Kai realizes Paedyn is close to death from fever, dehydration, hunger, and the infected gash beneath her ribs. While searching his camp for water, Kai finds a tin box Braxton must have dropped during their earlier fight. Inside is a Healer-made salve, along with a needle and thread, giving Kai the only chance he has to treat Paedyn.

Kai cleans the wound with the salve, and Paedyn wakes long enough to slap him from the pain. After giving her water, Kai explains that Braxton lost the medicine and confirms that he did not kill Braxton, insisting killing is not something he enjoys. Kai then starts stitching Paedyn’s wound, using teasing insults and distractions to keep her attention away from the pain.

As Kai sews the gash closed, he presses Paedyn for answers and she slowly reveals parts of her past. Paedyn says she once had a happy home with her father, but after his death she survived in Loot with Adena, who became her true home. She explains that her father taught her to fight because her ability could not protect her physically, that the dagger she carries was his, and that her mother died of sickness soon after Paedyn was born.

Kai’s feelings deepen as he admits, if only indirectly, that he could not leave Paedyn to die. Their intimate moment is interrupted when a Sight appears and witnesses Kai tending to the slum girl, creating a risk that his father will learn of it. After Kai finishes bandaging her, Paedyn finally admits that Ace attacked her with illusions and wounded her, though she did not kill him. Kai makes her eat and drink, carries her closer to the fire as she falls asleep, and ends the chapter recognizing both how strongly he wants her and how dangerous that attachment has become.