Elara takes King Kael to the salt spring, belatedly realizing that her plan will require her to get physically close to him. Preparing to help steady him in the water, she strips down to her underdress. As they enter the water, Kael shares that his childhood friends were sent away when he was 15 because of his “rebellion against rites and traditions” (134) He laments that his father thought him a “miserable heir.”

As Elara massages his sore shoulder, the mood grows intimate, and he asks her to call him by his first name. Kael then tries to kiss her, but because Elara is still a virgin, she feels a deep-seated panic at the thought of physical intimacy, and she involuntarily recoils. Believing that her reaction is caused by disgust, a hurt Kael withdraws and says little on the walk back to the palace. Along the way, he finds a pear and mentions that his mother, Queen Ophelia, was severely allergic to both pears and roses. Puzzled, Elara recalls the plaque dedicating the rose garden to a queen upon the birth of an heir. Reasoning that this gift could not have been intended for the allergic Ophelia, she concludes that one of the preceding queens must have born a child whom the official record does not acknowledge.

A brief flashback is told from a young, unnamed prince’s perspective. The child stands in his father’s chamber and watches as his father prepares to sacrifice his mother in a ritual. Just before the king kills the prince’s mother, she makes eye contact with the boy for the first time in a very long time. The air grows cold, and a tall man with black eyes, identified as Death, appears and grabs the prince. Held fast, the boy watches his father kill his mother. Death then releases him, and the prince hits the ground. He then races to his mother’s body, slipping in blood, and frantically wonders why she is no longer looking at him.

Returning to the palace from the salt spring, Elara changes into dry clothes and heads toward the abandoned royal chamber, intent on her theory that both Maeryn and Ophelia bore heirs. Suddenly, she is intercepted by Miss Hampshire, who tells her that Kael has locked himself in his room. When Elara mentions the greenhouse plaque, Miss Hampshire stiffens and cryptically warns her, “Some secrets never get buried properly. […] And while they may have learned to roam the palace quietly, those who are wise treat them as what they are: lies” (145).

Elara continues to the abandoned royal chamber and fully pulls back the rug covering the old bloodstain. Beside the main stain, she finds a small bloody handprint the size of a child’s. Elara suspects that Vale may have deliberately sat on that spot to conceal it from her before, but she is not entirely certain. Convinced that Vale himself is the theorized older heir, a lost prince, she goes looking for him. In the kitchens, she confronts a terrified kitchen girl about Vale, and the girl tells her that there is no steward at the palace; there has been no one to fill that role for years.

In the garden, Elara confronts Vale with her evidence. She enumerates the child’s handprint, the records missing from Maeryn’s trunk, and the fact that Vale is not really the king’s steward. She asks if he killed the library scribe, and although he scoffs, he does not quite deny it. Elara then openly accuses him of being the forgotten older prince. Vale relents and tells her that he is Kael’s unacknowledged older half-brother: the son of the murdered Queen Maeryn. He says that all records of his existence have been destroyed. Elara then deduces that his true plan is to manipulate her into getting Kael to lift the crown from his head; at that moment, Vale will kill Kael and seize the throne and the crown for himself. Vale confirms her theory and tells her that after becoming king, he will wed her, then “crown [her] dead.” Elara objects that the curse will go unfed and her family will die. She accuses him of having no heart, and her words visibly affect him. In retaliation, Vale coldly informs her that her father has just died from the rot.

Grieving her father, Elara gives her notice to Miss Hampshire and prepares to leave the palace. Kael, having emerged from his seclusion looking clean and composed, finds her in the herb garden and explains that a maid told him about her father’s death. Overwhelmed, Elara breaks down sobbing, and Kael comforts her. He then begs her to stay, and when she insists that she must return to her family, he offers to have her mother and brother brought to the palace for better care. Realizing that she must remain at the palace to prevent Vale from killing Kael, Elara accepts the king’s offer and secretly resolves to undermine Vale’s plan.

Days later, as Elara awaits her family’s delayed arrival, Vale comes to her room to find out whether she intends to continue with the plan to have her seduce and then betray the king. The conversation escalates into an outburst in which he describes being raised outside the official royal line, with his existence erased from the record and his mother killed in front of him. Elara feels deep empathy for him as she reflects that this loss shaped the resentment now driving his plot to kill Kael. He kisses her aggressively, attempting to seduce her, and Elara reciprocates, deciding to feign cooperation with Vale in order to maintain his trust. Their sexual encounter continues, but she states that she cannot have sex with him. Vale continues giving her physical pleasure in a further bid for control over her. However, he cruelly cuts short his attentions at an intense moment, ending the encounter on his own terms to demonstrate his power. He tells her that if she changes her mind about having sex with him, he will be waiting in the eastern tower room.