Ryder uses a site called FaeBook to arrange a meeting with Elise at the bleachers before the party. When she arrives, he compliments her by saying she looks like “lethal poison.” Given a choice between lust and pain, Elise bites his throat and drinks his blood. He invites her to his room later, but she refuses. Ryder then receives a message from Scarlett, his father’s second-in-command, regarding recent aggression from the Oscura clan.

Needing to leave campus, Ryder shifts into a snake and travels to the Kipling Cache, a hidden storeroom. He retrieves fresh clothes and his Yamaharpie dirt bike. While riding through the surrounding Iron Wood, he is ambushed and captured by Felix. Felix offers Ryder a deal: He will reveal the location of Mariella, the woman who tortured Ryder in the past, in exchange for Ryder assassinating a student at Aurora Academy. A Cyclops in Felix’s employ uses magic to prove the offer is genuine. Seeking revenge on Mariella, Ryder accepts the deal.

Leon picks Elise up for the party, and they share an intense, passionate kiss. Inside the crowded Voyant Sports Hall, they run into Dante, who is with Cindy Lou. After Dante and Cindy Lou leave together, Leon mentions that Cindy Lou once dated a friend of his and that the relationship ended badly. Elise and Leon spend the next several songs dancing together. As they dance, Elise feels a sense of genuine joy and begins to believe that someone as warm as Leon couldn’t possibly be a killer, dismissing him as a suspect in her brother’s murder.

The narrative flashes back to Gareth’s point of view. Leon wakes Gareth in a rage. He has just discovered that a family heirloom, the Heart of Memoriae crystal, was stolen and pawned. Leon and Gareth race in Leon’s Faeseratti to a 24-hour pawn shop. After retrieving the crystal, Leon transforms into his Nemean Lion form and brutally attacks the pawnbroker, who says the thief was a big, bald man who he thinks works nearby.

Gareth is horrified, realizing the crystal is the one he stole from Leon and had his friend Petri pawn for him. Leon tears off the pawnbroker’s arm before shifting back and healing the stump to prevent the man from bleeding to death. He then incinerates the shop. Unaware that Gareth stole the heirloom, Leon gives the crystal to Gareth for safekeeping. Gareth is left terrified, certain that Leon would kill him if he ever discovered the betrayal.

The narrative returns to the present. Leon leads Elise away from the party to a landmark known as the Weeping Well. He gives her an engraved silver coin, revealing a matching one of his own. Instead of making a wish and tossing them into the well, Elise suggests they trade coins so they can each carry a piece of the other. They share another passionate kiss. Afterward, Elise leads Leon back toward the hall but detours into the dark girls’ locker room, where she performs oral sex on him. Then they return to the party.

At the school party, Cindy Lou pours a drink on Elise, provoking a violent public fight. Cindy Lou turns into her Centaur form, but Elise possesses greater speed and strength. During the brawl, someone brushes a hand across Elise’s face and she smells almonds. Afterward, she begins to experience disorienting hallucinations. Despite her altered state, Elise uses her Vampire speed and air elemental powers to brutally defeat and humiliate Cindy Lou.

Dante recognizes that Elise is high and carries her outside. He reveals that Cindy Lou attacked her out of jealousy because he rejected her advances while thinking about Elise. He asks her what drugs she took, and identifies her behavior as consistent with being on Killblaze. As Elise begins to cry and hallucinate, Dante leaves, asking her to wait for him. Overwhelmed by the drug’s effects, Elise tries to call him back but cannot. She continues to hallucinate and weep for her brother before losing consciousness in someone’s arms.

After Elise begins behaving strangely, Gabriel is struck by a vision of her in danger in a dark tunnel and hears chanting and a scream. He immediately sprouts his wings and flies off to find her in The Iron Wood. Using his Sight, he experiences a second vision, this time feeling Elise’s own drugged and hazy state as she is manhandled. The connection confirms they are Elysian Mates, and the sensation of her distress fuels his rage. After crashlanding, Gabriel uses his earth magic to feel for underground tunnels. He follows the trail and spots two robed members of the Black Card leading a high, laughing boy through the woods. Accepting that the bond between him and Elise is too powerful to ignore, Gabriel follows them, determined to save her. He hears the chanting from his initial vision. Realizing he is close, he prepares himself for a fight.

Still drugged with Killblaze, Elise is brought by a hooded figure to a cult-like gathering in the woods. She is placed on a cabin porch with two other students before a chanting crowd and their leader, the King. The drug intensifies her grief for her brother. The King’s face magically shifts between various people Elise knows, including Ryder and Leon. He offers to erase the students’ pain if they willingly sacrifice themselves and their magic. The boy accepts and uses his own magic to choke himself. She sees the King absorb the boy’s power from his corpse. Realizing this is how her brother was murdered, Elise attacks the King in a rage. The cultists retaliate, overwhelming her with combined magical attacks. Just as she is about to be defeated, Gabriel swoops in and rescues her, flying her away to safety. He explains that he foresaw her death and that every way the fight played out ended in her dying, so removing her was her only chance. As the drug’s effects fade, Elise understands she has now met her enemy and recognizes that someone deliberately arranged for her to be brought before the King. Although she fears her cover may be compromised, she is more resolved than ever to avenge her brother.