While trying to leave the queen’s private quarters, Kierse is confronted by a vampire guard. Just as she’s about to be detained, Graves appears. To extricate her from the situation, he claims Kierse is his wife. He pulls her into a nearby storage closet, where she angrily confronts him for interfering and for following her to Europe after she explicitly asked for space. Graves reveals that he knew she would be at the palace. When pressed, Kierse admits that she’s trying to steal the queen’s goblin-made bracelet. Graves laughs and informs her that her target isn’t in the safe because Queen Aveline is wearing it at the ball.

Graves insists that stealing the bracelet in a crowded ballroom is too reckless and offers to help her get close to the queen. As the clock strikes midnight, the ball officially begins, and Graves leads Kierse onto the dance floor. Afterward, he escorts her to meet Queen Aveline, reintroducing Kierse as his wife. During their conversation, Kierse and Graves keep the queen’s attention on their banter. In a moment of sleight of hand, Kierse steals the bracelet. As they make their excuses and depart, a cry goes up from the throne area, signaling the discovery of the theft. Graves tells Kierse to run.

Kierse and Graves flee through the Versailles gardens with guards in pursuit. Their escape is blocked by a massive troll guard at a gate. Graves’s attempt to use a magical “troll pass” fails when the troll declares it expired and punches him. Kierse quickly improvises, climbing the troll’s back and using a banner to choke the guard until she collapses and breaks open the gate in her fall. Kierse and Graves escape to a waiting limousine driven by Graves’s chauffeur, George. Graves explains that the car is magically warded against tracking. He then reveals that they can’t return to Kierse’s hotel and will instead stay with an acquaintance of his, Estelle Beaumont, the notoriously powerful warlock of Paris. He tells Kierse that the real reason for their visit is to steal the Cauldron of Dagda, a powerful magical object, which he claims is in Estelle’s possession. Kierse agrees to the new job.

Graves and Kierse arrive at a lavish Parisian apartment building owned entirely by Estelle, who is also known as the Game Master. Graves notes that the building is heavily warded and that Estelle is an ally of Queen Aveline. Inside, they meet Estelle, who already knows about their supposed marriage and Graves’s interest in the Cauldron. Graves proposes that they play one of their old “games” for the artifact. However, Estelle refuses to play with Graves, insisting that Kierse must be the one to compete. Graves adamantly refuses, declaring that he will not sacrifice Kierse to Estelle’s dangerous games. Estelle, expecting him to change his mind, offers them a guest room for the night.

Once in their room, Graves places a ward to prevent Estelle from eavesdropping. Graves says that the encounter went as planned, though Kierse senses that he hasn’t told her everything about his strategy. George hacks the building’s security cameras to create a brief window, and Kierse races to the floor above. She finds a hidden room protected by an overwhelming wave of illusion magic. As she crosses the threshold, she’s struck by a vivid, magic-draining hallucination of Graves’s dead body. Though horrified and physically sickened, she forces herself through the illusion. When the vision clears, she finds Estelle calmly sitting in a chair, waiting for her.

Estelle reveals that she was expecting the intrusion. With her magic depleted by the illusion, Kierse is vulnerable. She discreetly steals several small, bejeweled items from the room, using the act of thievery to slowly replenish her power. Kierse correctly deduces that the Cauldron of Dagda isn’t in the room and that the entire situation was a test. Estelle confirms this, explaining that she had heard that Graves’s new apprentice was immune to magic and anticipated that he would use her to attempt to steal the cauldron. Before letting her go, Estelle proposes a final game: If Kierse answers a riddle correctly, she will receive information. Kierse solves a riddle about chess by realizing that the answer is “sacrifice.” Estelle calls Kierse a “sacrificial lamb,” gives her an envelope, and tells her that Graves knew the cauldron wasn’t there and used her to get information. As Kierse leaves, she secretly pockets a ruby pin without Estelle noticing.

Kierse escapes to the roof, where Graves finds her. She confronts him with the envelope, accusing him of manipulating her, though he denies it. They take the limo to Graves’s apartment, which is currently being renovated. While Kierse changes into a sweater, Graves opens the envelope and discovers an invitation to a secret auction in New York where the cauldron will be sold. Exhausted, Kierse gets into the room’s only bed. Graves undresses to his boxers and joins her, leading to a moment of intense sexual tension. He brings her to orgasm with his hand before rolling over, smugly declaring that “[a]t least [her body] is still [his]” (48).

Kierse is jolted awake by a nightmare in which she’s a child and her father hides her under the floorboards during a violent home invasion. Graves comforts her, explaining that because her magic was depleted, he was able to read her dream when he touched her. He explains that the bad dream is actually a suppressed memory. They conclude that the spell that hid her Fae identity also erased her childhood memories. Kierse reveals that she stole the queen’s bracelet to trade for entry into Nying Market, a dangerous goblin market, to find a magical cure for the nightmares. Graves forbids it and proposes that he enter her mind to retrieve the memories himself. However, she refuses, citing his history of deception. He finally relents but insists on accompanying her to the market.

The perspective shifts to Estelle, who’s annoyed that Kierse managed to steal her ruby pin. She reflects on her long and bitter history with Graves, which began when he became her warlock mentor. Their rivalry culminated in Graves introducing Estelle’s lover, Queen Aveline, to a man named Montrell, resulting in Aveline choosing Montrell as her consort rather than Estelle. 

In the present, Aveline arrives at the apartment. It’s revealed that the two women are working together; they orchestrated the bracelet theft to ensure that Kierse and Graves received the auction invitation. Estelle muses on the complex, powerful emotions between the pair, wondering if Graves has finally met his match. She tells Aveline that “The Curator” will handle things from here, signaling the start of a larger game.