Alecto awakens in the body that had been the rock of the Locked Tomb. She breaks her chains and her own bones with them, then rises while calling out in pain and recognition.

Ianthe Tridentarius tries to attack Alecto, but the black-eyed child on the altar warns Ianthe that harming Alecto will ruin their vow. Alecto strikes Ianthe away into the water, and the tomb’s skeletons rise but retreat when Alecto lifts the sword. As Alecto steps from the bier, her broken limbs mend, though she is still disoriented and calls for John.

Alecto sees dead children fighting living children across the tomb and remembers herself when someone calls her name. She speaks of John’s appeasements and of how he taught her to die, though Pyrrha cannot hear her through the chaos.

Alecto turns back toward the black-eyed child, intending violence because of the vow, but recognizes the child’s face from a dream. The child declares lifelong love for the corpse of the Locked Tomb and asks to be destroyed according to Alecto’s word. Alecto kisses the child violently, tastes the child’s blood, and realizes the child is of the tomb-keeper’s blood: the line of Anastasia still exists.

Remembering her vow to Anastasia, Alecto swears service to the child until the child names the favor that will discharge the oath. Though the child feels unworthy, Alecto places the child’s hand on the sword and formally offers service. A furious voice from the opposite shore objects with crude jealousy.

Afterward, Alecto goes to John’s ship with the fainted child over one arm and the iron sword in her other hand. Finding the River still dead and John asleep, drunk, and disheveled, Alecto drives the sword through John’s chest into his heart. John wakes and greets her as Annabel.