Ithan, tired of guarding Hypaxia’s work from Jesiba’s office, goes to the morgue and finds Hypaxia overwhelmed among vials. Hypaxia reveals she has created an antidote to the parasite by adapting the synth antidote, but it required all of Hunt Athalar’s stored lightning to bind it, leaving six quartz crystals drained.

Hypaxia warns the cure is unstable and temporary: it could go stale if jostled, and even if it works, everyone will be reinfected once its effects wear off because Midgard’s water remains contaminated. Hypaxia admits she is afraid to test it on herself, both for safety and because she doesn’t know who she will be without the parasite. She pushes Ithan to consider what increased power could mean—especially the possibility of challenging Sabine and ending her rule.

Before Hypaxia can stop him, Ithan drinks the antidote himself and blacks out. He wakes to heightened senses and discovers the parasite’s mental barrier is gone, replaced by raw dominance and a surge of power. Ithan shifts faster than ever and realizes he can summon ice and snow—an elemental magic he didn’t think wolves could possess—confirming the antidote worked. Ithan insists they must get the antidote to their friends and resolves to start making real plans.

Elsewhere, Bryce, Hunt, Ember, and Randall arrive by helicopter at the Northern Rift near Nena, facing brutal cold and a massive black wall with warded airspace. They find the gate’s guard post deserted and so icebound it takes effort to open, which alarms them because an angelic guard should never abandon the post. They manage to get one heater running inside the booth to keep Ember and Randall from freezing while Bryce and Hunt assess the gates.

As the short northern daylight fades, Randall calls them back to the booth: security footage is playing, and what it shows shocks Bryce and Hunt. Hunt immediately insists they must reach the Rift at once, and the chapter ends on the urgent move toward whatever the footage revealed.