Weeks later, as All Coins Day approaches, Clara proposes giving King Oricalis her golden card to observe where he stores his collection. Kaelis objects at first but then relents and invites her to dine in his apartments so that she can continue working.

That morning, on a rooftop, Professor Thornbrow leads a wielding class. Clara presses her partner, Luren, to cast a Four of Cups before Thornbrow intervenes. Luren’s magic surges out of control; the card reverses. A blast of frost strikes several students. Clara rushes to help the ice-bound Luren with an Ace of Wands, but Thornbrow shoves her aside and saves Luren himself. Suddenly, Sorza screams because Kel has been impaled by icicles and lies bleeding. Thornbrow tries to heal her but fails. Kel is dead. Luren wails, but Thornbrow dismisses her and the class, ordering Clara to stay. Staff remove Kel’s body.

Once Kel’s body is removed, Thornbrow explains his harshness: An Arcanist whose card reverses once is prone to repeat it, and the pain will force Luren to learn control. As punishment, he makes Clara scrub Kel’s blood from the stone without magic. While cleaning, Clara finds small teal shards that sting with magic—fragments from the reversed card. Kaelis arrives, angered to find Clara on her knees. However, she insists that she must complete Thornbrow’s task.

Three days later, Luren returns to classes, silent and withdrawn. She has packed her bags, convinced that no house will accept her after her reversal. Luren confesses to her friends that she cheated to get past the Arcanum Chalice. Prior to the Fire Festival, she illegally read her own tarot to predict which cards would appear. She also foresaw Kel’s death but could not prevent it. Recognizing (and needing) Luren’s rare reading ability, Clara vows to help and urges her friend to fight and live for Kel.

Over the following weeks, Luren slowly reintegrates. The group studies together, and Luren stabilizes through practice and readings. Five days before All Coins Day, one of Luren’s readings predicts an assassination attempt on the king. Clara tells Kaelis. She asks about reversed cards and whether he can wield them; he denies it. Then, Kaelis discloses that his father is impossible to kill because Judgment can reverse death within five minutes. Focused on their plan to get the king’s cards, Kaelis decides that it’s time for Clara to ink her golden card.

At the Fool’s statues, Clara asks Kaelis why he’s been kind to her. He admits that playing the villain serves his ends but that sometimes he wants to feel human. Moved, Clara tells him he is. Then, she inks the Wheel of Fortune with the statue’s golden liquid mixed with her blood. She reluctantly gives it to Kaelis.

All Coins Day arrives. The initiates and students process from the academy into Eclipse City. Crossing the bridge, Clara recalls her mother making her swear never to enter the fortress, calling it a place of “foul magic,” and feels guilty for breaking that promise.

The festival fills the main square with tents. Following her club’s plan, Clara selects a specific tent while Jura, heavily disguised as a noblewoman, whispers a coded message through the fabric. Hours later, she approaches openly and signals that the king is near.

King Oricalis arrives with Prince Ravin, Leigh Strongborn, and three cloaked Majors. Wasting no time, the king asks for Clara’s gift. She unwraps the golden Wheel of Fortune, and his eyes light with hunger. As he reaches for it, a wind sweeps through, and an assassin decapitates a Stellis guard.

Luren’s prediction proves accurate. Ravin and Leigh engage two of three assassins as more emerge. Clara reclaims her card and uses a Four of Cups to disorient the attackers. One assassin destroys Clara’s next spell with a Ten of Swords, revealing formidable skill. Clara summons a saber with a Five of Swords and engages the woman. The assassin recognizes Clara and questions why she would defend the king. The king is pushed to safety while Alor battles another attacker. When Clara fatally wounds her opponent, the woman states her true name—Clara Chevalyer—and warns her not to forget who she is. Clara worries that she has killed one of her mother’s allies.

Outmatched, Alor attempts a Knight of Swords beyond her ability. The card begins to reverse, threatening to kill her. To save Alor, Clara publicly uses a Ten of Swords to destroy the reversing card, exposing advanced abilities. She follows with an Eight of Swords, pinning the final assassin with spectral blades. Alor’s sister, Emilia, steadies Clara as she maintains the spell. The king credits Ravin, protecting Clara’s secret. He orders the captured assassin killed and then quietly invites Clara to accept his hospitality.

Clara is taken to Ravin’s royal estate. In a parlor, servants bring refreshments—one is Twino in disguise. Clara notes that the king’s tea is poured from a separate pot. She presents her golden card. As a reward, the king offers any boon within his power. Clara humbly declines, but he urges her to accept. She asks to see the other golden cards.

The king agrees and reveals a complex box beneath his shirt. While opening it, he inadvertently reveals its intricate locking mechanism. Then, the king displays his four cards: Death, the Hierophant, Judgment, and Temperance. Clara handles each, tilting them so that Twino can memorize their designs for forgeries. The king collects all five cards.

Back at the festival square, the coin-bestowing ceremony begins. Kaelis announces that initiates without coins will be Marked. Myrion awards Clara a coin from House Cups. Emilia awards coins to Alor, Eza, and Clara, giving Clara two total. Luren receives none and is about to be Marked when Clara intervenes, publicly giving Luren her Cups coin. Eza objects, but Clara appeals to Myrion, arguing that Luren deserves House Cups. Myrion agrees, pending Kaelis’s approval.

Under pressure, Kaelis allows the irregularity. Luren thanks Clara for changing her fate. On the walk back, Jura discreetly passes Clara an object. Then, Kaelis ambushes Clara and pulls her into a deserted hallway.

Kaelis angrily confronts Clara about giving away her coin, admitting that his fury stems from worry that she surrendered a safer path to joining a house. Clara assumes that his concern is only because he needs her for the Feast of Cups heist. The remark visibly hurts him. The ensuing argument becomes charged. Kaelis lists Clara’s infuriating and alluring qualities, ending by calling her “gorgeous.” He confesses that she is “everything [he] needed and the last fucking thing [he] wanted” (339). Clara pulls him close, and they hover on the verge of kissing.

Kaelis resists, saying that they’ll be missed at the feast. Clara argues that they should give gossips a reason to talk to sell their romance. When Kaelis reveals that his father and brother are in the academy for the feast, Clara is sobered, and they return to the hall.

At the feast, they sit together at the head table with the king, Ravin, and Leigh. The king gives a lukewarm toast to Kaelis and Clara. Dinner is tense, with Kaelis and Ravin bickering. The king questions Clara about how she met Kaelis. She weaves a tale mixing truth with lies. When she mentions her mother’s death, Kaelis presses his knee to hers in support. The king notes that the court doubts their relationship’s sincerity, particularly given Kaelis’s destruction of Clan Hermit. Kaelis bristles. To de-escalate, Clara asks what she must do to prove their love. The king replies that they should be living together. Kaelis claims that her rooms have already been readied and announces that she will move into his apartments that night.

After the royals depart, Kaelis tells Clara that the move is necessary—this or Halazar. Clara goes to pack and finds Alor waiting. Alor confronts her, demanding to know how Clara used a Ten card during the battle.

Clara denies using a Ten card, but Alor insists that she saw it and has tracked Clara’s nightly excursions. The argument intensifies until Clara snaps that she doesn’t care about Alor or academy politics. Enraged, Alor attacks. Clara pins her. Alor confesses that her obsession with the academy stems from a desperate need to earn her distant father’s approval. Alor fears that Clara will take the King of Swords position from her. Feeling sympathy, Clara offers to secretly train Alor.

Alor asks about Clara’s family. Clara reveals that her sister, Arina, went missing from the academy the previous year. In exchange for training, Alor offers to search Clan Tower’s records. Clara gives Arina’s full name—Arina Daygar. Alor recognizes it as the initiate who supposedly ran away. Alor agrees to investigate and warns Clara to be careful with Kaelis.

Clara moves into a bedroom in Kaelis’s apartments. The earlier passion cools to awkwardness, and Kaelis leaves her alone. Later, Priss scratches at Clara’s door and sleeps on her bed.

Clara wakes, pushing away memories of Liam. She explores her new wing. In a dusty storeroom, she discovers a portrait of a younger King Oricalis with an unknown queen bearing Kaelis’s features. Rewina finds her, says that Kaelis would not approve, and quickly locks the door.

Clara has a tense breakfast with Kaelis, who threatens her with Halazar to ensure that she maintains their facade. Other initiates whisper as she walks to class, and for onlookers’ benefit, she loudly proclaims her happiness about moving in with him.

Weeks pass as winter approaches and the Three of Swords Trials near. Clara works nights on forgeries using Twino’s sketches. Her interactions with Kaelis are limited to tense morning debates about the forgery details.

One night, Silas confronts her, warning that the nobility still doubts her romance and advising a public appearance at a royal event during the upcoming recess. Clara asks if he’s truly on her side, but he vanishes without answering.

After helping Sorza with an inking technique, Clara has a breakthrough. She works all night and presents the final designs to Kaelis at breakfast. He approves them and says that they will now begin inking with a special, powerful ink and instructs her to meet him after classes.