Louis of Orléans travels to Ghent to seek aid from Anne’s husband, Maximilien of Austria. He is met by Polhaim, who served as Maximilien’s representative at the wedding. Polhaim explains that Maximilien has not sailed for Brittany because he is transfixed by nightly apparitions of his deceased wife, Mary of Burgundy.

Suspecting magical interference, Louis secures an audience with Maximilien and urges him to go to Rennes before the French army arrives. Maximilien dismisses the danger, believing his legal marriage to Anne is sufficient protection against French interference. Consumed by the ghostly visions, he invites Louis to join his vigil that night. Louis agrees to watch for the apparition one night at Maximilien’s request, eager to return to Brittany with an answer for Anne.

The French army, accompanied by Marguerite of France and Julien Moreau, marches on Rennes. Marguerite orders her diviner, Volucris, to locate Maximilien, but the divination fails; Volucris sees only a vision of thorns and falls violently ill. Moreau explains that attempting to divine the korriganed (fairy-folk) drives mortals mad and that the vision of thorns indicates the korrigan queen is involved.

King Charles of France joins the army, much to Marguerite’s frustration. He is more interested in hunting a unicorn with Anne’s help than in the military campaign, which delays Marguerite’s plan for a swift marriage and annexation of Brittany. Seeing an opportunity, Moreau proposes they hold a grand tournament outside the city walls. He assures Marguerite it will lull the Bretons into a false sense of security and promises her that on the day of the tourney, Rennes will fall.

In Rennes, Anne questions a diviner about the nature of shadow travel and learns that sorcerers can use the magical Lost Lands as a dangerous path between real-world locations. Soon after, Louis of Orléans returns, having slipped through the French siege lines. He confirms that Maximilien is enchanted by visions of his dead wife, which is delaying his arrival. Louis delivers a letter from Maximilien asking Anne to be patient.

That night, alone with Louis, Anne initiates a second kiss. They share a passionate physical encounter, but preserve her virginity, an important piece of political currency in their world. They acknowledge their impossible situation but find comfort in their connection. Louis expresses his anger that Anne must sacrifice herself in a loveless marriage to protect her realm.

Anne awakens to discover her sister, Isabeau, has vanished from their locked and guarded room. When a diviner fails to locate her, Anne uses her own emerging powers to look for her sister in the shadows. She enters the Lost Lands and finds Moreau holding a terrified Isabeau. Moreau is delighted, believing Anne has placed herself in his power.

To create a diversion, Anne drags forth a blinding brilliance from the layers of the world, causing Moreau to shout and stumble with his hands pressed to his face. She grabs Isabeau and flees through a door, but Moreau recovers and tackles them. All three fall through the portal into the red-walled chapel in the forest of Paimpont, where they are confronted by the ghosts of Moreau’s four murdered wives.

While Moreau is distracted by Anne, Isabeau seizes a spectral sword and wounds him at the knees. Anne focuses her power on the chapel’s altar, transforming it into a gateway to the altar in her own oratory. She pulls Isabeau through just as Moreau staggers to his feet, and they escape back to Rennes.

Safely back in the Guardhouse, Anne and a shaken Isabeau are surrounded by Henri and Louis. Anne realizes Moreau murdered his previous wives because they failed to help him find the lost city of Keris. She then has a revolutionary thought: She can use shadow-travel to cross great distances in the mortal world. She decides to go to Maximilien in Ghent herself.

Despite Louis’s fears for her safety, Anne finds a magical connection to Maximilien through their shared grief over a loved one’s death. She enters the Lost Lands via the memory of her father’s deathbed and finds Maximilien there, half-lost in the memory of his own wife’s death. Seeing that he is anchored to the real world by the candlelight of his vigil, Anne steps into that light and materializes in his chamber in Ghent.

Maximilien and his court, including Baron von Polhaim, are stunned. Mistaking her for an apparition, Maximilien speaks to her. Anne rebukes him for abandoning his living wife for a ghost and draws him fully into the candlelight, breaking the spell. As he realizes she is real, he grabs her hand. Polhaim cries out, startling Maximilien into releasing her, and Anne slips back into the shadows. She returns to Rennes, exhausted but hopeful. She tells Louis she believes her husband is finally coming, but that she fears Moreau “knows more of sorcery than anyone has known since the Age of Enchantment. And his longings have driven him wholly beyond reason” (248).

Moreau appears in Maguerite’s pavilion, pitched among the tents of the French army, in the early hours of the morning to ask for her help. Suddenly, Maguerite finds herself in the red-walled chapel with Moreau looking at her, wild-eyed. She begins to tremble with fear as he declares himself the king of the korriganed and paws at her. Still shaking, she reminds him that he promised her a victory in the tournament. Moreau confirms that the tournament must proceed, biting Marguerite’s ear and licking her tears from her face as she tries to push him away.

Baron von Polhaim arrives in Rennes under a flag of truce with news that Maximilien is finally sailing to Brittany. The group—Anne, Louis, Henri, Madeleine, Dunois, Isabeau, and Polhaim—takes counsel and lays a plan to deal with Moreau. That night, Louis visits Anne for what they both know is a final farewell, and they share a passionate kiss before parting.

The tournament begins. After several conventional jousts, a mysterious knight—an illusion created by Moreau—appears and unhorses French opponents using magic, plunging the field into an unnatural twilight. Chaos erupts as the French stands catch fire. Anne counters with her own magic, conjuring a downpour that extinguishes the flames but adds to the confusion. During the mayhem, word arrives that the tournament was a diversion. French soldiers have entered Rennes through a magically reopened tunnel.

Anne uses shadow-travel to move onto the battlefield, where her brother Henri and Louis rush to protect her. Polhaim is killed defending her, and Anne and Henri step from the shadows into the knot of people surrounding Marguerite and Moreau. When Henri attacks the sorcerer, Moreau magically transform’s Henri’s blade into a child’s wooden sword. The change of weight causes Henri to stumble, and he vanishes—lost to the Lost Lands. Moreau gives Anne an ultimatum, saying, “This is your last chance. Accept my suit, yield to my will, and I will save your city and your realm. Otherwise—” (264), but Marguerite unexpectedly stabs him. Wounded, Moreau disappears. Before Anne can escape, she is captured by Marguerite’s guards.

During the chaos at the tournament, Isabeau and her young companion Elesbed are separated from the guards and caught in the stampeding crowd. Elesbed, resourceful and accustomed to hardship, quickly disguises Isabeau as a commoner.

They escape the stands by jumping into the shallow moat and hide beneath the drawbridge. From their hiding place, they see Louis riding alongside King Charles of France. Isabeau initially fears Louis has betrayed them, but Elesbed insists he is their only hope for safety, and they resolve to seek his help.

Anne is imprisoned in the Guardhouse. Devastated by Polhaim’s death and Henri’s disappearance, she refrains from using her powers to search for her brother to avoid revealing them to her captors. Louis is permitted to visit, bringing Isabeau and Elesbed. He explains that he avoided imprisonment by appealing directly to King Charles’s goodwill. Before leaving, he makes Anne promise to take him with her when she searches for Henri in the Lost Lands.

On the day after the tourney, Marguerite visits Anne and threatens a public, humiliating physical examination to prove her virginity is still intact and that her body is capable of childbirth. Anne refuses to be intimidated. When brought before the court that same day, she allows herself to be partially disrobed before walking directly to King Charles and kneeling, forcing him to confront her vulnerability. Charmed, he covers her with his own cloak, thwarting Marguerite’s plan.

At the subsequent feast, a wounded Moreau reappears. After magically disarming the guards, he seizes Anne, but Isabeau attacks him. Moreau grabs Isabeau instead, intending to take her hostage. In the breath before he disappears into the shadows, Elesbed darts across the floor and seizes Isabeau’s hand as the shadows swallow her too. Moreau leaves behind a monstrous beast to wreak havoc on the feast, causing panic. In the confusion, Louis frees Anne from the king’s grasp. He takes her hand, and she pulls him with her as she escapes into the shadows.