After more days alone in her windowless cell, Dianna remains weak from torture, starvation, and refusing celestial food. Celestial guards in fireproof tactical gear enter without Liam or The Hand, leading Dianna to think her interrogation may be over and that she is being taken to die.

The guards move Dianna through the underground prison into a garage and secure her inside an armored transport with magic-imbued chains. Dianna notices multiple similar vehicles, recognizing the convoy as a tactic meant to hide valuable cargo and make rescue harder. Dianna assumes no one is coming for her, still wounded by Kaden’s message that the book matters more than she does.

Logan joins Dianna in the transport and warns that Liam has authorized Logan to kill Dianna if she tries to escape or endangers the team. Dianna taunts Logan, and Logan punches Dianna hard enough to knock her unconscious. When Dianna wakes during the ride, Logan is speaking by phone with his wife about dropping Dianna off and continuing to a meeting in Silver City of Hadramiel.

Logan mocks Dianna for being unloved, which forces Dianna to reflect on Kaden’s lack of affection, her hunger for connection, and Gabby’s accusation that Dianna is a monster. Dianna keeps up a defiant façade despite her weakness and asks where she is being taken. By provoking Logan about his wife and the Ritual of Dhihsin, Dianna tricks Logan into revealing that their destination is Silver City in Ecanus, a famed celestial location from which legend says no one returns.

Dianna eventually sleeps until the convoy comes under attack. Logan panics when radio contact with the other transports fails and screams and rushing sounds come through the static. The truck is violently struck, rolls repeatedly, and crashes; then the rear door is torn away by a dark figure. The attacker drags Logan from the wreck, and Dianna hears Logan scream before she blacks out.