Several nights after the storm, Galantia wakes from a recurring erotic dream about Sebian that transforms into a nightmare involving Malyr. She attempts to pleasure herself but is interrupted by unwanted thoughts of Malyr, leaving her ashamed. Getting out of bed, she finds a blue silk ribbon on the floor and realizes the raven from the stormy night must have dropped it. She ties it around her wrist.

When she considers visiting Sebian’s chamber, she discovers Malyr sitting on her couch. He reveals he overheard her moaning in her sleep and taunts her about being aroused by fear and his shadows. He informs her that the Tidestone delegation will arrive within the hour. Galantia feels no relief at the prospect of going home. Malyr threatens that he will one day come for her and break her, putting her back together incorrectly.

He orders her to her knees and commands her to perform oral sex. When she refuses, he threatens to spread rumors about her sexual activities with him and Sebian. To protect her reputation so close to her rescue, Galantia complies. Malyr mocks her inexperience, forces himself on her, and when he discovers she is aroused, uses it to degrade and hurt her further, bringing her to a painful orgasm. He tells her that enjoying such acts is a worse violation than simply being forced to endure them.

Enraged, Galantia tells him she hates him and regrets not killing him with a rock when he was an escaped prisoner. Her confession shocks Malyr completely. He turns pale and trembling before attacking her, grabbing her throat and slamming her against a partition. Sebian enters and intervenes. With a tear on his cheek, Malyr roars that she killed his brother. Galantia realizes with horror that the escaped prisoner was Harlen, not Malyr. Sebian orders her to leave, and she flees, terrified.

Immediately after, Galantia waits in Malyr’s library while he rages in his private rooms. She feels terrible, realizing she killed Harlen, a boy who had never wronged her. Sebian, who appears drunk and unwell, asks her to explain. Galantia recounts how, as a child, she pushed a basket of apples, causing an escaped Raven to fall and hit his head on a rock.

Asker brings in Captain Theolif with six Tidestone soldiers and three trunks of coins, along with a local priest. Galantia’s parents have not come. Malyr enters, his form wreathed in menacing shadows. When Malyr and Asker state their terms—Galantia for their Raven—Theolif reveals that Lord Brisden refuses to return the Raven, Marla, having recognized her value as a strategic asset. Galantia realizes Marla is Asker’s mate and that she strengthens his visions, making her irreplaceable.

Theolif then reveals that the trunks contain Galantia’s dowry, and that Lord Brisden proposes her betrothal to Malyr to form a political alliance—offering to serve as his bannerman with archers, siege weapons, and a large fleet. Galantia begs Theolif not to make her marry Malyr. Malyr laughs coldly, pulls Galantia onto his lap, and lists the atrocities Brisden committed against his family, including the desecration of Harlen’s corpse and his own torture, adding that Galantia killing his brother goes on the list. Declaring that Brisden has offered nothing, Malyr thrusts his fingers into Galantia, breaking her hymen in front of everyone. He holds up his bloodied fingers and whispers that he has rendered her worthless. Galantia looks him in the eye and replies that she was “born worthless,” and his hatred will never match her father’s.

Immediately after, Sebian, drunk and nauseous, watches Galantia leave the library with a resolved expression. He feels guilt for failing to protect her. He finds her on the stairs, in pain from cramps, and carries her to his chamber. She asks to lie in his bed, saying she feels “safer” with him—words that intensify his guilt. He makes her a warm satchel of roasted chestnuts for the pain, a remedy his mother used. Galantia tells him she had hoped he would interfere, calling herself foolish for expecting his protection.

Overwhelmed with guilt at failing Galantia, Sebian tries to reason that he has allegiance to Malyr and could not have intervened. However, he then realizes that his pouch of gray devil’s bark—a substance used to poison Ravens—is missing from his belt. He assumes that he lost it at some point when he was intoxicated. He urges Galantia to remain in his room, then leaves to find Malyr.

In Malyr’s private garden, Sebian finds him arguing with Asker, who urges Malyr to accept the marriage to gain a powerful ally and retrieve Marla. Malyr refuses, citing his oath to destroy House Brisden. Asker insists that the goddess showed him Galantia is essential, and that without Marla or a bonded mate, Malyr must marry someone with an army to ensure loyalty. Sebian again suggests holding a drif to find Malyr’s fated mate.

After Asker leaves, Sebian confronts Malyr, telling him he went too far. He shouts that standing by and doing nothing reminded him of how he failed his family in the past, then he vomits. Malyr apologizes for words that drove Sebian to drink. Sebian then tells Malyr the truth about Harlen’s death—it was a childhood accident, not a malicious act. Malyr reveals his knuckles are bloody because his raven attacked him after he caged it to keep it away from Galantia. They agree that Malyr will not hurt Galantia in nonsexual ways, will give her time to heal, and will never be alone with her without Sebian present.

Four days later, Galantia decides she must secure a marriage to Malyr to avoid ruin and homelessness. She goes to his chambers and offers herself for marriage, arguing that her father’s army—the largest in Dranada aside from King Barat’s—makes her strategically valuable. Malyr is skeptical, reminding her of the pain and humiliation their marriage would bring.

Galantia persists, offering not just her father’s military value but her willingness to submit without resistance and even claim to enjoy his cruelty. When he still refuses, she offers to free Marla from Tidestone’s dungeons using her knowledge of secret pathways. Malyr insists she free Marla before the wedding; fearing he will abandon her once Marla is freed, Galantia demands it happen after. They reach an impasse. Privately, Galantia realizes she must become pregnant with Malyr’s child to secure the marriage, so she agrees to free Marla first, requesting six weeks to prepare.

Malyr agrees and tells her to lie across his lap for her atonement. She complies, and he begins spanking her. Sebian arrives, and after confirming Galantia’s willingness, tells them to continue.

Malyr continues spanking Galantia while Sebian watches and pleasures himself. The pain is intense, but Galantia becomes aroused. When Malyr finishes, Sebian carries her to a pile of pillows, where his shadows restrain her while Sebian performs oral sex and then intercourse, bringing her to two orgasms. After Sebian finishes, Malyr uses this as a pretext to spank her again, then Sebian applies healing salve to her inflamed skin.

Malyr announces that Galantia will move into chambers across from his for discretion and formally charges Sebian with protecting his betrothed at all times.

In a flashback, Malyr is imprisoned in Tidestone’s dungeons alongside Harlen’s decomposing corpse and Lorn in an adjacent cell. He survives on moss and water and endures a cycle of beatings. He has been transported twice to the outskirts of Vhaerya under the influence of gray devil’s bark and ordered to remove the shadowy veil protecting Valtaris, but his shadows do not obey.

Lord Brisden visits the dungeon. A guard reports that young Galantia has escaped her nursemaid again; Brisden orders her locked in her room and dismisses news of his wife’s latest miscarriage before ordering Malyr flogged. When Malyr panics and shifts into his ravens, the guards beat him back into human form and chain him down. The jailer flogs his back bloody. Brisden strokes his face and declares he will break Malyr into removing the shadows around Valtaris. Guards throw vinegar on Malyr’s wounds, and then someone rapes him while Brisden watches. Brisden tells him that what is worse than “enduring” such acts is “liking them” (244). Malyr feels his soul “shatter,” leaving him feeling broken and permanently corrupted.

In the present, Galantia has settled into opulent chambers and is being fitted for dresses by Darien, a male Raven weaver who uses stored shadow magic to create an elaborate black gown. Malyr arrives and announces a kjaer—a Raven betrothal ceremony—in two days, for which Galantia must learn the Dance of Ten Feathers.

When Malyr notices the blue ribbon on Galantia’s wrist, he reacts with alarm. He and Sebian exchange a significant look, and Malyr orders every flight hole to her chambers sealed and demands to be informed if any Raven approaches her. Sebian dismisses it to Galantia as Ravens quarreling for power and promises to take her to someone who knows the dance.

After Galantia changes, Lorn appears, slaps her, and grabs her by the throat, declaring Malyr is hers. Sebian threatens Lorn off with a shadow dagger. Malyr enters and orders Lorn to release Galantia. Lorn confronts Malyr about the kjaer and reveals she has been barren since they escaped the dungeons, calling him Galantia’s “father’s pretty Raven boy” (255). Malyr blasts Lorn unconscious with shadows, catches her, and carries her away—ordering Asker to find an unnamed man and bring him to Deepmarsh Castle. When Galantia asks who the man is, Sebian tells her only that it is “complicated.”