Feyre searches the devastated Spring Court manor, reading blood and footprints to deduce a siege. In the dining room she traces side-by-side tracks suggesting Tamlin and Lucien left without a fight. When Alis limps in, Feyre learns Tamlin and Lucien live but were taken to Amarantha’s court Under the Mountain.

In the charred kitchen, Alis reveals Amarantha’s rise: once Hybern’s emissary and lethal general, whose sister Clythia loved the human Jurian and was betrayed and butchered. After decades of earning trust, Amarantha drugged the seven High Lords, stole most of their powers, enslaved Prythian, and established her palace Under the Mountain. The supposed blight is Amarantha herself, testing borders and sending monsters.

Alis explains the curse: at a masquerade she bound masks to the Spring Court and decreed Tamlin could break the spell only if a human who hated faeries killed one of his men unprovoked and later confessed true love to him. Bound to silence, Tamlin sent sentries disguised as wolves; many died. Andras let Feyre kill him, fulfilling the first condition, but Feyre never spoke her love before the forty-nine years ended. Three days after Feyre left, Amarantha seized Tamlin and his court. Other courts that resisted—Day, Summer, Winter—were crushed, their people forced Under the Mountain.

Alis shares her past from the Summer Court, the murder of her sister and mate, and how Tamlin hid her nephews. She warns that Amarantha gathers vicious allies like the Attor and likely sanctions human-realm attacks, underscoring the looming threat. Feyre reels with guilt over Andras and her missed chance.

Feyre asks whether Tamlin, restored, could defeat Amarantha; Alis is unsure. Despite Alis’s insistence that entering is suicide, Feyre demands a path Under the Mountain. Determined to act, Feyre resolves to go, and Alis, moved, agrees to lead her to the wall.