Feyre is trapped near a stream when Lucien and four Spring Court sentinels confront her in the rain. Lucien says they have been hunting for her for over two months and urges her to come home, warning that Tamlin has not been himself. Feyre refuses, telling Lucien that the Spring Court stopped being her home when Tamlin locked her inside it, and she braces herself with Cassian’s training because she knows one touch from Lucien could let him spirit her away before Rhys can reach her.

When Lucien lunges, Feyre reacts first. She uses her powers to become smoke, ash, and night, slipping past him as time seems to slow, and reappears behind the sentinels. Rhys then steps to her side, and the display startles Lucien and the guards. Rhys coldly mocks Lucien for ignoring Feyre’s refusal, while Feyre warns Lucien not to come looking for her again.

Lucien insists Tamlin will never stop waiting for her and suggests Rhys has altered her mind. Feyre rejects that completely and turns the confrontation into an accusation: Lucien saw her wasting away in the Spring Court, heard her beg for help, and still chose obedience to Tamlin over protecting her. To keep Velaris and Rhys’s court safe, Feyre deliberately plays the part Lucien expects from the Night Court. She manifests talons and Illyrian wings through shape-shifting, declares that the human girl Lucien knew died Under the Mountain, and warns that if Tamlin sends anyone else after her, she will hunt them down.

Lucien, visibly hurt and shaken, finally orders the sentinels to leave and departs after promising death to Rhys and his court. Once he is gone, Rhys touches Feyre’s wing and realizes she created it with Tamlin’s shape-shifting gift. Rhys carries Feyre to a safer location, and Feyre admits that what unsettles her most is not seeing Lucien but how easily she performed coldness and felt so little. Rhys shares her anger that Lucien failed her, then gently lightens the moment by telling Feyre she looks good with wings and kissing her brow.