Vincent sits across from Matilda, admiring her beauty. He realizes that he loves her and has loved her for a long time. Vincent asks why she saved Nathaniel, and she says she did it for him. She tells him about the wasteland. He tells her that new stars appeared in her constellation, which explains how Alva knew of her new power.

Matilda is summoned to Skyward by her father, and Vincent wants to come with her; she says she’d take him with her if she could. He asks how long she’ll be gone, and she promises to be back before the fighting resumes in five days. He asks to write to her, knowing to bury or burn his prayers if she’s below or above, but he wonders if she could send words back to him. Matilda claims she can’t before she leaves.

Matilda goes to Thile’s villa and finds it heavy with silence. Thile stands on the dais, surrounded by the other Skywards. Warin and Thile accuse Matilda of taking the eithral’s sight, which is forbidden, and exposing the Skyward gift to the mortals. Thile’s vassal brings him a whip, its tails armed with the other four missing eithral scales.

Matilda watches in horror as Thile dictates that she be whipped. Matilda contemplates running to the wasteland, but she’s not ready to sacrifice seven years serving the Gatekeeper. She thinks of Bade and how her pain will summon him to Skyward, which isn’t safe for him. She tells Thile that she has a salt-vow she must break before the whipping, and Thile agrees to give her until sunset to break the vow and return, escorted by Shale.

Matilda finds Bade in his forge—he released Hem years ago to return to the mortal realm and live his life. She is shocked by Bade’s softness, but she knows Adria has changed him. Adria invites her to stay for dinner, and though Matilda is worried about the time, she agrees. They eat together, and then Matilda asks for parchment.

Matilda’s hand shakes as she writes, but she knows it’s better to release Bade from his obligations, now that he has found love. Bade questions why Matilda wants to break the vow, accusing Vincent of influencing her. Matilda explains that Bade has fulfilled his vow tenfold, and she doesn’t want duty to rule his life. Bade lets Matilda break the vow, with each of them swallowing parchment in a mirror of the vow ritual.

Before Matilda leaves, she asks Adria how she knew that Matilda is a soul-bearer; Adria says she obtained some of Orphia’s and Rowena’s powers when she became a goddess, so she can thwart death in small ways and see glimpses of the future. Adria cuts herself and draws two stars on Matilda’s collarbones, giving her two stars, and Matilda realizes that Adria is now a third matriarch: the matriarch of the mortal realm. Adria tells Matilda she’s giving her power because she’s selfless and good to mortals. The stars will activate when Matilda needs them.

Matilda prepares for the whipping in her old Skyward room. She contemplates writing to Vincent and confessing her fear, but she doesn’t. Matilda enters the hall and kneels before Thile, who announces she will be whipped 50 times. He whips her brutally while she thinks about Vincent for comfort. The pain is unbearable, and Matilda collapses, unable to reach Adria’s stars for help. Rowena stops Thile, as she worries that he’ll kill Matilda. Thile is angry at Rowena’s interruption, and he whips Matilda one last time before she passes out.

Vincent sends a list of the dead soldiers to their families in Drake Hall. Hugh questions why Vincent won’t agree to Warin’s toll, as he thinks Matilda is too weak a goddess to help them. Vincent refuses, but he agrees to Hugh’s request to build ballistas to shoot the eithral with obsidian arrows if it returns.

Two days pass, and Matilda doesn’t return. Vincent worries about her. Nathaniel, who has a new appreciation for life, asks Vincent to spare the man who killed him, as many of Grimald’s men are forced to fight for him. Vincent agrees to consider it after the fighting is over. Gwenda, the healer Vincent once had a romantic relationship with, visits his bedchambers with a sleeping tonic and tries to seduce him, assuming his marriage to Matilda is fake. Vincent sends her away and tells her that he loves Matilda. He then writes to Matilda and burns it.

Matilda wakes in pain in Rowena’s villa. Rowena says her wounds are still healing, so she must be careful. Matilda’s 12-star constellation is lit in the sky, and others know she can direct eithrals and bring souls back from the dead, so she’s in danger from the other gods. Matilda asks Rowena why her other stars were initially darkened, and Rowena says that since she was unclaimed by her father at birth, her Skyward stars hid until Matilda performed soul-bearer magic.

Matilda sleeps until she wakes to Vincent’s prayer. She tries to bottle it, but Rowena guides her to breathe in the smoke. Matilda does, and Vincent’s words fill her as he confesses his love for her and asks her to come home.

Matilda keeps Vincent’s words in the bottle. She struggles to leave the villa and return to Wyndrift. Rowena tells her the trade winds will open her wounds and questions why she chains herself to mortal affairs. Matilda insists it’s not a chain, and Rowena tells her to go be with the one she loves.

Matilda rides the trade wind as far as Drake Hall before the pain is too much. The Wyndrift people there tell her that people have gone missing randomly, but no Delavoy people. They give her a letter, and Matilda promises to deliver it to Vincent. She rides toward Wyndrift and sees the lone eithral in the woods.

Matilda approaches the eithral and realizes that she’s not under Dacre’s control. She lies down before it, letting it see her wounds. The eithral breathes its freezing breath over her back, sealing the bleeding wounds with ice. Matilda then mounts the eithral, and they fly toward Wyndrift together.

Vincent prepares for battle. He turns and sees Bade, who asks for Matilda. Vincent tells him about Matilda’s absence but invites him to stay for dinner. They discuss Matilda and her presence in Vincent’s dreams, but then they hear the warning bell announcing the eithral’s arrival. Vincent watches as the men prepare to shoot it with ballistas. Vincent sees Matilda atop the eithral and demands the men to stand down, but they shoot anyway. The eithral is struck in the chest and falls on Grimald’s side of the river.

Matilda and the eithral hit the ground. Matilda pulls the arrow out of the eithral and tells her to fly away. Matilda runs in her shadow, intent on delivering the letter to Vincent. She runs into Alva in the woods, and Alva demands that Matilda come below with her, or she’ll tell Dacre that Matilda rode an eithral.

In Alva’s burrow, she and Matilda discuss Matilda’s new stars. Alva wants to know what new power Matilda wields, and Matilda almost tells her, as Alva’s never killed another divine. Bade arrives and tells Matilda that Vincent needs to know she’s okay. Matilda tells Bade to let Vincent know she survived the fall, and he leaves.

Alva wants to ally with Matilda, as she thinks Matilda owes her for Vincent’s dream scrolls. Before Matilda answers, Enva interrupts and asks to play her harp for them. Alva allows it, and Enva plays a song that makes Matilda and Alva sad, then happy, and then puts them to sleep.

Matilda wakes to Enva dragging her away. Enva tells her that Alva planned to kill her and take her magic—she overheard Alva telling Dacre about the plot. Enva tells Matilda that she must leave the under realm and not return until the news of her new stars has faded. Enva asks Matilda to remember that Enva saved her life and to come if she calls. Matilda promises, and Enva gives Matilda her cloak.

Bade tells Vincent that Matilda is unharmed and will return soon, but Vincent must prepare for battle. Vincent asks Bade why he’s helping, and he says Matilda is precious to him. As the troops eat dinner in the hall, Matilda returns. Vincent runs to her and hugs her, but she winces in his arms. He pulls back, and Matilda gives him the letter from Drake Hall.

Vincent confronts Hugh about the missing people, and Hugh blames the gods. Matilda says the gods cannot take people without the consent of their protecting lord, and the people at Drake Hall are under Hugh’s protection. Hugh suggests they sleep on it, and Vincent and Matilda agree.

In Vincent’s bedchamber, Matilda asks him what happened while she was away. He tells her about Bade’s arrival and that he’s here because he cares about Matilda, which seems to pain her. Matilda tells Vincent what happened in Skyward and the under realm. Vincent feels guilty for hugging Matilda and hurting her, but she says he doesn’t need her forgiveness. She cautions him about Hugh and what Hugh might ask for when the war is over.

She then addresses his prayer, a confession of love. She asks when he knew that he loved her; for Vincent, it was when he asked her to go back to Wyndrift with Nathaniel during their journey to Drake Hall. Matilda tells Vincent that she knew she loved him when she woke in his bed after a peaceful sleep, after resurrecting Nathaniel. They kiss and have sex.

Matilda relishes in the aftermath of her pleasure with Vincent, but she becomes sad when she thinks about his inevitable mortal death. He assures her that they will enjoy their time together and will always be each other’s. They have sex again. Later that night, Matilda wakes to the sound of her name and feels herself being dragged to Warin’s villa by the slippers. She calls out for Vincent, but he doesn’t hear her.

Vincent wakes alone and can’t find Matilda. He feels the tower shake as Grimald’s trebuchets launch rocks, starting the battle.

Matilda enters Warin’s villa for the first time in years. The slippers force her through the villa toward him. She sees the missing people from Drake Hall, forced to craft more slippers like the ones on Matilda’s feet. Matilda can only free them by convincing Warin to let them go or by killing Warin and claiming his magic.

The slippers force Matilda into the hall, where Warin waits on his throne. Matilda knows that he’s called her to keep her away from the battle, and Warin demands that she have dinner with him. As they eat, Warin reveals that the Wyndrift people are a tithe of third-borns from Hugh, who gave them up in exchange for bridge use without tolls, regardless of who wins the battle. Matilda is enraged. Warin also now knows that she can bring souls back from the dead, and he wants to know how she does it in exchange for freeing the mortals. Matilda refuses and plans to return for the mortals.

Matilda refuses to return empty-handed to Wyndrift, especially since Warin’s slippers mean Grimald’s man can travel through the river. She goes below to call upon Phelyra. Matilda asks to borrow Phelyra’s fire and winter magic for three days, but Phelyra only agrees to one day. Phelyra casts the magic borrowing spell and admits she left the eithral scale in Zenia for Matilda to take. Matilda realizes that Phelyra took the six eithral scales and sold four to Thile, secretly sold one to Warin, and kept one for herself.

Matilda goes to Maiden Tower and finds Nathaniel. He tells her that Grimald has been firing the trebuchets since dawn, and Matilda tells Nathaniel to warn Vincent about Grimald’s forces traveling underwater. She remains at Maiden Tower with Bade, preparing for battle. Nathaniel returns, bringing Matilda’s moonstone belt and Enva’s cloak. Matilda sees Vincent sitting on the battlement alone.

Vincent stands on the parapet with Hugh and feels the winter cold coming early. As Grimald’s men traverse the river in their slippers, it starts to freeze around them. As they try to scale the tower, the snow makes the stones slippery. As Grimald leads the climb toward Vincent, Vincent calls to his archers to wait until he can see Grimald’s face. Before he shouts fire, ice cascades down the tower and knocks many soldiers to the ground.

Vincent and Hugh fight their way down the tower and find Grimald alone in the hall. Though Grimald has lost a thousand men and knows it’s hopeless, he refuses to surrender. He asks Vincent to allow him to drown himself in the river, then throws sand in Vincent’s eyes and tries to escape. Vincent chases him onto the bridge, and they fight. Vincent has the chance to kill Grimald and take revenge, but he finds he doesn’t want to. Grimald grabs Vincent and drags him into the river.

Matilda watches Vincent and Grimald fall into the river. She wants to jump in after them, but Bade tells her to stay high and keep her vantage point. She presses her hand on her collarbone and feels the magic of Adria’s stars seep into her. She feels a heaviness on her brow; her mind becomes clear, and she knows what to do: She uses the borrowed winter magic to weave an ice bridge for Vincent to pull himself onto. She closes her eyes and works, and when she opens them, Vincent and Grimald are both on the ice. Matilda jumps down to them.

Vincent and Grimald are freezing on the ice. Grimald pleads for his life, but Vincent lets the ghosts of his past in. He says the names of his brothers and father as he drowns Grimald in the river, holding him under and letting his body go. Matilda approaches with stars woven through her hair like a crown as Vincent collapses.

Matilda drags Vincent to the riverbank and strips his armor off. She makes a small fire and takes her clothes off and lies beside him to warm him. Though the Gatekeeper’s eye almost opens, Vincent wakes and pulls Matilda closer. He tells her that there’s a crown of stars upon her head, and Matilda looks at the sky to see that her constellation has 14 stars. Adria’s is missing four stars, but Bade’s now has 13, instead of 11.

Warin calls Matilda’s name. She searches for him, but he’s wearing her cloak, so he’s invisible. Bade joins them and commands Warin to remove the cloak, but he won’t. Warin taunts Matilda about her whipping. He begins attacking Bade and Matilda, and they realize that they can see Warin’s footsteps in the snow.

They fight him off, and Matilda stabs him in the side. They can see his blood on the snow as he flees. Matilda wants to follow him. Bade tries to say something, but Warin shoots him through the heart with an eithral scale arrow. In his dying words, Bade tells Matilda to go to Adria.

Matilda wants to go to Bade in the wasteland, but she agonizes over the decision. She won’t have time to tell Vincent that once she returns to the wasteland, she’ll be trapped in the service of the Gatekeeper for seven years. Before she can call a door, Warin approaches and taunts Matilda, taking the arrow from Bade’s corpse. Vincent appears, and Matilda knows she must let Bade go and protect Vincent.

Matilda summons the eithral scale that killed her mother, but Warin stabs her in the heart, her fault line. Matilda stabs him in the neck, and he dies. Matilda feels the magic of spring, iron, and rivers enter her, but not war, which confuses her. She feels Warin’s villa answer to her, so she frees the mortal vassals before she collapses in the snow.

Vincent holds Matilda in his arms as she dies. He begs her to stay with him, and his name is her last word.