Feyre wakes at dawn in the Night Court, high above snowcapped mountains, with Rhysand watching over her. Rhysand explains that after Tamlin sealed Feyre inside the manor, Feyre screamed and wrapped herself in darkness, but harmed no one. Because taking Feyre directly from the Spring Court would have risked a legal and military conflict between courts, Mor had to enter the manor alone, disable the sentries herself, and carry Feyre across the border before Rhys could bring her away.

When Feyre realizes she is not required to return to the Spring Court, she admits that Tamlin locked her in the house and that she has nowhere else to go. Rhysand offers her safety, food, shelter, and work in exchange for helping him. Feyre decides she cannot go back yet, because remaining in the manor after Tamlin's imprisonment might complete the damage Amarantha began under the mountain. Although Feyre still leaves room for the possibility that Tamlin and she might someday heal, she chooses not to return for now.

As Feyre drinks the tea Rhys gives her, the two discuss the strange powers emerging in her. Rhys confirms that the darkness she used is likely part of the power she inherited from him, suggests any wings would probably come through Tamlin's shape-shifting, and guesses that the hardened wind she once made likely came from the Day Court. He tells Feyre that winnowing depends on power and training rather than belonging to one court, and that she will have to discover the rest of her gifts herself.

Rhys tells Feyre to rest while he attends business elsewhere in his lands, but the thought of being left alone with her thoughts terrifies her. Feyre asks to go with him. Rhys warns her that if she accompanies him, she will see things she must never reveal to anyone outside his court, even if she later returns to the Spring Court, because exposing them would get his people killed. Feyre agrees to keep the secret, and Rhys decides to take her.

After quickly bathing and dressing, Feyre winnows with Rhys through darkness and stars. Instead of arriving in ruins, she finds herself in a sunlit townhouse in a living city. The house feels warm, worn, and genuinely loved rather than formal or empty, and Rhys reveals that they have come to Velaris, the City of Starlight.