Raina trails him at a distance but admits defeat when she loses sight of him. A wolf howls, and crows scatter above. In a clearing, Alexus finds Raina and scolds her recklessness. She reluctantly agrees to cooperate. At camp, he expresses sympathy for her losses. She asks about Nephele. Alexus describes her sword skill and how she teaches sign language to children. Comforted, Raina admits to killing for the first time. Alexus reassures her, and she falls asleep, but the Prince of the East haunts her dreams.

Later, they encounter a tunnel of trees soaked in magick. They suspect a trap, but Alexus proves that there’s no way around it. The tunnel seals them in. Raina suggests using a lamp, but Alexus warns that it would attract attention. The path glows with faint floral light and then dims. A sense of disruption creeps in. Suddenly, someone stabs Alexus in the thigh. In the darkness, Raina fights and kills the attacker.

Raina heals Alexus’s wound, noting how the threads of his flesh and magick appear frayed. She secures him to his horse and leads them to a frozen lake.

When he wakes, they debate how to cross the lake. Raina calms the horses with magick, and they step onto the ice. Alexus remembers falling through the ice as a child. Midway, they see frozen corpses of soldiers and horses beneath them. They walk around the dead, finally reaching the shore. Relief fades when a woman attacks them. She takes Alexus’s dagger, but Raina recognizes and embraces her. The woman’s clouded eyes clear, and she signs with Raina—it’s her friend Helena, though she appears altered, and her witch marks are missing.

Raina rejoices that Helena is alive, while Alexus watches warily. Helena says she lost Finn and Saira. She has no memory of what happened after the Eastlanders’ General Vexx knocked her out and a red-haired soldier strapped her to a horse. She thinks he let her go. Raina notices that Helena smells strange. When Helena asks about her relationship with Alexus, Raina deflects. As the weather worsens, Alexus says they must move on.

Helena grows hostile toward Alexus. Her grace fades, and her eyes lighten unnaturally.

They must either climb or skirt the mountains. They choose the edge, but the woods feel watchful. Raina sleeps but dreams of the prince calling her “Keeper” and wakes disturbed. At camp, Alexus asks Helena to light a fire. She refuses, claiming no skill. Alexus instructs her, but she withdraws.

He teaches Raina to conjure fire by drawing heat from his body. She hesitates and then manages it briefly before losing the flame. He struggles with flint and eventually starts a fire. Raina heals Helena’s wounds. Alexus suggests that she’s a Resurrectionist, which Raina denies. When Raina presses about his lost magick, he evades.

Raina wakes entangled with Alexus. Embarrassed, she pulls away. Helena glares, calling Alexus the enemy. On the road, they find Eastlander corpses. A blizzard forces them to camp again. Raina fails to summon fire. They recognize a distinctive tree, realizing that they’ve walked in a circle. Alexus says they must climb the mountain. Helena protests, but Raina joins Alexus. Helena growls, calling her “girl,” uncharacteristically.

Like the Prince of the East, Raina sees Helena’s eyes clouded and shadowed. Alexus draws his sword and demands that the wraith return to the Shadow World. It approaches with the God Knife.

The wraith knocks Raina into a tree and attacks Alexus. The wraith kisses Alexus, and its magick seduces him, forcing him to desire the creature. It probes Alexus’s memories and uncovers a prisoner in his mind. Shocked, the wraith loosens its hold. Raina strikes with Alexus’s sword, but the wraith catches it. The earth rises and binds the wraith in vines (Nephele’s magick), shifting it back to Helena’s form.

Raina tries to approach, but Alexus stops her. Saving Helena would mean dying. Raina cries. Alexus comforts her. She wonders what the prince wants, but Alexus has no answers. Raina says goodbye to Helena, promising to return. As they leave, the wraith screams that they’ll never escape.

Riding away, Raina carries the God Knife. She reflects on her bond with Alexus and the dwindling food supply. She struggles to sleep, plagued by visions of the prince. She questions his motives and notes the crows spying. She wonders why he hasn’t entered the construct himself.

They find a clearing filled with Nephele’s magick. Moonberry bushes provide nourishment. Raina spots a crow and kills it, mocking the prince. He answers: He’s waiting.

Raina and Alexus dine on the crow. Alexus is pleased, and they grow closer. Raina heals him and the horses. She insists on seeing the wound from the wraith’s attack. It hasn’t healed. She notices many scars. As their closeness turns romantic, Alexus hesitates, confessing that he harbors a darkness. Raina claims not to care. They kiss, their passion rising, but when Raina nears climax, the prince’s face intrudes. He taunts Raina and thanks her for the God Knife.

Raina leaps away and kills a nearby crow, deeply distressed. Alexus, noticing her unusual blade and emotional state, offers comfort. Raina refuses to let him hold the knife but explains that the Prince of the East has been watching her through the crows and invading her dreams. She reveals that the blade belonged to her father and is a legendary God Knife. Alexus, stunned, examines it closely and recognizes his magick embedded in it. He remembers there being only one God Knife, lost for centuries.

When Raina confirms that it’s the same blade she once held to his throat, Alexus grows more alarmed. She admits to stabbing the Prince of the East with it, but he survives. The prince calls her “Keeper,” though Raina doesn’t know why. Alexus that believes her father, Rowan, bore a magical curse to guard the knife, which passed to Raina. This explains why the prince can’t simply take it. Alexus suspects that Helena found the blade, prompting the prince to possess her with a wraith to retrieve it. Alexus asks for the blade, and though hesitant, Raina hands it over. A magical bond instantly reforms when he grips it, and the blade greets him as “drallag.”

Alexus signals Raina to halt. She hears the voices of Eastlanders nearby. Alexus scouts ahead and reports some 20 enemies in their path. Raina suggests sneaking around, but Alexus claims that’s impossible. He insists on handling them alone and makes Raina promise not to interfere no matter what. Soon, the ground shakes. Fearing for Alexus, Raina breaks her promise and rushes to the site. She finds a crater where the Eastlanders once stood and Alexus on his knees, wounded and exhausted. His eyes are black and veined with dark magick. He begs her to leave, but she senses his strange energy. When he recovers, he asks her to help him up. Raina realizes that he defeated 20 men alone despite claiming to lack magick. He promises to explain once they reach the nearby caves.

At the caves, Raina senses lightning before sleep overtakes her. Alexus builds a fire when she awakens, and she notes that the prince didn’t invade her dreams. Alexus begins explaining. Raina’s father served as a Keeper of the God Knife, bound by Summerland magick. That same spell now binds Raina to it. They marvel that the Prince of the East recognizes this magick, even though he shouldn’t. Raina recalls how Finn briefly stole the knife when she lost touch with reality during the moon ritual. Alexus theorizes that the knife links to her bloodline. He admits that his power is tangled with another force, which he rarely unleashes due to its destructive capacity.

Alexus shares Colden Moeshka’s origin. Once a soldier for Neri, God of the North, Colden fought in the Summerlands and met the queen. Neri and Asha, Goddess of the South, became lovers, but Asha was infatuated with Colden, using Fever Lilac to enchant him. While he was infatuated, Asha made him immortal. Colden, however, fell for Fia Drumera, the Summerland princess. When the enchantment wore off, he raged. Colden later chained Asha to Mount Ulra and returned to the North, where he founded Winterhold. He contemplated suicide but instead isolated himself.

The gods later demanded that Asha remove Colden’s immortality. When she refused, they cursed her: No magick could make Colden love her again. Years later, Fia invited him to reconcile, but Asha broke her vow to stay away and caught them together. She exiled Colden from the Summerlands. Neri, jealous, conspired with Asha, cursing both Colden and Fia, embedding fire in her and frost in him so that they could never be together. This betrayal led to divine chaos and the downfall of several gods.

Thamaos, God of the East, appointed King Gherahn over the Eastern lands. Gherahn relied on a young sorcerer, Un Drallag, who crafted the God Knife from Thamaos’s rib. Thamaos tried to use the knife to kill Urdin. Both died by it and were buried in the Grove of the Gods. Alexus confirms that the grove is real. He warns that the Prince of the East might resurrect Thamaos. To do so, he needs a god remnant, an intact grave, and a Witch Walker with powers like Raina’s.

Alexus finally reveals the truth: He is Un Drallag (the creator of the knife). He defected from the East, and the knife has tried to return to him ever since.

Raina reels from the revelation. She now knows that Alexus is an Eastlander, over 300 years old, and the God Knife’s maker. She kisses him, but he pulls away, needing to tell her more.

The runes on his back aren’t decorative. As Un Drallag, he gathered sorcerers for the Eastern king and ordered the execution of those who refused. When Alexus defected, the king sent hunters to kill his family. Obsessed with reversing death, Alexus entered the Shadow World. Instead of saving his family, however, he trapped Neri within himself. Raina, horrified, distances herself. They argue, and Alexus explains that he resisted Neri’s attempt to use his body as a vessel to escape. After Raina heals her earlier injuries, they kiss again. Alexus leaves to gather wood. Raina then scries for the prince and sees him approaching Winterhold. Someone enters the cave, and Raina attacks.

While gathering wood, Alexus senses that something’s wrong. Rhonin, a red-haired soldier, ambushes him, revealing that he’s a spy for the Frost King. He confirms that the Eastlanders are tracking Alexus to retrieve the God Knife. Rhonin asks for Raina’s location and then knocks Alexus unconscious.

Raina’s attacker is Helena, now free from the wraith. Her witch marks have returned, and she appears sane. Helena followed their trail, recalling little from the possession. She confesses to taking the God Knife back in Silver Hollow, thinking Raina was dead. Captured by Eastlanders, she escaped with Rhonin’s help. Raina tells Helena everything. Though her faith in Neri has been shaken, she resolves to protect Colden and the knife. Raina scries again and sees Alexus unconscious. The women prepare a rescue.

Alexus awakens as General Vexx beats him. Vexx holds the God Knife and gloats over Alexus’s fate. Although forbidden to kill Alexus until they have Raina, Vexx plans to do so anyway. Helena interrupts, pretending that Raina is dead and offering to lead the Eastlanders to her. Soldiers investigate the cave but vanish. Vexx threatens Helena loudly enough that Raina, hiding within, hears and emerges.

Raina surrenders. Eastlanders restrain her and investigate the cave. Vexx mocks her powers and forces her toward Alexus. The construct begins to collapse. Vexx orders Rhonin to punish Helena. Rhonin delays, but Vexx insists. He drags Helena into the cave. When she screams, Rhonin returns with her. Bloodied and sobbing, Helena punches Vexx, who throws her down the hill. Raina escapes her captors and heals Helena in desperation. Vexx, realizing that Raina is a healer, becomes excited by the prize he holds. He commands Rhonin to kill Helena and forces Raina to say goodbye to Alexus. Before blacking out, she sees Vexx stab Alexus in the heart with the God Knife.

Rhonin fakes Helena’s death and then advises her to avoid Winter Road. After feigning death, she searches for Raina. She finds dead soldiers and Alexus’s body. Mourning him, she prays over his corpse. As she walks away, she hears someone call her name. She turns and sees Alexus, alive. Mist begins to take human form, white wolves materialize from the fog, and the earth shakes again.