Feyre, Varian, and the others stand in stunned silence after Amren vanishes into the sea, even as their armies below begin celebrating victory. Feyre tries to focus on the aftermath—her father’s body, Cassian’s condition, and the dead—but she senses something wrong in the ruined Cauldron. When she looks closer, she realizes a void is opening inside it, something alien and destructive that is leaking into the world.

Rhys reaches Feyre and, through their bond, sees everything that has happened: her father’s death, Hybern’s defeat, and Amren’s sacrifice. Varian points out that the fissure is growing, and Feyre understands the catastrophe: the Cauldron was never meant to be destroyed because the world itself is bound to it. Horrified that freeing Amren may have doomed everyone, Feyre concludes that if she broke the Cauldron, she might also be able to remake it.

Feyre first grabs the Book, hoping it might help, but she cannot read its symbols without Amren and throws it uselessly into the void. Rhys then urges Feyre to act as Amren described her: a conduit. Though both of them are nearly drained, Rhys insists Feyre try to forge the Cauldron anew with his power flowing through her, and Feyre adapts the spell Amren taught her as their only chance.

When Feyre touches the broken Cauldron, she enters a voidlike state between form and nothingness. Drawing on an old memory that life flowed from the Cauldron when held by female hands, Feyre channels Rhys’s power through herself and begins the spell. Together they pour everything they have into sealing the cracks, welding the Cauldron back together and forcing the escaping void back inside. Feyre feels Rhys weakening behind her, but he keeps giving more, telling her twice that he loves her as the final fracture closes.

The Cauldron is restored at last, whole and contained again, and Feyre feels sunlight and the real world return. Relieved, she turns to Rhys expecting triumph, but the mating bond is gone. She realizes his chest is still, his breath absent, and that Rhys has died after giving all his power to save the world.