As night falls in the Blood Rite, Nesta, Emerie, and Gwyn are forced to sleep in a tree because they cannot find a cave. Gwyn explains that she has been tying herself to branches with rope taken from the supplies left for the Rite, and Emerie uses the quiet to explain more of the ordeal ahead: Ramiel is still days away, healing is slowed, and the hardest route up the mountain runs through the Pass of Enalius, named for the Illyrian warrior who died holding off an ancient enemy force. The history makes Nesta think about legacy, but the three women focus on survival, taking turns on watch while hunger and the beasts below threaten them through the night.

On the fourth day, Gwyn scouts from a treetop and spots a ravine with a wooden bridge, likely still intact because no one else has reached it yet. Knowing the first group there could destroy the bridge, the three women run for it, only to see six males sprinting for the same crossing. Nesta changes course so they can intercept the males before the bridge, and the three friends fight as a unit: Emerie kills the first male, Gwyn shields and opens an opponent for Nesta, and Nesta drops several attackers herself. Their coordinated victory confirms how well they fight together and makes them fully claim the identity they have trained for.

Elsewhere, Cassian and Azriel continue watching Briallyn's warded castle after four days of frustrating inaction. Cassian is consumed by fear for Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie, but Azriel insists they can do nothing until an opening appears. When a caravan finally leaves the castle, the two males take to the sky and discover Eris riding out beside Briallyn. Because Eris still carries his Made dagger, Azriel concludes he is not enthralled by the Crown, which makes Cassian fear deliberate betrayal, so they decide to shadow the party instead of striking immediately.

Back near the ravine, Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie are attacked again before they can cross. Emerie reaches the bridge first and Nesta follows, but Gwyn is hit in the thigh by an arrow and cannot outrun the pursuing males. To save her, Nesta ties rope to an arrow, shoots it to Gwyn, and orders Emerie to brace the other end around a tree. Once Gwyn wraps herself in the rope and runs onto the bridge, Nesta cuts the bridge supports with Emerie's sword, sending the chasing males into the ravine. Nesta and Emerie hold the rope and haul Gwyn back up despite shredding Nesta's hands. Afterward, they remove the arrow, bind Gwyn's wound, and spend two more starving, exhausting days half-carrying her until they finally reach the foot of Ramiel.

Before dawn at the mountain, the three women face a choice between hiding on a safer path or attempting the Breaking. Gwyn refuses the safe road and reveals why: during Hybern's attack on Sangravah, she hid the children, watched her twin sister Catrin be beheaded, and was raped before Azriel rescued her. Emerie then tells them about her father's years of abuse, including killing her mother and brutalizing Emerie until his voice lived inside her head. Nesta answers with her own truth about her father's death, her self-destruction, and the Cauldron's power. Instead of judging one another, they offer understanding. Strengthened by that honesty, they decide to climb Ramiel by the hardest path and to win the Rite not for Illyrian approval, but to prove to themselves that they can.