Regan waits for Viktor, her new consort, determined to endure her situation to secure the safe return of her younger brother, Persis, who is being held hostage. Viktor arrives and discusses the state of the school, noting that the Dragon Court is closed and that Catherine of House Mortis has disappeared, leaving her house vulnerable for Regan to lead. He reveals he permitted Regan’s betrothed, Blake, to dissolve their engagement because Viktor has always wanted Regan for himself. Announcing that he should have claimed her from the start, Viktor asserts his new role as her husband and sexually assaults her. To cope, Regan pictures the power she will now wield as a feared queen, imagining the day she can make Blake afraid of her. After the assault, Viktor leaves to fetch his nephew for a “surprise.” Alone, Regan steels herself for her new life, resolving to wash away the memory of his touch and embrace her role as a tyrant to survive and protect her family.

Medra wakes from a dream of a forgotten childhood with her lost family in Camelot—her aunt Morgan, uncle Draven, and their companions. The dream sharpens the pain of her current losses: Her roommate, Florence, is gone; her mother’s soul is trapped inside a rogue dragon; and her own dragon, Nyxaris, has left her. At breakfast on the first day of the new term, Medra is joined by Theo, who is still processing the recent trauma of having to kill his young cousin, Aenia. Theo’s blightborn boyfriend, Vaughn Sabino, arrives, and the two share a kiss.

On their way to a school-wide assembly, the trio encounters a group of highbloods bullying a first-year dwarven girl named Dani. The group includes Quinn Riley and Visha’s two consorts, Lucian and Evander. When Medra intervenes, Quinn throws a blood-filled apple that splatters on Dani. Theo steps in and shames the bullies, who retreat after taunting Medra for being abandoned by both Blake and Nyxaris. As they leave, Medra is startled by a hand on her shoulder and instinctively spins and punches the person. It is Blake.

Blake accepts Medra’s punch, acknowledging to himself that he deserves it for his recent betrayal when he tried to help turn her dragon, Nyxaris, to stone. He is wracked with guilt but unable to voice an apology. Blake is missing his left eye, a permanent injury that marks the end of his “golden boy” reputation. As he and Medra stare at each other, still grappling with Aenia’s death and their complicated feelings, Theo interrupts and asks Blake where he has been. Blake admits he just came from a meeting with his uncle, Viktor.

From Blake’s pained reaction, Medra deduces that Viktor is not only alive but is also the one who took his eye. Overcome with rage, Medra declares her intention to kill Viktor. Blake physically stops her, explaining that he is afraid Viktor will use her as a weapon against him. Medra reluctantly agrees to stand down.

At the assembly in the main courtyard, they discover Headmaster Kim’s decapitated head impaled on a spike. On a balcony overhead stands Regan, now Viktor’s consort. Viktor, whose face is severely burned and disfigured from his fight with Blake, announces that Regan is the new headmistress. Regan delivers a speech promising new security measures to protect highbloods from perceived threats. As a demonstration of “accountability,” Viktor uses thrallweave—a form of mind control—to force a blightborn servant woman, accused of theft, to publicly kill herself by tearing out her own throat. The assembly is dismissed, leaving the students horrified.

In her Historical Strategy class, Medra is confronted by Professor Rodriguez, who appears drunk and disheveled. He delivers a biased lecture portraying dragons as a chaotic threat, which Medra recognizes as a self-serving justification for his attempt to petrify Nyxaris. She confronts Rodriguez in the hallway, accusing him of betraying the blightborn cause by enabling a dangerous enemy dragon to escape. He dismisses her with a warning against insubordination.

Later, Medra finds the first-year student Dani already enthralled (enchanted) and being fed upon by a highblood named Brocklin, accompanied by two others. Kage Tanaka, Medra’s House Leader, appears and intervenes. The highbloods introduce themselves as the “Bloodguard,” a new patrol force established by Regan, before leaving with Dani. Alone with Medra, Kage apologizes for his role in the plot against Nyxaris. He asks her to keep his ability to transform into a wolf a secret. Medra agrees, but only after he agrees to a Blood Vow, which indebts him to her for a future favor. Later, Medra tries to visit Florence at her mother Jia’s apartment, but Jia lies and says Florence is not there, confirming Medra’s fear that her friend has cut her off.

Feeling suffocated after her first day as headmistress, Regan escapes to an isolated, snow-covered terrace. She reflects on her failure to summon thrallweave against the servant, which forced Viktor to perform the execution for her. Looking at the fresh bruises Viktor has inflicted on her body, she laments how her life has unraveled since she could not bring herself to kill Medra in the Games (in the first book of the series).

Regan’s thoughts are interrupted by the sight of a massive silver wolf, which transforms into a naked Kage Tanaka. He puts on his clothes and confronts her, but she doesn’t flee, telling him he should kill her to protect his secret. Kage refuses, stating he can see she is a victim, not a monster. He notices her bruises and correctly guesses Viktor is responsible. To ensure her silence, they perform a Blood Vow, making a cut on their palms and clasping hands. As their blood mingles, Regan feels a jolt of fire and is left wondering why she has allied herself with Kage.

Blake finds Theo in the Drakharrow common room. They discuss the new “Bloodguards”. The conversation shifts to Aenia, and Theo confesses he fears Blake will kill him in retaliation, as Viktor would do in a similar situation. Blake, however, is disappointed that Theo would compare him to Viktor. He admits that Theo spared him from the terrible task of putting Aenia down himself, as he knew she was too far gone to be saved. Blake and Theo reconcile. 

Later, in Defensive Arts combat class, Blake sees Medra brutally beating Larissa in the training yard. Medra is in a blind rage and ignores Blake’s commands to stop. He is forced to physically pull her off Larissa and carry Medra from the training yard. In the corridor, Medra angrily asks why she must hold back against highbloods when they are allowed to harm blightborns without consequence. Blake warns her that such actions will only get her killed.

Overwhelmed with rage and grief, Medra tells Blake she needs an outlet. She impulsively demands he come to her room. He refuses, as entering another house’s tower would be a serious provocation, so she drags him into a nearby empty classroom and kisses him. They make love, their encounter fierce and desperate, a release for their pent-up emotions. Afterward, they lie together tenderly and Blake apologizes for his past betrayals. Medra admits she has already forgiven him. She offers her condolences for Aenia, and he tells her she is the only thing that feels real in his life.

Struggling with her new identity as a dragon rider, Florence hides in her mother’s apartment, avoiding school and ignoring the mental presence of her dragon, Nyxaris. Feeling overwhelmed by the bond, she seeks Nyxaris out one night on the cliffs. Nyxaris confronts her mentally, calling her a coward for refusing to acknowledge the bond between them. Florence retorts that he saved the wrong person and that Medra should be his rider before fleeing back to the castle in tears. On her way back, she hides around a corner as a group of highblood students passes by, then checks the corridor and finds the bodies of two blightborn students the highbloods forced to kill each other. A message written in blood on the wall warns against refusing a highblood. Florence guesses that the mortal students refused to let the highbloods feed on them, and were killed for their refusal. Terrified, Florence runs back to her room. Nyxaris’s voice in her head tells her the highbloods used thrallweave to force the students to kill each other. Such cruelty has long been the remit of the highbloods. As a rider, Florence has the power to resist the cruelty. Nyxaris offers to teach her to defend herself, forcing her to choose between remaining in hiding or rising to face her new reality.

Struggling with increasing rage and the spontaneous appearance of the draconic red scales on his body, Blake fears his inner dragon is taking over. During a lecture, he speaks with Visha, who is gutted by Lace’s death (Lace, her girlfriend, was killed by Aenia, before Theo stopped the child). Visha reveals she has ended her triad with Lucian and Evander due to their bigotry and lack of remorse. Rejecting Blake’s offer that she can avenge Lace by killing him, Visha instead asks for his help in a future rebellion against the established order. She also warns Blake to get control of himself, hinting she knows about his transformation, and plants a seed of doubt about Medra’s identity by questioning how Medra, a blightborn, could have resisted Viktor’s powerful thrallweave.

After class, Blake’s anxiety triggers a full, painful transformation into a dragon. He flees to an unused classroom and jumps from an old dragon perch, instinctively learning to fly to avoid death. While hiding in a storm cloud, he is discovered by Nyxaris, who communicates telepathically and calls out “Vorago,” wondering whether the unknown dragon is that creature. As Blake flees, they are both struck by Molindra’s painful telepathic cry, which distracts Nyxaris and allows Blake to escape. Shaken, Blake resolves that he can no longer hide and must find a way to control or bury his dragon form for good.