Chaol and Dorian watch the carnival being dismantled from a balcony. Chaol has secretly searched Terrasen genealogy records for clues to Celaena’s real identity, confirming that Sardothien is not among the noble houses and making a list of possible families she might belong to, though the search leaves him uncertain.

Chaol asks Dorian how Celaena is, and Dorian says she is coping but has not mentioned Chaol. The conversation turns tense as Dorian notes that Chaol’s father and the king may want Chaol back in Anielle, while Chaol insists he has no desire to become Lord of Anielle and does not intend to leave while Celaena remains in the castle.

Dorian confronts Chaol about his feelings for Celaena, revealing that he noticed their attraction as early as the Yulemas ball. Chaol challenges Dorian for allowing Celaena to remain bound to the king, but Dorian warns that openly trying to free her could provoke the king into punishing both Dorian and Celaena. Dorian tells Chaol to consider where his true loyalties lie, leaving Chaol to recognize that blind loyalty to the crown has helped destroy everything.

The chapter shifts back to Celaena inside Baba Yellowlegs’s wagon, where the witch has briefly knocked Celaena unconscious and chained her wrists. Celaena immediately fights back, breaks Yellowlegs’s nose or face, frees herself from the chains using brutal escape skills learned under Arobynn, and searches the wagon for a weapon while Yellowlegs taunts her from the mirrors about centuries of killing young women and Crochan witches.

Celaena finds an ax and begins smashing the mirrors to eliminate Yellowlegs’s hiding places. Once the real witch is exposed, Celaena offers to leave if Yellowlegs promises never to speak about Celaena and Dorian, but Yellowlegs attacks with a chain, knocking Celaena down and nearly overpowering her with iron teeth and nails.

After a desperate struggle, Celaena reaches the ax and strikes Yellowlegs away. When the witch threatens both Celaena and Dorian and charges again, Celaena decapitates Yellowlegs, knowing beheading is the way to kill a witch. Celaena decides that Dorian must never learn what happened and plans to dispose of the body so Yellowlegs becomes a missing person rather than evidence of a killing.