Bryce’s newly unlocked power surges up through the star floor into her body, and she hears the ancient “song” of Avallen’s land-magic that has been held in reserve for ages. Realizing Helena bound the land’s soul in magical chains, Bryce rejects any Fae claim over it and tells Avallen to be free.

The release hits instantly: light erupts, the caves convulse, and the surrounding stone collapses and heaves upward. Pelias’s sarcophagus, the corpses of the dead kings, and the remains of their ancestors are swallowed and ground to dust as the earth parts around Bryce and the others.

They are thrust up into daylight in the hills less than a mile from the castle and royal city, as if the caverns have carried them back. From the star at Bryce’s feet, grass and flowers spread, and the river from the caverns bursts out into the open, flowing down the newly formed hill.

Flynn and Sathia react with delighted disbelief, kneeling to touch the living ground as their earth magic answers the change: Flynn raises an oak, and Sathia spills runners and brambles of fruit-bearing plants. Tharion points to the sea, now clear turquoise instead of gray and violent, and new islands rise—lush, green, and alive, matching what they had seen on Declan’s map.

Bryce feels the land’s joy at being seen and freed, and she and Ruhn share a raw mix of relief and grief—especially with their father gone beneath the earth. In the middle of the reborn landscape and looming war, Ruhn kisses Bryce’s brow and affirms her rule: “Long live the queen.”