After killing Tarik Relaken, Raeve slips on her iron ring to mute Clode’s overwhelming elemental song and checks the nearby paths and bridges for witnesses. Finding no one, Raeve returns to Tarik’s corpse, removes the bloodied outer layer of her gown to reveal a clean duplicate beneath, and considers how to dispose of him. She decides against the rubbish chute, drags Tarik to the edge of the wind tunnel, and pushes his body into the Ditch, where it is impaled on the rocks below.

Raeve cleans the last traces of the killing from the snow, pockets Tarik’s hand, and prepares to leave. Before exiting, Raeve notices a parchment on the wall and reads it. The notice accuses her side of stealing children and exploiting their gifts, and it reveals that the Crown has shifted tactics: instead of merely threatening people who deal with them, it is now offering a large reward that could tempt the poor and desperate. Raeve realizes this changes the danger around her and tears the notice down.

As Raeve turns the corner, she collides with the cloaked man who had watched her earlier at the Hungry Hollow. The wind throws back his hood, and Raeve is startled both by his striking appearance and by the forceful energy he gives off. He grips her wrist, seems ready to uncover her face, and demands her real name instead of the false one she used before.

Raeve responds by pressing a hidden iron dagger to his crotch and threatening him until he releases her. Although the encounter is tense, the man does not attack. Instead, he notes that there is a dead fae male speared below. Raeve answers that she did not see a male, only a monster, making clear what Tarik was to her. When the man says he agrees, Raeve decides he belongs in a safer category than Tarik. She warns him not to follow her and leaves down the staircase.