Oraya and Raihn continue crossing the deadlands by using the Shadowborn cloak and the smoke's ninety-second rhythm. Raihn flies low and erratically to avoid the acidic cloud, then drops with Oraya to the ground each time the wave hits, covering them both with the cloak. The smoke burns, but it does not kill them; Raihn takes the worse exposure because he shields Oraya with his body and wings.

They repeat the pattern over many sprints, growing exhausted. Midway through the crater, three starving wolves attack as soon as the cloak comes off. Raihn, still weakened by earlier injuries, uses a diminished burst of magic to stun them, and Oraya kills two quickly. The third wolf delays them long enough that the smoke arrives early, forcing Raihn to throw Oraya down again; afterward, Oraya sees that the exposed tips of Raihn's wings have been burned and marked red, and the wolf has also bitten him while protecting her.

As they near the golden arch, Oraya feels relief because only a little distance seems to remain. Then Raihn abruptly stops after noticing something in the dirt on the elevated ridge. He picks up a fragment of a silver street sign and, shaken by recognition, identifies the place beneath them as Salinae.

Oraya first thinks the idea is impossible, because Salinae was once a major city of the House of Night. But once Raihn names it, the landscape changes in her understanding: shattered rock becomes ruined buildings, packed paths become roads, and the crater's shape reveals a city that was systematically destroyed. The smell in the air suddenly reminds Oraya of Asteris after star-powered warfare and of the night Vincent took her home sixteen years earlier.

The realization devastates Oraya. Vincent had not only annihilated the Rishan during his campaign; he had also slaughtered the human civilians of Salinae, including wives and children. The chapter ends with Oraya understanding that the wasteland around them is evidence of Vincent's mass killing, forcing her to confront the full horror of the man who raised her.