Bryce spends the night at the White Raven with Fury and Juniper, skipping lines thanks to Fury’s connection to owner Riso. High on lightseeker and mirthroot, she dances until dawn-like hours, exchanging messages and a video with Danika while Juniper abstains from drugs but enjoys a brief fling. Time blurs as Bryce indulges, planning to keep partying until after her eventual Drop.

Staggering home, Bryce struggles with the building code and her keys, only to realize the apartment door is mangled and the threshold slick with blood. Inside, the rooms are destroyed by a vicious fight. She finds Danika dismembered on Bryce’s bed, with Connor’s remains at the foot and Thorne’s nearby. Shocked but functional, Bryce arms herself with a broken table leg and notices a bloody, nonhuman trail from the open trash chute toward the stairs.

Driven by grief and adrenaline, Bryce sprints outside and follows the rotting stench through alleys toward the Istros. She discovers an eyeless, gray-skinned, spindly-limbed demon feeding on a malakh whose wings are shattered and chest torn open. Bryce strikes the creature with the table leg, drawing clear fluid instead of red blood. The demon mauls her thigh, then flees up the building when she breaks its crystalline fangs.

Choosing the living over pursuit, Bryce presses the angel’s chest wound and uses his phone to call emergency services. Half-delirious, she forces the dispatcher to track the device by shouting the number, securing rapid response. As she holds pressure on the shattered sternum and shredded wing, the angel briefly touches her knee in mute acknowledgement. Bryce bleeds beside him, and the demon remains at large.