The chapter shifts to the perspective of Isaiah Tiberian, Commander of the 33rd Imperial Legion, who observes Bryce Quinlan through a one-way mirror in a subterranean holding center. Bryce has been silent for hours, a stark contrast to the screaming, thrashing state in which Isaiah and his unit found her in the Old Square alley, her thigh gashed open. Isaiah had classified her as a witness, not a suspect. He is joined by Hunt Athalar—the Umbra Mortis, Micah's personal assassin and feared Fallen angel—who still has blood on his gloves from the scene. Isaiah briefs Hunt: Bryce is a twenty-three-year-old half-Fae, half-human with negligible power, a full civitas, who was found trying to hold a dying angel's heart inside his chest. Earlier in the alley, Hunt had stapled Bryce's severed artery shut after she went feral, calming her by removing his helmet and ordering her to stop. He then flew off to hunt the demon but found no trace.

Isaiah reveals that Captain Naomi Boreas arrested Philip Briggs—a human rebel leader of the Keres faction of Ophion—for the murders, since Briggs had just been released from prison and Danika's Pack of Devils originally busted him. Hunt and Isaiah debate whether Briggs, a human, could have summoned such a powerful demon. The press has not yet been informed, though by morning the news will be everywhere. The chapter also provides backstory on the Fallen angels: Hunt, Isaiah, and their colleague Viktoria (a wraith trapped in a single body as punishment) all bear the halo tattoo of thorns and the SPQM slave brand, remnants of the failed angelic rebellion led by Shahar two centuries ago.

Sabine Fendyr, Danika's mother and Prime Apparent of the wolves, storms in demanding to see Bryce, calling her a "half-breed whore" and accusing her of stealing the Fendyr family sword. Hunt and Isaiah block her. Sabine rails that Danika could never stay out of trouble and blames Bryce for surviving while her daughter did not. Isaiah and Hunt deflect her, sending her upstairs to do paperwork.

Viktoria interrogates Bryce, reading aloud the text messages between Bryce and Danika from that evening—playful, vulgar exchanges that trace Danika's growing worry when Bryce stopped responding, culminating in Danika's final message: "Light it up." Viktoria then plays the only audio the broken hallway camera captured: Danika screaming, begging for mercy as the demon attacked. Hunt bursts into the room demanding the audio be stopped, but before anyone can act, Bryce erupts—flipping the metal table into the observation window, hurling a chair into the wall, and vomiting repeatedly before collapsing on her knees. Hunt kneels beside her without violence, calling her destruction "impressive." Bryce whispers she wants to go home, but Isaiah tells her the apartment is an active crime scene.

A phone call from Naomi orders them to release Bryce immediately: Ruhn Danaan, Crown Prince of the Valbaran Fae and Bryce's cousin, has intervened, claiming the matter falls under Fae jurisdiction. Bryce limps out on her own. Ruhn then arrives, furious, armed with the Starsword, and confronts Hunt and Isaiah. He and Hunt exchange hostile barbs—Hunt needling Ruhn about his relationship with Bryce, Ruhn warning Hunt to stay away from her. After Ruhn leaves to find Bryce, Hunt reveals that Bryce was given a tracking device in her water, active for three days. Isaiah and Hunt reflect on the unprecedented nature of the demon attack: Danika, one of the strongest Vanir in the city, was reduced to begging. Hunt could find no trace of the demon. Isaiah orders all available patrols to watch other young Auxiliary packs, and tells Hunt to destroy the demon if it's found.