On the way through the gardens, Mallory and Armand encounter Julie gathering flowers. When Julie addresses Armand informally and then corrects herself, she becomes upset upon learning they’re on a private outing together. After Julie storms away, Mallory explains to a bewildered Armand that Julie has a crush on him. He is horrified by the possibility.

They enter the forested hunting grounds, where Armand enthusiastically forages for plants and mushrooms, explaining their medicinal properties. When he mentions that emerald brittlegills are rumored to be aphrodisiacs, he flushes with embarrassment. Mallory finds herself attracted to his genuine enthusiasm.

At the cemetery gate, marked by a statue of the god Velos, they enter an overgrown but serene graveyard. Armand explains that most graves belong to estate staff, though his family has their own mausoleums. He shows her the crypts of his parents and his late aunt, then stops at the largest mausoleum, built by Bastien for his wives. Mallory notices a large brass key on Armand’s key ring that opens the wine cellar.

Inside the mausoleum are stone crypts for Triphine, Lucienne, and Béatrice, each topped with marble effigies. Mallory notices that the renderings fail to capture each woman’s unique charm: Lucienne’s laugh, Béatrice’s earnestness, and Triphine’s wit. Armand places wildflowers on each grave. Two empty platforms remain, confirming to Mallory that Bastien planned five sacrifices total. When Armand asks what the ghosts look like, Mallory describes their faint edges, corporeal limitations, and unhealed wounds. He confesses that growing up lonely, he felt the ghosts were benevolent guardians. When he asks about her childhood experience with ghosts, Mallory hesitantly reveals the truth: She only started seeing them when she was 10 years old.

The narrative flashes back to when ten-year-old Mallory and Anaïs sneaked into the abandoned Saphir mansion in Morant on the Mourning Moon. Mallory intended to summon their ancestor, the witch Gabrielle Savoy, to change Anaïs’s death magic to match her own petty magic. Anaïs grew up despising her unnamed death magic, a dangerous gift from the gods, and wished to have the same petty magic of witches like her sister and mother. Despite Anaïs’s doubts, Mallory performed the ritual, drawing sigils and reciting an incantation while dropping three drops of her blood into a circle.

A black void opened where their candle had been, and a shapeless shadow creature with glowing eyes emerged instead of Gabrielle. The creature promised to grant Mallory’s wish, pointed a clawed finger at her throat, and spoke in an ancient language. Blinding pain tore through Mallory’s throat. The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was a jaunty whistling tune.

When she awakened, Anaïs was putting out a fire from the toppled candle. Mallory discovered her spell to make the two sisters alike had been inverted: Her own petty magic was gone, replaced with death magic. For the first time, she could see the ghost of the duchess who haunted the house.

Armand’s voice brings Mallory back to the present in the mausoleum. Suddenly, Lucienne and Béatrice become visible and audible to him as well. They perform dramatically, begging the powerful sorceress Mallory to protect them from Monsieur Le Bleu. Mallory plays along, promising to vanquish the evil spirit. The effort exhausts the ghosts and they fade away, leaving Armand awed by the encounter.

Five nights after the cemetery visit, Armand continues to treat Mallory with awe, making her feel both flustered and guilty. Mallory wakes one night with the sensation of being watched and sees Monsieur Le Bleu at the foot of her bed, peeling an orange. She cries out, waking Anaïs, and Le Bleu vanishes, leaving behind the scent of citrus and a piece of orange peel.

Mallory hears whistling in the hallway that stops directly outside their door. She throws the door open to find the corridor empty, though distant laughter fades into the shadows. She shouts an insult and bolts the door. Anaïs is agitated, and Mallory recommends some of Armand’s special tea to help her sleep. Anaïs reveals she also saw Le Bleu the previous day, standing at their window watching her. Mallory tells her that Le Bleu thanked her for opening the door for him from the afterlife, confirming he was the shadow creature they summoned as children. Anaïs is now certain their childhood séance released him and insists they must genuinely help Armand, as their mother would have. She wonders if their mother would be horrified to see what they’ve become. When Anaïs threatens to tell Armand the truth, Mallory reveals her backup plan to contact Fitcher’s Troupe.

Their argument is interrupted by Julie, who apologizes and asks for a fortune reading. Mallory notices a large, expensive sapphire ring on Julie’s finger. Julie admits she has a secret beau and reveals she married him last week. She is worried she made a mistake, as her new husband has been acting oddly since the wedding. She promises to pay for the reading tomorrow and says that now that she is married, she will never need for anything again.

Mallory and Anaïs lack real ability to read the Wyrdith cards and rely on scripts to tell clients what they want to hear. Julie selects four cards, and the scar on Mallory’s throat burns with a premonition of betrayal and death. Anaïs ignores the ominous spread and delivers a scripted reading about everlasting love. Julie, anxious about her husband’s mood swings, is comforted, though Mallory expresses skepticism that marriage has improved their relationship.

Julie notices a lou carcolh, a giant tentacled snail creature, emerging from the wardrobe and faints. The monster grabs her leg with its tentacles and begins dragging her toward its gaping mouth lined with teeth. Anaïs tries to pull Julie free while Mallory attacks with a fireplace poker and bites the tentacle that grabs her.

Anaïs gets an idea and fetches a sack of salt from the kitchen to use against the snail-like beast. She pours salt over the lou carcolh which burns and shrivels its tentacles. The wounded creature retreats through a broken window. To maintain her ruse, Mallory draws fake magic runes in the spilled salt on the carpet. Anaïs argues they must stop pretending, but when Julie awakens, Mallory insists they banished the beast with magic.

The following morning, Mallory climbs to a tower with the Fitcher’s Troupe business card. She writes a message on the back requesting help to expel Monsieur Le Bleu, offering five hundred lourdes. Triphine appears and expresses distrust of both the troupe and Armand, questioning why the estate is in such disrepair if his wine is so valuable. Mallory defends her decision and admits she needs real help after the lou carcolh attack.

Following the card’s instructions, Mallory entrusts the card to the four winds, letting it go from the tower ledge. The card magically transforms midair into a folded paper moth. A salamander, hiding behind the stone railing, shoots a jet of flame, incinerating the paper moth. Furious, Mallory lunges for the salamander, which escapes through a trapdoor in the floor.

Mallory chases it, loses her balance, and falls through the trapdoor. Armand, who was coming up the stairs, catches her, and they both tumble onto the landing. Mallory notices he has a basket of herbal medical supplies and a spot of blood on his sleeve. He explains he heard about the lou carcolh attack and brought supplies in case she was injured. Triphine suspiciously comments that no count would know about herbal medicines. He sees the welts and bruises on her arm and tenderly applies a salve and bandages, commenting that her injury is far worse than his minor cuts from a barberry bush. The moment becomes intimate, and Mallory realizes she has strong feelings for him. A scream from somewhere in the house interrupts them.

Mallory and Armand run toward the scream and find Yvette, Claude, and Anaïs in the trophy hall, gathered around Julie’s dead body. She has been impaled with a sword and draped over the antlers of a mounted stag’s head. The words echtraus (trust) and greischt (betrayal) are carved into her arms, identical to Bastien’s previous victims. Julie’s sapphire ring and the finger that wore it are missing.

Mallory inspects the scene and estimates Julie died one to two hours earlier. Armand identifies the weapon as Bastien Saphir’s sword. Mallory notes the absence of any ghosts, including Julie’s, which is inconsistent with Bastien’s other murders. She announces she will interview the staff, suggesting the killer might be human. Yvette insists it was Monsieur Le Bleu, but Mallory questions whether a ghost could have the required physical strength. Yvette accuses Mallory and Anaïs of being suspicious strangers.

Anaïs reveals Julie had secretly eloped. Yvette scoffs at their card reading, and Mallory lies that they told Julie the cards predicted a disastrous end for her. Armand proposes calling the police, but Mallory, fearing her own arrest warrant, argues against it. Yvette reveals Julie was an orphan with no family. Mallory announces she will conduct interviews in the indigo salon and includes Armand among her suspects. He is visibly hurt and irritated but agrees to be questioned.

Mallory’s interviews prove useless, as everyone has an alibi. With other suspects eliminated, Mallory’s suspicion falls more heavily on Armand, though she struggles to believe it. She consults the ghosts, but none of them saw the murder itself. During their conversation, Lucienne pinches Triphine hard enough to leave a bruise, demonstrating that ghosts can physically affect each other. Mallory reasons that if Bastien killed Julie, her ghost should be trapped in the house like the wives.

Mallory searches Julie’s room for clues about her secret husband. In a nightstand drawer, she finds nine copper coins (which she pockets as payment for the reading) and a book of psalms. When she picks up the book, a pressed flower falls out. Mallory recognizes the unique blue and purple petals as matching the flowers in Armand’s greenhouse.

The morning after the murder, Anaïs expresses guilt over Julie’s card reading, believing the ominous cards were a genuine warning she ignored. Mallory, now highly suspicious of Armand due to the pressed flower, suggests they create protective wards on doors throughout the house to maintain their ruse and buy time to investigate.

Mallory remembers the magic runes from her mother’s book and spends hours drawing elaborate chalk symbols on doors and thresholds around the house and grounds. She deliberately makes her way to Armand’s private suite, ensuring he will witness her working. When he does not emerge, she draws more symbols on his door, eventually resorting to doodling gravestones and a seahorse.

Armand finally opens the door, appearing shirtless with blood on his hands. Mallory recoils in shock. He quickly puts on a shirt and explains with embarrassment that he was not attacked but cut himself while trying to shave. She notices a bandage on his throat. He is distressed because he is growing a beard and hates resembling his ancestor, Bastien. When he admits his former valet used to handle the task, Mallory jokes about his helplessness and offers to shave him herself.

In his washroom, Armand removes his shirt again and sits in the vanity chair. Following his instructions, she begins shaving him with a straight razor. She notices the shaved hairs floating in the basin appear distinctly blue rather than black. The situation is intimate and tense, with Armand completely vulnerable beneath her blade.

When Armand says her name, Mallory is startled and nicks his neck with the razor. As she presses a towel to the new cut, the moment becomes charged with romantic tension. Mallory gives in to her feelings and kisses him. He pulls her into his lap and they kiss passionately. The vanity chair breaks under their weight, sending them tumbling to the floor. They continue their embrace on the carpet.

While lying on the floor, Mallory spots an iron hook mounted on the underside of the vanity. Hanging from it are four rings, including a delicate gold band with a deep blue sapphire. Horrified by the sight of what appears to be Julie’s missing ring, Mallory shoves Armand away and flees from the room, leaving him bewildered and hurt.