Nearly a month after Rosalina’s arrival, Farron works with her in the library. He is struck by how well she has adapted to castle life and by her determination to break the curse. As she leans over research materials, her loose chemise laces reveal her cleavage, and Farron becomes physically aroused. He hides his reaction and reflects on their growing friendship, contrasting it with Keldarion’s hostility, Ezryn’s tension, and Dayton’s overt advances.

When Rosalina catches him staring, she notices her undone laces and quickly ties them. Farron admits she makes him nervous. She says he makes her nervous, too, confessing she finds him very attractive. They laugh. She asks if he would free her if he could. Though an internal voice snarls that she is his, he tells her he would.

Their conversation turns to mates. Farron explains that mates are rare among fae and shows her information about fae marriage ceremonies and dangerous love pacts created through bargain magic. She hopes his future mate will be wonderful. He calls her Rosie, and she likes the nickname. The moment grows charged, but a loud commotion from the entrance hall interrupts them.

They rush to investigate and find a drunk, shirtless Dayton with a blonde fae woman by the mirror. Farron’s inner beast rages at the stranger in the castle. When Dayton invites Rosalina to join them sexually, Farron freezes in fury until Rosalina snaps him out of it by saying she needs his help to enchant the mirror to send the blonde woman away from the castle, where she’ll be out of danger. Farron clouds the woman’s memory and sends her through the mirror. After dismissing Rosalina, Farron confronts Dayton, who taunts him for being jealous, making the sexual attraction between the two princes clear.

That evening, Rosalina arrives first at dinner, still upset about the scene with Dayton. Keldarion enters, fresh from bathing in Dayton’s hot springs. The others are absent—Farron is with Dayton, and Ezryn is hunting. Only she and Keldarion will dine together.

Rosalina finds herself drawn to Keldarion’s scent of pine and sea. When she tries to read at the table, he tells her it is rude. They fight over her book. As they tussle, the book rips and she falls, but he catches her. She grabs a torn page and discovers crucial information: Mating bonds can lie dormant after trauma and can be awakened by significant events.

She becomes entangled with Keldarion, her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. Intense attraction floods through her. She catches him smelling her hair and asks what she smells like. He growls and demands she get off of him. Excited by her discovery, she explains they can trigger the dormant bonds by staging a significant event. She runs off to find Farron, leaving Keldarion staring after her.

Rosalina rushes to the Summer wing to find Farron, reflecting that Castletree is beginning to feel like home. She enters Dayton’s open chamber door and discovers him and Farron naked on the bed, engaged in intense sexual activity. Though she knows she should leave, she cannot look away. She becomes overwhelmingly aroused watching their passionate connection. When she accidentally stumbles and reveals herself, they see her, and both of them reach their climax.

Mortified, Rosalina apologizes and flees to the gardens. Against the castle wall, she masturbates while reliving the scene. Thorny vines wrap around her legs, heightening her pleasure. After they prick her finger, she grows concerned, and a smooth voice speaks from the brambles. Caspian, the Prince of Thorns, steps from the shadows, revealing he has been watching her.

Caspian is strikingly beautiful with dark eyes flecked with purple. He calls Rosalina his little princess and takes her hand, sucking the blood from her pricked finger. He kisses her jaw and cheek, his touch awakening intense, unwanted desire. He suggests she’s wasting her time with Keldarion and would be appreciated in the Below.

Keldarion appears, throwing Caspian into the thorns and shielding Rosalina. Caspian seems amused rather than frightened. He taunts Keldarion, noting he has not kept any of the other women Caspian has sent to the castle. Keldarion struggles to control his ice magic as his rage builds. Caspian observes that Castletree’s magic is weakening, and time is running out. He tells Rosalina he will see her soon before disappearing into the briars.

After Caspian leaves, Keldarion checks if Rosalina is hurt. He warns her never to bargain with the Prince of Thorns. He notices her loose bodice laces and pins her against the wall, losing control as sunset approaches. He begs her to distract him, revealing he cannot control his beast at night, especially after encountering Caspian. His eyes begin to glow, and he orders her to run to her room and lock the door. She obeys.

That night, Marigold, in her raccoon form, brings Rosalina dinner—a gift from Keldarion, who noticed she missed supper. Marigold mentions the nasty history between Keldarion and Caspian but refuses to elaborate. Feeling guilty about Keldarion eating alone, Rosalina takes her meal and a book to his chambers.

The Winter Wing is freezing and filled with snow and thorns. She finds Keldarion in his massive wolf form with icy spikes in his fur and glowing blue eyes. The beast speaks, telling her she should not be there. She reminds him of their dinner agreement and settles on his couch to eat. She tries conversing, mentioning Dayton and Farron and musing about the unfairness of fated mates, but Keldarion turns away.

To comfort him, Rosalina reads aloud from a fae adventure novel. As she reads, Keldarion turns back to watch her. After she falls asleep on the couch, she vaguely registers she’s being picked up and carried. The next morning, she wakes in her own bed with a pile of fluffy snow on the floor, realizing Keldarion stayed beside her through the night.

The next morning, Rosalina spots a naked fae woman outside her window. Marigold and Astrid identify the woman as another woman sent by Caspian. Rosalina goes outside and offers the woman, Ciara, a cloak. Ciara insists on seeing Keldarion.

Farron, Ezryn, and a hungover Dayton arrive and explain that during the early years of the curse, Caspian sent his recent sexual partners to Castletree to torment Keldarion, but it happens less frequently now. Rosalina apologizes to Farron about the previous bedroom incident and asks about his relationship with Dayton. He explains it is ongoing and nonexclusive, though he admits his feelings may run deeper than he claims.

Ezryn and Dayton cannot activate the mirror to send Ciara home. Farron explains Caspian enchants these visitors so only Keldarion’s magic works on them. While waiting for Keldarion, Ciara recounts her disappointing encounter with Caspian, who seemed bored during sex and told her to tell Kel he says hello.

Keldarion arrives and wordlessly drags Ciara to the mirror. He activates it and orders her not to return to the Below. Before leaving, Ciara gives Rosalina a scroll from Caspian. The note, sealed with a rose-shaped wax seal, says that he’s thinking of her and is signed “C.” Dayton jokes that Rosalina is now part of the family, having earned the Prince of Thorns’s attention.

A week later, Keldarion meets with Perth Quellos, his vizier, in the entrance hall. Quellos reports worsening conditions in the Winter Realm—goblin attacks, rebellions, and deserting knights—and urges Keldarion to return home. Keldarion refuses, insisting his priority is stopping the thorns at Castletree from further infecting the other realms. Quellos grows angry, pointing out that the thorns are winning and Keldarion should either fulfill his duties or pass his rule to someone else. Keldarion accuses Quellos of wanting the throne. As Quellos exits through the main door into the Winter Realm, he taunts Keldarion, asking if Caspian is the only one who can stop him.

Rosalina interrupts with a tray of cookies and tea for Keldarion. She is amazed when Quellos steps through the door directly into another realm. Keldarion explains that the door can be tuned to open into any of the four realms, though its use has been restricted since the curse. The castle’s exterior appears in each realm, but only one interior exists, physically located in the Briar.

Rosalina accidentally activates the door’s magic by touching a hidden dial marked with symbols for the four realms and a rose. She opens the door to the Autumn Realm before Keldarion slams it shut. He also explains that the mirror portal is a relic only the high princes can use. When she asks about the rose symbol, he stops her from investigating further. She announces her snooping has given her an idea to break the curse. Internally, Keldarion despairs, still believing his curse will never be broken.

At breakfast several days later, Dayton brings up the upcoming full moon— the one night each month when the curse lifts. Ezryn plans to hunt goblins anyway. Dayton plans to party in the Summer Realm. Farron argues with Dayton about his irresponsibility. Hurt by Dayton’s dismissive response, Farron announces he is visiting his parents in the Autumn Realm and storms out. Keldarion reveals he will stay at the castle, as he has for 25 years. Dayton and Keldarion argue heatedly, with Dayton claiming that Keldarion “screwed [them] all over. For what? To lie with shadows—” (214). Before he can continue, Rosalina announces her plan to break the curse. She proposes hosting a series of grand balls in each realm to trigger the princes’ dormant mating bonds. She suggests the first ball occurs in the Winter Realm during the solstice. Dayton enthusiastically agrees. Ezryn concedes the idea has merit, though they must leave before nightfall to hide the curse.

Keldarion agrees they can use his realm but states he will not attend. Furious, Rosalina calls him a selfish bastard and throws a muffin at him. He catches her wrist over her frozen bargain bracelet and makes a cutting remark about her fitting in with the Winter Realm.

Rosalina storms away from breakfast, furious with Keldarion. Dayton intercepts her and explains that Keldarion is sensitive about mates because he once had a great love that ended badly. This person was not his mate. Dayton advises Rosalina to release her aggression through fighting, drinking, or sex.

Impulsively, Rosalina asks Dayton to take her to the Summer Realm that night. He initially refuses, citing her status as Keldarion’s prisoner. She taunts him by calling him Kel’s pup, repurposing a name she heard Dayton use with Farron. Angered, Dayton pins her against a wall. He agrees to take her, telling her to meet him by the mirror at dusk and dress for a warm night.

That evening, Dayton and Rosalina step through the mirror into a bustling marketplace in the Summer Realm. Dayton buys her a stuffed winged lion from a vendor. The vendor wishes for Dayton to return permanently and says he should have been named Sworn Protector instead of the Winter princeling. Dayton becomes moody. He points out Soltide Keep, the palace where his younger sister rules as steward in his absence.

Rosalina asks about the Sworn Protector title. Dayton explains that before she departed, the Fae Queen named the Winter ruler as guardian of the Vale and entrusted them with the Sword of the Protector, one of five divine weapons from an ancient war against the Below. Keldarion now holds this sword and title, though he lost his people’s trust during the War of Thorns.

They pass the Sun Colosseum, an arena where fae fight monsters and each other for sport. Dayton reveals he once fought there, but refuses Rosalina’s request to watch. When they arrive at a bar, Dayton takes her cloak. Rosalina reflects on how the castle staff, including a Summer Realm seamstress, helped her prepare for the trip, dressing her in a revealing gauzy gown. Dayton stares at her blankly before walking into the bar without comment.

Rosalina follows Dayton into a beautiful open-air bar by the ocean. He seems irritated and warns her that fae wine is potent for humans. She lies, claiming she can handle it. They sit at a table overlooking the water, and Dayton pours sparkling pink wine. The wine tastes extraordinary—bubbly and sweet with notes of honey and apples. They toast to drinking, dancing, and finding a good lover.

Dayton asks if she has a man waiting at home. Rosalina tells him about Lucas, her on-and-off boyfriend since age 15, and his recent marriage proposal. A server delivers additional bottles and food, paid for by other patrons, to show their respect for the high prince. He pointedly asks if Lucas satisfies her sexually. When she cannot answer, Dayton tells her she needs to experience being truly worshiped by a lover before marrying Lucas.

The moment grows charged as Dayton leans close, but he pulls back and suggests she can find another fae in the bar for that experience. Feeling disappointed but resolute, Rosalina decides to have fun for one night. She raises her glass and echoes his toast about drinking, dancing, and finding a good lover. Dayton smiles and clinks his glass against hers.