Chapter Thirty-Seven

After capturing two Autumn Court soldiers controlled by unknown magic, Rhys and his court interrogate them while Nesta awakens in the palace and is drawn to the Mask's chamber. Nesta reveals she survived a kelpie attack in the Bog of Oorid by donning the Mask and raising an army of the dead. Back at the moonstone palace, Cassian brings Nesta dinner, and their tension escalates into passionate sex, though Cassian abruptly leaves afterward, leaving Nesta uncertain of his feelings.

The chapter opens in the dungeons beneath the Hewn City, where Azriel, Cassian, Feyre, Rhys, and Amren interrogate two enchanted Autumn Court soldiers. The males appear mindless, driven only by violent impulses. Feyre questions the morality of torture if they are under a spell, and Rhys agrees to contact Helion to break whatever enchantment controls them. The group worries about informing Eris of his missing soldiers' fate. Nesta is found in the Mask's warded room, drawn there by the artifact itself. She reveals she was attacked by a kelpie while searching for Cassian and Azriel in Oorid. Desperate and panicked by their prolonged absence, she ventured into the bog and was dragged underwater. She summoned the Mask, which came to her, and used its power to raise the dead and kill the kelpie, then managed to remove it—a feat Amren notes should have been impossible. Amren and Rhys recognize the kelpie spoke an ancient Fae dialect fifteen thousand years old, suggesting it is one of the last of its kind. The group debates the Mask's fate; it cannot be destroyed without destroying the Cauldron itself. Feyre suggests Nesta might be able to ward it, and Rhys offers to have Helion teach her the necessary spells. Nesta later bathes in the palace's luxurious bathing pool, lost in troubling thoughts about the Mask's seductive void and how it freed her from her pain. Cassian arrives with dinner and finds her bathing. Their charged interaction escalates into intimate foreplay and sex. Afterward, Cassian abruptly leaves, calling it "just sex" and departing swiftly, leaving Nesta confused and uncertain about his true feelings.