Gabriel awoke to Dior’s escape and admitted his fury was really at himself for believing she would hide while others died for her. On Aveléne’s highwalk, he told Baptiste and Aaron that Dior had switched from road to river, revealing he could sense a phial of his blood he had hidden in her coat. Using this sanguimancy, he felt her moving north on the frozen Mère, with Dead in pursuit. He demanded a stripped-down sled and dog team and departed alone, despite Aaron’s warnings, taking bombs and holy water.

Racing upriver through worsening snow and cold, Gabriel picked up Dior’s trail and the mass of Dead pursuing her: wretched, several highbloods, and at the rear, Danton Voss, the Beast of Vellene. As daylight waned, the Dead gained on Dior. Gabriel saw Dior act with gutter-born cunning: she cut her dogs free and ignited barrels of black powder on her sled. The explosions shattered the river ice, plunging a hundred wretched and two highbloods into the freezing current. Many perished, but Danton and several highbloods skirted the break and continued the chase toward the solid ice near shore.

Dior, dragged behind her dogs, crashed at a snow drift and was seized by a highblood; when her blood touched him, his Ironheart flesh burned. Gabriel arrived, bombed and cut through wretched, and formed a back-to-back defense with Dior, who fought with her silver dagger while her blood scorched attackers. Ammunition spent and encircled by nearly a dozen highbloods including Maarten the Butcher, Roisin the Red, Liviana, and the boy Fetch, they faced Danton’s demand that Gabriel surrender Dior in exchange for a chance at vengeance on Fabién Voss.

Gabriel rejected the offer, gripped Dior’s hand, and reignited his bloodgift: his sevenstar and lion sigils blazed crimson. As the highbloods wavered, Liathe arrived from the snow, wounded but armed with a sword and flail of her own blood, declaring she would take Dior. Danton ordered his highbloods to kill Liathe while he attacked Gabriel and Dior.

Gabriel and Danton clashed at full strength: Gabriel’s burning aegis harried Danton, but Danton’s ancien Ironheart flesh withstood blows, and he wounded Gabriel repeatedly. Gabriel finally drove Ashdrinker into Danton’s shoulder, but the blade stuck; Danton disarmed him and pinned Gabriel to the ice with his sabre. As Danton leaned in to finish him, Ashdrinker suddenly pierced through Danton’s back—wielded by Dior.

When Ashdrinker, smeared with Dior’s holy blood from her lacerated palms, cut Danton, his wounds ignited. Dior struck again, slitting his throat as the sanctified blade set his body ablaze. Danton convulsed, burned to ash, and died on the ice. Gabriel, stunned, acknowledged Dior’s deed; Dior quipped in reply. The Beast of Vellene was dead while Liathe and the remaining highbloods’ fight raged offstage.