Chapter 31

Feyre attends a ball in her honor in the mortal realm but is consumed with guilt over abandoning Tamlin in his time of need. Learning that the Beddor family was murdered the day before her return—a family whose daughter she deliberately gave Rhysand's name instead of her own—she realizes faeries have breached the mortal world. Feyre races back through the wall to the Spring Court to find Tamlin, only to discover his manor destroyed and empty.

Feyre spends the evening of a grand ball lingering with Nesta, plagued by thoughts of her failure to help Tamlin and her inability to tell him she loved him before leaving Prythian. The next day at lunch, her father mentions the Beddor family's house burned down with all occupants killed the night before Feyre returned home. Elain reveals that Clare Beddor, their friend, was among the dead. Feyre realizes with horror that she gave Clare Beddor's name to Rhysand as a decoy to protect her own family, and that the faeries have now crossed into the mortal realm and killed the Beddors in retaliation or coincidence. Fearing an invasion and that the Spring Court is falling, Feyre tells her family to hire guards and be prepared to flee. She changes into riding clothes and takes up weapons, including ash-wood arrows. Nesta, without sentimentality, releases her from any obligation to return, noting Feyre cannot help Tamlin as a human. Elain tearfully says goodbye and has prepared a horse and supplies. Feyre rides north for two days, searching for the wall between realms. She finds an invisible barrier and follows it for two more days until she discovers a gate marked by mossy stones with carved whorls. Passing through causes magical pain but she crosses into Prythian. As she approaches Tamlin's estate, she notices an unnatural silence and finds the gates wrenched open, the front doors torn from their hinges, and the manor in complete ruin—tapestries shredded, marble fractured, chandeliers destroyed. Calling out for Tamlin and Lucien yields no response. The manor is empty.