When Isla and Oro arrive on Moon Isle the next night, Cleo’s dark-blue bird immediately finds them. Isla threatens it with an arrow, furious over what Cleo did to Celeste, and the bird flies off. Oro carries no visible weapons, which Isla understands as both strategy and a message: Oro wants any Moonling watcher to see that he is still confident and powerful even on Cleo’s land.

Isla and Oro travel beyond Cleo’s snow kingdom toward Vinderland territory, the final place where Lightlark’s heart might be hidden. The land is brutally cold, and Oro extends his warmth around Isla as they pass through jagged ice and a forest of dead, snow-covered trees. Isla focuses on the heart and the possibility that this last search could end the curses.

The exiled Wildlings ambush Isla and Oro from the trees and from behind trunks. Isla fights with arrows, sword, and throwing stars, cutting down attackers and saving Oro from a blade at his back. Oro uses fire, Starling energy, and ice against the attackers, then saves Isla when a sharp-toothed man knocks Isla down and nearly kills her. Isla realizes Oro can create a silver sword from Starling energy when he drives it through the attacker’s chest.

After the fight, Oro warns that more exiled Wildlings will come, so he and Isla run until they reach a white-feathered tree blooming from the ice. Isla believes it is the perfect hiding place for the heart and searches its branches and roots with increasing desperation. The tree is empty. Oro admits the heart is not there, and Isla breaks down, fearing they were wrong or that Cleo reached the heart first despite Celeste’s warnings.