Aelin, Chaol, Aedion, and Rowan enter the hidden catacombs beneath the Shadow Market and discover that the place is not ordinary burial tunnels but an ancient temple made of bones. The walls, ceilings, floors, altars, and pillars are formed from skulls and bones covered in confessions written in many languages. Aedion reads some of the inscriptions and concludes the dead were sinners, while Rowan senses that the temple is dangerous and wrong.

The group splits up to search for the hellfire supply without accidentally igniting it. They find drugs, money, and jewelry hidden in skulls and crypts, but no hellfire at first. As Aelin and Rowan move deeper, the language on the bones grows older, and Aelin begins connecting the temple’s supposed god of truth to Damaris, Gavin’s Sword of Truth.

While Aedion eventually calls out that he has found the hellfire, Aelin and Rowan reach the original rear wall of the temple. There they find white marble carved with Wyrdmarks and a large Eye of Elena. When Aelin brings Damaris near it, the sword turns painfully cold, and the wall shifts into a new arrangement of Wyrdmarks, suggesting the sword and the temple are connected.

Aelin reads the carvings as Aedion and Chaol join them. The inscription begins with Elena and Gavin, then recounts the demon wars and reveals that one of the three Valg kings remained trapped in their world after the gate was sealed. This Valg king appeared as a handsome man with golden eyes and became known as Erawan, the Dark King.

Aelin realizes the wall is Gavin’s deathbed confession and uncovers the central lie in Adarlan’s founding legend: Elena and Gavin did not kill Erawan. The Eye only put Erawan to sleep, after which they sealed him inside an iron and stone sarcophagus in a tomb beneath the Black Mountains, with a keep built over it to guard him. Rowan translates “Black Mountains” as Morath, revealing that Erawan was buried beneath the stronghold now tied to Perrington and the king’s forces.

The group concludes that the king’s activity at Morath is almost certainly connected to Erawan. Aedion and Chaol reason that the king’s Wyrdkeys could open the tomb and that the Valg army may be preparation for Erawan’s return, or proof that he has already been raised. Aelin decides they must move quickly, noting that the summer solstice is ten days away and could strengthen her magic if they destroy the clock tower then.