Snake

Isla grapples with the augur’s prophecy that she will die before storm season ends unless she finds the Nightshade portal or buys time. Restless and lonely, she wanders the castle at night and encounters Grim. He makes her hot chocolate, their attraction surges, but Isla pulls back and returns to bed alone.

She wakes paralyzed by Tynan, who plans to kill her and use her necklace’s power, unaware her life is bound to Grim’s. Lynx erupts from the shadows and wounds Tynan, freeing Isla. Grim arrives in fury, but at Isla’s request she carries out the execution, stabbing Tynan through the heart.

To deter further threats, Isla publicly embraces the court’s “snake queen” image. Wearing living, poisonous serpents, she throws Tynan’s severed head at Grim’s feet and orders the snakes to devour it, forcing the court to watch. The spectacle sends a brutal warning to Nightshade’s nobles.

Astria approaches Isla afterward. She acknowledges their blood tie and admits she once urged Grim to suspect Isla. Astria speaks of Isla’s father—stoic, duty-bound—condemning his choice to leave and revealing he stole the sword that controls the dreks to keep it from Grim. Isla weighs duty versus heart and the mystery of her parents’ deaths.

Restless without a storm to track the portal, Isla visits her old Wildling room to retrieve familiar knives. There, she finds fresh writing on a parchment—a new line reading “Hello Isla” in Aurora’s handwriting—signaling a new contact and potential complication.