The reanimated Julie screams and throws herself from the altar. She accuses Mallory and Anaïs of lying about love and happiness. Mallory counters that Julie, already in love, would not have listened to warnings. When Mallory asks who murdered her, Julie identifies her husband as a Saphir. As the sand runs out, she names Armand as both her husband and killer before life leaves her body in a gust of wind.

Devastated, Mallory theorizes Armand is attempting a dark spell like his ancestor Bastien Saphir’s. Anaïs insists they leave immediately. Mallory sends her sister to gather their belongings while she saddles two horses in the stables.

Armand appears, soaked by the rain, and confronts Mallory for attempting to flee. When she claims she is seeking help from a nearby witch, his demeanor turns menacing. He grabs her by the throat and reveals he knows about their precious Savoy blood. As he begins strangling her, thanking her for her sacrifice, Mallory fights back. Anaïs arrives and knocks him unconscious with a shovel.

As Mallory and Anaïs flee on horseback, the ghost of Triphine appears and begs to join them. Mallory agrees, but when Triphine passes through the estate gates, she vanishes. Mallory suspects spirits bound to the estate cannot leave its grounds.

The sisters ride east toward Grevinny. After two hours on a foggy plateau, they encounter a riderless white horse with glowing red eyes. Mallory identifies it as a cheval mallet, a spirit that kills travelers by throwing them from cliffs. The creature rears, causing both horses to bolt. Mallory’s mount throws her and flees, leaving her cornered at a cliff’s edge.

A massive silver-white ice bear attacks the cheval mallet. An arrow strikes the creature, which vanishes in a flash of light. Mallory sees Constantino approaching with a bow. The bear sits and begins licking its wounds. Constantino picks up a small glass figurine of a horse from the ground and greets Mallory, revealing the bear is his boss, Fitcher.

Constantino explains that Fitcher is cursed to transform into a bear every full moon and will return to human form at sunrise. They reunite with Anaïs and go to Fitcher and Constantino’s stagecoach. The interior is filled with curio cabinets containing magical objects and a box of glass figurines representing various captured monsters.

Around a campfire, Constantino reveals they were hired to hunt the cheval mallet and that Mallory and Anaïs have a fifty-lourdes reward on their heads for fraud. Mallory offers them the three-thousand-lourdes Saphir job if they do not turn them in. When asked why they fled such a lucrative position, Mallory admits Armand tried to kill her. Anaïs realizes their belongings are still with the horses, and Constantino leaves to retrieve them.

As the sun rises, Fitcher transforms back into a human. Mallory offers the Saphir medallion as payment for safe passage. Fitcher tests it and declares it a worthless fake. Anaïs confirms the medallion is a replica, made using their own con-artist methods. Fitcher reveals the Saphir estate is bankrupt. Mallory realizes all the signs of Armand’s poverty were visible and that he never intended to pay them. She was the one being conned.

Constantino returns with the horses and their belongings. Fitcher begins sorting through the items to claim goods equal to the reward money. He asks if they possess god-blessings, noting such gifts would be more valuable than the reward. The narrative explains that for centuries, the Seven gods erected a veil to separate humans from monsters, ghosts, and dark magic. When the veil fell 17 years ago, some of its power dispersed and latched onto babies and children, marking them with god-gifted magic, or god-blessings. These gifts were more powerful than petty magic but were very specific, such as reviving the dead for five minutes or transforming monsters into figurines.

Anaïs begins to reveal her gift, but Mallory interrupts, knowing how much her sister detests her power. Instead, Mallory claims herself as a possessor of death magic, gifted by Velos, the god of wisdom and death. Constantino shows them his god-gift: a golden arrow tattoo on his forearm, the mark of Tyrr, the god of the hunt. Fitcher explains he is searching for people with god-gifts to help break his curse, which requires the magic of all seven gods. He currently has only Constantino. In exchange for Mallory’s help, he offers her and Anaïs a place in his troupe. Mallory tells them she can hear and speak to ghosts and reluctantly reveals her mark: a blackened, festering hourglass on her clavicle. Fitcher identifies it as corrupted but confirms it is the mark of Velos.

As they discuss plans, a barn swallow acts erratically before transforming into a naked woman holding a feather. The woman commands Mallory to return to the château and stop Bastien. After Fitcher offers his cloak, she introduces herself as Gabrielle Savoy. Mallory and Anaïs are stunned to learn that Bastien’s escaped fourth wife and their great-grandmother is still alive.

Mallory recalls the family legend that Gabrielle Savoy escaped Bastien by transforming into a bird using an incantation. Gabrielle insists they must return to stop Bastien, but Mallory refuses, saying Armand tried to kill her. Gabrielle reveals that Bastien has been possessing Armand’s body for years, explaining that he, not Armand, manipulated and murdered Julie. Armand retains no memory of these episodes. Bastien’s spell requires five murdered wives, and he needs only one final sacrifice to attain immortality. The death of Mallory or Anaïs, who each carry Gabrielle’s blood, would complete the ritual.

Gabrielle explains she is magically bound to her wedding ring, which Anaïs wears, and has watched over her family for generations as a bird to avoid aging. She reveals she was the one who saved Mallory from the feux follets. Mallory asks her about the séance seven years ago, when she and Anaïs tried to summon her. Gabrielle says she was present as a bird, trying to stop them, but when they opened a door to Verloren, the underworld, Bastien escaped.

The story of the séance motivates Anaïs to reveal her god-gift mark: a perfect golden hourglass on the back of her neck. Mallory explains the séance was meant to trade Anaïs’s unwanted gift for witchcraft. Instead, Bastien corrupted Mallory’s magic with his own death magic, leaving her with the festering mark. Gabrielle insists Mallory’s witchcraft is merely locked away, not destroyed, but Mallory is despondent. Gabrielle offers to help banish Bastien but will need Armand incapacitated, a candle, and all five wedding rings.

Anaïs offers her god-gift to Fitcher’s troupe in exchange for their help. Fitcher agrees to assist with the exorcism. Mallory proposes a plan to return without arousing Le Bleu’s suspicion.

The group returns to the château with Gabrielle as a bird. Armand and his staff meet them at the door. Mallory introduces Fitcher and Constantino as acolytes from the Order of the Fallen Veil, sent to assist with Julie’s burial and the haunting. Armand welcomes them but is bewildered. Yvette is pleased to have representatives of the Seven present.

Fitcher arranges for Julie’s burial the next morning at sunrise. Armand notes this is the anniversary of Bastien’s death. Mallory schedules the acolytes to help clear the estate’s monster infestation, and Armand gives them a tour of the grounds.

Four hours later, the men return from the gardens. Constantino displays a pouch full of glass figurines, the monsters he has captured. He explains someone had been spreading madwort smoke, a substance that attracts magical creatures. Fitcher identifies the source as a botched spell where madwort was used instead of madderwort. Mallory realizes it was her own failed attempt at magic.

On the morning of Bastien’s death anniversary, the household gathers for Julie’s funeral. They retrieve her unnaturally preserved body from the chapel and process through the foggy forest to the family cemetery. Mallory feels foreboding, expecting Le Bleu to appear at any moment.

At the grave, Fitcher has Constantino serve ceremonial wine to the mourners. After a brief speech, everyone drinks. They lower the coffin and bury it. As the group prepares to leave, Armand asks to speak with Mallory alone. She agrees, knowing this is the moment they planned for Bastien to isolate her. She signals Anaïs to stay close.

Mallory asks to see Le Bleu’s grave. Armand explains it is outside the cemetery walls as a sign of disgrace and leads her there through the woods.

Armand shows Mallory Le Bleu’s simple, crumbling headstone. He confesses his childhood fear of inheriting Bastien’s monstrous nature, which led him to suppress all anger. He then confronts Mallory, revealing he knows she suspects him of murder. He mentions waking in the stables with a head injury and memory loss. He pleads his innocence but acknowledges periods of missing time.

Mallory realizes that since Armand remembers their kiss, he must have been himself and not Bastien at the time. When he begs for the truth, she gently tells him he killed Julie and tried to kill her, explaining that Bastien’s spirit possesses him without his knowledge or memory. She confesses she returned because she needed to know if his feelings for her were real.

Horrified, Armand declares he will turn himself in to protect everyone. Touched, Mallory calls his sacrifice the most romantic thing she has ever heard. The sedative from the ceremonial wine finally takes effect, and Armand collapses into her arms.

Fitcher and Constantino emerge from hiding and help carry the unconscious Armand to the chapel. Anaïs has prepared the ritual space and confirms the staff were also drugged and are sheltered safely in the woods. When Armand wakes tied to a chair, Constantino announces they are gathered for his exorcism.

For two hours, they perform three different exorcism rituals, but none work. Doubt creeps in. Fitcher finds a fae spell requiring coltsfoot, and Armand correctly identifies the plant and its location. While Constantino retrieves it, Armand confronts Mallory about her suspicions and owns up to his bankruptcy. He admits he was desperate and hoped she would stay. They argue about whether his romantic feelings were Bastien’s manipulation. Fitcher points out that Bastien would only need to kill her, not seduce her, to complete the spell.

When Constantino returns, Fitcher calls off the exorcism, arguing that Armand’s cooperative identification of the plant proves Bastien is not currently inhabiting him. Gabrielle transforms into a woman and explains that since Bastien’s spirit is separate from Armand, they can perform a ritual to dissolve the original spell. This will free the wives’ spirits and banish Bastien to Verloren. They only need to untie the magic, summon Velos, and use all five wedding rings.