Nesta reaches the bog and sees a face rise from the black water where her reflection had been. The creature is a kelpie, pale and humanoid with black eyes, rotting teeth, and unnaturally long claws. Frozen by terror and humiliation as it notices her fear, Nesta hears a gentle female voice in her mind urging her to run, but she cannot make her body obey.

The kelpie speaks in an unknown language, then lunges. Its claws tear Nesta’s legs as it grabs her and drags her across the moss. Nesta tries to resist by clutching at the grass, but the ground gives her no help, and the kelpie hauls her into the freezing water and under the surface.

Elsewhere, Cassian and Azriel stand over two surviving Autumn Court soldiers after the ambush. The soldiers wear Eris’s insignia, but Cassian notes that this proves little. What alarms both males more is that the prisoners are vacant and unnatural, showing violence but no fear, awareness, or normal behavior, which makes Azriel suspect they may be Eris’s missing soldiers who had already begun acting strangely.

Although Azriel is badly hurt, he binds the captives with his power, and Cassian decides two living prisoners may reveal what happened. Then Cassian remembers Nesta and flies back at once with Azriel. When they reach the tree where Cassian left her, Nesta is gone; Cassian tracks her scent only to the water’s edge, where it abruptly ends, and he realizes the bog has taken her.