After the harbor assassination attempt, Isla feels a sharper hunger for power because her blades and training seem inadequate against Lightlark’s dangers. She buys a Wildling-style dagger from a Starling shop and practices furiously until Grim appears, provoking both her anger and her attraction. Isla accuses Grim of shifting between closeness and distance, and Grim admits he has avoided Isla because they should stay away from each other.

Grim warns Isla that he is dangerous and should not be trusted, identifying with her experience of being hated and treated as monstrous. When Isla challenges Grim to prove he is not her enemy, she asks what Oro meant by saying Grim protects the rulers from a greater danger. Grim confirms worse threats exist but refuses to explain, saying the curses matter more immediately.

Instead, Isla asks Grim to show her where the Wildlings lived on Lightlark. Grim leads Isla through the Mainland forest, where the dangerous plants do not attack in Grim’s presence, and they cross a broken vine bridge to Wild Isle. Isla finds the island dead and barren, but the survival of the mirrored Wildling palace, called the Place of Mirrors, gives Isla hope that Wildlings can endure.

Inside the Place of Mirrors, Isla and Grim explore abandoned halls, dead gardens, and a back wall carved into a mountain. Isla notices markings on the wall, including a large swirl and battle scenes. When Isla asks about the Nightshade lands, Grim says he will show her one day, preserving the uneasy intimacy between them.

That night, after Oro does not come to Isla’s door, Isla secretly returns alone to Wild Isle. She struggles through the dark forest without powers, determined that no one, not even Grim, can know about the trip. In the palace, Isla recognizes the spiral marking as a hidden door like the one in her chambers where she found her starstick.

Isla believes the Wildling vault may contain something important enough to have survived the palace’s ruin and possibly useful to her now. The door will not open by force, and Isla discovers a long, intricate keyhole. Isla searches the palace through the night, trying objects as possible keys, but by dawn none work and the vault remains sealed.