Finnian sets Elowen down in a bedroom that she realizes is Cayden’s. Saskia helps her undress, but Elowen refuses to lie down. They hear Cayden shouting, furious about the drugging. Elowen fears that the alliance could be jeopardized by her presence in his house. When her legs give out, Cayden catches her and promises that he’ll always come for her. She pushes away, repeating her concerns. He offers to make the rumors about them true, and she hits him. She confesses her fear of losing control over her body. He asks her to trust him as she did in prison and sits with her as she falls asleep. She whispers that she missed him. He kisses her forehead and whispers that he missed her more.

Elowen enters a vivid dream where she floats in a lake. She hears Cayden vowing revenge while stars fall and massive waves pull her under. His voice calling her name calms the waters. Five shimmering dragons appear, and she touches them. Sorin allows her to hug him and flies with her. She vows to free him and burn Imirath. A shadowed figure whom she calls “Demon” comforts her before disappearing.

Three days later, Elowen wakes abruptly, shouting for her dragons. Finnian calms her, revealing that Cayden stayed with her while she was asleep. She confesses her plan to infiltrate Imirath Castle with Cayden to retrieve the dragons. Finnian pledges his loyalty, calling her the sister he prayed for. They embrace.

Finnian leads her to the library where Saskia, Ryder, and an exhausted Cayden wait. Cayden kneels before her and puts her knives back into her thigh holsters. At his request, she recounts the attack while Saskia takes notes. She recalls that the assassin who fled had a scar on his forehead. When she anxiously asks how many people saw her while she was poisoned, Cayden reassures her that fighting off three assassins while drugged shows strength, not weakness. Saskia offers to accompany her to see Ailliard.

Alone with Elowen, Cayden stands behind her at the piano and places his hands over hers to play a song. They lean in for a kiss, but Saskia calls from the hall, interrupting them. Cayden teases Elowen about almost kissing him despite claiming to despise him. She threatens to kiss someone at a tavern, and he threatens to shoot anyone she kisses.

At half past three o’clock in the morning, Elowen waits anxiously for Cayden’s return from the border. Unable to sit by passively, she arms herself, jumps from her balcony to Cayden’s, picks the lock, and slips out of the castle. She rides to the border camp and hears a loud boom as she nears it.

She finds Cayden in his tent, covered in blood. Panicked, she searches for wounds, but he reveals that the blood isn’t his. They argue about her recklessness and his failure to communicate with her. He reveals that he found the assassin who fled, who was one of his own soldiers, and spent the evening publicly torturing and executing the traitor. Elowen understands that this was a public declaration of loyalty to her in defiance of King Eagor. Acknowledging their shared darkness, Cayden pulls her into a passionate kiss.

A servant interrupts with an envelope. Elowen insists that Cayden rest instead of having a meeting. He leads her to a separate bedroom within his tent. She feels a flash of jealousy, assuming that it’s for another woman, until he reveals that he had it prepared specifically for her with Saskia and Ryder’s help.

The next morning, Cayden walks Elowen through the border camp. He reveals that Saskia and Ryder know about their dragon-heist plan. He told them while she was unconscious, and Saskia had already figured it out. In his meeting tent, Elowen is mesmerized by an enchanted, smokeless fire and sees visions of her dragons within the flames. The metal of her pendant burns her hand, forcing her to drop it. Saskia pulls her from the trance as Finnian, Ryder, and General Braxton arrive to discuss the investigation.

Drawn to the fire again, Elowen sees an image of the amulet the priestess gifted her. Feeling an irresistible pull, she rushes to Cayden’s residential tent and grabs the pulsing amulet from his desk. Despite Cayden and Finnian’s warnings, she clasps it around her neck.

She is transported into an invisible, spectral state. Guided by golden serpents, she finds herself in Imirath’s dungeons. Her old cell triggers traumatic flashbacks of childhood imprisonment and abuse, which she overcomes by reaffirming her intent to destroy her enemies. After following the serpents to the dragon chamber, she discovers that her five dragons are bound in heavy chains. Filled with rage, the dragons begin roaring and stomping. As the magic fades, a golden barrier separates her from her dragons, and she’s pulled back.

Elowen returns to consciousness in Cayden’s arms. She tells the others that the amulet transported her to Imirath Castle, where she saw her dragons in chains. Saskia reveals that the amulet burned Cayden’s hands when he tried to remove it and that Elowen’s eyes turned gold while she was in the trance. Recalling runes on the dragon chamber door, Elowen draws them. Saskia identifies them as silencing and strength runes. Cayden confirms that the blood key forged in Kallistar Prison will bypass them. Elowen describes her route, providing critical intelligence, but admits that she only knows the way to the dragon chamber from the dungeon.

Overwhelmed, Elowen retreats to her private room. She marvels at how perfectly it reflects her tastes, realizes that Cayden designed it, and finds romance novels he left for her. Cayden enters, and she offers to bandage his knuckles. While tending his wounds, she confesses her despair at seeing her dragons in chains and her frustration at waiting for the treaty. Cayden promises to move up the alliance ball, assuring her that the treaty will be signed in five days.

Overcome with gratitude, Elowen impulsively hugs him and kisses his cheek. He teases her about sneaking out of the castle and then reads a salacious passage from her romance novel aloud, leading to a playful struggle. Later, she realizes that he made her laugh and feel lighter despite her hopelessness.

On the night of the alliance ball, Elowen wears an ivory gown embroidered with flowers in her dragons’ colors. Ailliard escorts her and gives a heartfelt speech about how proud he is of her leadership. He mentions that the King and Queen of Galakin are present and may raise the subject of a possible marriage between her and their son, Prince Zale.

The ballroom is decorated like an enchanted forest. King Eagor leads Elowen to meet King Erix and Queen Cordelia of Galakin. She spots Cayden and realizes that he designed and gifted her the custom gown since it’s decorated in the colors of her dragons, a detail only he would know.

During dinner, Queen Cordelia invites Elowen to visit Galakin. Eagor gives a public toast and asks for the first dance with Elowen. While dancing, he makes unwanted advances, suggesting a private meeting at an expensive brothel. Angered, Elowen threatens him.

They proceed to sign the alliance treaty. Immediately after, Cayden slams Eagor against a wall, threatening severe consequences and blackmail if he ever touches Elowen again. Cayden then pulls Elowen onto the dance floor, declaring that he wants the kingdom to know she’s his for the night. They dance intimately, drawing stares from the entire court. He tells her that while he’s a monster to others, he will never be one to her.

The morning after the ball, a hungover Elowen reads in her suite. Cayden arrives and shows her wagons being loaded with the first shipment of food for Aestilian. Moved to tears by memories of times when she and her people nearly starved, Elowen watches with relief. When he offers an escort of soldiers for the wagons, she accepts but stipulates that they go only as far as the Fintan River to protect Aestilian’s location.

Finnian announces that the Aestilian soldiers have arrived. Elowen greets Nessa, Lycus, and Jarek, who escaped Imirath with her, and introduces them to Cayden. Cayden leaves for a meeting about the mastermind behind the assassination attempts.

After Elowen finalizes the ration plans, a servant delivers a letter from Cayden stating that he and Ryder are heading to Verendus. Recalling Eagor’s mention of a brothel near the palace as a place to escape prying eyes, Elowen realizes that the mastermind is hiding there. She fakes menstrual cramps to slip away, and Finnian catches on. They ride to the brothel, where Elowen explains her plan to go inside alone and act as bait. Finnian reluctantly drops her off at The Golden Rose brothel before riding to find Cayden.

Elowen enters the brothel and tells the madam that she’s waiting for Commander Veles. She’s led to a private chamber, where she changes into an outfit made of red lace and gold chains. Cayden arrives, his expression torn between lust and anger. Elowen explains her plan and asks him to act convincingly like they’re there for pleasure so that they can lure out the mastermind. As a condition, he demands a real kiss first, and they kiss with feverish urgency. He removes his shirt, revealing scars and tattoos, and anger flares in her at the sight of old lash marks. He takes four of her knives and adds them to his holsters.

In the main room, they put on a sensual public performance. He teases her and murmurs that there are many things he wants to do with her, but not for an audience. She reciprocates. Overcome, he carries her to their private room, where he holds her and brings her to climax. Afterward, she worries that their mission failed. However, Cayden reveals that it succeeded: Ryder heard someone outside their room and has taken them to an underground holding cell.

Having changed back into her gown and hidden her knives, Elowen follows Cayden to the dark cellar. Ryder waits with a prisoner chained by his wrists to the ceiling. When the prisoner lifts his head, Elowen recognizes Robick, King Garrick’s most trusted guard and her primary childhood torturer.

She beats him with a broken broom handle and then pins his sword hand and cuts off his thumb and four fingers, one for each dragon. As she interrogates him, he reveals that his accomplices in Vareveth fled after Cayden publicly executed one of his soldiers and that the dragons’ chains can only be unlocked by the amulet, which was stolen. Elowen reveals that Robick sexually harassed her and would have raped her if Garrick hadn’t insisted on preserving the princess’s marriage prospects. Enraged, Cayden attacks him brutally until Ryder pulls him away. Elowen threatens Robick’s family and then castrates him. She tells Cayden that it’s his turn. Cayden blinds Robick and cuts out his tongue.

Elowen squats before the dying man and tells him that she’ll bring Imirath to its knees. She slits his throat. Then, needing to convince herself that he’s truly dead, she stabs him through the heart. When she readies another strike, Cayden restrains her and insists that he’s dead. He kneels with her in the blood and promises to help carry the weight of her memories. Elowen worries that Ryder will see her differently now, but he tells her never to apologize for a kill she deserved. Elowen takes Cayden’s hand, and he reaffirms that her enemies are his enemies.