For days, Sylina works alongside the vampire healer, using her magic to ease patients’ pain. With every death she witnesses, her rage intensifies. Eventually, the healer tells her there is no one left to help. Sylina returns to her tent but cannot bear the solitude. Near dawn, she walks to the beach and finds Atrius standing by the shore, staring at the horizon. He warns her away, confessing his suppressed hunger, but she steps closer. She asks about Erekkus. Atrius says he has gone to grieve alone after losing his 10-year-old daughter in the attack.

Atrius again tells Sylina to leave, but she places her hand over the curse in his chest and tells him she recognizes his darkness because it mirrors her own. She recalls how she and her brother, Naro, survived the Pythora Wars by stealing food and fleeing from guards. Sylina admits that she has lost faith in Acaeja and asks about his own broken promises from a goddess.

Atrius reveals his past. He once followed an idealist prince of the House of Blood. Together, they spent decades on a quest to earn the goddess Nyaxia’s favor, committing legendary deeds in her name. When they finally returned to her and asked for salvation, she called them fools and gave Atrius two “gifts,” his prince’s severed head and the curse in his chest. She commanded him to present the head to the vampire king and queen and to conquer a new kingdom in her name. The king and queen exiled Atrius’s people, so he made a pact with Nyaxia to conquer Glaea to save them, offering his own life as collateral. In the present, he laments that his quest has led to the slaughter of the innocents he was trying to protect. He asks Sylina to call him a fool or tell him to stop, but she refuses both. He whispers that she makes him ravenous, and they kiss.

Sylina and Atrius engage in a passionate, fierce kiss on the beach. They move behind a cluster of rocks for privacy. Sylina tears open his shirt and touches his scarred chest, reveling in the intense sensory connection her abilities create. Atrius rips off her nightdress, and they have sex. At her urging, he bites her inner thigh and drinks her blood, and his venom heightens her pleasure. She feels an unprecedented closeness to him through the threads, and he calls her Vivi. Afterward, their embrace shifts from primal to tender. When Sylina panics at the approaching sunrise, Atrius kisses her gently, puts his shirt on her, and carries her back to his tent.

Sylina and Atrius sleep soundly together. She dreams of her younger self being led into the Salt Keep by the Sightmother, who calls the loss of her sight a small sacrifice for a family and a goddess’s love. Upon waking, Sylina feels guilty for breaking her vows to the Arachessen. The sight of her pack in Atrius’s tent makes her realize he carried it from Veratas himself and that he considers her one of his people. She retrieves the blessed dagger meant to kill him. Looking at his sleeping form, she acknowledges that her past self would have killed him in this moment, but she cannot even consider it now. She sheathes the weapon.

Atrius wakes and beckons her back. He expresses doubt about his war, fearing he has led his people to their deaths in a foreign land. Sylina argues he has given them a second chance and vows to make the Pythora King pay. Atrius says they lack the numbers to take the city of Karisine by force. Thinking of Tarkan’s death, she comments, “It’s a shame that all problems can’t be solved by cutting off a head” (243). This gives Atrius the idea to go directly to the Pythora King. Using a map, Sylina traces a route through the treacherous Zadra Pass to the king’s palace. Though impassable for humans, Atrius’s vampires might cross it, and Sylina’s ability to navigate without sight makes the journey feasible.

Atrius tells Sylina he wants her to rule Glaea beside him, not romantically, but because she is a worthy leader who represents her people. She decides she will not kill Atrius and that he is the answer to saving Glaea. She knows she will likely be executed for betraying the Arachessen but resolves to try convincing the Sightmother that Atrius is an ally. She chooses not to tell him the truth about her assassination mission so that he won’t learn of her treachery or divide his focus between the Arachessen and the Pythora King. Before he leaves, she pulls him into a long kiss.

That evening, Sylina walks along the coast and finds Erekkus grieving, his face burned by the sun. She sits with him, feeling his agony through the threads. She places her hand over his and asks him to help them kill the man who murdered his daughter. He agrees.

Two nights later, after intense preparations, Sylina slips from Atrius’s tent at dawn. She goes to a remote tide pool and uses the water to attempt contact with the Salt Keep. She plans to convince the Sightmother that Atrius is an ally, but no one responds to her repeated calls. The unusual silence gives her a bad feeling. She resolves to complete the mission against the Pythora King and accept her fate with the Arachessen afterward.

The Zadra Pass is a dangerous place full of thick fog, jagged terrain, and deadly reptilian beasts called slyviks. Atrius plans to cross in seven days with 100 warriors, and he relies on Sylina’s navigation. Sylina feels genuine fear and recalls writing a final letter to her brother, telling him she loves and forgives him. She makes Atrius promise to continue his mission to kill the Pythora King even if she dies. He agrees. She takes the first step into the pass.

Sylina uses the threads to navigate through the pass’s winding paths, which exhausts her. They travel for hours before Atrius forces the group to rest. Sylina collapses, and he gives her a tonic and insists she sleep while he keeps watch. She falls asleep holding his hand.

Sylina is jolted awake by Atrius’s blood splashing on her face. She feels his pain through the threads and realizes a slyvik has him in its massive jaws.

The slyvik is an enormous serpentine creature with webbed wings. It drags Atrius into the air. Sylina shushes the alarmed warriors to avoid attracting more creatures. She latches onto Atrius’s thread and flings herself into the darkness, striking the slyvik with her sword. She grabs its tail, digging her blade in as it thrashes her against the rocks. Atrius strikes the creature, which drops him and carries Sylina away.

Sylina attacks the slyvik with her dagger while Atrius uses blood magic from below. She leaps from the creature’s back, strikes its wing as she falls, and hits the ground hard. At Atrius’s command, Erekkus kills the slyvik with his bow.

Sylina explains the slyvik was likely a young male driven from its pack. As she bandages Atrius’s wounded arm, he calls her foolish but thanks her for saving him with a soft kiss. She says he would have done the same for her.

The following days blur into a monotonous cycle of walking and resting. The terrain grows rougher, and navigation becomes more complex as paths frequently branch, forcing Sylina to stretch her awareness far ahead to avoid dead ends. They pass skeletal remains of less fortunate travelers, including an adult and child, which affects Erekkus deeply. They frequently sense slyviks and take long detours to avoid them. By Atrius’s count, seven days have passed. They are injured, exhausted, and running low on food.

At a fork in the path, Sylina senses they are only a few miles from the end of the pass. Her relief is cut short when she detects a large nest of slyviks blocking their path. The situation seems impossible, and Erekkus laughs in despair. After hours of fruitless planning and rising tensions, Atrius breaks up a fight between soldiers. His grumbling about his men’s egos sparks an idea for Sylina. She announces she knows how to get them past the slyviks.

Sylina and Atrius approach the slyvik nest. They use the vampires’ last three canteens of blood to lure the creatures into a rival nest’s territory. The two groups of slyviks collide in a chaotic battle. Sylina, Atrius, and the soldiers run for their lives through the fray. A juvenile slyvik attacks, and Atrius decapitates it in a single stroke.

They emerge from the pass and collapse in exhausted relief. The Pythora King’s castle looms on a cliff ahead. As Atrius begins to give orders, an army of the Pythora King’s soldiers pours from the forest.

Atrius’s exhausted warriors rally and charge. They are outnumbered but more skilled than the Pythora King’s forces. Erekkus urges Atrius and Sylina to go to the castle while he and the others hold the line. Using a combination of fighting and Sylina’s ability to step through the threads, they bypass the battle and reach the castle steps.

The area around the castle is unnervingly quiet and empty. They ascend the steps, which are lined with columns carved with images of the White Pantheon. Sylina feels a pang of guilt at the column depicting Acaeja. Inside, Sylina senses a single presence though the threads feel unnaturally muffled. The castle doors are unlocked. They enter a grand, empty hall and climb the stairs to the ornate throne room.

The Pythora King is slumped in his throne. Atrius drives his sword into the king’s chest, but they realize he is a magically preserved corpse that’s already grievously wounded and oozing a thick purplish fluid instead of blood. A familiar presence appears, and Sylina feels sudden, intense fear. She pushes Atrius back, steps in front of him, and bows her head to the Sightmother, pretending to be relieved to see the Arachessen’s leader.