Six days after the massacre of the Pack of Devils, Bryce has been living in a near-catatonic state in a hotel room she shares with her mother, barely eating or drinking, staring at the walls and ignoring all calls and messages. On the seventh morning—the morning of Danika's Sailing ceremony—Bryce is stirred from her stupor by an audiomail from Ithan, who tells her she is not welcome at the Sailing.

Bryce slips out of the hotel in the predawn darkness without waking her mother, moving on silent Fae feet through a service elevator and alley exit. She makes her way to the Bone Quarter, the sacred isle of the dead across the Istros river, leaving behind all mortal possessions including her phone. She pays the fee for the ancient black boat that ferries her to the obsidian steps at the shore of the Bone Quarter, where towering gates carved from leviathan bone loom in the fog.

Kneeling on the black steps before the ivory gates, Bryce reflects on her devastation—the light inside her extinguished, replaced by darkness, silence, and mist. She has come to say goodbye to Danika in the only way left to her, since the wolves have barred her from attending the official Sailing ceremony. As she kneels, the mist thickens, the temperature drops, and an ancient, terrifying creature emerges from the fog. Bryce bows her head, then slowly lifts her gaze to face whatever has arrived.