice barriers at the bridge shattering. Rushing outside, they observe from beyond the castle walls as King Carrick breaks through her barriers with stone magic. Malina is shocked that the fae king is on the Orea side of the bridge. Before she and Dommik can react, they are ambushed by the fae twins who serve Carrick, Fassa and Friano. The twins knock Dommik unconscious and place magic-suppressing cuffs on both his and Malina’s wrists.

The twins drag them into Cauval’s ruins and bind them to a cracked, fallen pillar. King Carrick enters and mocks Malina’s weakness. He uses his immense power to transform the ruins into a new, solid stone castle, is magic raising the pillar upright so that they end up bound inside the newly constructed structure. He orders that Malina and Dommik be left to die there as his army invades Orea. After he leaves, the twins reveal a destructive truth: Malina’s willing participation and her royal Colier blood were the essential components that allowed them to repair the bridge. When Dommik awakens, Malina explains that her own willingness is what damned her world.

In the fae city of Lydia, more Vulmin arrive, emboldening the citizens. Wick addresses the tense crowd, explaining that King Carrick has betrayed them by launching an invasion of Orea. The crowd demands to hear from Auren, whom they call the Lyāri Ulvēre, or “golden one gone.” Auren delivers a powerful speech about her persecution by Carrick and calls for unity, winning over the onlookers.

As Auren and Slade prepare to question captive Oreans about Slade’s mother, Elore, a messenger arrives with news that the king’s Stone Sword soldiers are setting fire to Lydia. When the Stone Swords shout that Carrick wants Auren “burned alive,” the threat triggers Slade to manifest his dragon. Simultaneously, Auren unleashes her gold magic, trapping the soldiers and extinguishing the flames. She sends Slade and the dragon to deal with the forces outside the city, which he does by annihilating them with rot. When he returns, the dragon bows to Auren. The awestruck fae drop to their knees, hailing her as “Lyāri Nōhcra,” meaning “the golden one who rules” (472).

Uncomfortable with being hailed as a queen, Auren suggests she and Slade take the dragon for a flight to scout for more soldiers. As they fly over Annwyn, Slade explains that the dragon is a manifestation of his soul, which is now tied to hers through their bond. They see Glassworth Palace and the dungeon where Auren was held, and she reassures Slade that she has healed from the trauma.

They spot soldiers gathering at the palace gates and fly closer, assuming they are King Carrick’s reinforcements. As they approach, they are attacked by a magical projectile. Auren deflects it just as she realizes the soldiers are not Stone Swords but the guards of Slade’s father, Cull. Suddenly, the dragon’s wing bone snaps loudly, and they plummet toward the ground.

Emonie marches with the Stone Swords toward the bridge of Lemuria. Along the way, they rendezvous with the Gore, a horrifying faction of cannibalistic fae recruited by King Carrick. At the bridge, the army enters a thick fog that unexpectedly nullifies Emonie’s glamour magic, revealing her true form. A nearby soldier recognizes her as the prisoner, and in a panic, Emonie trips him, causing him to fall off the bridge with a piercing scream. She manages to hide in the chaos before her deception is discovered.

Upon exiting the fog into the snowy landscape of Orea, her magic returns. Horrified but determined, Emonie steals weapons from other soldiers and resolves to assassinate the king.

Emonie plans to steal the face of someone who can get close to King Carrick. Hoping to copy a random officer, she engineers a collision with a nearby figure, realizing too late that it is one of the fae twins. She copies his appearance with her glamour magic and approaches the building where Carrick is meeting his commanders. She is intercepted by the other twin, who mistakes her for his brother and speaks of their plans, but soon grows suspicious of her armor and silence. Just as the first twin returns, the second twin realizes she is an imposter.

Caught between the two, her glamour is magically stripped away. Exposed as one of the Vulmin, she is surrounded by Stone Swords and brutally beaten until she loses consciousness. She is then dragged inside the fortress and left for dead.

Emonie awakens inside the fortress, initially thinking she may have died, before a woman’s voice draws her back. She finds Queen Malina and Dommik bound on opposite sides of the same pillar. Despite her severe injuries, Emonie crawls to them and uses her stolen dagger to cut their bonds. As Malina frees Dommik, a terrifying roaring sound comes from the bridge, and she realizes the Gore have arrived.

Emonie frantically warns Malina that monstrous, flesh-eating fae are coming, and that they must flee immediately while the Stone Swords are distracted. Insisting she will only slow them down, Emonie urges them to go. Malina and Dommik escape, leaving the gravely wounded Emonie behind.

Queen Malina and Dommik flee, but Malina is wracked with guilt for abandoning the fae woman who saved them. After Dommik dispatches a Stone Sword soldier, Malina begs him to go back for the injured woman. He reluctantly agrees. The moment he is gone, Malina turns and sprints for the bridge of Lemuria.

The fae army spots her and gives chase. She reaches the bridge just as the Gore’s roars intensify, and the pursuing Stone Swords retreat in fear. Malina runs into the magical fog, alone and determined.

Commander Ryatt and the Orean army are ambushed mid-flight by a net of lightning that downs a quarter of their forces. On the ground, Judd is killed while cutting Ryatt free from his panicked timberwing. Enraged, Ryatt discovers their attackers are an army of living stone statues. The Orean forces are quickly overwhelmed, as their weapons and magic are useless against the stone soldiers.

Ryatt realizes the statues are controlled by the Stone King. He and Digby, another close friend and one of Fourth Kingdom’s warriors, get onto a timberwing and spot King Carrick on a high platform, directing the statues. Ryatt free-falls from above, slamming into Carrick and knocking them both off the platform. He pummels the stunned king with his fists until he is ripped away by a soldier, who is then trampled by Carrick’s own statues. Surrounded and penned in by the stone soldiers, Ryatt escapes by scaling their bodies. He then decapitates Carrick. The statues instantly crumble into lifeless rock. The victory is momentary, as the remaining army of living Stone Swords charges, intent on slaughtering the survivors.

Alone on the bridge, Queen Malina has a flashback to her childhood. She recalls her ailing mother telling her that she is destined to be the queen that Orea needs and now understands what she must do. The bridge’s existence is magically tied to her own life through the blood she willingly gave to remake it. She can destroy the connection permanently by sacrificing herself.

Dommik finds her and pleads with her. Malina explains that only her death can sever the link between their worlds and prevent history from repeating itself. Unwilling to let her die alone, Dommik helps steady her hand on her dagger. After they confess their love, Malina plunges the blade into her heart. Dommik then takes the dagger and kills himself. As their blood spills, the bridge of Lemuria violently explodes, severing the connection between the realms forever as their bodies fall into the void.

Ryatt, Lu, Osrik, and the few remaining Orean soldiers prepare for a final, hopeless stand against the charging Stone Sword army. Just as the fae are about to descend, a massive explosion from the bridge knocks everyone off their feet. They watch in horror as the bridge is obliterated and the very land it was connected to begins to collapse into the void, swallowing the stone fortress and thousands of fae soldiers.

The Oreans begin a frantic retreat. The ground crumbles away just behind them, stopping inches from where Osrik pulls Ryatt and a dangling Lu to safety. The survivors gather, grieving for Judd, whose body was lost in the collapse. Queen Kaila declares that with the bridge gone, Orea is finally safe. Ryatt, however, is devastated by the realization that its destruction means Slade, Auren, and his mother are now trapped in Annwyn forever.

At Glassworth Palace, Slade’s dragon crashes to the ground with a broken wing and leg. Slade’s father, Cull, emerges, revealing he orchestrated the attack. Magic-suppressing nets are dropped on both Slade and the dragon, neutralizing their powers. Cull’s guards hold Slade’s mother, Elore, bound and at sword point.

To torture Slade, Cull magically breaks Auren’s leg and arm. He reveals that a golden scale on Auren’s neck, a mark of her bond with Slade, proved to him that Slade had manifested a dragon. Cull’s soldiers hack into the dragon’s chest to expose its heart. When Auren melts down her own chest armor and sends it streaming at Cull like a spear, he yanks it from the air and stabs it into Elore’s stomach.

As Elore falls, Cull reveals his true plan: He manipulated Slade into manifesting a dragon so he could kill Slade and perform an ancient ritual to steal the dragon’s power for himself. Simultaneously, a soldier plunges a sword into the dragon’s heart, severing its connection to Slade, while Cull raises a dagger to strike Slade’s heart.

At the last second, Auren throws herself in front of Slade, taking the fatal blow. Enraged, Cull casts her aside, momentarily lifting the edge of the net imprisoning Slade. Slade exploits the opening, unleashing his rot power. He tears free and kills his father by gruesomely decomposing his body, simultaneously wiping out all of Cull’s soldiers.

The rage subsides, and Slade rushes to Auren. He cradles her as she dies in a pool of golden blood. He tells her a secret: When he was 15 years old, his mother, a seer, spoke her last coherent word to him, “Goldfinch,” in a voice not entirely her own, as if delivering a prophecy. He confesses he knew Auren was his fated mate, his pāyur, from the moment he met her. Auren whispers that she loves him before her heart stops. As she dies, Elore speaks for the first time in two decades, repeating the single, prophetic word: “Goldfinch.”