A council convenes to decide their next move. Phoebe urges them to travel to the Highlands to consult the “All Mothers,” the magical wise old women of her people, but Dior and others are skeptical. Maryn interprets the Esana prophecy for all gathered: Dior, a descendant of the Redeemer, must unite the five kingdoms by being crowned on the Fivefold Throne in Augustin while holding the Redeemer’s “sainted blade.” This must happen on Maidsfeast, 10 months away, to end daysdeath. The blade in question is kept in a vault beneath Augustin, guarded by the last sleeping Esana, Oleander the Wise. They must reach the city before Fabién Voss. Reyne, Phoebe, and Joaquin’s Unbound pledge loyalty; the Highlander chieftains refuse without consulting their elders. Dior accepts her destiny.

A week later, the group prepares to sail from Maergenn aboard the Dawnseeker. Dior is distraught at Gabriel’s absence but agrees they can wait no longer. Maryn bites her wrist and from a drop of blood forms one small red moth, saying it will “perish in time, crumbling into ash and eternity” (179) but while it lasts she will give what strength she has to finding Gabriel. Dior thanks Maryn for this bit of sanguimancy or blood-magic, something in which the Esani excel.

Maryn goes onto reveals critical lore: Fabién Voss and the “Five” ancient priests who murdered the Redeemer are all servants of the “Lord of the Pit” (180), the devil himself. Here, Celene pauses her narrative to comment on Jean-Francois’s lukewarm response to the reveal that his mother, Empress Isabella, is a devotee of the devil. Jean-Francois retorts that he knows better than to trust the tale of the highly unreliable Celene. Celene resumes her story.

On the docks, Dior uses her blood to miraculously heal a young boy named Finley and many others, repeatedly cutting her mangled hand for fresh blood. As they row out, Reyne notices the cuts on Dior’s hand have completely healed—a feat previously impossible—suggesting new powers.

Aboard the Dawnseeker, Maryn remains weak and tasks Celene with watching Dior. Celene uses a blood-moth to spy on Dior (as an Esani, Celen too can practice blood-magic) while struggling with the increasingly loud voices of the consumed souls within her, particularly Wulfric, her former master. Phoebe reveals to Reyne her belief that Reyne is the biological daughter of Phoebe’s late husband, Connor á Lachlainn—making Reyne heir to both her mother Niamh Nineswords’s throne in Ossway and the Highland throne, potentially fulfilling a prophecy about a unifying queen called “Stormbringer.” 

Celene reports Phoebe’s growing influence to Maryn but is dismissed. Then Celene notices movement in the looking glass behind Maryn: Wulfric glowering over her shoulder, smashing fists as if trapped on the other side. Maryn appears oblivious.

Shaken, Celene realizes proximity to Maryn is amplifying the voices within her. Through her moth she observes an intimate moment between Dior and Reyne, which ends when the devout Reyne asks Dior to stop short of consummating their relationship since they are yet unmarried. A frustrated Dior leaves Reyne and banters with Joaquin on deck. Celene approaches; after Dior playfully pretends to seduce her, the two share a genuine laugh. Celene suggests Dior’s restlessness could be channeled into learning sanguimancy to prepare for Voss. Dior eagerly agrees to secret midnight lessons.

Celene and Dior begin the sanguimancy lessons in the hold, Celene tasking Dior with levitating a drop of her blood, and bending it in various shapes. Dior struggles while Celene is tormented by visions of Wulfric mocking her. One night, Wulfric’s taunts push Celene into rage and she unconsciously manifests a bloodblade; Dior raises her hands to ward off the blow, and her own blood instinctively coalesces into a sharp needle poised near Celene’s throat. The breakthrough excites Dior. Celene confesses her fear of the souls inside her and worries that Maryn will discover she consumed Wulfric. Dior comforts her. Celene proposes a bargain: for each new sanguimancy skill Dior masters, Celene will recount how she lost one of her nine lives.

As reward for Dior levitating a drop of blood, Celene recounts losing her second life. After being turned into a vampire by Laure Voss, she awoke alone in a forest, ran home to find her village destroyed and her mother Auriel and father murdered. Overcome by first bloodlust, Celene attacked bandits looting the dead, killing one and drinking his blood. The others set her on fire; she fled, horribly burned. This was her third life lost. Vowing never to drink human blood again, she set off on what would turn out to be a two-year journey to seek help from Wulfric, the father of her half-brother Gabriel, in San Yves.

As Dior learns to form a crude blood-blade, Celene rewards her with another tale. During the journey, she nearly died swimming across the Vipère river. This is how she learnt that fresh water is fatal for vampires. The day Celene reached San Yves, she was captivated by piano music emanating from an estate. She followed the music to a dwelling named Durant Estate and saw a young, handsome visually impaired pianist named Laurent. Soon after, she was ambushed by two vampires: An aristocratic boy called Percival and a brutish woman in a nun’s habit, Aleks, who beat her unconscious. Celene awoke in a library beneath the San Yves priory, where Wulfric rescued her from Aleks. Celene mentally relayed her story to the older vampire; Wulfric confirmed she was damned but offered salvation through the “Vow Esana,” ushering her in the Esani order.

Celene explains to Dior her mastery of sanguimancy is not learned but “recalled” from Wulfric’s soul. She recounts her early years with him. After four years, he took her on her first sanctioned hunt, teaching her that the Esani believed that they could achieve salvation even though they were damned. By using their monstrous powers to consume other monsters, and Esani became “God’s own monster.” Her target this day was a corrupt priest sexually preying on orphans. Overcoming her reluctance against murder and feeding, Celene killed the priest and drank his blood, finding the act righteous. Passing the Durand estate on their return, she again saw Laurent playing the piano. Wulfric noticed her attraction to Laurent and warned her against bonds with mortals. When Celene defiantly brought up his past affair with her mother, Wulfric became enraged.

Wulfric ignored Celene for six months to punish her for talking back. During this time she secretly visited the Durand estate to listen to Laurent. Wulfric eventually revealed the Esana’s holiest duty: “Communion,” the act of consuming other vampires (by completely draining them of lifeblood) to absorb their power and “save” their souls until Judgment Day. Celene witnessed Wulfric and the others perform this sacrament, seeing how it began to heal Aleks’s physical decay. Inspired by the promise of salvation and restoration of her burned face, Celene dedicated herself to the faith. One night, Laurent spoke to her from his balcony, revealing he knew she had been visiting. Lonely and confined to his home, he was intrigued. Celene tells Dior about the beginning of her relationship with Laurent. He asked to “see” her with his hands; she allowed him to touch her hair before stopping him from feeling her scarred face. He then took her hand.

In her moth-form, Celene spies again on Dior and Reyne, with Reyne continuing to confine their lovemaking to passionate kisses. Although Dior is frustrated, she tells Reyne she understands and goes out to the deck, where she, Joaquim, and the rest of the crew joke about the difficulties of dating a “maid” or a virgin. 

The capitaine tells Dior about the Dawnseeker’s course. To get to Augustin, they must travel through a river emptying into the sea, the freshwater posing a problem for the vampires on board. As they enter the port of Augustin they will face another peril: Phillipe’s vise, a natural span of stone between the cliffs guarding the mouth of the river, manned by guns. Dior tells the capitaine that they will face all perils with courage.

Later, Dior practices with Celene and convinces her to tell her another story though Dior is too distracted to perform a feat. Celene refuses to recount another life but agrees to tell Dior about her first communion, Victorine.

For three years, Celene and Laurent conducted a secret romance, Celene showing Laurent the city at night. One evening, Wulfric took his “famille” to a masked ball at Château Durand. He revealed their targets: A coven of four powerful vampires. He promised Celene her first communion with the youngest, a beautiful Ilon vampire named Victorine, implying it would heal her disfigured face. Wulfric ordered them not to strike at the ball but follow the marks to their nest. 

Celene’s holy purpose turned to jealous fury when she saw Victorine seducing Laurent, and she broke Wulfric’s order, following them to Laurent’s room and finding Victorine feeding on him. Celene attacked and consumed Victorine, finding the communion transcendent. As alarms sounded, she comforted Laurent, who confessed his love for her. Before fleeing, she allowed him to touch her porcelain mask; he called her beautiful and kissed her. Celene is interrupted from her tale when alarm bells ring out on the Dawnseeker.

Close to the shore of Augustin, the Dawnseeker is ambushed by three Voss warships. Dior rallies her Unbound (the forces sworn to her) with a stirring speech. Maryn, strength seemingly restored, emerges on deck. She and Celene transform into swarms of blood-moths and assault the lead Voss ship. On the ship’s deck, Maryn’s moths coalesce into her form, and she performs a powerful act of sanguimancy. Commanding the blood of the thralls on the deck, she bids it to erupt out of them, killing them instantly. Celene engages and consumes the Ironheart captain. She flies back to aid the Dawnseeker, being boarded. Phoebe is shot in the head with a lead ball and knocked overboard. Ironhearts, the forces of the Voss, swarm the deck, cornering Dior and Reyne.

Reyne uses her silversteel sword anointed with Dior’s blood to kill a hulking Ironheart, whose flesh burns on contact. Dior is confronted by Roisin the Red, a surviving hound of Danton Voss (the youngest son of Fabien, a Forever Prince killed by Dior in the first book of the series). Just as Dior and Reyne are about to be overwhelmed, Maryn arrives and turns the tide. Roisin warns Dior that the Forever King is coming before escaping into the sea. 

Reyne and Celene dive to rescue Joaquin, who had jumped overboard to keep the unconscious Phoebe afloat. Phoebe’s duskdancer physiology heals her head wound. The Dawnseeker proceeds up the River Béni toward Augustin, finding the coastal fortresses destroyed. As the water turns fresh, Celene and Maryn are forced into coffins to protect them. Trapped, Celene hears a massive battle. A violent impact throws her coffin into the river, and she sinks.

Trapped at the bottom of the river, Celene has a vision where the souls she carries, led by Wulfric and Aléne Voss, berate her. She is rescued by Joaquin, who pulls her coffin ashore near Augustin. The city is besieged by an endless army of wretched, coordinated telepathically by highblood Ironhearts. Celene fights through carnage to find Dior and the surviving Unbound. They are trying to reach the last remaining bridge into Rive Cœur before defenders destroy it. Celene guides from the rooftops as Dior stays on the ground, healing the wounded. They break through to a large square near the bridge, only to be confronted by Kestrel Voss, the Iron Maiden.

Kestrel, a daughter of the Forever King and commander of his army, offers Dior a place by her father’s side; Dior refuses. Kestrel unleashes a psychic attack of fear and despair, using her telepathic powers to speak dreadful whispers in the minds of the Unbound soldiers. Kestrel and her knights charge, shattering the Unbound’s line. Celene and Phoebe fight valiantly, but Celene’s legs are severed, and Reyne is mortally wounded by Kestrel’s scythe. Witnessing Reyne’s fall, Dior is overcome with grief and rage, and transforms into a giant white wolf, a first for her 

In wolf form, Dior attacks Kestrel, her fangs and blood a potent weapon. Maryn arrives, and the Forever King, speaking through Kestrel, orders retreat. As the enemy withdraws, Joaquin revives Reyne with Dior’s last blood. Celene explains Dior’s transformation: She is a duskdancer, the gift manifesting only when her father—Connor á Lachlainn—died, making her and Reyne half-sisters.

Dior remains in wolf form through the night, watched by Reyne in a ruined chapel. Her Unbound remain loyal. The next evening, as Dior transforms back, imperial soldiers march from the gatekeep, led by a young battle-scarred noble. Dior’s followers now call her “Heaven’s Huntress” and “The White Wolf of God.” Reyne struggles with knowing the woman she loves is also her sister.

The leader identifies himself as Prince Philippe, son of the late Emperor Alexandre III. He is suspicious of the vampires in their party. Reyne asserts their noble lineage and holy purpose. Phoebe introduces Dior as the Holy Grail and city’s savior. Intrigued, Philippe takes them to the Empress. Across the last bridge into Rive Cœur, the people of Augustin hail Dior. At the Château Impérial, they are presented to Empress Isabella. The High Inquisitrix accuses Dior of heresy, bloodwitchery, and the murder of Bishop Henri Mercier; Prince Philippe presses her on the slaughter of Inquisitorial troops at Redwatch Priory and silversaints at San Michon. Dior declares she is a descendant of the Redeemer, here to end daysdeath. When she explains she needs the Redeemer’s sword kept by Oleander, Isabella reveals her forces destroyed Oleander years ago and gave the sword to Gabriel de León. The sword is none other than Ashdrinker.

Jean-François concludes his interview with Celene, smugly noting the futility of her quest now that the sword is lost. He denies her blood and returns to the tower. Gabriel is furious to see Dario, and Jean-François dismisses him. To torment the thirsty silversaint, Jean-François drinks from his majordomo Meline’s wrist. He reveals the Voss legions are closing in. He dismisses Celene’s claims about the “Five” as lies and presses Gabriel to continue. Gabriel, staring out at the storm, says his next destination was “Hell.”