When Feyre grabs the lead box, the temple’s defenses trigger fully. Amren forces the hidden door open, but a flood crashes into the chamber and then fills the hallway as well. Carrying Amren on her back, Feyre uses her newly gained water power to fight the current, but a massive wave pours down the stairs and seals them behind another lead door, trapping them underwater.

As their air runs out, Amren’s magic is weakened by the place and the object they stole, so she cannot break the door. Feyre hammers and claws at the metal in desperation, certain they are about to die. At the last moment, water-wraiths tear the door away, drag Feyre and Amren through the sea, and force the water from their lungs. Before vanishing, the wraiths explain that they are repaying a debt owed to Feyre’s earlier kindness to one of their sisters.

Feyre and Amren reach shore exhausted, where Rhys finds them and reveals he had been intercepting guards after the temple alarms were triggered. He winnows them back to the town house, where Cassian, Azriel, and Mor demand an explanation. Feyre explains that during the Tithe she gave jewelry to starving water-wraiths when they could not pay, and Amren laughs at the improbable mercy that has now saved their lives.

Once cleaned up, Feyre places the box on the table and, despite her exhaustion, obeys Rhys’s request to open it. The object inside speaks to her mind, calls her "Cursebreaker," and opens only after she pushes past its taunts with her mixed powers. The Book is not paper but metal plates engraved in an unknown script. Amren alone recognizes the writing as the Leshon Hakodesh, a holy tongue from beyond their world, confirming Rhys’s suspicion that she might be able to decode it.

Rhys then admits he also hoped the Book might contain a way to free Amren and send her home, which makes the find deeply personal for her as well as strategically vital against Hybern. Amren says she needs the second half before she can begin. The group then turns to Jurian, with Azriel questioning why Hybern resurrected him and Rhys suggesting Jurian’s old obsessions, especially those involving Miryam and Drakon, may explain his loyalty. As Amren recounts the escape, Feyre quietly toasts Rhys through their bond to answered dreams.