After Fitz’s death, Evan urges Bree to keep moving through the cave. Bree takes the lead with the flashlight while both of them are shaken, and Evan explains that the imps were visible because aether is stronger underground, making Shadowborn more powerful and harder to kill.

As Bree navigates loose rock near a turn, Bree notices that Evan’s footsteps make no sound. Remembering that goruchel are consummate mimics, Bree realizes that the person behind her is not Evan. Bree tries to hide the discovery and keep walking, but the false Evan detects Bree’s fear and whispers that Bree is too smart.

Bree runs into darkness, twists Bree’s ankle, and loses the flashlight. The impostor taunts Bree while following, revealing that he used Davis’s Gate-opening as cover, opened some Gates himself, and called the imps that killed Fitz. The impostor also admits that he killed the real Evan Cooper and replaced him as Fitz’s Squire.

The demon drops Evan’s disguise and identifies himself as Rhaz. Rhaz explains that his goal is to get to Nick because if a fully Awakened Scion of Arthur dies, the Lines will end forever. Rhaz says Nick’s attachment to Bree made Bree the perfect leverage to force Nick to take Excalibur and fully awaken Arthur.

Rhaz names Morgaine as his mistress and says she will value the discovery of Nick’s weakness. When Rhaz seizes Bree’s ankles, Bree touches soil and roots beneath the gravel, and Bree’s internal doors to root power open as Bree hears Bree’s grandmother urging Bree forward. Empowered, Bree tears free and kicks Rhaz into the ravine.