Ahvi uses the weald to set the nest alight to hatch the egg. He explains that the hatchling needs fire. He uses a shield to protect himself. An invisible barrier contains the blaze. When the fire vanishes, Ahvi is unharmed, sitting amidst ashes with the newly hatched pink Moltenmaw. Realizing the fortress holds more soldiers, Raeve knows they must escape.

Kaan and Pyrok navigate a misty bog, following a magically enchanted lark toward Ahvi. The quiet makes Kaan uneasy, haunted by the memory of Raeve covered in runes. The lark suddenly acts erratically. They are ambushed by Fade soldiers who use earth magic to create a stone spear from the mud and then hurl iron pins at them. Pyrok and Kaan are caught in separate nets and hoisted into the trees. As Kaan tries to cut free, he sees Raeve arrive on Líri, carrying Ahvi. Raeve lands and uses air magic to silently suffocate the closest ring of soldiers. As more soldiers swarm in from all directions, Raeve battles them all single-handedly while using Clode’s air magic to prevent the sounds of the battle from reaching the Moltenmaw dragons who guard the forest. Just as a soldier is sneaking up behind Raeve, Kaan finally guts himself free of his net and lands on the soldier, killing him. As Pyrok cuts himself free, Raeve calls on Clode to blow away the mists and Bulder to soften the ground around them, causing all the advancing soldiers to sink into the quicksand and drown.

Back in the tree-hut, Kaan summons Borg and offers a painful memory in exchange for information. The memory he gives to Borg is of his brutal killing of his father, King Ostern. Before he kills him, Kaan tells his father that the crown will pass to Veya after his own death, that the Vaegor line will die out, and that Ostern will be remembered only as a despised tyrant.

Back in a tree-hut hideout, Roan removes an iron pin from Pyrok’s chest. Kaan, finished with Borg, comes downstairs shirtless and says they need to talk. Raeve confesses that she is blood bound to Sereme, who ordered her to kill Ahvi. Kaan reveals that he already knows about the blood bond, as Borg confirmed his suspicions. When he presses her about the healing runes she hides, Raeve admits they were inflicted by her enslaver after the fall of Slátra’s moon. Terrified, she refuses to say more but accidentally lets Arkyn’s name slip. Ahvi reveals that he can undo the blood bond—a feat widely believed to be impossible—but only if he and Raeve are at the location where the bond was originally created. Raeve balks at the idea of bringing Ahvi closer to Sereme, who wants him dead. When Ahvi says that he will not allow Raeve to take him anywhere else, she relents, and the group plans to travel to the Undercity south of Gore, where the bond was made.

In his dungeon, Arkyn confronts Kyzari and a captive Veya. Having retrieved Elluin’s diary from beneath Kyzari’s waste bucket, Arkyn taunts them. He reveals that he knows Kyzari is Kaan’s daughter. He also states that he no longer needs Kyzari as a host for the Aether Stone diadem, implying that he intends to use it on Raeve. He brutally beats the unconscious princess, telling Veya she must keep Kyzari alive until he demands the stone.

Raeve, Kaan, Roan, Pyrok, Ahvi, and the baby dragon, Gruffin, travel toward Gore in a cart driven by Noeve, a cart driver who recognizes Raeve’s resemblance to her grandmother, confirming her Neván heritage. She also tells Kaan she recently saw Veya, who visited the “velvet trogg” and returned with a silver bangle—a magical item Kaan had forbidden her from retrieving. Kaan is enraged.

As the group approaches the city of Gore, they pass many carts heading in the opposite direction, carrying families fleeing the city before the coming moonfall. The city gates are closed and guarded by a contingent of soldiers who demand a steep bribe to let Noeve’s cart through. Ahvi, Roan, and Pyrok hide in a secret compartment while Kaan and Raeve, their faces hidden by hooded cloaks, ride beside Noeve. When a noise from Gruffin alerts the guards to the presence of stowaways, Raeve and Kaan kill them all.

Gore is deserted, with shops looted and bodies hanging from a bridge. Raeve finds a flyer with a message from King Cadok Vaegor (Kaan’s brother) demanding that all residents take refuge in the Undercity. Raeve notes that the Undercity is an extremely dangerous place, rife with predators and desperate, violent folk. She predicts that most city residents will not survive their time there, and those who do will be traumatized forever. The bodies belong to executed members of the Fíur du Ath. Raeve doesn’t see Sereme, suggesting that she has survived. In Sereme’s abandoned office, she finds a parchment lark with a message for her: “Plans have changed. We’ll be in touch” (367).

Ahvi struggles to breathe in the polluted air of the city, and Raeve is extremely worried about bringing him down into the tunnels that lead to the place where her blood bond can be undone, but Ahvi refuses to change plans. Raeve sings to Clode to direct more fresh air into Ahvi’s lungs. The group leaves Pyrok in Raeve’s former quarters to care for Gruffin, and Raeve warns Pyrok not to open the trap door in the ceiling. The others embark on the dangerous journey toward the place where Raeve’s blood bond was forged.

In Raeve’s old quarters, Pyrok hears a persistent, mysterious tapping sound from the other side of the trap door Raeve told him not to open. Passing through the door, he finds a larger and much more comfortable dwelling lined with freshly baked loaves of bread. Without warning, a red-haired fae female knocks him to the ground and holds a sword to his throat. He finds her entrancingly beautiful even as he fears for his life. She begins sniffing him and demands to know why he smells like Raeve, who she believes is dead. When Pyrok explains that Raeve is alive, she is overcome by emotion and loses consciousness.

The chapter opens with a memory of Raeve and her best friend Fallon escaping through a blizzard after breaking out of their cell. Raeve, wounded by an arrow and clutching a key, struggles through snow. As they rest, Fallon points to a silver dragon and makes Raeve promise to do whatever it takes to survive and find happiness. Raeve gives her promise, though it feels like goodbye. She awakens in the present, crying, in a stone hut with Kaan and a sleeping Ahvi. When Kaan asks why she was crying out in her sleep, she calls it a “slumber-terror” but declines to discuss it. Instead, she asks Kaan to hold her tightly, reflecting that they are close to where she first emerged onto the plains and nearly broke her promise to Fallon.

When the red-haired fae awakens, she introduces herself to Pyrok as Essi, a powerful Runi who has protected her home with deadly blood-runes. Pyrok informs her that Raeve is with a protégé who has the Book of Voyd and believes he can break Raeve’s blood bind—news that shocks Essi.

When Gruffin refuses food, Essi mysteriously produces a fresh, bloody bird leg. Pyrok feeds the ravenous creature. As thanks for bringing her the news that Raeve is alive, Essi offers to use Pyrok’s blood to etch runes for safe passage. Upon taking his blood, she recognizes its scent from when she worked for Pyrok’s sister, Queen Dothea Vaegor. She reveals that Dorothea is alive and safe in a protected underground city, and she invites him to accompany her once she completes a dangerous project. He accepts and decides to stay.

Raeve leads Kaan and Ahvi to the exact spot where she met Sereme. She reads the note from Sereme’s office: correspondence from the Elding instructing Sereme to control Raeve until he is ready to “bring her home” (394). Ahvi begins a complex ritual using the Book of Voyd and both his and Raeve’s blood to break the blood bind. He reveals a side effect: The ritual will cause Raeve’s body to revert to the near-death state she was in when the original bind was made. Horrified, she tries to stop him, learning he plans to create a new bind to save her. From far away, Sereme uses the existing bind to inflict agonizing pain. Witnessing her torment, Kaan orders Ahvi to complete the spell. Apologizing, Ahvi paints the final rune.

As the runes activate, Raeve convulses, withering to emaciation while her old stab wound reopens. Helpless, Kaan watches as she nearly dies. Ahvi, weakened himself, instructs her that she must willingly touch the Book of Voyd to live. Affirming her desire to live, she touches the book, unleashing light. After the flash, Kaan finds her without a pulse, but her heart begins to beat, and her body returns to health. As she recovers, they are ambushed by masked figures led by Sereme. Sereme reveals to Kaan that she was Raeve’s master, having tortured her for cycles to orchestrate this trap for Kaan. To ensure cooperation, she threatens Kyzari. She gives Kaan a parchment lark signed by Kyzari but written in Arkyn’s handwriting, demanding that Kaan go with Sereme or Kyzari will die. Kaan notices that Kyzari has hidden a message in tiny lettering within her signature: “Kill the sadistic fuck” (405). Unwilling to endanger Kyzari, Raeve’s daughter, Kaan surrenders, drinking a potion that severs his dragonflame. He is shackled and knocked unconscious, leaving the recovering Raeve and unconscious Ahvi behind.

Grihm undertakes a perilous climb into Gondragh to reach the burrow of a Great Silver Sabersythe named Ahra, intending to steal an egg. He believes this is his fated purpose after the loss of his dragon, Inkah. Inside, he discovers that Ahra’s nest has been destroyed, and her three hatchlings are dead, crushed by a fallen boulder. His hope is shattered.

When the grieving Ahra returns, Grihm prepares for death as penance. Ahra simply tosses him aside and curls around her dead young. Enraged by her refusal to kill him, Grihm provokes her by climbing onto her back. Ahra takes flight. In the sky, she forcibly initiates a bond, flooding him with grief but also resolute purpose. Realizing she faces her fate alone, Grihm chooses to accept the bond. They plunge through a volcano’s crater and emerge as one.

Raeve awakens with a head injury in a familiar dark cell, believing she is dreaming. Seeing moons on the ceiling that remind her of Fallon, she is stunned to discover a frail figure who appears to be Fallon herself. Accepting it as a dream, Raeve protectively embraces the sleeping girl, finding peace. Her dream shifts into a vision. She feels a “roaring love” and a “wild force of silver light” enter her soul (415), recasting her into something new, “other,” and whole.

The ancient silver Sabersythe, Ahra, soars over The Burn’s capital, causing citizens to flood the streets in awe. Riding her is Grihm. The dragon is being guided by the celestial silver ribbon, revealed to be a sentient entity shackled to the sky. The ribbons were once part of a whole being called Caelis and are now trying to stitch his lost pieces back together. Long ago, the ribbon gave a piece of itself to the Sabersythe as a plea for help. The ribbon now deliberately herds them southward.

Pyrok returns to find that Essi has finally fallen asleep at her worktable after two days. He is disturbed to find that she has been using her own blood to etch runes into a stone. He feeds Gruffin, a rapidly growing creature whose appetite is insatiable. Realizing small rodents aren’t enough, he must venture south of the wall to hunt bigger prey. He is increasingly worried about Raeve and Kaan, who have been gone a long time. Exhausted from hunting rodents in the Ditch, he decides to rest, but is overcome by sleep.

Raeve is thrown back into her old prison cell, waking from a traumatic memory of Fallon’s death. She realizes she has been recaptured and is sharing the cell with Kyzari, severely beaten and unconscious. In a neighboring cell is Veya, terrified and broken. Veya tearfully implies that Arkyn is responsible and knows everything. Feeling an intense need to protect Kyzari, Raeve gives her Kaan’s malmr and covers her with her cloak. When a large group of guards arrives, they briefly subdue Raeve with fire magic. As soon as it dissipates, she unleashes a vicious attack, killing several before being knocked unconscious.

Raeve awakens chained in a feasting cavern across from a bound, gagged, injured Kaan. Arkyn shocks them both by calling Kaan his “brother.” Through cruel taunts, Arkyn uses a magical lark to reveal that he is the Elding, forcing Raeve to realize that The Flourish—the sanctuary she has been sending people to—is actually Arkyn’s fortress. He declares his intention to usurp Kaan’s throne with an army Raeve unknowingly helped him build. An exchange among the guards implies that Ahvi is being held captive and forced to rune the fortress. After force-feeding Raeve, Arkyn produces a final item: Elluin’s diary.