In the rain-soaked aftermath of the attack, Alex sits among the corpses in stolen servant’s clothes while Jakob’s deception leaves her supposed to be dead. She helps Baptiste pull arrows from Jakob and learns that he was cursed by a witch and cannot die. Overwhelmed by the slaughter, the deaths around her, and the collapse of her old identity, Alex accepts back her snake-carved dagger from Sunny and struggles to stop crying.

The survivors take stock of one another. Vigga, who carried out much of the massacre in werewolf form, casually washes herself at the well while Brother Diaz recoils from both her nakedness and her danger. Baron Rikard dryly confirms that Vigga is anything but safe. Balthazar emerges from the ruined inn with the badly injured Duke Michael, and Alex is relieved to find Michael alive after he has twice saved her.

Baptiste examines Duke Michael’s shattered leg and sets it as best she can while the others talk. Balthazar inspects the dead beast-warriors and Duke Michael explains that Eudoxia created such human-animal hybrids as part of her experiments to locate the soul. Jakob insists they must leave immediately, but when Brother Diaz proposes returning to the Holy City, Duke Michael warns that the enemy knew their location and that someone in the Celestial Palace may have betrayed them. Because Alex’s survival and destination were meant to be secret, Michael concludes that neither the Holy City nor its court can be trusted.

Duke Michael says there is now only one safe course: Alex must still reach Troy and claim the Serpent Throne, while he returns toward the Holy City with the two other surviving men. Brother Diaz protests that their tiny, monstrous company cannot possibly escort a princess across such danger, but Alex, furious at being hunted, declares that she is going to Troy. Sunny accepts the decision and begins gathering horses, Vigga approves of Alex’s spirit, and Alex privately realizes that her burst of defiance has trapped her in a choice she already regrets: empress or death.