Chapter 10: Feyre

Feyre travels to the Rainbow quarter three days before Solstice to attend a communal painting session at Ressina's studio. Feeling anxious about painting in front of others for the first time, she ultimately decides to paint alone in an abandoned, boarded-up gallery space nearby instead, warming it with her flame magic.

Feyre makes her way through the crowded, festive streets of the Rainbow quarter carrying painting supplies and a canvas, nervous about her first experience painting in a group setting. She pauses outside Ressina's studio, overwhelmed by anxiety despite sensing the cheerful energy around her. Through their mating bond, Rhys offers support and teasing reassurance, referencing a past intimate moment involving paint. When Rhys gives her permission to make her own choice, Feyre chooses not to enter Ressina's studio. Instead, she winnows into an abandoned gallery and studio space down the street that has been boarded up since an attack months prior. She examines the empty gallery, which once belonged to an artist named Polina, noting its former beauty with south-facing windows and skylights now covered. Finding the space cold but appealing for its quiet solitude, she uses her flame magic to warm the gallery and light it with balls of faelight, deciding this is where she will paint her first work.