The chapter opens with Gabriel describing the unsettling silence of the wretched horde as they charge Winfael’s palisade. He and Dior hold the highwalk above the gate, using holy water and blades, while Saoirse and Chloe defend the eastern walk with fire arrows and bottles. Bellamy and Père Rafa cover the west with a crossbow, torch, and Rafa’s prayers. Ammunition runs low as the attackers probe for weak spots.

Hearing Chloe’s horn and cry, Gabriel throws a silverbomb to thin the mob, then sprints to reinforce Chloe and Saoirse, who are beset by climbers while a breach opens and wretched pour inside. Gabriel wades into the breach with Ashdrinker and is briefly accompanied by the lioness Phoebe, who tears through the Dead. Amid the chaos, Chloe orders Gabriel to prioritize Dior’s safety, but he insists on saving everyone and races toward Bellamy’s call for help.

At the western breach, Gabriel finds Rafa channeling a blazing silver sigil that repels the Dead where it shines, with Bellamy defending the priest’s flanks. Encircled and faltering, they retreat through an alley as Gabriel cuts a path and they cross the improvised barricade. The defenders regroup, but the wretched still swarm the barrier and Dior refuses Chloe’s order to withdraw, choosing to fight at her side.

A cunning pack drops from rooftops into their midst, overwhelming Dior. In turning holy light and aid toward Dior, Rafa and Chloe leave their backs exposed; Bellamy and Rafa are dragged down and savaged, Rafa’s silver wheel flying from his hand. Rafa is torn open at the throat, Bellamy mauled, and the defense begins to collapse.

As Dior is pinned and bitten, a sudden, impossible phenomenon erupts: a white-hot glow blossoms in the throats of the wretched atop him, and they burst into pillars of purifying flame. With the attackers scattered or stunned by the blaze, Gabriel, Saoirse, and Phoebe finish the remaining Dead and the tide turns, leaving bodies strewn in the snow and the horde in flight.

Gabriel finds Rafa dying and Bellamy fading, and, despite Gabriel’s fatalism, Dior shoves him aside and acts. Smearing his own blood on Rafa’s torn throat, Dior closes the gash instantly; he repeats the act on Bellamy’s wounds with the same miraculous result. Both men revive, breathing and conscious, as Gabriel and Chloe watch in shock. Rafa meets Gabriel’s earlier taunt by gesturing to Dior and declaring that is where his God is.