Greyson and Shadera ride home in silence. He resents that Shadera almost left with Jameson, which makes him feel jealous and inadequate. In their apartment, he demands she speak to him without their masks. He accuses her of betraying him by planning to leave; she counters that having a common enemy in Maximus doesn’t make them allies. They both act jealous—Greyson of Jameson, Shadera of Maya.

Someone tries to shoot through their windows. Veyra officers appear outside. Greyson and Shadera fight back, refusing to surrender as instructed. Shadera considers shooting Greyson; he admits that he is attracted to her violence. They both shoot one another, but the wounds are minor. They kiss passionately. They begin to have sex, but Greyson finds the photograph of him with his brother in her pockets. He returns to his bedroom, furious at himself for his attraction to her.

Jameson and his team are disheartened at the failed mission. Jaeger admits that he knew about the vow between Shadera and Greyson. He didn’t know about the threat to the Boundary, however, and so thought Shadera might agree to leave. Jameson insists that Shadera is only remaining to protect her friends and allies, though he privately doubts this, thinking her feelings for Greyson are involved. Jameson insists that the rebels and the Daggermouths start sharing information. Jaeger reluctantly agrees.

The next morning, Shadera wakes, embarrassed that she kissed Greyson. She refuses to speak about it, dismissing the encounter as a drunken mistake. Callum arrives to dispose of the bodies from the previous night’s attack. Callum teases Greyson about the sexual tension between him and Shadera. Callum has captured the sniper who shot at the windows; they trap the man in Greyson’s weapons room to interrogate him.

The captive, Marcus Webb, reports that Mikel ordered him to surveil Greyson, per Maximus’s orders. He was to spy for “evidence of disloyalty” (394). The team was not meant to attack Greyson and Shadera. They were only supposed to add surveillance equipment to the apartment. When Shadera and Greyson returned unexpectedly, the team “got spooked.” When Marcus hesitates to reveal more of Maximus’s plans, Greyson and Callum torture him, smashing his bones with a hammer. Callum wonders how Greyson would react to learning that Callum has secretly been working with the rebels. Marcus eventually admits that Maximus is planning “population adjustment.” He plans a gas attack that will kill people without destroying infrastructure, something he is calling “the Culling.” The missing workers are dead, test subjects of these weapons. The attack is meant to “[make] room for something” (400), though it is not yet clear what.

Lira enters, finding Callum, Greyson, Shadera and a bleeding Marcus. Callum is distraught at Lira seeing his “other life.” Shadera, annoyed with secrets, reveals that both Callum and Greyson have been helping the rebellion. Lira is annoyed that neither of them trusted her with the truth. When Lira learns Marcus’ name, she kills him abruptly. She admits that, when she was a teenager, Marcus arranged for her to be raped by Veyra officers until Elara threatened a public suicide to stop him. Marcus was one such officer. Shadera promises to help Lira kill the other officers involved. Callum, horrified by this story, feels even more determined to destroy Maximus and his government.

Greyson reiterates Shadera’s position that they need to stop keeping secrets and begin trusting one another if they intend to defeat Maximus. They plan to meet that night at Callum’s club to scheme. Mikel arrives to summon Greyson and Shadera for Maximus. They fear a trap, but have no other choice but to agree.

Maximus asks about the missing Veyra soldiers; Greyson admits to killing them but doesn’t implicate Shadera. He pretends he thought the attack came from rebels trying to ruin his wedding by killing or capturing Shadera. Maximus is clearly suspicious; he orders that Greyson and Shadera remain quarantined in their apartment until the Vow ceremony two days hence. When Greyson balks, he threatens to kill them both and force Lira into a marriage and pregnancy to give him a new heir. Furious, Shadera swears she will destroy him. Maximus orders them held in separate cells instead. They try to fight their way back to one another but fail.

Lira and Callum worry when Shadera and Greyson don’t appear at their scheduled meeting. Callum asks why Lira kept the sexual assault a secret when he would have protected her. She feared that he would end up executed. She rejects his guilt, arguing that it wasn’t his job to protect her. He admits that he pushed her away to shield her from his dangerous choices, which infuriates her. She insists that she is not too fragile to see the dark sides of him and that she has always known about the brutality of the Heart. She admits that she loves him and asks for his trust instead of his protection. He admits his love in return and promises to trust her. They kiss and have sex, repeatedly asserting their love for one another. They swear to be honest going forward.

Callum gets a message that Shadera and Greyson have been arrested. Another message invites him to a meeting at the Wolf’s Head that evening; Callum realizes that someone other than him is giving information to the rebels. He and Lira head for the Daggermouth stronghold.

Jameson hides in an alley as a Veyra patrol passes by late at night. The vehicles announce a curfew, violation of which is punishable by death. Instead of fleeing, Boundary residents assemble with makeshift weapons and attack the vehicles. The soldiers are better armed, but the citizens are more numerous. Jameson joins the fight, ruthlessly killing the soldiers. The battle ends when the Veyra are dead, though many Boundary residents die as well. The remaining Boundary citizens kneel in respect for the fallen and sing the forbidden anthem. Jameson rallies the gathered crowd to the rebel cause, urging them to fight back, but with a plan.

Shadera wakes briefly in a cell where she is being beaten. She hears Greyson in the distance, but falls back into unconsciousness.

Jameson arrives at the Wolf’s Head, where the Daggermouths signal their willingness to fight in the coming war against the Heart. Mikel and Kestrel Farrow enter the bar; the former is only allowed entry on Jaeger’s word. Jameson is shocked when Callum and Lira enter, unmasked. Callum and Lira, in turn, are astonished at Mikel’s presence. Lira already knew Kestrel, whose contact was in Brooker’s effects. Mikel explains that his role in the rebellion was to get close to Maximus, hence his displays of loyalty, including arresting Grey and Shadera, who are trapped in Maximus’s penthouse. Callum shares what he knows about the Culling. Mikel reveals that he is Greyson’s biological father. Lira hears Brooker’s voice behind her.

Greyson wakes in pain, bound to an interrogation chair in a glass cell. He hears Shadera’s cries as she is beaten. He begs his captors to hurt him instead of her, but they ignore him. Maximus gloats over Greyson’s suffering.

Shadera struggles against unconsciousness. She finds the beating more difficult to bear because Maximus is hurting her “not for information, but for the sheer vicious thrill of it” (460). She finally understands how Maximus’s torments psychologically affected Lira and Greyson. She remains defiant.

Greyson is relieved that Shadera is alive and still fighting. Maximus reveals that he knows Greyson has been smuggling medicine. He admits that Brooker was organizing an uprising and had fallen in love with someone from the Cardinal (Kestrel Farrow). Maximus hired the Daggermouths to kill Brooker; he claims that Shadera carried out the execution. Shadera admits that she committed the murder, but insists that she didn’t know Brooker’s identity. Maximus also took out the contract on Greyson’s life, which he planned to use to justify the Culling. He plans to kill the poor to make room for the elites of other city-states to join New Found Haven. He demands that they Greyson and Shadera undertake the Vow ceremony; if they refuse, he will kill thousands and then kill them both.

Lira is astonished to see Brooker alive. Brooker holds hands with Kestrel as Jaeger discusses the plan to attack the Heart. Lira interrupts to demand an explanation. Brooker insists that he needed to fake his death to work for the rebellion. Lira is hurt that he didn’t trust her. She asks about Mikel’s revelation that he is Greyson’s father; Mikel and Elara loved one another since childhood, but she was forced to marry Maximus. Jaeger explains that he started working with Brooker after being contracted to kill him under his alias, Levi Pierce. Shadera was directed to attack him, nearly killing him. Kestrel saved him and told Jaeger the truth. They tattooed a body to fake Brooker’s death. They planned to extract Greyson with the same technique, by faking his death after Maximus purchased the contract on his life. Jaeger replaced an unwitting Shadera’s bullets with “blanks soaked in poison that would lower his heart rate” so everyone would think Greyson dead (475). Shadera attacked with the wrong gun. They agree to work together to distract the Heart so the Daggermouths can attack Maximus.

Greyson and Shadera are left for hours without food or water. Shadera thinks back to the contract against Levi Pierce. She fears that more of the kills she committed as a Daggermouth were manipulations by Maximus. She tearfully insists to Greyson that she didn’t know Brooker’s identity, but she remains angry. She is no longer confident that she has been “on the right side” (482). Greyson admits that he had been falling for her, but that he now only sees his brother’s killer. Shadera is heartbroken. Greyson is conflicted, feeling that he wants to comfort her, even though he is furious with her.