Sturmhond takes Alina and Mal directly to the Fold. However, Alina is unable to eradicate the Fold, and the group is attacked by volcra. They are able to escape into into the other side with no casualties, where Sturmhond reveals his true identity to a sympathetic regiment of Ravkan soldiers of Nikolai Lantsov, Prince of Ravka.
At their hideout in a cemetery, Nina is able to heal herself and Inej. Kaz sends Jesper and Wylan to investigate one of Pekka's factories and gives Nina the name of a guard who can get her a message to Matthias. Meanwhile, David arrives at Kirigan's refuge, where Kirigan tasks him with finding a way to reverse the negative side effect of merzost and with tracking Alina.
Nikolai takes Alina and Mal to the Spinning Wheel, his workshop-turned-Grisha sanctuary, where she reunites with Nadia and Zoya. Jesper and Wylan find Pekka's country estate, and in it, a young boy. Kaz admits to Inej that Pekka killed his brother. Inej goes to get revenge on the assassin, while Kaz takes over the Dregs.
Kirigan cuts off Baghra's finger to make an amplifier. Shocked by this, David and Genya try to leave and warn Alina. Meanwhile, Nikolai proposes a political engagement to Alina in order to protect both her and Grisha.
At the Hellgate, Matthias and his cellmate clean up after the creatures participating in the Hellshow, before he is forced into the games themselves to fight a cannibal. Nina is in the audience hoping to get a message to him, but Pekka sees her in the audience tells her to bring him Kaz lest Matthias die in the next fight.
Tropes:
- Coming in Hot: Nikolai's flying ship gets a hole punched in its sail by a volcra, and careens into the ground.
- Closest Thing We Got: Nina is a Heartrender, a sister type of Grisha to Healers (both are Grisha of the Corporalki order, which manipulates humanity's internal organs). She is able to provide magical first aid to herself and Inej, but readily admits to Kaz that she isn't a Healer.
- Fingore: Kirigan cuts off his mother's finger to create an amplifier.
- Intimate Healing: In a moment of Ship Tease, Inej lets Kaz redress her wound. He's terrible at it, but it's the thought that counts.
- The Joy of First Flight: Stormhund's ship comes with a detachable unit that can fly if a Squaller is around to drive it. Alina is at first terrified, but becomes exhilarated at the sensation of flight.
- Moment Killer: Inej and Kaz have a tense moment of Intimate Healing where he implies to her that she's his weakness. It's interrupted by Nina clearing her throat.
- Not What It Looks Like: After Nina walks in on Inej and Kaz's UST-filled first aid moment, Inej insists that it's not what Nina thinks. Nina simply shrugs and says that she thinks Kaz is "shit at first aid."
- Revenge Before Reason: Jesper calls out Kaz for being so single-minded in his quest for revenge against Pekka that he doesn't care that his teammates are injured.
- Sins of Our Fathers: Wylan tries to stop Kaz from taking out his feud with Pekka on Pekka's young son Alby, arguing that the little boy can't help who his father is.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Mal's reaction to how the "pirate" guiding them has been a prince this whole time. Alina answers by punching Stormhund in the face.
