Rose in Chains

In the present timeline, Briony is shoved in a closet before Gains retrieves her and takes her to a dressing room. She expects to see Reighven but instead finds Larissa. Gains locks them in, and Briony feels a burning on her arm and watches her tattoo change from Reighven’s name to Toven’s. Briony is confused, but all Larissa, who also has Toven’s name on her arm, wants to know is how much Briony was auctioned for. A portal opens, and Larissa and Briony walk through together. They stand outside Hearst Hall.

A large fox chases Briony towards the gate and Larissa away from the gate. The gate closes behind Briony, and Briony watches as a portal opens, and Finn Raquin steps out and calls for Larissa. He pours an acidic substance over Larissa’s tattoo. Her skin burns and melts away, and Finn uses a spell to remove her tattoo. Briony asks him to help her, but he tells her that Hearst Hall is the safest place for her before taking Larissa with him back through the portal.

Briony looks at the massive Hearst Hall and wonders why Toven, rich as he is, would spend so much money on her. She remembers a year ago, when Toven once killed four people with a single casting of Heartstop in an attempt to get to her, a feat previously thought impossible. Orion Hearst has the rare ability to kill two people at once, but Toven may be even more powerful than his father. When Briony found him unconscious, she couldn’t bring herself to kill him.

Lightning strikes, and Briony returns to the present. A navigator flame attempts to guide her into the house, but she refuses to follow. She wanders around the back of Hearst Hall and sees a large pond. She then notices the mountains and plans to run towards them. She hears Toven asking her to come inside. She can’t speak to answer him because of Mallow’s spell, so she stares at him as he warns her that if she crosses the property line, the tattoo on her arm will harm her. She decides to chance it and sprints across the line before she feels intense pain and falls unconscious. She drifts in and out of consciousness as she feels someone holding and rocking her before she hears a woman’s voice asking if she’s alive and a man’s voice saying he isn’t sure.

Briony wakes in bed and grieves Rory, appreciating fully that he’s dead because if he were alive, he would’ve stopped the auction. She remembers that she assured him the prophecy was true before he went to his death, and she cries as she drifts in and out of consciousness. When she fully wakes, she finds Serena Hearst checking on her. Serena tells her that even before she was electrocuted by the boundary spell, she already had a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and hypothermia. Serena removes Mallow’s silencing spell and tells Briony to rest. When she wakes again after a nightmare, Toven is there, and they’re alone.

Toven questions why Briony didn’t listen to his warning about the boundary; she questions why she should trust him. She was so badly electrocuted because she rolled down a hill past the boundary and was shocked for a full minute. She’s in the empty groundskeeper’s cottage, as Hearst Hall has no servants, which confuses Briony. Toven tells Briony that Mallow wants to see her. Though Briony is in agony, she gets out of bed, in nothing but a long nightgown, and lets Toven grab her tattoo and take them through a portal to Mallow’s intimidating stone palace. Toven warns Briony to respect Mallow, as Briony only needs to be alive to serve as a heartspring, and Mallow can order her to be tortured or maimed.

Toven and Briony kneel before Mallow, who questions why Toven hasn’t completed the heartspring bond yet. Toven answers that Briony has been too injured, but he will soon. Mallow questions Briony about Finola’s location, as Finola was never captured. Briony doesn’t answer, so Mallow searches her memories, using the blunt force of her power to pry Briony’s mind open, demonstrating her lack of finesse in the mind magic granted to her by the bond with the dragon. Mallow finds a memory of Finola telling Briony about her friends in the country of Southern Camly. Mallow also finds a memory of Briony telling Finola about a crush she had on a Bomardi boy, so Mallow keeps probing until she finds a flirtatious memory of Briony and Toven, in which Briony spat in Toven’s face and Toven nearly kissed her. Mallow smiles darkly and searches Toven’s mind. When she’s done, she tells Toven to enjoy Briony and dismisses them. Toven asks Briony what Mallow found, but she refuses to say. They return to Hearst Hall, and Toven guides Briony to the main house.

Toven leads Briony to her bedroom on the second floor of the massive house. She’s shocked she’s not being kept in a cell or somewhere worse, as her bedroom is spacious and well-appointed. She asks Toven about the other Eversuns, but he responds with another question about what Mallow saw in Briony’s head. Both refuse to answer each other’s questions, and Toven leaves after telling Briony she can ask the house for anything she needs.

Briony explores her bedroom and bathroom before a plate of food appears on a table. She picks at it but feels guilty about her luxurious accommodations as she wonders what’s happened to Cordelia, Didion, and the others. She cries until she looks up and sees the plate gone and replaced with a note. It lists the names of the Eversuns and who purchased them at the auction. Cordelia went to Riann Cohle, Didion and Velicity to Del Burkin, and Phoebe to Aron Carvin. Liam Quill and his father bought Katrina, and Canning Trow bought Jellica. Briony doesn’t see Sammy’s name, though she knows he was the first to be auctioned.

Briony sleeps and wakes to breakfast beside her. The door to her room is locked, and she wonders if this is her life in captivity, eating and bathing and reading the few books on her shelf. For days she does nothing but lie in bed, cry, and read, until Serena comes to tell her that she must eat and bathe before offering to walk her around Hearst Hall for exercise.

Serena walks Briony to the kitchen, which is laden with food. She commands Briony to eat and explains that the house has no servants because it is built of Starksen stones, allowing the house itself to provide whatever its inhabitants need. The stones are not understood, as they are made of powerful early magic and are very rare on the continent. As Briony eats, she notices The Journal on the wall, a page that magically updates with news from the whole continent. She sees a headline describing how Sammy escaped and is fighting back against Mallow. Briony wonders how much she could discover about the resistance if she could sneak down to read it. Serena doesn’t notice Briony looking and takes her on a walk through the house, and Briony sees a massive library full of books. Serena takes her back to her room and demands she bathe. She also apologizes for Briony’s loss but again assures her that Hearst Hall is the safest place for her; she also tells Briony to call her Serena. When she leaves, Briony realizes that she left the door unlocked.

At midnight, Briony sneaks downstairs to read the past pages of The Journal. She finds out that Sammy fled during the auction and killed Del Burkin, rescuing Velicity and Didion. Velicity cut off her forearm to escape the tattoo, and Briony wonders if Didion did the same. Before she can find out more, Orion enters the kitchen.

Orion questions Briony about Sammy’s whereabouts before returning her to her room and locking the door. Briony realizes that the resistance against Mallow exists, and she’s not alone. There’s a way to escape the tattoo and the collar, and the answers likely lie in the Hearst library. She goes on a hunger strike until Toven comes to her room. He hand feeds Briony a pastry, but Briony refuses to eat more until Toven lets her access the library. As she searches for books, she realizes that Mallow can read her mind at any time, and her thoughts aren’t safe. Toven guides her towards a book titled Mind Barriers for Beginners, which covers meditation, clearing one’s mind, and walls and doorways. Briony takes the book to her room to read. She falls asleep, and when she wakes, she feels a presence in her room. The gray fox from her arrival at Hearst Hall attacks her and bites her neck.

Briony screams in pain as the fox continues to attack her. Toven enters her bedroom and commands the fox, named Vesper, to stop. Vesper leaves, and Toven sits on the bed and pulls Briony onto his lap as he heals her wounds. Briony realizes that Vesper is Toven’s familiar, who is jealous of Briony’s potential to provide Toven magic; Toven says he hasn’t used Briony as a heartspring yet, and Briony isn’t sure why. Briony yearns for Toven to touch her, but he only heals her before drawing her a bath and leaving her alone to clean up.

Briony rests and recovers while reading about mind barriers. Toven checks on her healing process, and she asks him about Del Burkin’s death. Burkin was Riann Cohle’s successor, as people on the line can choose their own successors. The Hearsts always choose their firstborns as successors. Briony asks to go to the library, and Toven takes her, though he also shows her the meditation room, which is entirely white and empty, plus a chair. Toven invites Briony to try meditating in the room, but the blankness makes her panic and beg to come out. When she returns to her room, she realizes that someone at Hearst Hall practices mind magic.

Toven is called away on a mission for Mallow, and he’s injured badly. Serena goes to be with him, leaving Briony alone. She looks at The Journal and finds that Finola was killed in action.

The Journal tells Briony that Orion killed Finola. She grieves while studying mind barriers after realizing that Toven wants her to, given that he helped her find the book and encouraged her to use the meditation room. She wonders where his bedroom is and finds it next door to her own. She investigates his room and finds a ribbon in one of his drawers, which she recognizes as hers.

Back in the past, Briony struggles to sleep in Bomard because of the cold. She sometimes walks at night to stop the pins and needles in her legs, and she runs into Toven and Larissa kissing and touching each other intimately. She chastises them for doing so on her and Rory’s private floor, but they ignore her. Toven tells Briony to come back if she needs to stretch her legs, and she realizes he knows about her pins and needles without her telling him, as if he read her thoughts.

In the present timeline, Toven’s bedroom door is locked the next day. Briony continues her research into mind barriers and Mallow’s dragon, which is thought to be the product of a Starksen mage’s magic and previously had a mate. Briony takes her mind barrier study materials outside beside the lake when Toven interrupts her. He had Blood Boil and Bone Dust spells cast on him that nearly killed him. Briony is angry that Orion killed Finola until Toven reveals that Finola was the one who nearly killed him. Briony asks what would’ve happened if Toven had died, and he promises that his mother would’ve cared for her and she wouldn’t have gone back to auction. Briony questions what Toven gave Reighven to obtain her, but Toven says he can’t say. They argue, as Toven insists that buying Briony was the right thing to do while Briony asserts he should’ve stopped the auction. Briony stomps her foot to quell her anger, but it sends Toven flying, revealing that she still has her magic. Toven is injured again, so Briony summons Vesper to take him back to the house. Serena and Orion work to heal Toven, and Orion insists Briony keep learning mind barriers, though he doesn’t take her magic from her.

Briony continues studying mind barriers, now with Serena’s encouragement. Realizing it’s Toven’s birthday, she goes into his room to apologize, but Finn Raquin is there. She leaves quickly and bathes before finding Finn in her bedroom. Finn says that he expected a sex dungeon, as Toven has told the other boys that he and Briony frequently engage in Sacral Magic. Briony asks Finn about his Eversun mother Ember, and he says she’s gone as a traitor to Mallow. He also says Larissa is dead.

Briony tries a mind barrier technique that involves conceptualizing memories like books on a bookshelf, but she struggles to come out of the haze when Toven enters her room. He tells her she’s too emotional for that technique. They discuss Briony’s magic, and Toven explains that she has access to heart magic because she and Rory inadvertently formed a heartspring bond with each other, so Toven cannot make Briony his heartspring even if he wanted to. Briony’s collar is merely decorative. Briony’s magic was previously gone because of the Gowarnus herb in her food, but the Hearsts have stopped dosing her so she can access mind magic to practice barriers. Toven advises her to be careful because of the difficulty of mind barriers, then they go to the library together, where they find Serena alongside Liam Quill, Canning Trow, and Finn Raquin.

Serena offers to take Briony back to her room, but Canning insists she stay. Canning and Liam verbally degrade Briony before Canning attempts to grope her. Toven pulls her against his chest, stating he doesn’t share Briony, as he serves everyone whiskey. Canning wants Toven to bring Briony to their next gathering, as she’s recovered from the pox Toven claimed she had. Liam snoops among the books and tells Toven that his father wants to borrow a book on portal boundaries. Toven offers Briony whiskey, but Canning uses magic to make her spill it on her dress. He insists that she remove it, and Toven is powerless to stop it. She strips to her underwear as the men leer at her, and Toven licks the whiskey off her chest before sending her back to her room.

Briony bathes in scalding water before Toven comes to her room. She asks him about the gatherings and why he lied about her illness, and he says the gatherings get lewd behind closed doors. Now that the men have seen her, she’ll have to attend. Briony feels conflicted. Toven touched her intimately in front of everyone, but she doubts he wanted to; they are both trapped by circumstance. Briony wonders aloud how Toven can take power back from Canning.

On Friday, a backless silk dress arrives for Briony. She wears it before Toven arrives to escort her to the gathering. When the portal opens, Briony watches in horror as they arrive at Biltmore Palace, her family home.

In the past timeline, Briony relaxes in the heat of the Evermore summer at the Biltmore Palace grounds with Katrina, who reveals that Toven and Larissa may be betrothed when they return to school in Bomard. Briony is shocked, as she and Toven have had moments of romantic chemistry that she now realizes were just a game to him. Katrina wonders if Briony will get engaged to Didion, but Briony says no. The Summer Cannon goes off, to mark the ships going off port. Briony sees General Meers and Finola marching towards the palace, and she follows them. Meers reveals that the seat of Bomard, Gin Pulvey, is dead. Veronika Mallow now sits on the Seat, as Riann Cohle killed his father, named Mallow his heir, and then abdicated, leaving Mallow in charge.