Chapter 43

Kaan fights Hock to the death in a brutal battle before the gathered clan, ultimately decapitating his opponent. The narrator's rune-marked skin is revealed when her luminescence activates in fear, and Saiza protects her secret. Kaan carries the narrator away as Rygun arrives, leaving the crater.

The chapter opens with tension in the crater as hundreds watch Kaan prepare for combat against Hock, a six-person challenge inexplicably called by the King—unprecedented for this tradition. Kaan orders his dragon Rygun to stand down regardless of outcome, and Rygun responds with a furious display of flames that causes the narrator's skin to illuminate with ancient rune markings. Saiza quickly shields her with a blanket, suggesting the narrator is "unbreakable." The narrator internally rejects this, knowing she has broken repeatedly and that emotional pain surpasses physical damage.

Kaan and Hock clash in savage combat, their violent exchange causing the narrator physical anguish despite her injuries from earlier poisoning. The antivenom is slowly stabilizing her, but she remains unsteady. As the fight intensifies, Kaan sustains multiple wounds. In a decisive moment, Kaan disarms Hock, grabs his hair, and methodically severs his throat while the narrator watches, tears streaming down her face. Kaan then places Hock's severed head at the narrator's feet as a grotesque offering.

The narrator experiences conflicting emotions—relief mixed with horror—and casts emotional attachment aside as a survival mechanism. She claims Kaan's málmr by looping it around her neck, which triggers a dark, intense response from him. As her consciousness fades from blood loss and trauma, Kaan lifts her and carries her away. Rygun arrives at the crater's edge, and they depart together. The chapter ends with Kaan pleading with the narrator not to frighten him again, using the tender endearment "Moonbeam."