One week later, a despondent Trystan is secluded in his office. Gideon confronts him about his inaction but withholds the fact that he knows Evie’s location. Keeley arrives with updates, mentioning that Trystan has tasked her with finding a reclusive scholar named Joseph. Trystan explains he needs Joseph to examine Evie’s dagger and determine why the wound it inflicted healed the instant the blade was removed. During the conversation, the book of Rennedawn produces a new prophecy. Blade recognizes a line from it as belonging to a children’s book titled My Love My Sun. Trystan orders Keeley to find the book, and Gideon offers to go with her.

Evie is taking refuge with her cousin, Helena, at the Deadlands Theater in Heart Village, which is outside King Benedict’s authority. She notes that her dark magic is suppressed within the village’s borders and confirms she has been secretly corresponding with Gideon. When Helena sends Evie on an errand, Evie realizes that she is being followed. Turning to face her pursuer, she screams.

Evie’s pursuers are revealed to be Raphael Fortis, Roland, and Marv. They have come to warn her that King Benedict’s loyalists know her location and have placed spies within Helena’s theater company. Raphael shows Evie a wanted poster that accuses her of theft, murder, and treason. Alarmed, Evie runs back to the theater, which she finds dark and deserted. The doors slam shut behind her, and the mutilated but still-living body of a man named Fritz lands on the stage floor. Pinned to his chest is a new flyer, this one accusing “The True Villain” of burning down the Deadlands Theater. At that moment, Evie smells smoke.

Back at Massacre Manor, Lyssa is worried about Evie. She and Edwin take “beef cookies” to the guvre younglings in the healer’s quarters, where they find a blue-skinned ogre healing the creatures. The ogre is Joseph The Scholar, whom Edwin, Tatianna, Clare, and Kingsley all know. Joseph explains that Trystan had sought him out for information but left in a hurry once he got it. Joseph then reveals that Trystan is a Core Healer.

As the theater burns, Evie attempts to carry Fritz toward the exit, beating on the steel door and calling for help. The arsonist reveals himself to be Douglas, an actor who resents that the theater’s former owner had promised to leave the establishment to him but gave it to Helena instead. Douglas attacks Evie, but she fights back, stabbing his foot with a piece of wood. Just as a heavy beam is about to fall on her, Trystan appears through the flames. He pulls Evie into his arms, shielding her as the rest of the theater collapses around them.

Trystan awakens in a shed, having protected Evie from the collapsing theater. He explains that the stab wound she unwillingly inflicted on him healed itself because he is a Core Healer, and he reveals that the magic imbued in Evie’s dagger and living in her shoulder scar is his own stolen magic, which has been protecting her all along. Helena then confirms that Trystan’s magic saved Evie and Fritz from the building. Raphael reports that Douglas escaped with help from a loyalist in the village. Having reconciled, Trystan and Evie accept their identities as The Villain and The Core Healer Prince and begin the journey back to the manor.

Keeley brings Mo to the manor for safety after an attack on the public library. Gideon and Keeley show her the children’s book they found, My Love My Sun, which is inscribed with Moira’s name. When Kingsley sees an illustration in the book, his curse activates and he transforms into a frog. Lyssa arrives with the book of Rennedawn, which she stole from Trystan’s safe. Upon seeing Lyssa, Mo reveals her full name is Moira, causing the book of Rennedawn to fly from Lyssa’s hands into hers. Apologizing, Moira opens the book, and powerful magic pulls Lyssa, Kingsley, Clare, Tatianna, Rebecka, and Blade inside its pages.

While walking back to the manor, Trystan explains that Benedict likely hid his powerful Core Healer magic in the dagger because it was too potent to be contained by a memory flower. As they walk, the proximity of Evie’s dark magic and Trystan’s healing magic creates an intense, undeniable physical attraction between them. They give in to their passion and have sex in a secluded part of the forest. Immediately afterward, they see a bright light shoot into the sky from the direction of Massacre Manor.

Clare awakens as an intangible observer inside a memory of her childhood. She witnesses her mother cruelly remind Arthur that Trystan is not his biological son. The memory shifts, and Clare watches the moment King Benedict and Evie’s parents used a memory flower to steal the infant Evie’s dark magic. A mysterious voice offers Clare the chance to undo this event, but she refuses, choosing to accept her brother for the person he has become. By making this choice, Clare passes a test. She awakens in the manor office to find a glowing Moira, and realizes the librarian is the personification of Fate.