As Feyre holds a captive Suriel, four naga emerge, intent on taking both the Suriel and Feyre. Calculating her odds, Feyre screams to draw help and shoots the snare, freeing the Suriel, then looses an arrow that fells one naga as she flees toward the stream.

The remaining three chase Feyre through the forest. She uses her bow as a club to stagger one, but the naga encircle her. When they close in, a naga seizes her and breaks her bow; Feyre counters with a boot knife, stabbing one in the neck and dropping him before the other two overpower her.

At the brink of being carved apart, a roar splits the clearing. Tamlin arrives in a feral fury, tearing out one naga’s throat and disemboweling the last as it flees. Feyre, shaking and blood-soaked, stays low with her knife until Tamlin’s claws retract and the immediate threat passes.

Tamlin explains he had been tracking the pack, heard her scream, and found the first naga dead with her arrow. He heals Feyre’s wounds with magic, gives her his tunic, and helps her up. Tamlin, ashamed the naga breached his lands, tells Feyre to stay close to the house when he’s called away to deal with trouble.

On the silent walk back, Feyre reflects on the Suriel’s counsel: stay with the High Lord. She decides to avoid further risky inquiries and to send only a minimal warning to her family. She notes Tamlin’s lack of triumph, reading instead a deep, chastened defeat in him.