Maevyth hears banging and finds her father and Aleysia outside Zevander’s room. Zevander is in a trance again, yelling at a hallucination and throwing furniture. When Maevyth intervenes, Zevander grabs Maevyth’s throat, which causes Raivox to break the windows to protect her. Maevyth tells Raivox to leave and tells Zevander that she loves him, snapping him out of the trance. He is ashamed, but Maevyth loves him unconditionally. They embrace.

Maevyth suggests penetrative intercourse. Zevander agrees, lays Maevyth on the floor, and slowly moves his hips until two of his 10 piercings are inside Maevyth. The enchanted piercings cause pleasure, but she is distracted by Zevander cutting himself with the dagger. Instead, Maevyth drags her claws across his chest until they both climax. Maevyth apologizes for hurting Zevander, but he says it was exquisite.

Zevander admits that Theron is trapped in the dungeons. Aleysia could bond with him to travel to Aethyria, but Maevyth suggests that Aleysia and their father could go through the Lyverian mountains to find vivicantem. Zevander says that they’ll discuss it in the morning.

In the past, after decades of being abused by Loyce and killing her enemies, Zevander feels numb. One night, he thinks about killing her in her sleep, but a soldier enters, waking Loyce to report that Solassion mercenaries failed to successfully attack Castle Eidolon. The spiders that are Branimir’s prodozja killed all but one mercenary. Zevander asks to kill the last mercenary and claims that Branimir is weak. Loyce agrees to grant Zevander’s request if he bonds with her, and Zevander agrees.

Loyce and Zevander perform the bonding ritual, but Zevander’s body rejects Loyce. She is convinced that Zevander bonded with someone else. She summons the remaining mercenary, who recounts how the mercenaries sexually assaulted Lady Rydainn before killing her. They attempted to do the same to Rykaia, but spiders attacked and ate them. Before the mercenary can say who ordered the attack, Loyce kills him.

Furious, Zevander wonders if he is too broken to feel grief. He tells the Golvyn that he will never escape Loyce. The Golvyn doesn’t believe that Zevander’s family was killed and offers Zevander the elixir that renders him unconscious. Zevander accepts, and the Golvyn pours it in his mouth.

In a forest in Caligorya, Zevander sees a humanoid creature with bark, skin, and horns eating a person. The creature, who turns out to be Alastor, asks how Zevander entered his mind. Alastor has tried to call Zevander back to Caligorya for years, but Zevander stopped feeling the pull. Alastor brings them to Castle Eidolon, where Zevander’s mother is indeed dead, but his siblings, Branimir and Rykaia, are alive. Zevander notices that Alastor and Branimir have similar markings and realizes that Alastor is actually Cadavros. Cadavros and Zevander are linked: If Zevander dies, Cadavros also dies. Collapsing in pain, Zevander wakes up with Theron standing over him.

In the present, Zevander watches Maevyth sleep, feeling free near her. Suddenly, a man enters the room. Zevander hides, unsure whether he is hallucinating. As the man approaches Maevyth, Raivox’s growl tells Zevander that it’s really happening. Zevander grabs the man and drags him down the hall. He turns out to be an assassin sent by the townspeople of Foxglove to kill Maevyth. Zevander kills him, brings his body to the tomb, sends hundreds of scorpions at the townspeople there, and welds the doors shut, trapping them. Back in Maevyth’s room, Zevander decides that he will go to the mountains with her rather than alone.

In the past, Theron tells Zevander that Torryn, whom Zevander knows from the mines, killed an orgoth using Zevander’s neck-vein method. Loyce summons Theron and Zevander in a rage, revealing that King Jeret has accepted King Sagaerin’s offer of Zevander. Loyce begs Zevander to refuse it, threatening to hurt him, but he walks away.

Zevander suspects that King Sagaerin only wants to acquire Zevander to exact revenge for Lady Rydainn’s death. Sagaerin loved Zevander’s mother and now blames Zevander and Lord Rydainn for her death. Still, Zevander prefers death at the king’s hand to Loyce’s promise of an enslaved life of luxury.

At court, King Jeret admits to declining multiple bids from King Sagaerin for Zevander’s freedom before Vaelora’s death removed his only bargaining chip with Kael. Now Sagaerin has offered to send 10,000 soldiers to Jeret. However, Loyce claims that Zevander learned glyphs by visiting Caligorya; after a mage finds glyphs on Zevander’s palm, Loyce suggests using Zevander against Kael instead of sending him back to Sagaerin, who likely also wants Zevander for his powers. Jeret agrees, rejects Sagaerin’s offer of troops, and remands Zevander to Loyce’s custody. Loyce praises Theron for redeeming himself; Theron betrayed Loyce to Aradia but now is once again in Loyce’s good graces after telling her about Zevander’s glyphs.

In the present, Kazhimyr dreams that he’s in a forest being attacked by roots that tie him to the ground. A figure with bark-like skin and a white skull face approaches. The figure presses a finger into Kazhimyr’s leg, creating the sensation of thousands of insects crawling under his skin.

Kazhimyr wakes up in the city of Veneficarys, with Dravien and Ravezio watching over him. The Syrenian’s bite has incapacitated Kazhimyr, and it will take a couple days to heal.

They learn that General Loyce is in the city looking for a red-haired woman named Melantha, which sounds familiar to Kazhimyr. Veneficarys is allied with Sagaerin, who supplies the city with vivicantem. Kazhimyr explains the eldritch glyph that Zevander can cast, urging Dravien to consider leaving early. Dravien instead hopes that Loyce will leave soon. Dravien tells Kazhimyr that some people have premonitions in their dreams following a Syrenian bite. When Dravien was bitten, he dreamed that he would be enslaved by a woman in gold armor.

Maevyth, her father, Corwin, Aleysia, and Zevander examine a map of Mortasia. Maevyth’s father warns that the direct path to the mountains is haunted. Sacton Gransley started a village there, but it disappeared. Zevander is unimpressed, but Maevyth’s father suggests following a longer path. He believes that Zevander and Maevyth’s magic is an illusion until Raivox appears, startling him. Zevander wants Aleysia, her father, and Corwin to stay behind, but they refuse. Corwin brings Zevander to the stables, where there are a dozen horses. Maevyth worries that Zevander will leave without her, but he promises not to abandon her. Maevyth assures her father that Zevander is trustworthy.

Corwin leads Zevander through the lower levels of the temple and notices that the doors to the tomb are welded shut. Zevander makes Corwin promise not to mention that detail to the others. A shadow under the door indicates that a villager is still alive, but Zevander ignores it.

In the stables, only four horses remain. Zevander chooses the wild horse Vane and recommends that Corwin stay behind, but Corwin feels safer with the group.

As they ride along the Hadrona River, a Vonkovyan soldier begs them to stop and help his sick friend. Zevander refuses, though Maevyth and her father urge him to reconsider. When the soldier points a dagger at Zevander, he kills the soldier. Everyone is shocked. Raivox swoops down and eats the corpse. Maevyth criticizes Zevander for murdering an innocent man, but Zevander says that he will kill anyone who threatens them.

They stop at an abandoned church that Maevyth’s father insists is haunted. Zevander deems the church suitable for the night, and Aleysia finds food inside. Maevyth briefly sees the ghost of a small girl. Maevyth’s father explains that Lyverians worship the death goddess Morsana, whom he calls cruel. Maevyth asks if Zevander was in a trance when he killed the soldier, but he again insists that he will kill whenever it is necessary. He wonders what he will do when his dark thoughts overwhelm him, but Maevyth promises to help him fight it.

Two days later, Kazhimyr recovers. A sex worker was killed with the poison flammapul, drawing guards to investigate the brothel. Dravien, Ravezio, and Kazhimyr choose that moment to escape. Kazhimyr and Ravezio fake an argument by the stables, distracting the guards. One guard makes a racist remark about Ravezio, and Kazhimyr almost attacks him. Ravezio claims that he’s accustomed to racism, but Kazhimyr wants revenge. Dravien, meanwhile, steals two horses.

Kazhimyr and Ravezio get to the rendezvous point, but Dravien isn’t there. They find blood on the ground and hear a scream. Nearby, they discover General Loyce, another Bellatryx, and Solassion soldiers interrogating Dravien, who claims that Dolion is dead and that two Letalisz told him that Zevander was hired to kill Zivant. Loyce doesn’t believe Dravien.

Kazhimyr and Ravezio attack, killing the soldiers and the Bellatryx. Loyce threatens to kill Dravien and taunts Kazhimyr, but Ravezio throws a dagger into the orgoth vein in Loyce’s neck. They free Dravien and ride off.

While Aleysia, her father, and Corwin sleep, Maevyth and Zevander notice Raivox scratching at the ground. The ghost girl tells Maevyth that the vyrmish are coming to eat them. As Maevyth shouts that they all need to leave, a massive hole appears underneath Raivox, and pale, ape-like creatures crawl out of it. They don’t have eyes or noses, using antennae on their faces to sense vibrations. The vyrmish swarm the church, though Zevander uses sablefyre to hold them back. Corwin releases the horses, and Maevyth defends him with her whip. When Zevander’s flames weaken, a creature grabs Maevyth’s father, who faints when it bites his leg. Maevyth pushes the creature back with her Aeryz wind glyph. Raivox protects Maevyth and her father, blowing hot silver on the vyrmish. The ghost girl tells Maevyth to hit the ground with the bone whip. Maevyth slams the whip down, causing the vyrmish to explode and creating a chasm. Maevyth tells Corwin, Zevander, and Aleysia to avoid the fissure, but Aleysia is in a trance. Hearing Zevander scream, Maevyth runs toward him but passes out when something strikes her head.

Maevyth wakes up in a cage on a cart surrounded by children jogging alongside her. They’re in the mountains, meaning that Maevyth has slept for days. They travel to a village where everything is decorated with black feathers. In a temple, Aleysia and Zevander lie on pallets. Lyverians surround them, and a Lyverian priestess named Erithanya assures Maevyth that they are safe. Erithanya says that Aleysia and Zevander are infected, though Zevander’s infection is unique. She performs a ritual to kill Aleysia’s infection, using her own blood, Maevyth’s blood, a silver liquid, and a dead raven. Spiders crawl out of Aleysia’s mouth, which the ravens eat. Erithanya credits the goddess Morsana for this cure. Aleysia wakes up, apologizes, and explains what really happened in the forest: The wrathavor, disguised as Moros, put Aleysia in a tree, where a giant spider held her captive. She escaped and went to Elowen, who restrained Aleysia to avoid infection.

Erithanya tells Maevyth that the Lyverians are the descendants of Corvikae who settled in the mountains after being banished from Aethyria. Their blood has weakened, in part because Vonkovyans keep killing and kidnapping them. Erithanya shows Maevyth a book like the one Dolion gave her and adds that Maevyth is most likely her niece, the Vasmora, or the vessel of Morsana. The Vasmora’s role is to repopulate the Corvikae, but Maevyth claims that Morsana showed her a vision of sablefyre, meaning that she’s fated to be with the vessel of Deimos. Erithanya fears that Morsana will punish the Corvikae by reigniting the vein of sablefyre in the mountains. She shows Maevyth a vision of the god Pestilios in the form of a humanoid spider, unleashing a plague across both Mortasia and Aethyria. Erithanya plans to test Maevyth by throwing her into the dormant sablefyre vein.