Chapter 2

Feyre returns home from hunting with a doe and a wolf pelt, exhausted and bloodied. Her family's poverty is evident as they depend entirely on her kills for survival, while her sisters complain about their circumstances and her father remains largely incapacitated. Conflict erupts when Nesta announces plans to marry Tomas Mandray, which Feyre opposes as impractical.

Feyre trudges home through the snow-covered forest carrying a slain doe, her hands numb and body shaking with hunger. She notices the faded ward-markings around the cottage door—protective runes her father obtained from a charlatan years ago, which she knows are fake. Inside, Elain immediately asks about the deer, concerned only with food rather than Feyre's wellbeing. Feyre removes the wolf pelt and begins discussing how to preserve the meat and sell the hides at market. Nesta mocks her appearance and refuses to chop wood despite the dwindling woodpile, claiming she is better suited to leisure. Feyre reflects on her family's fall from wealth five years ago when creditors brutally injured her father's leg, an event Nesta resents deeply. Later that evening, after a meal of roasted venison, Nesta reveals that Tomas Mandray intends to propose to her. Feyre objects strenuously, pointing out that Tomas's family is equally impoverished and cannot support another mouth, and that they have no dowry to offer. Nesta dismisses her concerns, insisting on love. The confrontation escalates when Nesta cruelly tells Feyre she will be forgotten and unloved, then storms off with Elain. Her father attempts to comfort Feyre by suggesting they all need hope, but Feyre rejects this notion, her anger evident as she stares at her own fading paintings on the cottage furniture—marks she fears will soon disappear entirely.