Dorian’s father delivers a message from Aelin’s parents in the afterlife: They love her and are proud of her. His power forges the Lock and Aelin’s power vanishes.

Aelin’s fire is completely gone; the only magic that she has is a tiny sliver of water magic from her mother’s bloodline. The gods appear and demand that Aelin release them from this realm, which is their prison. Aelin opens a portal to their peaceful realm full of rolling green hills, but before they leave, she offers a bargain: If they leave Erawan in Erilea, they must return the soul of Elena, the first Queen of Adarlan, whom they’ve held captive for centuries. In response, the goddess Deanna destroys Elena’s soul out of spite and crosses through the portal instead of fulfilling the gods’ earlier promise to remove Erawan from the world.

In the waking world, Rowan feels his mating bond with Aelin grow weaker.

The gods cross the gate into their own world, but the fire-goddess Mala stops to gift Aelin a piece of her power. To avenge Elena, Aelin opens a portal to a hell-realm inside the gods’ peaceful world before closing off their only exit.