Ithan reels at the Under-King’s shattered remains, realizing he feels nothing—but the Under-King is truly dead, killed in the burst of Ithan’s ice as Hypaxia’s powered strike helped finish it. Both Ithan and Hypaxia are cut up by ice shrapnel, and Hypaxia rapidly heals them with medwitch magic. Jesiba coolly informs Hypaxia that by killing the Under-King, Hypaxia has effectively become Head of the House of Flame and Shadow and must act fast before Rigelus notices the change.

Pressed to decide what to do with the souls imprisoned in the Quiet Realms, Ithan argues they should be released, since death once functioned without this system. Connor’s ghost refuses to be “sent off into the ether” and, at Jesiba’s insistence and under Hypaxia’s authority, is finally able to speak. Connor leads them to the Dead Gate and reveals the truth of the black bullet: it was made by the dead for Bryce, crafted to hold their secondlight for use with the Godslayer Rifle.

Connor explains that the souls have been preparing an exodus through the Gate and offers all of their secondlight to be stored in the bullet. He tells Ithan to make Bryce’s shot count, then steps into the Gate as its light condenses into a potent “seed.” Under Jesiba’s order, Ithan unscrews the bullet, captures the seed inside, and seals it; the engraving Memento Mori briefly shines as the secondlight settles within.

With Reapers hissing in the distance, Hypaxia turns to stabilizing the realm and acknowledges the coming backlash to the power shift. Ithan asks after Sigrid and requests to speak with her after he returns from the Eternal City. Hypaxia appoints Jesiba as her second-in-command to help handle the Reapers, and Jesiba orders Ithan to go to Pangera and deliver the soul-charged bullet to Bryce Quinlan.

Elsewhere, Tharion and Sathia move through their own high-stakes plan: coordinating with Blue Court contacts to smuggle refugees Beneath before the Court locks down against expected Omega-boat attacks. As Tharion and Sathia celebrate their progress, the Viper Queen confronts them in an alley with her drugged Fae assassins. Sathia recognizes one assassin as Colin McCarthy and learns her father, Padraig Flynn, lied about Colin’s “new position” and supplied him to the Viper Queen; when the Viper Queen threatens Tharion, Hypaxia and Ithan arrive, poised to intervene.