Emily returns to the cottage shaken by the faun attack and finds it warped by faerie influence: strange flowers, phantom waves, and a storm that avoids the cottage like a leaky umbrella. Wendell is awake and furious at being left behind, but visibly ill; Ariadne admits she hid his cloak and boots to stop him. Emily is sick with guilt over Shadow’s collar and Eberhard’s injuries, while Rose predicts the villagers will likely evict them and suggests packing to leave St. Liesl.

Emily retreats upstairs to reinforce the salt circle around the severed faerie foot. Rose follows, but instead of scolding Emily, he bluntly calls Emily’s self-recrimination self-indulgent and insists Emily focus on the next move. In an awkward attempt at comfort, Rose tells a story from his early fieldwork about a boggart that followed him from Scotland and caused chaos in an Alpine village by impersonating both villagers and a “ghost.” The conversation ends with Rose unexpectedly offering to write the foreword to Emily’s next book and to mentor Emily in scholarship.

A violent battering starts at the cottage door: the nightly “visitors” have escalated to trying to smash their way in. Ariadne realizes they forgot to leave offerings; Emily suspects a different cause and questions whether the faerie foot is involved. Emily asks Eichorn if he carries something of the fauns; Eichorn reveals a faun tooth Danielle de Grey kept after accidentally killing a trapped faun, parts of which were later dispersed for museum display—including the foot Emily stole from Edinburgh.

Emily orders everyone back and opens the door despite the danger. Outside stands Danielle de Grey with a large twisted faun horn, flickering through ages and half vanishing in fog as if chained by deep Faerie. Eichorn lunges toward Danielle, but Wendell restrains him and warns Danielle is still ensnared in multiple layers of Faerie. Wendell pulls Danielle into the cottage, and immediately collapses, shaking violently; Rose and Emily lower Wendell to the floor as Ariadne tries to help everyone with blankets and tea.

Emily points out the faerie foot has moved onto the stairs, “standing” and facing the door. Emily explains the foot, tooth, and horn were taken from the same faun and have been drawing each other together, creating doors and guiding paths; Danielle confirms the horn repeatedly led her to the cottage through a nightmare-like muddle. At dawn, Eichorn and Danielle intend to flee St. Liesl, and Danielle initially refuses to help with the nexus, condemning Emily’s involvement in Wendell’s politics; after Emily threatens retaliation, Danielle sharply agrees to show them the way.

By the fire, Emily tries and fails to feed Wendell Poe’s cakes, answers “yes” to him in a private whisper, and forces herself to reconcile with a frightened Shadow. Wendell briefly wakes with a troubling flicker of wings behind his eyes and, by tucking Emily’s hair behind her ear, stitches two moments in time together to deliver a message tied to a past conversation about his formidable cat, Orga. Reeling, Emily realizes the cure for Wendell’s worsening condition: she must fetch his cat.