Late at night, Cordelia sneaks out of Evermore, determined to lure Falada away before he kills again. She blames herself for not stopping her mother sooner and reasons that the familiar will not harm her. Her maid Alice catches her in the hall and at first suspects she is running away or meeting a man, but Cordelia eventually confesses that she means to take her mother's horse. Alice reluctantly helps her slip out through the servants' stair and kitchen, extracting a promise that if Cordelia is not back by dawn, she will tell Lady Hester.

Outside, Cordelia barely reaches the tree line before Falada appears, moving with a wrong, lurching gait now that he is headless. He bows mockingly before her, and Cordelia understands the bargain: she must mount him and let him carry her away. Horrified but seeing no alternative, she climbs onto his back, accidentally plunging her hand into his open neck wound.

Falada gallops through the woods at a punishing pace, lashing her with branches he does not bother to avoid. Cordelia realizes she has no reins and no real control; she is not leading him anywhere, he is taking her. She wonders whether he ever truly obeyed her at all. The ride lasts what feels like an eternity through unfamiliar countryside, avoiding all people. She assumes he is carrying her north, to her mother, and dreads days more of this.

Eventually Falada turns into a copse of trees and stops. As Cordelia feels a wretched flicker of gratitude for the rest, the stump of his neck shudders, and Evangeline's voice speaks from the shadows: "Cordelia. I might have known."