Elesbed and Butter emerge from the metal door into a chamber where they find Henri trapped in an illusion of a noble quest. Elesbed and the cat break the spell, and they rush to help Anne and Louis. They burst into a hall just as Louis is about to be overwhelmed by korriganed warriors. With Henri’s aid, Louis fights them off.

Anne, realizing Moreau’s personal hell must be nearby, uses her power to reach him. Butter leaps onto the table, creating a distraction, and Anne grabs Moreau’s doublet, snatches Isabeau, and pulls them all through the shadows into the red chapel where he’s buried his murdered wives. There, the spirits of the wives, now able to touch him, corner Moreau. One offers Anne a blue sword; Moreau tries to seize it but the wife slashes off his reaching hand, then offers the sword to Anne again. Anne and Isabeau escape, leaving Moreau to his fate.

They return to a grand hall where the korriganed are now peaceful. The abbess from the courtyard appears—a senior figure among the korriganed who says her years of queenship now belong to the Lost Lands. She explains that Moreau was a pretender who grew powerful by murdering his wives in a quest to find the lost city of Keris. After a banquet, Anne makes a choice. The queen can return them to the mortal world, where Anne will be forced into a political marriage, or Anne and Louis can venture into the Lost Lands to find Keris, a dangerous quest, but one that could help Anne achieve true sovereignty. Isabeau and Louis support the quest, and Henri to remain behind as Isabeau’s guardian.

The korrigan queen uses her power to send Henri, Isabeau, and Elesbed to safety at a coastal castle. Anne and Louis are transported to a lonely hilltop in the Lost Lands, with the Castle of Never-Was vanishing behind them. With no supplies, they follow the scent of smoke down the treacherous slope. Exhausted and in pain from the struggle with Moreau, Anne can barely walk by the time they reach a small house in the woods.

An old man welcomes the travelers, offering them food, drink, and a room for the night. He is hospitable but detached, explaining that he must keep watch for his lady, who returns at dawn. Believing they are safe, Anne and Louis go upstairs. There, having escaped the political constraints of the mortal world, they consummate their relationship.

At dawn, Anne leaves Louis asleep in their bed and ventures outside. She sees the old man’s wife—a beautiful, pregnant korrigan—return to the house. Anne realizes the old man is Gralon Meur, the legendary human king who married a korrigan princess and ruled the enchanted city of Keris before it was lost. He confirms he has been living in the Lost Lands for a thousand years, content to see his wife for a single moment each dawn.

When Anne asks for the way to Keris, he tells her only a unicorn could find it. Anne calls out, and the unicorn from the forest appears. Gralon recognizes this as a sign of Anne’s destiny. He tells her she must go alone, without Louis, if she wishes to be accepted as the rightful sovereign, and promises to send Louis to her if she succeeds or let him go questing if she fails. He gives her his dead wife’s pearl-sewn gown and a ring bearing his sea-drake sigil. Anne mounts the unicorn.

After a magically swift journey, they arrive at a causeway leading to the shining city of Keris. The unicorn pierces its own side with its horn and offers Anne its magical blood, a sacrifice that would restore the city but kill the unicorn. Rejecting martyrdom, Anne insists on a different path, telling the unicorn, “I am more than just my death, and you are more than just your blood” (319). She argues that a sovereign must live for her realm, not die for it. Persuaded by, the unicorn’s wound heals, and it carries her toward the city gates.

Riding the unicorn, Anne enters Keris, a city trapped in an endless, riotous nighttime festival. She and the unicorn are hidden at first, but Anne chooses to reveal herself to the dazed citizens. She rallies them with a rousing speech, explaining they have been lost for 1000 years and that she has come to bring them back to the mortal world. Inspired, the people follow her as she ascends toward the citadel.

The city’s queen, Ahèz, uses sorcery to create obstacles—lightning and rockfalls—but with the unicorn’s aid, Anne dispels them. At the palace, she uses her power to make the gates vanish and confronts the guards, who are swayed by her claim and the sight of Gralon Meur’s ring. Inside the great hall, Anne finds Ahèz, a beautiful but cruel and petulant young ruler. Ahèz refuses to relinquish her endless night and attacks Anne by summoning a sea-drake through a burst of sorcerous noon light. The unicorn wounds the creature’s mouth with her horn, and Anne pushes the sea-drake back the way it came. Anne again pleads with Ahèz to accept the dawn.

Fueled by the will of the people and the power of the unicorn, Anne performs a massive act of sorcery, pulling the entire city of Keris out of the Lost Lands and back into the Bay of Douarnenez in the mortal world. Defeated, Ahèz puts on a golden smothering-mask and dies by suicide. As dawn breaks, the unicorn disappears back into the Lost Lands, and one of Ahéz’s knights kneels before Anne, hailing her as queen.

After resting, Anne begins organizing her new kingdom. The korrigan queen appears, reaffirming their alliance. Louis soon arrives, and they declare their love, planning to marry and unite their domains.

At the French court in Rennes, Marguerite and King Charles negotiate the annexation of Brittany with Maximilien of Austria, believing Anne to be dead. Their council is interrupted by Henri, who announces that his sister Anne is alive, has been crowned Queen of Keris and Armorica, and is backed by an army of men, sorcerers, and korriganed. He demands the French withdraw.

While Maximilien and the Breton lords ride with Henri to see this new reality, Charles, Marguerite, and their court find themselves magically trapped inside the castle. Anne and Louis appear before them, shimmering with power. Anne explains that she has already made a treaty with Maximilien, annulling their marriage. She offers France peace and a powerful alliance against England but demands they renounce their claim to Brittany. Trapped and powerless, the French are forced to agree. Anne promises to host them as guests in Keris, inviting them to see a world where men and women may now seek their fortunes in the Lost Lands. She and Louis depart, leaving the French to accept their defeat.

In her afterword, Arden explains the historical and folkloric inspirations for the novel. She contrasts the fictional narrative with the life of the real Anne of Brittany, who was forced into a political marriage with Charles VIII of France at age 15 and spent her life in continuous, exhausting childbirth, dying at age 36. Arden notes that despite this, a sense of romantic intrigue has always filtered through accounts of the young duchess.

Arden positions the novel as a “what if” scenario, imagining a world where the faeries (korriganed) and magical places of Breton folklore—like the forest of Brocéliande and the drowned city of Keris (Ker-Ys)—were real. Thes folkloric elements allow Arden’s version of Anne to seize the power and agency denied to her historical counterpart. Arden also links the story to The Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries, which may have been commissioned by the real Anne, framing the novel as a fantastical origin story for their creation. She concludes by expressing her hope that the book captures the vivid, changing world of the late Middle Ages and inspires readers to believe in places of enchantment.