In the present, while walking through Foxglove, Zevander sees movement and sends Maevyth and Aleysia into a cathedral. He sneaks forward and is ambushed by Theron (actually a hallucination). They battle. Theron threatens to sexually assault Maevyth before giving her to Loyce, taunting Zevander by asking if Zevander can even have a relationship after his traumatic experiences. Theron guesses that Zevander is reminded of Loyce every time Maevyth touches him. Zevander releases his scorpion, which fatally stings Theron. Theron tells Zevander that Loyce will not stop hunting Maevyth, and Zevander regrets not taking Theron prisoner. Forcing a bond between Aleysia and Theron might have allowed them to return to Aethyria.

At Wintergrave, Kazhimyr tells Torryn everything he overheard Captain Zivant relate about the kidnapping of Prince Dorjan and the plans to retrieve him from King Jeret. Morwenna, Rykaia, and Allura join them. Torryn stares at Rykaia, and Kazhimyr is stunned by Allura’s beauty. Since Kazhimyr and Ravezio are going to Mortasia, Rykaia makes them promise to bring Maevyth and Zevander back.

Kazhimyr spots a Deimosi, an apparition of Morwenna’s late husband, Grendel. Grendel was abusive, so Morwenna summoned his ombrevor, or the death spirit of his future self, to consume him. Morwenna is lonely but does not miss Grendel.

Kazhimyr watches Allura on her balcony, though her higher class makes their romance impossible. Through the window, he sees movement in Dolion’s room. Torryn breaks Dolion’s door down to find a shadowy figure crawling toward Dolion while a living skeleton wrapped in branches watches. The skeleton grabs the cloaked figure, revealing it to be Dravien. Morwenna identifies the skeleton as a protective ombrevor.

Dravien begs Dolion for help, promising a life debt, but when Dolion expels the ombrevor, Dravien puts a knife to Dolion’s neck only to find that the promised life debt prevents Dravien from killing Dolion. Dolion commands Dravien to instead help Kazhimyr and Ravezio. Dravien reluctantly agrees.

Dravien confesses that Loyce hired him to kill Dolion. Dolion guesses that Loyce is after Maevyth and the bloodstones needed for the septomir, a powerful source of magic. When Kazhimyr mentions Zevander, Dravien recognizes the name and admits that he tried to have Zevander killed.

In the past, Zevander wakes up chained upright in a cell. For days, Loyce has kept him here without food or water. Zevander has heard Vaelora’s screams, hallucinated her and his father blaming him for their deaths, and seen the dark-haired girl, who calls him “Angel” and touches his face.

A Golvyn, or a sapient rat-like creature, runs through the cell and gets Zevander some water before leaving. Loyce enters, telling Zevander to beg for mercy. Zevander refuses. She tells him of a ceremony in the kingdom of Eremicia in which young men are awarded piercings in their genitals to celebrate victories. Loyce will give Zevander the same piercings every decade to ruin his ability to feel pleasure without pain.

In Caligorya, Alastor shows Zevander a dungeon in which the dark-haired girl is chained, while Sacton Crain, a woman in a red veil, and a gaunt man look at her. The gaunt man is Lord Holloway, a renowned “witch pricker” who excels at identifying devil marks on witches. Sacton Crain waves a cross, while Holloway uses a large, needle-like instrument to poke the girl’s body, making her scream. Zevander is furious, but Alastor stops him from interfering, threatening Zevander’s family. Alastor promises that Zevander will get his revenge, telling him to harness his anger.

In the present, Maevyth is frightened by a statue of the Red God in the temple. The religion she once followed seems meaningless. She and Aleysia search the temple, finding bedrooms on the second floor. Sacton Crain’s room is lavish, contradicting his complaints of poverty. As Aleysia checks the kitchen, Maevyth finds Zevander, wet and covered in blood. Reporting that Theron is dead, Zevander lights a fire, heats an iron, and uses it to seal his wounds. Without vivicantem, Zevander’s healing is slow. Maevyth lights fires in more bedrooms and resolves to sleep next to Aleysia, who refuses to acknowledge the black mass on her side.

Maevyth checks on Zevander, who is bathing and in a trance, clasping the scorpion necklace and cutting his thigh with a dagger. Maevyth takes the dagger and tries to wake him. When he reaches for the dagger, Maevyth throws it away. Zevander grabs her throat but then wakes up confused and tells Maevyth to leave. She refuses, asking why Zevander was cutting himself. Pain is the only way he can feel pleasure, but he doesn’t want to explain this to her. When Zevander and Maevyth had sex, he used sablefyre to cause himself pain. Maevyth insists that he tell her what is going on. Instead, Zevander asks her to rake his penis with her sharp-clawed hand. Horrified, Maevyth digs her nails into him, and Zevander ejaculates. Ashamed, Zevander tells Maevyth to leave, but she curls up in his lap. She would never hurt him maliciously. Zevander sees his scars as remnants of enslavement, but Maevyth calls them the marks of an unbroken warrior. Zevander caresses Maevyth, who is afraid to hurt his pierced genitals. He tells her not to worry and uses sablefyre to warm her. He performs oral sex on her.

Maevyth asks why eating the rabbit restored some of Zevander’s strength. He explains that the iron in blood is like weak vivicantem, so Maevyth suggests drinking her blood. She doesn’t realize it, but drinking blood is actually part of an eternal bonding ritual; Zevander doesn’t wants to do that under duress. Zevander calls Maevyth an angel, and she tells him about the ostracization she faced in Foxglove. Zevander wants to kill anyone who would threaten Maevyth.

The small Golvyn feeds Zevander, asking whom Zevander talks to when he is alone. Zevander thinks of the dark-haired girl and wishes to return to Caligorya. The Golvyn thinks Zevander will survive Loyce’s torture.

Theron appears to tell Zevander that Loyce wants to break him. Zevander accuses Theron of betraying him, but Theron knows Loyce would never kill Zevander. Zevander demands more elixir and accidentally mentions Caligorya. Theron is shocked: Only magic users can go there, and even they can only go before dying. Theron gives Zevander the elixir and asks to watch Zevander be unconscious. Zevander agrees.

In Caligorya, Zevander finds the dark-haired girl in a dungeon cell, curled in a corner. She is covered in injuries, so he warms her with sablefyre. The girl tells him that Crain will burn her for being a witch, but Zevander promises that her enemies will burn instead. The girl asks if Zevander trusts the gods’ will, but he declares that he will defy the gods to protect her. Zevander kisses her and recoils, realizing that he has broken Alastor’s rule about never touching the dark-haired girl. A mark of birds’ eyes appears on the girl’s shoulder; a passing Red Veil notices and calls it the devil’s mark. Zevander panics, just as Theron wakes him up. Zevander demands to return, but Theron refuses.

In the present, Zevander scolds himself for revealing his sexual craving for pain to Maevyth. He laments that vivicantem withdrawals will make her pity him. He touches a glyph on her shoulder. Suddenly, two-centuries-old memories of Caligorya flood back into Zevander’s mind. He realizes that the dark-haired girl who provided him comfort during Loyce’s torture was Maevyth.

In the past, as Zevander mutters about vengeance, Loyce commands guards to bathe him and leaves. The guard brings Zevander, weak from torture, to a bath. After bathing him, they strap him to a chair, tie a funnel to his mouth, and pour liquid oats into his throat. Zevander struggles and protests before slipping into Caligorya.

Zevander watches an old man plead with Sacton Crain to spare the dark-haired girl from being burned. The old man rejects the Red God if this faith means killing innocent people. Zevander follows Crain to his bedroom, where Crain gets into bed with a young woman, breaking his vow of chastity. Zevander chokes Crain and threatens to kill him if he harms the dark-haired girl. Crain agrees to spare her.

Zevander then asks Caligorya to show him the dark-haired girl. In her bedroom, Zevander sees a man enter, walk to her bed, and examine an egg underneath. Zevander realizes that the man is himself, only older and detached. When his older self tries to kill the dark-haired girl, Zevander blocks him. Alastor appears, knocks Zevander away, and criticizes him for interfering. Zevander insists that the girl is his fated mate. Alastor laughs and removes Zevander’s memories of the girl. Zevander cries, begging Alastor to return them. Alastor puts Zevander to sleep.

In the present, Zevander spends hours watching Maevyth sleep and recalling his visits to Caligorya. A sound draws him out of the room. In the hall, he sees a shadowy figure. He hallucinates Loyce’s voice threatening to torture Maevyth. Zevander follows the figure to the dungeon under the temple, revealing it to be Theron (actually a hallucination). Theron claims to regret betraying Zevander, but Zevander responds that he regrets protecting Theron. A sharp headache knocks Zevander down.

In the past, Theron asks why Zevander didn’t tell Loyce about Theron’s involvement at the Golden Bacchanal. Loyce interrupts, taunting Zevander while praising his endurance. Loyce will free Zevander from the Gildona and return him to the mines if he exposes whoever orchestrated Aradia’s betrayal. Zevander is too traumatized to return, so he claims that Dravien was involved. Loyce laughs and sends Theron away.

Loyce doesn’t know her biological father—the orgoth who assaulted her mother. Her adoptive father was the military leader who failed to execute King Jeret’s illegitimate children—the ones Lord Rydainn was hiding. Zevander criticizes her father for accepting an immoral order. Loyce wants to either kill Zevander or have sex with him. If Zevander agrees to bond with Loyce, she will allow him greater freedom and will let Zevander’s family visit him. Loyce reveals that Dravien works for her, not Aradia. Loyce knows that Zevander cannot tell her who really organized the coup.

In the present, the hallucinated vision of Theron says that Zevander is dying and suggests drinking Maevyth’s blood. Theron offers to help, bringing Zevander to an imprisoned old man. Maevyth’s and Aleysia’s names are written in chalk in his cell. Theron tells Zevander to eat the man, but Zevander presses a rusty nail into Theron’s body, preventing the use of magic. As Zevander forces Theron into an iron vault, Theron screams, reminding Zevander of his fear of the dark. Zevander shuts the vault door, recalling King Sagaerin and Dolion showing him a griefcoffer, or box full of emotional pain.

Zevander wakes from his trance and hears Maevyth scream. He runs out of the dungeon and finds a pantry filled with broken jars. A corked bottle contains blood and meat, which Zevander consumes. Hearing more screams, Zevander goes to investigate.

Maevyth and Aleysia head into the dungeons. They find a cell filled with children who were sacrificed to ward off infection. Maevyth breaks the lock and finds one child still alive. Aleysia urges Maevyth to kill the girl, so Maevyth sings her death glyph to turn the girl into ash. Maevyth and Aleysia cry.

They find an old man whom Aleysia recognizes as their father, imprisoned by Sacton Crain after coming back from Lyveria with a vision of the apocalypse, called The Decimation. Maevyth breaks the lock on his cell with her whip, shocked that his death was a lie. In another cell, Maevyth and Aleysia find and free Corwin Grinsgaith, whom Crain falsely imprisoned. Corwin is a barkeep from the city of Cruxmere, known as the Port of Pirates. He tells them that the townspeople are living below the temple. Maevyth’s father tells his daughters that Zevander threatened to eat him.

Aleysia opens the pantry and makes a blasphemous comment, forcing Maevyth to admit to her father that they do not believe in the Red God. Aleysia consumes a jar of raw meat, disgusting the others, while Maevyth eats peaches. Vonkovyan soldiers interrupt them and grab Aleysia, but Maevyth kills one soldier instantly, forcing the other to flee. Maevyth’s father is shocked. Just then, Sacton Crain enters with six more soldiers.

As Kazhimyr, Ravezio, and Dravien travel by boat to the city of Veneficarys, Dravien tells them about the Syrenians, beautiful sea creatures who eat people. Dravien also explained that on Loyce’s orders, he attacked Dolion to get the bloodstones for the septomir to helping Zivant. Dravien envies the protection that Loyce’s desire gives Zevander. Dravien knows that she will torture him for betraying her—Theron is an example of someone who has faced Loyce’s wrath.

Ravezio goes to the deck and is suddenly pulled into the water. Jumping in after him, Kazhimyr and Ravezio are attacked by Syrenians. Kazhimyr freezes the water just as something bites his leg. He holds onto the iceberg he created, while Ravezio holds onto Kazhimyr. The Syrenians stop attacking, repelled by long spines coming out of Dravien’s back and releasing a deadly toxin. Kazhimyr faints.

Crain and the soldiers take Maevyth, Aleysia, their father, and Corwin to the tomb below the temple. There, they are surrounded by kindling as Crain tells his parishioners, who have been living in the tomb, that Maevyth is a witch, Aleysia a harlot, their father a heretic, and Corwin a serpent. He claims that burning them will appease the Red God. Governor Grimsby tries to stop Crain, but a mercenary debt collector kills him, and townspeople stab the governor’s dead body as Crain proudly looks on. Aleysia taunts him, asking when he learned of The Decimation. Crain sets the kindling on fire. As the flames grow, parishioners point spears at the captives.

Aleysia tells Maevyth to use magic, but first, Maevyth offers Crain the chance to release them. He refuses, so Maevyth uses the Aeryz glyph to blow him back and create an opening in the flames. She summons her whip and begs the townspeople to let them leave. When they don’t, Maevyth kills a parishioner with the whip, causing a riot. Zevander, with his massive scorpion, breaks into the tomb.

The townspeople scatter. Zevander approaches Sacton Crain, grabs his neck, and pushes him against the wall. Enjoying Crain’s panic, Zevander reveals that he is the demon who told Crain to spare Maevyth (through his visions in Caligorya). Maevyth remembers hallucinating that an angel was talking to her and is shocked to discover that it was Zevander. Zevander finally gets to have revenge on Crain for torturing Maevyth, but Maevyth stops him. Crain tells Maevyth about her past: Her mother was an enslaved Lyverian woman, and an acolyte left Maevyth by the Eating Woods. Now, Crain wishes he had killed Maevyth. Zevander knows that Maevyth deserves to kill Crain, but Maevyth wants to leave. As they walk away, Crain calls Maevyth weak, revealing that he killed Maevyth’s mother. Replying that she only ever wanted to be a member of the community, Maevyth turns Crain into ash with her black-gloved hand.