Chapter Seventy-One

Cassian is captured by Briallyn and Koschei at the lakeside after Azriel escapes with Eris and the Made dagger. Meanwhile, Nesta holds the archway to the summit of the Breaking against Illyrian attackers, and after Gwyn and Emerie reach the sacred stone and are winnowed away, she faces her final opponent: Bellius, who reveals he never intended to win but to trigger the mountain's magic.

At the lake, Koschei—a death-lord appearing as living shadow—confronts Cassian, Azriel, and Eris. Cassian realizes Koschei had orchestrated their arrival as a trap. When Azriel's shadows warn him of danger, he grabs Eris and flees skyward with the Made dagger they've recovered. Koschei freezes Cassian in place using his power, extinguishing the glow of Cassian's Siphons. Briallyn, revealed as a hunched crone wearing a golden crown, emerges from the trees and claims Cassian, ordering Koschei to winnow them away. Koschei obliges, and Cassian vanishes into darkness. In the parallel storyline at the Breaking, Nesta continues defending the archway passage, having killed multiple Illyrian males who attempted to breach it. Gwyn and Emerie scale the final stretch toward the summit. Bellius, the last attacker and the strongest warrior, approaches without injury or exhaustion. He reveals that the Illyrian god Enalius once held this same ground and died defending it, establishing the ritual they perform. As Nesta holds firm, Emerie and Gwyn reach the sacred stone at the summit and are winnowed away by its magic. Bellius admits he never wanted to win—only to trigger this outcome. As snow begins to fall unnaturally around the mountain, he launches his attack on Nesta.