Chapter 58

Feyre meets the Suriel in secret to learn the location of Hybern's hidden army. The creature reveals that magic from the Cauldron cloaks the army, and suggests using Nesta to scry for it with bones. Before the Suriel can deliver final crucial information, it is suddenly attacked and killed by arrows—and Ianthe emerges from the shadows with Hybern soldiers at her side.

Feyre encounters the Suriel in a wooded location, having summoned it through Elain. She seeks information about Hybern's hidden army. The Suriel explains that the King of Hybern uses ancient magic from the Cauldron to cloak his forces so thoroughly that even the Suriel cannot see them. It suggests Nesta, who has a connection to the Cauldron itself, could track it through scrying with bones and stones, since like calls to like. When Feyre presses about the spell she attempted to use to nullify the Cauldron's power, the Suriel reveals the spell would have killed her—it requires a life as its price. Feyre asks about recruiting other allies, including the Bone Carver and Bryaxis. The Suriel expresses surprise that Bryaxis cannot be seen by it, since he is not born of Prythian's earth. The Bone Carver, it notes, wanted the Ouroboros—the Mirror of Beginnings and Endings—in exchange for his aid. When Feyre hesitates about retrieving the mirror, the Suriel tells her only she can decide what breaks her. Before it can complete its final revelation about keys hidden on the second and penultimate pages of the Book, multiple ash arrows suddenly pierce the Suriel's body. As Feyre moves to defend the creature, more arrows strike it down. A familiar voice emerges from the trees: Ianthe, accompanied by Hybern soldiers, laughing and asking why the Suriel would speak to Feyre when it would not speak to her.