Vincent washes and dresses Matilda’s corpse and puts her in the sepulcher, sitting with her for two days before Bade returns. Bade sits with Vincent in the sepulcher for a day until he gives up, saying that if Matilda was able to bear her own soul back, she would’ve returned by now. Vincent is angry at Bade and stays at the sepulcher, falling asleep. He wakes to Nathaniel and Anton, the man who killed him. Vincent is angry, but Nathaniel tells him that Anton has been helping with rebuilding the walls and gates. Nathaniel also tells Vincent that their missing people have returned and said Matilda freed them, but they haven’t seen her since her appearance in Warin’s villa, days prior. Vincent realizes that Matilda freed them by taking and using Warin’s magic before she died. Vincent asks about Hugh, and Nathaniel says he’s died from his wounds, but Vincent can tell that Nathaniel poisoned him. Vincent sees a glimpse of their father in Nathaniel.

Autumn turns to winter as the people of Wyndrift repair their fortress and heal. Nathaniel and Anton’s friendship grows deeper. When summer comes, Vincent asks Nathaniel to take over as Lord of Wyndrift—Nathaniel is better suited to leadership, and Vincent doesn’t want the title. Nathaniel agrees, as long as Vincent promises to come if Nathaniel ever calls him. When autumn comes, Vincent formally surrenders the crown before riding to the dilapidated cottage he once stayed near with Matilda.

Matilda misses Vincent as she begins her seven years of service. The Gatekeeper tells Matilda to write down the stories of all the souls passing through. Her first soul is Hugh. He tells his stories, but he doesn’t have enough to pass through, and he accuses Matilda of bewitching his words. Matilda refuses to escort him back to the mortal realm, so he will wander the wastes forever.

Matilda settles into her role as a scribe, but she wonders if Vincent will wait for her, as the Gatekeeper emphasizes how long seven years is to a mortal. Matilda realizes that while the Gatekeeper can weigh the worthiness of souls to enter the mists, Matilda can weigh the worthiness of souls to reenter the mortal realm. Matilda tries to take a woman back, but Matilda loses her in the woman’s nightmare and doesn’t bear another soul for a long time. She also tries to take back a man who was murdered on his wedding night, but he is murdered again the next night, showing how even Matilda cannot overcome some fates.

After six years of service, a child comes to the gate saying Vincent’s name. Matilda thinks he might be Vincent’s son, which makes her happy that Vincent isn’t alone but saddened that he has moved on without her. She carries the child back to the mortal realm. Matilda decides to try writing a letter to Vincent and sending it under the wasted door. When she pushes the letter under the threshold, it disappears.

Vincent begins his life in the cottage at the edge of the woods, with the help of James and Lara, his next-door neighbors. They show him how to fix up the cottage and how to farm, and even give him a dog named Reeve for company. Nathaniel and Anton, now married, visit frequently, but Vincent still misses Matilda.

James and Lara have a son named Tristan, and when Tristan turns four, James’s sister Henrietta visits. Vincent realizes James and Lara want to set them up romantically. He refuses, as he doesn’t want anyone besides Matilda. During this time, Tristan gets a fever and dies. A day later, he wakes, as if he were sleeping, and Vincent knows that Matilda brought him back.

Vincent hurries back to Wyndrift and asks Nathaniel exactly what he remembers from when Matilda brought him back. Nathaniel feels like most of the experience was a dream, but he remembers the Gatekeeper saying something about 10 or seven years. Vincent thinks that he waited 13 years for Matilda before, so he can wait for her again.

Vincent stays the night in his old room at Wyndrift, and he finds the letter from Orphia that Matilda brought him when she first returned to him, years ago. He reads it, and it says that his fate and Matilda’s fate are woven together and cannot be untangled. Vincent burns the letter.

During the winter, Nathaniel brings Vincent a letter, addressed to him, that was found in an abandoned bedroom in Maiden Tower. It’s from Matilda, explaining her absence and promising to come back the next autumn, though she writes that she will not fault him if he’s found happiness with someone else. When autumn comes, Vincent hears a knock at the door.

Matilda wakes in the sealed sepulcher and uses her newfound powers over iron to open the gate. It takes her a moment to remember how it feels to be in a living body. She searches Wyndrift for Vincent and can’t find him. She remembers their night together near the cottage and runs there barefoot, thrilled with the feeling of running again. She reaches the cottage but struggles to bring herself to knock. She wonders if Vincent has a wife and children inside. Matilda knocks, and when there’s no immediate answer, she turns to leave. Then she feels Vincent’s eyes on her. He calls her Red and invites her inside.

Vincent gives her clean clothes to change into and soup to eat. He asks where she’s been, and she tells him about her time with the Gatekeeper. She asks him about his life, and he tells her about James, Lara, and Tristan. Matilda wants to sleep and asks Vincent to come to bed with her. They have sex, sleep, and wake with the sunrise. Vincent says her name as the light breaks through the dark.

The point of view switches to Enva’s perspective. On a spring evening, years in the future, Enva calls in the favor Matilda owes her. Matilda has been forgotten by the mortals, as she lived with Vincent until his death and then followed him to the mists. She’s the only dead divine able to come and go, crossing the threshold of the mists. Enva thinks about how myths and legends shift and change, citing the differing myths about her and Dacre’s marriage as an example. Enva thinks Matilda should be remembered for loving a mortal, not cut out of the myths because of it.

Enva waits for Matilda in a shop on a magical ley line. She has three typewriters that she seeks to enchant, to bind together, so that Alouette Stone, who is dying of tuberculosis, can communicate with her two friends. Enva pulled strings within her father’s dreams to guide him to have the typewriters commissioned, and now she needs to borrow Matilda’s magic of words and souls to enchant them. Matilda appears and loans Enva the magic before returning to the mists. Enva yearns to play a song inspired by Matilda and Vincent. She looks to the sky and knows Matilda’s magic is about to “rewrite all the old myths” (523).