Vernon confronts Elide at the inn with ilken and reveals that the innkeeper has betrayed her. Vernon mocks Elide’s claim that Lorcan is her husband, says Lorcan has left, and orders the ilken to take Elide away. As the creatures drag Elide toward a coffinlike iron box meant to fly her back to Morath, Vernon tries to break Elide further by claiming Manon is dead and by mentioning what Elide took from Kaltain.

The stone in Elide’s jacket awakens, but a warning voice urges Elide not to touch or acknowledge it. Terrified of being returned to Morath and used by Erawan, Elide decides she has only one way to stop it. When the ilken shoves Elide toward the box, Elide deliberately strikes the edge, breaks her nose, grabs Vernon’s knife, and turns it on herself.

Lorcan has not left; he has been hidden nearby in the fog, having set weapons across the rooftops for an ambush. Lorcan throws a hatchet and knocks the dagger from Elide’s hand before Elide can kill herself. Lorcan then attacks the ilken from the rooftops, killing and wounding them while Elide runs into a narrow alley—not merely to escape, but to retrieve Lorcan’s hatchet.

Despite Elide’s injured wrist and bleeding face, Elide attacks an ilken from behind, destroys its wings, and beheads it. The last ilken snatches Vernon and escapes into the sky, though Elide hurls the hatchet after them and nearly hits its wing. Elide then executes a crawling, wounded ilken and sends a message for Erawan: if he keeps sending monsters after Elide, Elide will carve Manon’s name on Erawan’s heart. When Lorcan considers killing the innkeeper, Elide stops him by saying there has been enough death.

Lorcan carries Elide back to their boat and gets them moving downriver under cover of mist. Elide admits Vernon told her Lorcan had left, and Lorcan realizes Elide would not have stopped the dagger. Lorcan asks about Manon and Kaltain, and Elide explains that Manon helped Elide escape Morath while Kaltain, enslaved by Erawan and forced to carry the stone, sacrificed herself to destroy much of Morath. Elide shows Lorcan the scrap of cloak and the dark stone Kaltain meant for Celaena; Lorcan recognizes the wrongness of it and tells Elide to put it away.

After cleaning Elide’s injuries, setting her nose, and binding her wrist, Lorcan explains what he knows about Wyrdkeys and Wyrdgates. Elide understands that the stone is one of the keys and hopes giving it to Aelin will shift the war. Elide refuses to fully believe Manon is dead without proof. Lorcan promises that he will always find and protect Elide, and Elide later kisses his cheek and promises the same in return. When Elide wakes, Lorcan has quietly provided clean linen for Elide by cutting up one of his own shirts.