Neve is in the shrine, talking to Kiri. Isla is dead, and Neve is now Queen. Red grieves but also feels guilty. She tells Eammon about the night she and Neve entered the Wilderwood. Red tripped and fell, and the forest tried to pull her in. She realizes now that Eammon stopped her from being drained, but he also transferred some of his magic. Thieves attacked the girls, and Red used her magic to kill their attackers. She has been terrified ever since of what her magic can do.

As they go to bed that night, Red realizes her feelings for Eammon are deepening.

Neve thinks her coronation feels unreal. She still refuses to wear the wood-shard pendant Kiri gave her. Arick walks her down the aisle, and Neve reflects how he seems different lately.

Kiri has created the Order of the Five Shadows, and Neve appoints Kiri High Priestess. Tealia and the other priestesses who do not want to join them are sent away. The new Order believes, “If we uproot enough of the Wilderwood, the Kings can come home” (239). Neve tells herself what they are doing is all for Red.

Eammon rises early to travel to the Edge for supplies. Red goes with him. They pause to heal a sentinel that is infected with rot, and with the vision lent by her magic, Red sees several sentinels are missing. They cross the border of the forest into a city. A man named Lear, who is guarding the gate, lets them in, saying, “Welcome, Wolves” (248).

Eammon takes Red to a shop run by a woman named Asheyla and asks if she can repair Red’s cloak. They hear a roar from the basement where Bormain, who is still ill after being shadow-infected, is restrained. Eammon admits he’s not strong enough to heal Bormain on his own. Red believes she can help. They talk about this with Valdrek, who agrees to let them try.

Red is shocked by the sight of Bormain, who is misshapen and in restraints. Bormain tells them that Solmir and the rest are coming home. Red loans Eammon her power while he works to heal Bormain bit by bit. The effort is successful, but Red faints from the strain.

Lear lets Eammon and Red through the gate and gives them their supplies. Lear warns Red that the Wilderwood and Eammon seem to be weakening. Red asks Eammon what the mention of Solmir means. Eammon explains that Solmir killed his parents. Gaya, who had been friends with him once, tried to release Solmir from the Shadowlands. The Wilderwood consumed her to stop up the breach. Ciaran then wore away from holding back the breaches on his own, and when he died, the shadow-creatures escaped. Eammon cut his hand and used his blood to strengthen the Wilderwood, and the borders closed again.

Red and Eammon encounter another breach and argue about how to heal it. Eammon is willing to bleed dry if he has to. A shadow creature erupts from the pit, and when it hurts Eammon, Red attacks with her magic and shreds the creature. She insists she’s not going to leave Eammon on his own. They kiss, but he pulls away.

Back in the Keep, Red looks in the mirror. She sees that Neve has cut her hand, and Red thinks the image “echoed her own magic. An inverse, a dark reflection” (274). Neve argues with Kiri about bringing Red home, and Red realizes Neve is helping kill the Wilderwood. She finds Eammon in the library and tells him she has to go back to Valleyda and stop Neve. Red says she’ll return to the forest, but Eammon says maybe she shouldn’t.

The next morning, Red joins Eammon in the tower. He wants her to grow a broken branch. She tells him her magic works better when he is close. They kiss again, and the forest starts growing into the room, branches blooming. Eammon thinks this happened because he lost control of the Wilderwood, “the magic escaping the careful cage he kept it in” (287). He says they can’t be together, and Red is hurt.

Lyra and Fife return from the Edge. Red feels hurt when she sees the bond between the two of them. Lyra gives Red her repaired cloak. Red asks if Lyra would leave the Wilderwood if she could, and Lyra says she doesn’t know. The cloak has been embroidered with gold thread, turned into a bridal cloak. Red sleeps in it that night.

The next morning, Red has a vision of Eammon standing by a scarred sentinel and fears the Wilderwood is taking him over. She runs to him and is upset to see him being drained. She shouts to the Wilderwood that it can’t just keep taking. She uses her magic to fight back and stop the forest. Eammon is discouraged because he feels weak; he believes he failed to protect the other Second Daughters, and he wants Red to leave so the same thing doesn’t happen to her. Red shouts that he doesn’t get to decide for her. Eammon shows her the bones around the base of the scarred sentinel.

Red demands to know the full story, and Eammon explains that the forest drained the other Second Daughters because he wasn’t strong enough to stop it. Red realizes Eammon spends all his energy and focus trying to make sure he doesn’t slip in his control over the Wilderwood, and that is why he believes he has nothing to give Red. Eammon explains that the forest needs an anchor, but Red recalls the forest saying, “Must be two” (305). As they return to the Keep, Red imagines the Wilderwood is contemplating what she said about choice.

Neve can feel the magic she is drawing from the Wilderwood in return for offering her blood. She is growing powerful, but plants wither around her. Arick sends his blood in a cup to help with their rituals. Arick has warned Neve that when Red returns, she might not be the same person. Kiri reminds Neve that their work is about more than returning Red and hints that they might have made her Queen too soon.

Raffe is waiting for Neve in her rooms. They embrace, but Arick catches them. Arick thinks it is time Raffe returned home. Neve asks Arick if Kiri killed her mother, and he says Kiri killed Zophia, too. Neve wonders why his eyes seem more blue than green. Arick says they will keep doing what has to be done.