Vane releases Meadow and grabs Mildred. He threatens to kill the nearby Phineus if Mildred refuses to come with him; he intends to use her as bait to kill Atakan. He and Mildred are magically transported to a village, where Unseelie soldiers report that the pytherions have all defected to Atakan’s command. Vane orders his solders to kill the creatures; his troops resist killing the mounts to whom they have bonded, but they eventually agree.

Vane puts on a show of jealousy that Mildred is both mated and married to Atakan. She retorts that Vane is the betrayer, not she. She confesses that she didn’t know Atakan was a shifter; he had kept this secret, knowing that it would bar him from inheriting the Seelie throne. Vane believes that Atakan plans to kill him in order to acquire the Unseelie throne. Vane asks Mildred for forgiveness, but she rejects him. Arguing that Atakan will use his control over the pytherions to hunt and slaughter all the Unseelie warriors, Vane asks for Mildred’s help stopping Atakan.

Mildred telepathically sends her location to Atakan, but she doesn’t receive a response to her warning about the “iron bolts” that the Unseelie plan to use to kill Atakan and the pytherions. When Atakan arrives the next morning, Mildred fears that his pytherion form will collapse the underground lair where she is being held. Vane drags her toward the only exit that Atakan hasn’t collapsed. Vane refuses to let his soldiers flee the collapsing tunnels. Mildred argues that even if Vane kills Atakan, the war will only continue in endless cycles of vengeance.

Atakan throws Garran’s severed head down into the tunnels, revealing that Mildred is now the Seelie queen. Included with the head is a note urging Vane to retreat. Mildred reminds Vane that he made an oath to grant her a wish once the wards were broken. She argues that although they aren’t broken, they are open, and this is sufficient to trigger the conditions of the oath. Vane’s ego compels him to reject Atakan’s offer to “let him” have a victory.

Vane drags Mildred from the tunnel, where she finds Atakan in his pytherion form. The Unseelie soldiers attack Atakan en masse, but they cannot defeat him. In the fray, Mildred is shot, and her injury enrages Atakan. Vane refuses to leave her while she is injured, so she uses her magical boon to command him to remove his forces immediately before Atakan slaughters them all. Vane tries to take Mildred with him, but she pushes free at the last moment.

Two days later, Cloud Castle celebrates the Seelie victory while the pytherions fly outside. Mildred is anxious about Bernie’s imminent labor and Atakan’s ongoing absence as he meets with Seelie nobles to negotiate a treaty. She is annoyed that he has kept so many secrets from her. She leaves the party and encounters Cordenya, who holds no grudge for Garran’s murder. Cordenya sees herself as a mother to Atakan and approves of his relationship with Mildred.

Mildred finds Atakan and asks if he truly meant to kill Vane. Atakan explains that he didn’t; nor did he want to rule both kingdoms. He argues that “the point of this game” was “survival” (327), and Mildred can understand his position. His real reason for hiding his shifter nature was to avoid becoming a pawn for his father. He confesses that he first began to care for Mildred years ago, when she poisoned him in revenge; her audacity made him realize that they were fated for one another. Soon after, he learned that Vane was breeding pytherions, which led Atakan to form his plan. As part of this plan, he was supposed to treat Mildred poorly and then let Vane kidnap her; the intention was that Mildred would fall in love with Vane, causing the wards to fall. At this point, Atakan could claim his army. However, he explains that when the time came to implement this plan, he found that he was too possessive to do so. He planned to let his kingdom remained trapped rather than giving Mildred to Vane, but now he feels that he has “won” both the war and the relationship between them.

Mildred visits Bernie and her new daughter, Millicent. Bernie accuses Mildred of “hiding” from Atakan. Mildred allows Atakan to speak with her telepathically for the first time in the week since she left Cloud Castle. He describes his first transformation into a pytherion, then admits that he misses Mildred and that he killed Vorx in revenge for the man’s cruelty toward Kalista.

Mildred and Atakan share a sexually explicit dream, bantering telepathically; Atakan urges her to return home. When Mildred jealously asks about Ruelle, Atakan confesses that their affair was over before Mildred arrived at Cloud Castle. He allowed Ruelle’s flirtation to continue in order to make Mildred angry so that she might later fall in love with Vane. Mildred is surprised to realize that she wants to return to Ethermore.

The narration shifts to Atakan’s point of view. He reflects on the difficulty of waiting weeks for Mildred to return. He sends her a letter demanding that she resume mental communication or return home. Losing patience, he goes to Nephrym to fetch her. There, he meets Bernie, who laughs at him when he behaves awkwardly with baby Millicent. When he finds Mildred, the two banter, and he admits that he loves her and wants her to love him just as passionately. When she admits to goading him into losing patience and coming to retrieve her, he is pleased to realize that the “games” between them will continue. She admits her love in return, and he transports them back home.

Twenty years later, the narrative resumes from Mildred’s perspective. She sits with Atakan in his pytherion form and their daughter, Lumina. She hasn’t seen Vane since the end of the war, but she still communicates with Daylia. The wards remain, though their gaps are larger. The pytherions thrive in Atakan’s orbit. Atakan is a formidable leader, and only Mildred knows that he isn’t as heartless as his reputation suggests. He is a doting father, though the two parents still find time for intimate encounters.