After the tavern fight, Zoya’s armed Ravkans move Nina and Matthias away from the crowd through the old covered canal beneath the embassy. They enter a hidden half room and find a small group of frightened Grisha refugees sheltering under the embassy garden, fewer than Nina expected.

Zoya orders Matthias shackled because Matthias is Fjerdan and fights like a drüskelle, but Nina refuses to let him be imprisoned. Genya Safin arrives, reunites with Nina, and confirms that Nina’s disappearance had led the Ravkans to think Nina was dead. Zoya explains that the Ravkans ambushed Nina and Matthias because attacks on Grisha have made anyone using the Grisha contact code a possible Shu threat.

Nina admits she knows about jurda parem because Nina has taken it, and Zoya is alarmed by both Nina’s condition and Nina’s new ability to control bone. Nina gives a careful account of recent events, leaving out Kuwei and the Ice Court, then says she wants to help move the Grisha out of Ketterdam. When Zoya says the harbor is blockaded and foreign ships cannot leave, Nina reveals that their proposed ship belongs to a Kerch Merchant Council member, persuading Zoya and Genya to consider the plan.

While Zoya and Genya confer, Nina and Matthias discuss whether the Ravkans can be trusted with Kuwei and whether violence between Ravka and Fjerda can ever end. Nina learns Matthias brought a duskbomb in case he had to stop Nina without hurting her if parem affected Nina’s power. Their talk turns personal: Nina fears Matthias has not kissed her because of fear, shame, or obligation, but Matthias explains that Fjerdan courtship rules made him hesitate. Nina rejects the idea that anything about them can be proper, kisses Matthias, and Matthias passionately returns the kiss until Zoya and Genya interrupt.

Zoya and Genya agree to work with Nina and Matthias. Nina will send the ship’s boarding details to the embassy, likely through Inej, while the refugees stay hidden until Zoya and Genya can bring them to the harbor. Before leaving, Nina warns Tamar, the Shu Heartrender, not to let the Kherguud take her alive; Tamar gives Nina an instant poison pill made by Genya, and Nina accepts it despite Matthias’s alarm.

On the way back toward Black Veil, the poison pill revives Matthias’s recurring nightmare of losing Nina and his memories of Nina’s brutal withdrawal from parem. Matthias remembers telling Nina about the isenulf and his own wolf, Trassel, whose fierce loyalty mirrored Matthias’s loneliness among the drüskelle. At the canal, Matthias asks whether Nina’s changed powers might protect Nina from parem, and Nina notices that using the bone power may have lessened her craving and restored Nina’s appetite. Their hopeful moment ends when they find a wanted poster for Matthias offering fifty thousand kruge for Matthias Helvar, dead or alive.