After leaving the Court of Nightmares, Rhys takes Feyre not to Velaris but to a secluded mountain lake so they can speak privately. Rhys apologizes for letting Feyre see the most brutal side of him and for losing control after Keir insulted and threatened her. Feyre insists that she chose her role in the Hewn City and does not want Rhys to start restricting her the way Tamlin did. Their disagreement escalates when Rhys admits he will kill anyone who harms her, Feyre compares his protective instincts to Tamlin's, and Rhys angrily demands that she stop comparing them.

The fight turns more personal when Rhys bitterly describes how the world will cast him as the villain who stole Spring's bride while Tamlin remains the golden hero. When Rhys asks Feyre what she wants, Feyre cannot answer, then lashes out by accusing Rhys of hiding behind masks and refusing to let people truly know him. Feyre immediately realizes she has struck at a deep wound, but Rhys shuts down the conversation, takes her home, and avoids her.

In the town house garden that night, Feyre waits for Rhys and reconsiders everything she said. By tracing her anger back to its source, Feyre realizes she has been jealous of Cresseida and that her hurt in the Hewn City came from wanting Rhys to want her genuinely. Feyre admits to herself that she does want him—not his title or power, but the male who helped her survive Under the Mountain and in Velaris—and decides she is ready to try for something real with him, whether it becomes sex, love, or something in between. Rhys never comes to meet her.

The next day Rhys is still gone, and Feyre's first note asking to talk receives no magical reply. She visits Amren, who reveals that Rhys left to hunt the people who attacked them with ash arrows because their enemies may now be able to track his magic whenever he winnows or uses power. Amren also says the group will leave Velaris in two days for an Illyrian war-camp and then the human lands once the queens answer, but they will stay through Starfall, the Night Court's special celebration. Before Feyre leaves, Amren says Feyre brought Rhys back to life after Amarantha and explains that Rhys dreams not of conquest but of peace and freedom for everyone.

Feyre returns home with a new understanding of Rhys's character and thinks that the true villain is the one who locked her up, not the one who freed her. On the day of Starfall, Feyre sends Rhys two more notes—one teasing and one openly angry—because his silence now feels deliberate. Only the final note vanishes, showing that Rhys has at least received it, but he still does not answer. As Nuala and Cerridwen arrive to dress Feyre for the evening's celebration, Feyre is left waiting in uncertainty.