Two weeks into her time at Bloodwing Academy, Medra begins private lessons in thrallguard with Professor Rodriguez to defend against thrallweave. Rodriguez explains that dragon riders were historically taught this skill to prevent rival houses from controlling them. During their first session, Rodriguez probes Medra’s mind, which causes her to panic as she relives Regan’s previous attack. Rodriguez easily bypasses her weak defenses.

Rodriguez begins teaching Medra a technique called “mental partitioning,” which involves creating layers of mental barriers to hide her true thoughts. Medra manages to create a weak mental wall that holds against a light test. Rodriguez explains that she will eventually need to create false memories as decoys. The sessions over the following weeks are grueling, leaving Medra feeling exposed but determined to protect the secret of her origins. One night, feeling restless, she sees a bonfire on the beach and decides to attend a party hosted by Theo, inviting Florence to join her.

Medra and Florence arrive at the beach party to find that it’s attended almost exclusively by highbloods and their thralls, who are being fed upon. Medra and Florence are soon confronted by Regan and her friends, who mock Medra for being a blightborn consort. Medra retorts that she wants nothing to do with the betrothal.

Theo intervenes, pulling Medra and Florence away from Regan. He offers them a dangerous, addictive substance called Crimson Ambrosia, which they refuse. Theo tells Medra that Regan is jealous and views her as a threat. He also reveals that Blake’s relationship with Regan is an arrangement for his uncle’s benefit and that Blake is miserable. Medra dismisses this, calling them a “[p]erfectly awful” couple. As they’re talking, Florence suddenly stands and begins walking silently toward the bonfire.

Medra realizes that Florence is being controlled by thrallweave and stops her from walking into the fire. Restraining Florence takes all of Medra’s strength; Theo identifies the caster of the spell as Kiernan, from House Avari. After Theo confronts him, Kiernan releases Florence, who’s left dazed. As Medra tries to leave with her friend, Kiernan blocks their path and delivers a message from his house leader, Kage: Medra is free to join their house anytime she wants. Alarmed by Kiernan’s presence, Florence becomes frightened and flees.

Enraged, Medra slaps Kiernan, leaving a smear of blood from her scratched wrists—wounds that Florence had inflicted during the thrallweave episode—on his face. As Kiernan moves to taste the blood, Blake appears and uses thrallweave to command him to stop, declaring that Medra is his. When Kiernan repeats Kage’s message, Blake violently throws him into the bonfire, killing him. Kage watches from a distance, unconcerned. Blake, who has been drinking, turns to Medra and moves to touch her. She pulls a hidden knife and holds it to his throat, warning him that she will never be his. After a tense moment, she puts the knife away and leaves.

While walking back from the party, Medra encounters Vaughn Sabino, a blightborn classmate, on his way to meet Theo. After he leaves, Medra sees the child she spotted in the Black Keep on her first day in Sangratha. The girl, now appearing wild, has blood on her chin and walks past Medra silently. Shortly after, Medra finds a small, bleeding creature in the sand and realizes that the girl must have attacked it.

She carries the injured animal, a baby fluffin (a cute, reddish-gold creature that looks like a cross between a fox and an owl), back to the school. In the common room, Florence uses her healing magic on the pup but can’t fully mend its deep gash. As Florence tends to the fluffin, she and Medra discuss the night’s events. Medra apologizes to Florence for taking her to the party. Florence reassures Medra that what happened to her wasn’t Medra’s fault. Florence has always longed to be a highblood, but after watching them up close, she has begun to see their corruption. Florence tells Medra about sellbloods—mortals who sell their blood, sometimes in brothels. Mortals look down upon sellbloods, considering them the lowest rung of blightborn society. Florence goes on to praise Medra’s strength in standing up to the highbloods, but Medra attributes it to pessimism. She believes the worst of everyone and is therefore prepared to fight with them. Florence insists that Medra’s compassion for the fluffin proves she has a good heart.

The next day, Florence and Naveen inform Medra that the fluffin’s condition has worsened. They conclude that its only chance of survival is treatment from a House Drakharrow healer, which requires Medra to ask Blake for help. Medra reluctantly agrees and finds Blake in the Dragon Court. When she expresses genuine interest about the four stone figures, Blake volunteers information about the dragons and their respective houses. The dragons aren’t just statues but the actual creatures entombed in stone. It is believed that they can be freed by the right spell and rider.

Medra tells Blake about finding the fluffin. To her surprise, Blake accidentally confesses that he had a stuffed fluffin toy as a child. Blake quickly changes the subject, and Medra mentions that the fluffin was harmed by a young vampire girl, whom she recognized from the Black Keep. Blake confirms that the girl is his younger sister, Aenia. He insists that she would never hurt a pup and that she simply didn’t know any better, though he doesn’t excuse the harm done to the fluffin and agrees to speak with Aenia. After some goading from Medra, he promises to take the fluffin to a house healer and arranges to collect it from the dormitory in an hour. Medra leaves, but curiosity gets the better of her, and she sneaks back to see what Blake is doing. She watches as he walks behind the red stone dragon statue and vanishes.

Blake is annoyed that Medra wasn’t present when he picked up the pup from Florence’s room, as he had hoped to see her gratitude. He reflects on his powerful attraction to Medra’s wild, defiant nature. As he carries the injured fluffin in a basket, Blake reflects that he was lying to her when he mentioned that he had only a stuffed fluffin as a child. The truth is that the fluffin was real, a female pup named Thistle.

At the Drakharrow tower infirmary, Blake commands the healer, Ailith, to care for the pup in secret and give it the best possible treatment. Before leaving, he whispers encouragement to the fluffin, catching the healer’s knowing glance. He resolves to check on the pup the next day, telling himself that the concern is merely to uphold House Drakharrow’s standards.

In Professor Hassan’s history class, Medra learns that Sangratha is ruled by a four-house regency. The previous era of peace was established by a leader from House Drakharrow called the “Peacebringer,” who Florence later confirms was Blake’s father, Alexander. Alexander’s cause of death is a mystery.

Later, Medra attends a Magical Foundations class to have her own magical abilities assessed by the halfborn instructor, Professor Elowyn Wispwood. “Halfborn” refers to the offspring of a mortal and a highblood. Though they look like highbloods, halfborns don’t possess their vampiric powers. Professor Wispwood tests Medra by placing various objects before her. She doesn’t show power over any, which puzzles Wispwood since Medra clearly has magic. The professor concludes that her rider blood is obfuscating the assessment. Medra goes on to ask Wispwood if two souls can inhabit one body. Wispwood explains that vampires once used soul-binding on mortals and dragon riders to achieve immortality or control dragons. Only blood magic can break such a bond but would result in the death of one of the two souls.

After class, Medra’s mother, Orcades, confirms through their mental link that her own knowledge, including the ability to read Classical Sangrathan, is “seeping” into Medra. Classical Sangrathan is known as the old tongue in Arcaenium, Medra’s home world. Shortly after, Blake encounters Medra in the corridor after an unknown student shoves her into a wall; he uses the moment to tell her that the fluffin is with the healer. When Medra confronts him about his sister’s lack of supervision, Blake becomes cold and defensive.

While dining with Florence and Naveen, Medra learns about the Consort Games, a dangerous rite in which she and Regan must work together as a team to survive. Consorts of a triad—and not the archon, or leader—participate in the games. Worried for Medra’s safety, her friends advise her to seek guidance from Professor Rodriguez.

Medra goes to Rodriguez’s office and, finding it empty, lets herself in. She discovers a rare book titled The Dark Art of Eternal Bonds and finds a chapter on a ritual to undo the binding of souls. Rodriguez returns and catches her handling the forbidden book. Medra lies about her interest in the book, saying she can’t read the ancient text and was only admiring the cover—though Orcades has actually enabled her to read it. Privately, she resolves to steal the book. She then asks Rodriguez for help with the Consort Games. Rodriguez confirms that consorts who fail to cooperate with each other usually die and advises her to first try speaking with Regan. He agrees that the best way to help is to intensify her thrallguard training over the upcoming Wintermark (winter) break.

Vaughn, who went on a date with Theo, returns to class badly beaten, with a broken arm and a black eye. He claims that it was an accident, but Medra correctly guesses that he was attacked by highbloods. Believing that Blake is responsible for punishing Vaughn’s association with Theo, Medra becomes enraged.

She storms into the Advanced Weaponry training yard, finds Blake, and punches him in the jaw. Coregon warns her not to fight Blake but steps aside when she moves around him. Blake refuses to fight back seriously, instead focusing on dodging and restraining Medra. The struggle becomes intensely physical, and Blake pins Medra to the ground, clearly confused by her accusation that he has attacked Vaughn. Professor Sankara breaks up the fight, pointing out that a large crowd has gathered to watch them. Sankara announces that the House Leader ceremony—in which the year’s leader for every house will be announced—is starting and orders everyone to the arena.

After Blake leaves, Medra finds the healed fluffin in his duffel bag, realizing that he intended to return it to her. Vaughn then appears and confesses that it was Coregon, not Blake, who attacked him. As they rush to the arena, Rodriguez intercepts a late Medra, telling her that everyone is waiting for her. Medra must be present at the ceremony since she’s the consort of Blake, a candidate for the leader of his house.

At the ceremony, Blake stands on the arena floor and watches Medra take her designated seat next to Regan. He’s consumed by his conflicted attraction to Medra, replaying in his mind their fight and the intense physical contact. Headmaster Kim gives a speech admonishing Drakharrow House for failing to produce a challenger, making Blake’s ascension feel anticlimactic. Kim announces the leaders of the other houses, who have won fights against their challengers: Kage Tanaka leads House Avari, Lysander Orphos leads House Orphos, and Catherine Mortis leads House Mortis.

Suddenly, Blake sees the fluffin in Medra’s bag growl at something behind him. He turns just in time to dodge a surprise knife attack from Coregon. Coregon declares that he’s challenging Blake, calling him weak for his inability to control Medra. They engage in a brutal fight on the arena’s shifting stone platforms. During the struggle, Coregon states that Marcus came to him and that he did what had to be done—acting from his own conviction as much as at Marcus’s instigation. Blake gains the upper hand and kills Coregon by crushing him between two platforms. The crowd erupts in cheers, but Blake’s attention is fixed on Medra, who’s the only one not cheering, staring back at him with an unreadable expression.

Shortly after the ceremony, Blake is summoned by Viktor, who brutally beats Blake for the public spectacle of fighting with Medra. Viktor tells Blake that he shamed their house by failing to control his blightborn consort. To protect Medra, Blake takes full responsibility for the fight. Viktor then praises Blake for the attack on Vaughn, believing that Blake personally carried it out as a warning to Theo; Blake allows this false impression to stand, concealing that Coregon and Marcus were behind the attack on Vaughn.

However, Viktor is furious about Kiernan’s death, revealing that Kiernan’s father was a secret ally of their house. Blake defends his action as a necessary response to a threat against his claim on Medra. As Viktor talks degradingly about Medra, Blake realizes with alarm that his uncle lusts for Medra’s powerful blood, perhaps wanting to take her for his own. Viktor speaks of unrest among the blightborn—kept compliant by a subtle city-wide thrallweave that most mortals never detect—and warns that Medra must be kept under absolute control, as she could become a symbol for rebellion. It’s clear to Blake that his uncle is unaware that Medra is being trained in thrallguard, a secret that he decides to keep.