Chapter Sixty-Nine

Nesta, Gwyn, and Emerie push toward Ramiel's peak as Bellius and his soldiers pursue them. After a devastating fall, Nesta realizes they cannot outrun their pursuers and makes a devastating choice: she incapacitates Gwyn and sends Emerie ahead alone to finish the Blood Rite, positioning herself as a final stand against the chasing males. Simultaneously, Cassian and Azriel's pursuit of Eris reveals a trap—Briallyn was an illusion, and the shadow entity Koschei emerges from the lake as their true adversary.

The chapter opens with Cassian and Azriel tracking Eris and Briallyn's caravan eastward through ancient forest to a dark lake where twenty human nobility and soldiers gather. When they land to continue on foot, Eris confronts Cassian with Nesta's Made dagger at his ribs, revealing his deception. Azriel is helpless to intervene. Eris dismisses Rhysand's strategy of not reading minds and references the Morrigan, prompting Cassian to realize Briallyn is controlling him. In the mountains, Nesta carries injured Gwyn on her back while Emerie limps beside them, struggling toward Ramiel's peak as Bellius and his soldiers close in from behind. Near the Pass of Enalius archway, Nesta and Gwyn fall catastrophically while attempting to climb a boulder field, tumbling back down to the archway. Realizing they cannot escape their pursuers before dawn, Nesta decides to make her stand. Though Gwyn refuses to abandon her, sobbing and begging them to face it together, Nesta uses a pressure point Cassian taught her to render Gwyn unconscious. She gives Emerie her weapons and sends her forward, binding the semiconscious Gwyn to Emerie's back with rope. Emerie, tears streaming, continues toward the peak while Nesta centers herself through breathing exercises, drawing a line in the dirt at the archway as her final defensive position. She steps beyond it to meet the approaching males. At the lake, Briallyn's cloak falls empty—she was merely animated magic. A shadow figure rises from the water's surface, and Cassian recognizes the slithering voice as Koschei, confirming their enemy is not Eris but an ancient supernatural threat.