Chapter 31

Trapped in the library's depths by the King of Hybern's Ravens, Feysand makes a desperate bargain with an ancient entity lurking in the pit to save herself and Nesta. The creature agrees and violently dispatches the Ravens before Rhys arrives to shield the aftermath.

Feysand discovers the King of Hybern's Ravens have infiltrated the library seeking her, and realizes she must act immediately to prevent harm to the priestesses above. She and Nesta flee downward into the dark pit at the library's heart rather than risk escape through the upper levels. As they run through absolute darkness, the Ravens pursue, taunting them with knowledge of what the Cauldron did to the youngest human queen—transforming her into an immortal Fae but stealing her youth, leaving her an aged crone. Feysand realizes Elain's earlier warning about "twin ravens" was a premonition. She collapses shelves to block the Ravens from following Nesta toward the light above, then finds herself in a dead end facing the pursuing creatures. Desperate and powerless, she senses an ancient, non-corporeal entity lurking in the darkness and pleads for help. The creature, which seems to exist in some form connected to stone and wind, reveals it once knew the Carver and proposes a bargain: it will kill the Ravens in exchange for "company" and to "tell me of life." Feysand accepts. The entity kills both Ravens with horrific violence while she keeps her eyes shut, and Cassian arrives to pull her away. Rhys then arrives and shields the remaining carnage with darkness before the three of them are lifted skyward by Cassian's Siphons.