From his table in the refectory, Blake secretly watches Medra. He reflects on his strained, politically arranged relationship with Regan. He has stopped having sex with Regan ever since he was betrothed to Medra. Blake also worries about his growing rift with his second-in-command, Theo, who resents him for carrying out Viktor’s orders. Theo refuses to understand that Blake has to pretend to do Viktor’s bidding to protect Theo, Medra, and Blakes’s mother and sister. When Blake tries to speak with Theo, his cousin angrily shrugs him off and leaves.

At the table, Quinn openly says that Regan must be looking forward to putting Medra in her place, and Regan begins to agree before Blake slams his palms down and intervenes. He forcefully reminds Regan that she’s to leave Medra alone, using his uncle’s authority and a false display of affection to ensure Regan’s compliance. Alone, Blake fantasizes about Medra, admitting that his powerful attraction is fueled by her defiance. He worries that Viktor may intend to take Medra for himself. After Regan leaves, Blake speaks with Visha, warning her not to harm Medra again. Visha had attacked Medra in the arena on Blake’s bidding so that she could trust Medra’s battle-worthiness. It wasn’t Blake or Visha’s intent to seriously harm her. They discuss Regan’s untrustworthiness, and Blake implies that he views Visha as his true ally for the Games.

Medra has a recurring, sexually charged dream in which she and Blake fight before kissing passionately. The dream ends with a vision of a dragon as the training yard collapses around them. She awakens to a real earthquake shaking the First-Year tower. In the hallway, Florence, acting as a warden, calmly reassures the panicked students that the tremors are normal for the island.

Medra accepts Florence’s offer to sleep in her room. Florence reveals that she has two invitations to the Dance of the Longest Night, a key event at the Frostfire festival: one from a Third Year House Orphos strategist named Ebbot and another from Naveen. Medra encourages Florence to go with Naveen. They discuss the Frostfire Festival tradition of making a blood offering at the Temple of the Bloodmaiden. Florence explains the creation myth of highbloods and blightborns and mentions that Blake’s mother entered the Bloodmaid’s Sanctum after her husband died and hasn’t been seen since.

Weeks later, after passing her Wintermark exams, Medra’s nightmares have shifted from Blake to a dragon destroying Bloodwing. On the last day of term, Medra lies to Florence and says that she must stick to Blake and Regan during the ball, creating an opportunity for Florence and Naveen to be alone together.

Kage invites Medra to be his date to the ball, presenting the invitation as a chance for her to defy Blake and show him that she doesn’t belong to him. Kage also reveals that without Medra’s consent, Blake will never be able to draw power from her blood properly, which makes her a hindrance rather than an asset and frees her from the bond in the one way that really matters. He adds that even bonded consorts are permitted to take lovers. Medra tells Kage she will think about his invitation.

The Frostfire Festival begins with the Night of Silent Offerings at the Bloodmaid’s Sanctum, a temple on a nearby island. Having accepted Kage’s invitation to the ball, Medra travels there in a carriage with Florence and Naveen. At the Sanctum, blightborn students are required to make a blood offering with a quick slice across the palm, while highbloods consume a red tablet, infused with drops of blightborn blood.

Blake spots Medra in the offering line and publicly orders her out, stating that as a consort, she’s exempt from the ritual. While waiting, Medra overhears Regan and Quinn discussing a secret, exclusive highblood ceremony called the Adoration Rite. They mention that a blightborn woman is chosen to play the Bloodmaiden and is honored before living out her days in the Sanctum, though Quinn notes that the woman never gets to go home. Regan dismisses the woman’s fate as a benefit. Medra, sensing something sinister, resolves to find a way to witness the rite herself.

Two days before the ball, Kage sends Medra a black and silver gown in House Avari’s colors. On the night of the event, Florence helps her get ready. Kage meets her in the First Year Common Room and gives her a silver necklace with a half-moon pendant before escorting her to the ball.

When they enter the decorated refectory, Blake sees Kage and Medra together and becomes visibly enraged. Kage leads Medra to a table with other House Avari students, where she’s introduced to a woman named Evie. Catherine approaches with her male and female consorts and compliments Medra’s dress. Kage tells Medra that, unlike other houses, Avari archons choose their own consorts, and he hasn’t selected any one yet. When the orchestra begins to play, Kage leads Medra to the dance floor.

Blake is consumed by a primal, possessive rage upon seeing Medra enter the ball on Kage’s arm, wearing House Avari colors and a necklace he recognizes as a claim. He cruelly dismisses Regan’s attempts to get his attention and stalks the perimeter of the room, watching Medra and Kage with intense jealousy.

At the bar, he confronts Kage, who taunts him for failing to appreciate Medra and losing her to someone who will treat her better. At midnight, the traditional Longest Night Waltz begins, reserved for archons and consorts. Blake intercepts Medra and commands her to dance with him. He attempts a romantic gesture, but she rebuffs him, citing his consistently cruel treatment. He responds by possessively declaring, “You’re mine,” which enrages her. She retorts that she will never be his and storms off the dance floor, leaving him publicly humiliated.

Furious after her encounter with Blake, Medra leaves the ballroom. Florence checks on her, but Medra sees a drunken Blake departing and decides to follow him, sending Florence back to the tower. She trails him through the secret tunnels beneath the school, this time through a passage in the House Orphos catacombs.

She eventually finds a hidden panel that opens into an upper-level balcony of the Bloodmaid’s Sanctum. From her hiding place, she witnesses the Adoration Rite. In a courtyard below, masked highbloods are grouped around a man on a throne and a young, unmasked blightborn woman. After a ritual exchange, the woman straddles the man. As the scene becomes more intimate, Blake suddenly appears behind Medra and covers her mouth, revealing that he knew she was following him.

Blake reveals that he has known all along that Medra was following him through the passage out of Bloodwing; the previous time, he had failed to detect her because he was so desperate to reach a blood brothel and feed that he had dismissed the noises as his imagination and taken no precautions. Blake offers Medra a one-night truce so that they can watch the rite together, promising to claim responsibility if they’re discovered. He extinguishes nearby candles to conceal them in shadow.

Below, the blightborn woman playing the Bloodmaiden is publicly undressed, fed upon, and sexually joined with a masked highblood, while the assembled votaries gradually abandon their ceremonial composure and couple openly on the courtyard floor. While watching the scene, Medra and Blake grow aroused by each other’s proximity and the intimacy on display. Blake caresses Medra and brings her to the edge of climax with his hand. He voices his desire to have sex with her but stops short of intercourse, wanting her active, enthusiastic consent whenever that happens.

Under the influence of bloodwine, Medra allows Blake to touch her intimately. Despite her self-recrimination and awareness that she should have fled from him, she doesn’t resist Blake, and the encounter culminates in an intense climax that she acknowledges is unlike anything she has experienced before.

In the aftermath, Blake makes a possessive declaration, warning Medra that no other man is to touch her as he just did, which immediately shatters the moment and enrages Medra. Before the confrontation can develop further, both of them notice that something has gone wrong with the woman in the courtyard below. Medra and Blake freeze side by side, and Medra demands to know what is happening to the woman.

Blake, who has never attended an Adoration Rite, is shocked to discover its true nature. As he and Medra watch, the blightborn woman slumps lifeless over the throne after her climax. The masked highblood man then lifts her corpse, wraps chains around her ankles, and hoists her body over a silver bowl, allowing her blood to drip in and power an enchantment. Both Blake and Medra realize that this magic is the thrallweave what keeps the blightborn population compliant. A maiden is sacrificed every year to generate the spell. Horrified, Medra accuses Blake of knowing the true nature of the rite and runs.

Blake catches Medra in a secret passageway and insists that he didn’t know the woman would die at the end of the ritual. He explains that he couldn’t have stopped the powerful highbloods; his uncle was present among them, possibly the masked man on the throne. To protect Medra, Blake forces her into silence, threatening that she and her friends, including Florence, will be killed if she ever reveals what she saw. Medra reluctantly agrees, and they head back to Bloodwing. Blake knows that Medra hates him more than ever, and Blake hates himself.

Upon returning to the First-Year tower, Medra and Blake discover that a blightborn servant’s little girl, a child named Poppy, has gone missing. When Medra learns that there was blood found near Poppy’s pillow, she realizes that another attack has occurred, possibly by Aenia. Suspecting that Blake knows where the child is, Medra insists on accompanying him, telling him that if he wants her to stay quiet about the rite, she’s coming with him. He reluctantly agrees and leads her through the Avari house catacombs into ancient, hidden dwarven ruins deep beneath the academy.

They follow screams and find Aenia feeding on the small girl. Blake immediately pulls Aenia off Poppy and instructs Medra to help the child. As Aenia breaks free and lunges at Medra, Blake stops her with a powerful thrallweave command, revealing an unexpected ability. He orders Medra to take Poppy to safety while he deals with Aenia. Medra accuses Blake of protecting a monster, but he dismisses her. On her way back, Medra shields Poppy during a sudden earth tremor that collapses part of the tunnel. She successfully returns Poppy to Professor Rodriguez in the Common Room before retreating to her own room, exhausted and tormented by her conflicting feelings for Blake, who saved the child but also protected her attacker.