This journal entry is written by Wendell while Emily, Lilja, and Margret sleep in a sleigh on the way back to Hrafnsvik. He explains that after waking and finding Emily and Shadow gone, he followed Emily's tracks to a frozen lake and realized she had entered and re-entered a travelling faerie realm without fully escaping it. When Shadow found him in distress, Wendell tore a hole into the realm instead of seeking a proper door and found Emily in a cave.

Emily immediately demanded help for Margret, whose enchantment still lingered. Wendell warned that he could heal her but not restore her completely, then, with Lilja's consent, he melted the faerie crown from Margret's forehead. The magic left a gleaming snowflake scar, but Margret returned to herself and reunited emotionally with Lilja. Wendell then learned that Shadow is actually a Black Hound concealed by glamour, and Emily told him how she had once rescued the Grim in Scotland by outwitting and bribing a boggart.

As the group left the cave near evening, an ancient faerie warrior shot Wendell through the chest with an enchanted ice arrow. Because the border of the Hidden Ones' realm was passing over them, Wendell could use limited royal power there: he rewound a few seconds of time, caught the arrow, and confronted the attacker. The old faerie recognized Wendell as an exiled prince, insulted him, and attacked with a sword that absorbed Wendell's magic, forcing Wendell into a difficult defensive fight.

While Wendell struggled, Emily kept asking what he needed and searched for a folkloric loophole. When Wendell shouted that he needed a sword, Emily stabbed her own arm and let her tears freeze into a blade, drawing on an old story of a faerie queen forging a weapon from grief. Wendell recognized the tale as one tied to his own ancestry and poured his magic into the forming sword. Lilja then snatched up the dropped weapon and threw it to him before the attacker could destroy it.

Armed at last, Wendell turned the fight, protected Emily, and dueled the old faerie properly. He disarmed and decapitated him, then rewound time to repeat the killing for his own satisfaction until Emily shouted for him to stop after seeing that Lilja was sickened by the violence and temporal distortion. The chapter ends with Wendell watching Emily sleep against his shoulder, underscoring both their successful escape and the growing intimacy and trust between them.