Gild materializes suddenly and collides with Serilda, sending them tumbling onto the straw. They share a flirtatious moment while untangling her hair from his shirt button, though Serilda questions whether her feelings are genuine or born of circumstance. She asks for his help with the straw, but, as always, his magic requires reciprocity and cannot be given freely. When he attempts to spin without payment, the straw remains unchanged. Serilda offers a lock of hair and a kiss, but Gild explains the payment must have tangible value. Growing desperate as dawn approaches, she impulsively offers her firstborn child, rationalizing that she will never have children anyway if the Erlking kills when he returns. Gild reluctantly accepts, creating a binding magical bargain, and begins spinning at double speed while Serilda assists.

He tells her he has asked the other spirits about Serilda’s mother, Idonia, but found nothing. To pass the time, Serilda continues her story about the prince: moss maidens led by Pusch-Grohla rescue the wounded prince and seal the gates to Verloren, trapping Perchta in the underworld. The prince recovers for nearly a month before departing—only to be caught outside when the wild hunt returns under a full moon.

Gild finishes spinning all the straw with time to spare, revealing he had been working slowly on previous nights to enjoy Serilda’s stories. As Serilda stacks the bobbins, she secretly pockets one wound with gold thread. They discuss what the Erlking wants with so much gold—Gild suspects nothing good but says he cannot let the king hurt Serilda. They share an intimate moment, with Serilda biting his earlobe and Gild responding with a passionate kiss. Their physical relationship escalates and they make love and fall asleep together.

Serilda wakes to find the Erlking standing over her—Gild has slipped away, leaving her cloak rolled as a pillow. The king, in unusually high spirits, leads her through the castle to his elaborate gardens and a menagerie of caged magical creatures. He reveals the hunt’s prize: a tatzelwurm captured in the Ottelien foothills, exactly where Serilda’s lie had placed it. The beast was bound with chains braided from her spun gold—the king explains that god-blessed spun gold is the only material capable of binding magical creatures. Serilda realizes with horror that her lies and her gold are enabling the Erlking’s conquests. As dawn breaks and the veil returns, she finds herself alone in the overgrown ruins of the gardens.

Exploring the ruined gardens, Serilda trips over a stone that turns out to be the head of a statue of a crowned queen. She finds the toppled remains of two headless royal figures and a broken stone hand bearing a ring with the familiar R-and-tatzelwurm seal, confirming it as a royal family crest. The statue’s base reads “This statue erected to commemorate the ascension of Queen ___ and her husband King ___” (374), but the names have been completely erased from the stone. Hearing the first screams of the ghosts reliving their deaths, she flees the castle.

Sitting on the dock in the rain, Serilda reflects on her growing feelings for Gild and whether their intimacy was too hasty, concluding she has no regrets. She discovers the stolen bobbin of gold remains real on this side of the veil. A schellenrock—a small, shell-coated river creature—emerges from the lake and beckons her to follow. It leads her through a hidden tunnel beneath the city and into the Aschen Wood.

Serilda follows the schellenrock through the dark, cramped tunnel and emerges in the forest. The creature leads her deeper into the Aschen Wood, where she takes in the somber beauty of the ancient trees. When she tries to cross a small footbridge, a salige—a malicious bridge spirit disguised as a beautiful woman—nearly lures her to her death with an enchanted invitation to dance. The moss maiden Parsley intervenes, driving off the spirit and revealing that Pusch-Grohla, the Shrub Grandmother, wishes to speak with Serilda.

Parsley leads Serilda to Asyltal, the hidden sanctuary of the moss maidens—a breathtaking village of homes built into ancient trees, lit by floating lights. She is brought before Pusch-Grohla in an amphitheater, where the ancient woman questions her sharply. Serilda explains the Erlking’s belief in her gold-spinning ability and how a ghost named Gild does the actual work. When Serilda presents the stolen bobbin, Pusch-Grohla confirms the gold is genuinely blessed by Hulda. Serilda reveals that the king is braiding the gold into chains to capture magical creatures, and the moss maidens grow alarmed. Meadowsweet connects the threat to the coming Endless Moon—a winter solstice full moon when the Erlking might use golden chains to capture a god and demand a wish of his choosing.

The moss maidens debate what the Erlking might wish for, though Pusch-Grohla refuses to speculate. They demand Serilda swear never to provide more gold, and she agrees, though she privately worries about what will happen when the king summons her on the next full moon. Foxglove suggests killing Serilda to eliminate the problem. Pusch-Grohla instead offers an alternative: she will consult her herbalist about a potion suited to Serilda’s “condition” and send word by sundown. She places a spell on Serilda so she can never find Asyltal again or lead anyone to it, then has Meadowsweet escort her back toward Märchenfeld.

Walking home, Serilda is devastated by what she’s given up: She will never see Gild, Leyna, Lorraine, or the castle’s secrets again, and cannot even say goodbye. At the mill, she sees smoke from the gristmill and finds her father, who has been transformed into a nachzehrer—an undead creature devouring its own flesh. He attacks her, and she manages to shove a stone into his mouth to paralyze him. Madam Sauer appears and decapitates the creature with a shovel. They dispose of the body in the river. Madam Sauer reveals she is the messenger sent from Pusch-Grohla. As a witch, she has long supplied herbs and potions to the forest folk. She proposes a death draft made with Serilda’s blood that will fool the Erlking into believing she’s dead.

On the day of the Awakening Moon, Serilda drinks the death potion by the river while nachtkrapp watch, delivering a defiant farewell message to the Erlking. She dies—her spirit separates from her body—but clings to an ash branch as Madam Sauer instructed, which tethers her to the living world rather than letting her pass on to Verloren. She hides in an oak tree as the wild hunt arrives that night; the Erlking dismounts, examines her body, and leaves a gold-tipped arrow in her hand before riding away. At dawn, Madam Sauer administers a revival potion and Serilda returns to life, believing the ruse has worked. Moments later, Thomas arrives in a panic and reports that Hans, one of the school children, has gone missing from his bed. Serilda rides to the Weber farm and finds Anna is also gone. Racing toward Adalheid, she discovers the bodies of Anna, Fricz, Hans, and Nickel along the road near the Aschen Wood, their hearts ripped out—only little Gerdrut is nowhere to be found. The Erlking has taken the children Serilda loved most as punishment for her attempted escape.