Bryce spends the night at the White Raven club with Fury and Juniper, indulging in lightseeker, mirthroot, and elderberry wine while dancing ecstatically. Juniper abstains from substances due to an early studio class but dances with Bryce in a transcendent display that draws onlookers. Bryce revels in the freedom of the night, sending messages and a video to Danika, and fantasizes about making the Drop with Danika someday so they can live like this forever.

Later, Bryce stumbles home so intoxicated she can barely read, walk, or remember her building's door code. She eventually gets inside and painfully hauls herself up the stairs, noticing an overwhelming stench she initially attributes to the building. On the third floor, she steps in a wet puddle and finds blood on the tile outside her apartment door, which has been violently mangled—its iron frame and protective enchantments destroyed.

Inside the dark apartment, Bryce discovers the bodies of the Pack of Devils. Every piece of furniture is destroyed, every wolf torn apart. She finds Danika in pieces on Bryce's own bed, Connor in pieces at the foot of the bed as if he died defending Danika, and Thorne nearby. Bryce is shattered but hears a noise from the hallway—the trash chute—and realizes the killer may still be present. Blood and non-human prints lead toward the stairs.

Driven by rage and grief, Bryce grabs a broken table leg and chases the creature through shattered glass, across streets, and through alleys toward the Istros River. She finds the creature—a eyeless, gray-skinned demon with crystalline fangs and clear blood—feasting on a badly wounded male angel (malakh) in a dead-end alley. Bryce attacks the demon with the table leg, cracking its skull and smashing its teeth. The demon slashes her thigh open before fleeing over the rooftops.

Rather than continue pursuing the creature, Bryce stays with the dying angel, pressing her hand against his torn-open chest where the demon had been eating toward his heart. She uses his phone to call Crescent City Rescue, struggling through her drug-addled state to communicate their location. She ultimately gives the responder the phone's number to track, screaming it repeatedly until help is dispatched. As the drugs drag her toward unconsciousness, the angel's agonized gaze meets hers while his blood pours through her fingers.