In a flashback to two months earlier, Medra stands in the rubble of the Dragon Court, furious with Blake for his betrayal. Their confrontation is interrupted by the arrival of highbloods from the Board of Directors, including Blake’s uncle Viktor Drakharrow and Natsumi Avari, Kage Tanaka’s mother. Natsumi immediately claims the newly awakened dragon for House Avari, but Viktor counters that the rider, Medra, is bound to House Drakharrow through her betrothal to Blake.

Another highblood, Lord Sylvain, demands Medra be imprisoned. Unable to wait for a formal tribunal, Viktor attacks Medra with thrallweave—a form of mind control—to force answers from her. The mental assault is so powerful it causes Medra to bleed from her temples, but her defenses hold. Professor Rodriguez storms in, confronting Viktor; Blake moves to stand behind Rodriguez, and Viktor’s thrallweave falters. Rodriguez escorts Medra to Drakharrow Tower, advising her to bluff about her control over Nyxaris to survive. She tells Rodriguez that she tried to bind Nyxaris to her with spells she knew, but failed. The dragon asserted his autonomy before he flew away. At Drakharrow Tower, Blake leads Medra to a lavish room intended for her as his consort and locks her inside.

The day after her imprisonment, Viktor enters Medra’s room without knocking and attacks her with thrallweave again. Using her thrallguard training, Medra successfully resists the mental intrusion. Enraged by Medra’s defiance, Viktor slaps her hard across the face. Medra bluffs to protect herself, claiming she can command Nyxaris and that the dragon will sense if she is harmed. She also lies that Nyxaris’s awakening was an accident and that she and Nyxaris can communicate telepathically. The confrontation is cut short when Blake arrives, and Viktor leaves Medra locked in her room once more.

In his chambers in the Black Keep, Viktor expresses his fury to Blake over his inability to control his consort. Viktor admits he is hesitant to torture Medra for information due to her claim that the dragon would retaliate. Viktor orders Blake to manipulate Medra, instructing him to exploit her emotional attachment to him. He also warns Blake to be wary of his rival, Kage Tanaka, who has shown interest in Medra, but explicitly orders Blake not to kill Kage, warning that House Avari would retaliate. The conversation ends with Viktor cryptically warning his nephew that he knows nothing about the true danger of dragons and their riders.

Two months later, on the night before the tribunal, Blake enters Medra’s room for his weekly feeding. Medra is hostile, but Blake reminds her that she is dependent on him; if he were to tell Viktor the truth—that she has no control over Nyxaris—her bluff would be exposed. He then bites her wrist and feeds from her blood. Afterward, Medra insists that in the future she will provide her blood in a vial, but Blake cruelly refuses, stating that she must endure the intimacy of the act with him. He leaves with a possessive parting declaration—that she belongs to House Drakharrow—and him.

Medra is escorted to the Tribunal Chamber in the Black Keep, where her fate will be decided by a panel that includes the four great house regents: Viktor Drakharrow, Lord Garrick Mortis, Lady Elaria Avari, and Lysander Orphos. The proceedings are overseen by an Arbiter, Lord Pansera, the father of Regan, Blake’s ex-consort. Lady Avari claims Nyxaris for House Avari by right of ancestry, since Nyxaris is a duskdrake, the kind of dragon patronized by their house. Viktor counters that the dragon belongs to House Drakharrow because Medra, the rider who awoke Nyxaris, is betrothed to Blake, arguing the awakening could not have occurred without that bond.

Lord Mortis argues for a more extreme solution, proposing that both Medra and the dragon be destroyed to prevent a potential war. In contrast, Lysander Orphos proposes that no single house should control the dragon and that Medra be granted the freedom to choose her own path. Seizing on this, Lady Avari proposes that Medra’s forced bond with Blake be dissolved so she can choose a new archon, suggesting her grandson, Kage. Viktor dismisses this, revealing the bond is now unbreakable because Blake has fed from Medra. Fed up with being discussed like an object, Medra stands and demands to speak for herself.

From his seat in the gallery, Blake watches Medra and internally justifies forcing the blood bond on her as an act that saved her life. Medra addresses the tribunal, declaring that Blake tricked her into the bond against her will. She tells the panel she wore the neutral colors of a First Year not as a sign of disrespect to House Drakharrow but as a sign of her neutrality, arguing the dragon rider should serve all houses, not just one. She admits her bond with Nyxaris is incomplete and that the dragon feels no loyalty to any highblood house. She requests freedom from her unwanted bond with Blake and permission to continue her studies. Lord Mortis scoffs at her claims and demands proof that she can actually communicate with the dragon. Medra accepts his challenge and leads the entire assembly outside the Black Keep.

Outside in the courtyard, Medra’s internal monologue shows she has been harboring a secret. Over the summer, Medra has developed a telepathic connection with Nyxaris, often talking to the dragon. She mentally calls out for Nyxaris now. After a tense wait, the dragon alights on the bridge connecting the Black Keep to the mainland. Lord Mortis declares the dragon an abomination, insults him, and draws a dagger, jabbing it in Medra’s direction. Nyxaris commands Medra to move; before she can dive away herself, Kage Tanaka uses vampire speed to wrap an arm around her and pull her clear. In response to the insult and threat, Nyxaris incinerates Lord Mortis with a blast of dragon fire, leaving nothing but ash.

Medra confirms to the shocked highbloods that she did not command the attack, proving Nyxaris acts on his own will. She then climbs onto the dragon’s back, and they fly away. In the air, Nyxaris demands answers about what happened to the other dragons. Medra shares what little she knows from history lessons and promises to uncover the hidden truth. Nyxaris reveals his memory has huge gaps from his time being imprisoned in stone. Medra and Nyxaris form a tentative pact: Medra will find answers for him, and in return, he will help her survive.