In an alley behind a warehouse, Sabine confronts Ithan Holstrom’s group and targets Sigrid, furious that her brother hid “pups” and that Sigrid survived. Sigrid, shaken but feral with grief, vows vengeance for her murdered sister. When Sabine attacks, Declan and Flynn shoot; Declan aims to disable Sabine, but Flynn blows off Sabine’s face, buying the group time to flee.

The pursuing wolves abruptly fall silent, and the Viper Queen appears, having clearly been watching. She calls Ithan a “bad dog,” and Ithan realizes they are now in her hands—especially with Sabine’s ruined body at their feet.

In the Eternal Palace on Midgard, Lidia walks with Rigelus to a sealed subterranean hall of mystics in sunken tanks. She requests the Sprite Queen Irithys—imprisoned in a warded crystal bubble and tattooed to limit her power—to help “motivate” the three dungeon prisoners. Over the Mistress of the Mystics’ objections that Irithys’s light protects against Hel, Rigelus authorizes it, granting Lidia a week; Lidia coldly promises Athalar will break sooner.

On the Fae homeworld, Bryce refuses her food and debates escape. Finding a grate in her cell floor, she discovers a pit filled with sobek-like monsters and decides the door’s warded power (echoing Rhysand) is too dangerous to wait out. Using dwindling magic, Bryce teleports into the pit, realizes she cannot teleport again, and discovers her Starborn light makes the creatures recoil.

Bryce notices her chest-star brightens toward one tunnel and fades toward the other, and she chooses to trust it as a guide. By forcing calm and summoning love—especially Danika’s memory—Bryce steps down among the monsters; they become docile, allowing her to cross their “sea” toward the star-lit path, feeling for the first time the weight of being a queen.

Back in the Viper Queen’s territory, Tharion—drugged on Ariadne’s venom—watches Ithan, Declan, Flynn, Marc, and Sigrid arrive under the Viper Queen’s escort. The group confirms Bryce vanished, while Hunt and Ruhn are alive but imprisoned in the Asteri’s dungeons; they also reveal Sabine has been grievously wounded. Ithan tells Tharion they came to free him and take the Depth Charger to rescue Ruhn and Athalar, but Tharion, broken and resigned, insists there’s no saving him. Later, Ithan tries to steady an increasingly panicked Sigrid, who fears being trapped again, as the group lies awake realizing any exit is controlled by the Viper Queen’s assassins.