Blythe feels unsettled at Foxglove, knowing Death must be around the corner. She believes he must have killed Percy, rather than Signa. Prince Aris finds her and tells her not to worry about Death, and he is surprised when Blythe sees Death out of the corner of her eye. Everett and Charlotte enter the ball together, and Blythe sees the engagement ring on Charlotte’s finger. Eliza enters with Byron behind her, looking sicker than ever. Blythe asks Everett, who says that Eliza will not tell him anything. Everett seems angry with her after her father’s verdict. Signa enters and is relieved to see Blythe. In the ballroom, Blythe sees champagne glasses sweep off the table and crash to the floor, though no one, including Death, is near them. Signa rushes from the room, telling Blythe to keep an eye on Eliza while she is gone.

Everywhere in the ballroom Signa looks, the spirits are wreaking havoc, reminded of the ball where they died. She feels their pain as Death offers them a path to the afterlife. She knows that most of the guests are there to gawk at the haunted manor, yet she is surprised when she runs into the mother of the drowned boy. The woman says that Signa must be there to help the spirits, and Signa knows that is exactly what she must do.

Signa seeks out Fate for his help, refusing to acknowledge the memories of him that flood her mind. She asks him to freeze time so she can deal with the spirits, and he reluctantly does so for her sake. Signa feels drawn to even the spirits that will not acknowledge her or anything else outside of their loop, and she attempts to reconcile them all to the fact of their death and the possibility of moving on to the afterlife. The spirits begin to move toward Death, who ferries them to the afterlife a few at a time. Many spirits, including Amity, leave with Death. When the living guests unfreeze, Signa sees Eliza leave the ballroom looking more ill than ever, and she and Blythe lock eyes and follow the dying woman down the stairs.

Eliza is vomiting in the garden when Signa and Blythe find her, and Blythe tries to take the vial of herbs she is holding. When Blythe tells Signa that the vial contains mugwort and tansy, they realize that Eliza must be pregnant. They see the blood that drips from Eliza’s undergarments, and Signa begs Death not to take Eliza. Death tells Signa that she must use Life’s powers to heal Eliza and her fetus before she dies, and Signa tries with all her might to summon the powers. She can’t feel the warmth of Life’s powers until Blythe takes her hand and commands her not to give up. Just as she feels Life’s powers, she receives a memory of Life and Fate’s time together. She can no longer deny Life’s memories, hating that the memory brought the same emotions for Fate that she feels for Death, the man she truly loves.

Eliza begins to rouse herself and the women ask what happened. Eliza reminds them that her uncle had been desperately trying to marry Eliza off quickly to a man who would not ask questions. She says this was so no one would find out about her pregnancy. Julius encouraged her to marry a vile old man named Sir Bennet, with whom Eliza knew she could not be in a relationship. She read about cases of cyanide poisoning that made people ill without killing them, and she carefully measured out a non-lethal dose for a champagne glass meant for Sir Bennet. Instead, Julius drank it. Blythe and Signa want to take Eliza to the constable, but they also feel sympathy for her, knowing that they might have acted similarly in such desperation. Eliza reveals that her lady’s maid, Sorsha, has been giving her herbs to help with the pain of pregnancy; the same herbs in higher doses are used for women who want to terminate their pregnancies. Eliza says that Byron has been helping her search for her baby’s father. He offered to marry her if they could not find him, and Signa and Blythe realize that Percy was the one who impregnated Eliza. The two courted months earlier, and many expected them to marry. This revelation makes Signa feel guilty for sacrificing Percy’s life in exchange for Blythe’s.

Signa does not want to turn Eliza in to the police. She knows Everett will be kind to Eliza but offers her and her baby a home at Foxglove and safer options for terminating the pregnancy, if she chooses. Byron rushes into the garden, and Eliza tells him that Blythe and Signa saved her. Then she returns to the ball with him. When they are alone again, Blythe turns cold to Signa, ready to do whatever she can to save her father. She takes out the golden tapestry that Fate gave her, which burns Signa to touch, and demands that Signa agree to marry Fate and clean up the mess she created by killing Percy.

Signa asks an irate Death to leave so she and Blythe can speak alone. Signa is surprised by how much Blyth knows about her, Fate, and Death, but it is clear she still has only parts of the story. Death crashes through the ballroom window to grab Fate, who again freezes the guests at the ball. Signa and Blythe rush in, and Signa recognizes that the ball was a scheme to force into marrying Fate. Signa would nevertheless do anything to help Blythe and Elijah, and she agrees to marry Fate, though she says she will hate him for the rest of her life. She demands one night to say goodbye to Death before she binds herself to Fate forever and that Fate will free Elijah. Fate allows Signa to see and touch Death without side effects or turning into a reaper until she is his wife. 

Signa leaves hand-in-hand with Death as the guests unfreeze, telling herself that one day she will find a way to get away from Fate. Death swears that he will continue to fight for Signa, and she will do the same for him.

Blythe questions why she followed Signa back into the ballroom, but she knows she is still missing information. After the revelation that Percy is the father of Eliza’s child, Blythe believes she heard Death tell Signa not to feel guilty because “[h]e would have killed her” (342). Blythe does not want to think that Percy was the one poisoning her, but her gut tells her this is true and Signa is not to blame. Blythe now understands that Signa is in love with Death and that she will give up that love for Blythe’s happiness. Blythe storms over to Prince Aris and asks him if he is certain that Death is corrupting Signa. She asks Fate to explain exactly what happened with Percy, finally learning that he was poisoning her and that he killed their mother. She demands that Fate clear everyone out of the ballroom, then flees herself.

Signa and Death wake up together the next morning, and Death suggests framing someone for Julius’s murder. Signa cannot do this, especially because she believes the Hawthornes are worth the sacrifice of her life. They go downstairs to meet Fate, and Signa is surprised that Blythe is still there. Blythe apologizes for forcing this decision on Signa, who does not blame her, as she only wanted what is best for her family. 

As Signa pricks her finger and goes to place a drop of blood on the golden tapestry, binding herself to Fate, Blythe pushes her out of the way and grabs the tapestry. Blythe knows Fate used her and lied about Signa, and she cannot forgive herself for believing him. Blythe holds the tapestry over an open fire, repeating the precise conditions of her oath to Fate. He never technically mentioned exactly who had to be his bride to fulfill the oath, so she spills her own blood on the tapestry, cheating Fate for the fourth time.

Death reminds Signa of Fate’s oath to her that he would never hurt Blythe as long as she lived. Signa realizes, as Fate does, that they should not have underestimated Blythe. Signa’s feelings toward Blythe are mixed, as she wants to help her but is also grateful for her help. Signa recalls Blythe’s saying she would never marry because she valued her independence too much. Still, Blythe tries to see the bright side of the situation, knowing that there will be no pretenses between her and Fate. Blythe tells Signa not to worry about her. She was willing to help Signa because Signa was willing to help her. They plan to release Elijah from prison the following morning. As Blythe leaves, she turns to Death, whom she can now see clearly, and warns him against hurting her cousin.

As Signa celebrates with Death, a few of the remaining spirits come to talk to her about staying at Foxglove. They ask her to stop bringing people with glowing skin to the manor, as it hurts their eyes. They say that Eliza, Elaine, and Fate all glow. Death suggests this is a side effect of Signa’s helping to heal them, but she has never healed Elaine. She recalls that, when the oath between Fate and Blythe was fulfilled, two bright wedding rings began to glow on their fingers. She recalls when Amity asked her if there was a constant to Life’s magic. Signa realizes that Blythe was always there when she felt Life’s power, and she wonders if Blythe was the one who healed Eliza and the foal. Death realizes that Signa has found Life, reincarnated in Blythe, and everything she knew about Life begins to make sense to Signa. She wonders if they should tell Blythe and Fate, but Death thinks they should not interfere. As the chapter comes to an end, Death asks Signa to show him around their new home.

Two months later, Everett and Charlotte marry, and Elijah accepts Eliza into the family as the mother of Percy’s child. Elijah was cleared of his charges when Julius was “revealed” to have died of natural causes, and only Blythe and Signa know the truth. Eliza and Byron announced that they were secretly married months earlier, but did not reveal it due to the circumstances surrounding Julius’s death. When Blythe and Signa healed Eliza, Blythe fell into a world of white light, where she had the memories of a faceless man she once loved in a past life. She does not tell anyone about this. 

Signa speaks with Eliza and Byron about the baby that is due at any moment, and Eliza says that the night Julius died, he gave her an ultimatum to either marry Sir Bennet or end her pregnancy. Byron says that Julius’s ultimatum was ridiculous; the baby is a Hawthorne and should be raised as one. Blythe and Signa lock eyes, thinking how Eliza insisted that she didn’t put a lethal dose of cyanide in her uncle’s cup. Byron knew Elijah was sober and would not drink the glass of champagne that he was handed. They realize that Byron poisoned Julius for the sake of Percy’s child. Even so, they have no choice but to protect him as they protected Eliza, especially as Byron would never admit to the crime. 

Suddenly, Prince Aris appears for the first time since he and Blythe were bound to each other. He raises a toast to the new couple, saying that he hopes he and Blythe, his future bride, will be as happy. Blythe plays into Fate’s act, allowing her father to handle the prince’s impropriety. As Signa and Death joke about how entertaining Fate’s marriage to Blythe will be, Blythe vows to make Fate regret his existence.