As the contestants leave the arena, Alistair confronts Selena in a corridor. Aware that she manipulated his emotions, he threatens her with his fire magic. Lavendera intervenes, reminding him of the “no fighting outside of trials” rule (166). Isera, who was also poisoned, joins them, blocking Alistair’s fire with a sheet of ice and insulting him.

The standoff is broken by the arrival of Draven. He intimidates Alistair, who backs down but not before mouthing a threat to Selena to watch her back. After Alistair leaves, Draven notices Selena’s bleeding arm and orders her to get it stitched up, adding a curt remark about not dirtying the castle. As he turns to leave, Selena thinks she sees “a hint of amusement” on his face (111).

Two days later, Selena has healed from most of her injuries. Feeling mentally exhausted and doubtful of her ability to win, she decides to gather intelligence for the fae resistance by spying on the dragon shifters. She sneaks into the south wing of the palace and overhears two soldiers from Draven’s Black Dragon Clan. The men express their deep hatred for Draven, whom they see as a traitor who sold out his clan to the ruling Icehearts in exchange for the powerful position of Commander of the Dread Legion. One soldier reveals he was once Draven’s best friend. Selena flees just as the soldiers realize someone is nearby.

The night before the second trial, Selena seeks out a deserted bathing chamber to clear her mind. While she is in the bath, Alistair steals her robe and towels, leaving a taunting note. With no way to cover herself, Selena is forced to walk back to her room completely naked. In a spiral stairwell, she runs into Draven.

Initially shocked, Draven accuses her of trying to seduce him. After she explains that someone stole her clothes, he demands to know who, but she refuses to tell him. In an act that surprises Selena, Draven takes off his shirt and gives it to her. Before leaving her in the stairwell, he grabs her by the collar and warns her, “This changes nothing” (126). Selena is left stunned and confused.

The second trial requires contestants to carry a delicate glass egg through a massive hedge maze without it breaking. Imar tells that the competitors that fae forced humans to navigate the maze for their own amusement centuries ago. Draven smirks when he hands Selena her box, making her suspicious. Once the trial begins, she discovers her egg was already shattered. Realizing she cannot prove Draven sabotaged her, she enters the maze determined to find another way to win.

The Icehearts, in their dragon forms, create a huge ice wall that blocks the path. While some contestants use their magic to bypass it, Selena is forced to climb. As she ascends, Tommen, seeking revenge for his humiliation in the first trial, shatters her handholds and causes her to fall. Selena retaliates by using her magic to amplify Tommen’s excitement into a reckless frenzy. He climbs too quickly, loses his grip, and falls, shattering his own egg and eliminating him from the competition.

Inside the maze, Selena reaches a bottleneck where contestants must crawl one-by-one through a narrow tunnel. She is surprised to find Isera waiting there instead of using her magic to cut the line. She advises Selena to use her intimidating magic as a “shield” instead of shying away from it. Selena deduces that Isera is claustrophobic and unable to proceed. In exchange for a future favor, Selena agrees to use her magic to suppress Isera’s intense fear as they go through the tunnel together. While crawling through the tight space, Selena takes Isera’s advice to heart and forms a new plan: Since her own egg is broken, she will steal an intact one from another contestant.

Selena reaches the final obstacle of the maze, a narrow stone bridge leading up to a third-floor window. Draven conjures a magical storm around the structure. She spots Jeb, one of Alistair’s friends, and confirms his egg is still intact. As they both make their way across the bridge, Selena exploits a burst of wind from the storm by amplifying Jeb’s fear with her magic, causing him to slip and fall off the bridge.

Selena catches Jeb’s wrist before he hits the ground. As she hauls him back onto the bridge, she discreetly swaps her box containing the shattered egg for his. Believing she saved his life, Jeb agrees to a truce. They enter the room at the end of the bridge, where Imar inspects their eggs. Selena passes with “her” unbroken egg, leaving Draven shocked. Jeb is eliminated when his box is revealed to contain the shattered egg. He turns on Selena, glaring at her hatefully as he realizes he was tricked.

After the second trial, Selena is ambushed by Draven, who pulls her into an empty room and demands to know how she passed. After Selena taunts him, her frustration boils over, and she confronts him for repeatedly sabotaging her over a single spilled drink. Draven erupts, declaring that if it were up to him the Atonement Trials would not exist at all and none of the fae should be allowed to win. Enraged by this injustice, Selena shoves him and accuses him of hypocrisy, reminding him of the rumor that he sold out his own people for power.

His anger turns cold. He corners her against a door, reminding her of his ruthlessness and questioning her decision to disrespect him. Instead of showing fear, Selena remains defiant and sarcastic. She pats him on the cheek and says, “Good talk,” before slipping out of the room, leaving him speechless at her audacity.

Returning to her corridor, Selena sees contestants who have been eliminated saying goodbye to their new friends. The sight makes her feel deeply lonely. Her thoughts are interrupted when Jeb, who has been ordered to leave the castle by the next morning, publicly accuses her of cheating. Emboldened by her encounter with Draven, Selena cruelly dismisses him, rubbing his failure in his face. The shocked gasps from other contestants make her instantly regret her words, and she retreats into her room.

Alone, Selena examines her injuries from the trial. She is torn between her desire to win and her fear of being hated. She thinks that, to survive the trials, she must become more ruthless and use her magic offensively, as Isera advised. However, she struggles with the idea of doing things that will make her more of an outcast even though she realizes her quest for acceptance is in direct conflict with the actions she must take to win.

Selena is violently woken when Tommen and Jeb kick down her door to get revenge for Jeb’s elimination. They brutally attack her, and despite her efforts to fight back with her knife, they quickly overwhelm her. They shatter her ribs with a magic-enhanced kick, slash her forearm, and stab her in the thigh. Lying bleeding on the floor, Selena is about to be killed when a furious wind blasts through the room, throwing her attackers back.

Draven appears in the doorway, radiating pure rage. He is shirtless, his black wings spread, and a storm gathers around him. Seeing Selena’s broken body, his fury intensifies. He unleashes his storm magic inside the small room, striking Tommen and Jeb with lightning and slamming them against the wall. As Selena loses consciousness, she feels a pair of strong arms lifting her.

Selena awakens completely healed in a luxurious bedroom she doesn’t recognize. Looking out the window, she witnesses Draven publicly executing Tommen and Jeb in a courtyard while the other contestants are forced to watch. Both men have been tortured. Draven grants Tommen a quick, clean death because he begs for forgiveness, but he stabs Jeb through the back and leaves him to writhe before finally slitting his throat. He then warns the remaining contestants that this is the fate awaiting anyone who tries to “kill Selena, or any of [their] fellow contestants, outside of the trials” (168). 

After the execution, Draven enters the bedroom and confirms that he saved her, had her healed with powerful magic, and brought her to his personal chambers. When Selena asks why, he coldly dismisses the notion that he cares about her. He claims he simply saw an opportunity to lock her away so that she will be forced to miss the next trial and be eliminated.