At her wedding, Harlow feels isolated among the masked guests who are all loyal to Henry. However, when Henry complements her on her dress, she feels flustered, yet charmed. Harlow has chosen the myth of the divine beings Asher and Stellaria as the theme of her wedding: All weddings in their world contain an enactment of a story about the Divines. After the enactment, Harlow and Henry speak out their vows, Henry using generic words until he introduces an unscripted promise to protect her and bring justice to those who have wronged her. Harlow recognizes this as a calculated move prompted by his discovery of her scar, and she feels a surge of anger at his attempt to manipulate her. The ceremony concludes with a passionate kiss that leaves her breathless. Afterward, Henry leads her to the ballroom for the second part of the ritual: A 10-minute “Communion” where they must share secrets while she sits on his lap under a ceremonial veil.

During the timed communion ritual, Harlow sits on Henry’s lap under a veil, where they trade taunts and veiled threats, unheard by the other guests. Harlow maintains her composure before Henry by tauntingly referring to him as “my wolf” or “my feral wolf.” When pressed to share a genuine secret, Harlow reveals that Aidia being abused by Rafe is her motive for being the “Poison Vixen.” Since she is unable to harm Rafe, Harlow kills other abusive men to protect women who have no other recourse. She also claims she was set up the night she tried to poison Henry. In return, Henry admits the fort is desperate for guards and needs an heir with rare protective magic, which is his family they sought the marriage alliance with Harlow’s family. Harlow senses he is holding back the full truth. After the ritual ends, Henry’s father confronts him about altering the vows. Henry lies, framing it as a spontaneous strategy to earn Harlow’s trust. When he returns to the table, Harlow has used pasta to spell out “Infection?”—asking if this is one of the ways he has died—and he is relieved she remains his adversary.

In a private antechamber, Harlow prepares for the public consummation ritual. A servant named Cora explains the final part of the ceremony: As the lovemaking ends, Harlow must press her bleeding palm (her palm will receive a shallow cut by Henry as part of the ritual) against a sigil to the Divine Kennymyra on the bed’s headboard, which will glow golden if the offering of pleasure is accepted. Harlow is not self-conscious about her body, but is skeptical she will be able to climax in public. In the ceremony room, before a crowd of masked guests, Henry throws Harlow onto the bed and rips her silk slip. Though Harlow intended to remain detached, she is unnerved by Henry’s tenderness and overwhelmed by pleasure as he first performs oral sex on her, then they have intercourse. After performing the blood ritual, the sigil on the headboard glows so brightly that it cracks and a piece breaks off, stunning the crowd. Henry immediately asks the guests to leave him and his wife alone, telling Harlow that no one has ever broken the sigil before.

The morning after the wedding, Harlow wakes snuggled up with Henry. She is unnerved by the intimacy and asks to go for a run, but Henry forbids it, explaining that their culture would require him to chase her down and publicly assert his dominance. Frustrated, Harlow admits that she feels like she has traded one prison for another. As a compromise, Henry agrees to take her to the estate’s art gallery but insists she wear a scarlet dress he has chosen for her, citing another local tradition. To avoid a pointless fight, Harlow agrees, privately planning to use the dress to her advantage.

Henry leads a blindfolded Harlow into the family’s art gallery and reveals three “mirror art” paintings by his late sister, Holly. He explains they magically reflect a viewer’s inner state. The first shows Harlow’s current emotion as “prickly.” The second reveals her desire in the form of Henry’s eyes. The third, the “heart mirror,” displays an evocative bloody stain that triggers a Harlow to have a traumatic memory of blood, tears, and someone gasping; Harlow flees the room. Henry explains that Holly was twice-blessed (the rare occurrence when someone is blessed by two Divines) and created the art to read people’s true intentions. To distract Harlow from her distress, he offers her a wedding present.

Henry’s wedding gift is a safe room in his closet, protected by his sister Holly’s magic, that only Harlow can enter. To test it, Harlow shoves Henry into an invisible barrier and then enters the room, where she proceeds to taunt him by touching herself while he is forced to watch. Frustrated, Henry retrieves the second part of her gift: A box of sex toys and a book of erotic stories from a local storytelling pub, the Raining Star Bar. Harlow flinches at the sight of a riding crop, which confirms Henry’s suspicions about her past trauma. Intrigued by the gifts, Harlow exits the room, takes the box from Henry, and promptly slams the door in his face, locking herself inside again.

Henry drinks at a pub with his friends, Bryce and Carter, complaining about Harlow locking herself in the safe room. The story greatly amuses the two, much to Henry’s annoyance. To distract them, he reveals that Harlow is the “Poison Vixen,” a vigilante who kills abusive men. Carter connects this to rumors that he heard from city guards. Harlow’s bodyguard, Gaven, suddenly arrives and reveals that Harlow has disappeared from her room. Gaven also discloses that Harlow possesses a glamour necklace that allows her to change her appearance. Recalling his mention of the Raining Star Bar, Henry realizes that is where she must have gone. The four men race out to find her before she gets into trouble.

Using her glamour necklace to disguise her appearance, Harlow goes to the Raining Star Bar. A storyteller named Nicolina reads aloud the graphic tale in which a man “claims” a woman publicly. Like everyone listening in the bar, Harlow finds herself aroused by the story. A hunter named Brennan sidles up to Harlow, trying to seduce her and, to sound important, reveals that the fort has captured a “Breeder”—a new, intelligent type of Drained that forces human women to bear its young. Horrified, Harlow leaves to investigate the holding cells and possibly exterminate the Breeder. Inside, she finds the Breeder roaming free. Before she can escape, Stefan and two of his men ambush her. They grab Harlow and dangle her over a railing toward the monster below, crudely threatening her with brutal rape by the creature. Harlow fights to get free. In the ensuing struggle, one of Stefan’s men, Joe, grabs Harlow as he falls from the catwalk, pulling her to the ground floor with him.

Henry and his companions arrive at the Raining Star Bar to learn from Nicolina that a disguised Harlow left with a hunter named Brennan. They confront Brennan, who confesses he told Harlow about the Breeder. Realizing she went to the holding cells, they rush there to find a chaotic scene: Stefan and his men are on the ground floor with the loose Breeder, and Harlow is injured but standing between them. The Breeder seems to sense that Gaven is the most powerful person present, confirming he has hidden abilities. As Harlow’s friends prepare to intervene, she defies Henry’s orders to run and instead turns to face Stefan and his men, trapping them between herself and the monster.

Inside the holding cell, the Breeder kills one of Stefan’s men, Roland. As Henry jumps down to engage the creature, Harlow fights Stefan and Joe. Joe tackles her, triggering a moment of blind rage in Harlow, and she kills him with her dagger. She then opens the locked door to let in Gaven, who incinerates the Breeder with a blast of holy fire. He reveals a magical brand on his arm that grants him this power only when Harlow is in danger. To protect Henry’s family from political fallout, Harlow devises a cover story that plays on the people’s existing doubt and dislike of her: Carter agrees to use his magic to plant a false memory in Stefan’s mind to make it look like Harlow seduced Stefan and lured him to the cells, where the Breeder escaped and attacked. Back in their rooms, Harlow suffers a severe panic attack. She feels homesick, though she is well-aware it is not her own home for which she longs, but a shelter where she can be herself. Henry enters their chambers, finds Harlow in the bath and heals her injuries. When he demands she sleep in his bed, she refuses and slams the connecting door in his face.