After Rowan takes the witch arrow meant for Aelin, Aelin helps Rowan across the temple stones while Aedion holds back Manon’s sentinels with arrows. When Aedion runs out of arrows, Aelin uses the blood oath to command Rowan to run across the second bridge, then turns back to stop Manon and the witches from reaching them.

Aelin cuts the chains of the first bridge, trapping the other witches across the ravine, but Manon reaches Aelin and wounds her arm. Manon recognizes that Aelin used Chaol’s blood to immobilize her earlier and attacks out of law, honor, and fury. Aelin stops Aedion from intervening, then she and Manon put away their swords and begin a brutal close-quarters fight with knives, iron nails, and fangs.

Manon proves faster and stronger than Aelin expected, forcing Aelin to retreat from pillar to pillar. Aelin uses that retreat as a tactic, luring Manon into striking the ancient columns until one collapses into another and brings the temple roof down on Manon. The island begins to break apart, and Aelin runs for the remaining bridge toward Aedion, Rowan, and Chaol.

Before Aelin can escape, Asterin’s desperate screams draw Aelin’s attention to Manon, who is trapped beneath fallen stone as the temple collapses. Though Manon is Aelin’s enemy and would have killed her, Aelin feels a powerful tug of conscience and goes back. Aelin frees Manon, hauls her toward the bridge, and warns that she will be furious if saving Manon gets Aelin killed.

Aelin and Manon barely reach the far side as the bridge snaps and the temple disappears into the ravine. Aedion catches Aelin, while Chaol pulls Manon to safety. Aelin immediately runs to Rowan, and Manon later wakes to find the humans gone and the Thirteen arriving; Manon understands that the Queen of Terrasen has saved her life, leaving Manon with a life debt to her enemy and a sharper sense of how destructively her grandmother and the King of Adarlan are using them.