In his tower, Evander discovers the roses his mother planted, which Bryony had been tending, have all died. He interprets this as a sign that the realm is berating him for losing her. Amara arrives tells Evander that Idris has captured Bryony and plans to burn her on a pyre. Enraged, Evander breaks the magical leash that binds him to the god-king Alexios, an act that causes him to bleed from his eyes, nose, and ears. He flies to Hellevig and massacres the palace guards before confronting Idris. Evander disarms Idris with his magic, and Bryony takes the opportunity to kill her uncle. After briefly healing Theodora’s injuries, Evander flies away with Bryony.

In a forest clearing, Evander is still bleeding from the backlash of defying Alexios. After he heals Bryony’s minor wounds, she tries to leave. Evander stops her, confessing that he lied to his brother to protect her and has fallen in love with her. He offers her a permanent soulbond Claim to make her his Chosen and equal. When Bryony protests that a Claim is ownership, not love, Evander kneels and exposes his wings for her to touch in a deep act of surrender. Finally convinced of Evander’s unconditional love, Bryony accepts and carves her sigil—an eight-pointed star—into his chest. They complete the ritual by tasting each other’s blood, which causes Evander’s matching mark to appear on her wrist. They then consummate their new bond. Suddenly, Evander senses Bastien’s imminent arrival and asks Bryony to run and hide.

Bastien arrives in the forest, furious that Evander has lied to him and soulbonded with a Devaliant, a member of the family responsible for their mother’s death and Bastien’s own past mutilation. As a form of penance, he brutally beats the unresisting Evander. Alexios appears and halts the fight. Upon learning that Bryony is now Evander’s legally protected Chosen, Alexios is enraged, as this complicates his plans to punish her. He orders Bastien to find Bryony and bring her to him.

Bryony hides from Bastien but reveals herself when she feels Evander’s pain through their bond. Bastien psychically attacks her, rifling through her mind before escorting her to the clearing. There, Alexios confronts Bryony for killing his Anchor, Idris. He tells her that while being Evander’s Chosen will save her live, it will not save Evander. Evander will now be held responsible for Bryony’s crimes. 

Bryony offers her life to save Evander. Alexios makes a conditional offer in return: like her ancestor Amalthea, Bryony must prove her sincerity through three trials. If succeeds, Evander will be spared. As Bryony is negotiating the terms with Alexios, Bastien’s voice sneaks her mind and suggests she put in the condition that Evander’s power must also be fully unbound, a demand she has the right to make, as his Chosen. Bryony does as Bastien suggests, Alexios agrees, and they seal the contract with a blood oath, which forms a magical golden cuff on Bryony’s wrist.

At Alexios’s palace, Evander is taken to the dungeons. The demigod court is hostile toward Bryony, and a demigoddess named Arcadia slaps Evander for choosing a Devaliant. Bryony insists on staying with Evander, so Bastien chains him inside a cell using Turpori steel cuffs that suppress his power. As Evander slumps inside the cell, Bryony asks Bas why he helped her during the negotiations with Alexios. Bas dryly responds that much as he dislikes her, he sensed she does love Evander when he rifled through her mind in the forest. Bryony asks Bastien to retrieve her Turpori steel daggers from Hellevig, and he agrees. She sits outside Evander’s cell for the night, and they talk through the bars.

The following morning, Alexios summons Bryony to breakfast. To teach her a lesson about his burdens, he forcibly links their minds, making her experience the overwhelming chaos of millions of prayers and the crushing physical pressure of the magical Shroud. The ordeal causes her to vomit and nearly collapse. For her first trial, Alexios creates a vast, thorny maze, telling her to find the key to Evander’s cell at its center before nightfall, when the maze will become lethal.

Bryony enters the dark labyrinth, which constantly shifts its paths, reminding Bryony of the Void As night falls, the maze comes alive, attacking her with thorny vines that break her rib and feed on her blood. Remembering one of Evander’s gardening lessons on understanding a thing’s nature, she ceases to fight and surrenders to the maze, which then releases her. Badly wounded, she finds the chest containing the key and calls for Alexios. He reveals the real test is for her to walk, injured and bleeding, through the hostile palace court to the dungeons. As Bryony walks through the court, the demis taunt her and spit on her. She reaches the dungeons, and unlocks Evander’s cell before she collapses.

Evander finds Bryony near death and convinces Bastien to unchain him from the wall. Bastien complies but tells Evander he will have to rechain him once he gets to his room. He also warns Evander that Bryony’s injuries suggest she only has a 10% chance of surviving the night.

In Evander’s chambers, Bas re-chains him to the headboard of his bed, leaving the power-suppressing cuffs on his wrists. After Bas leaves, Evander uses his limited magic to heal Bryony. The healing is intensely erotic, causing her to orgasm. After she bathes, they have sex while he remains chained. They discuss the court’s hostility, and Bryony makes him promise to let her fight her own battles to earn her place among the demis.

Bastien travels to Hellevig to retrieve Bryony’s knives. He intervenes when he discovers two men attacking Theodora, attempting to fasten a Turpori steel collar around her neck. He kills them and releases the collar around Theo, wincing when he touches her, since he hates the feel of skin ever since he was tortured during the devouring. However, he cannot help be intrigued by Theodora’s strength and her unusually strong psychic defenses against his mind reading powers. After she gives him the knives, he advises her to get pregnant because the Shroud needs the Devaliant bloodline to survive. 

Back in Scillari, Alexios reveals a demigod-poaching operation in Hellevig and orders a deeply reluctant Bastien to form a full sensory Claim bond with Theodora to monitor and protect her.

For Bryony’s second trial, Alexios takes her to the river at the border of Nyholm. He temporarily severs her soulbond with Evander, leaving her mortal and unprotected. He instructs her to enter the Onyx Keep—a fortress in the territory of the hostile Dark King, Severin—and retrieve a chest, her second task. Alexios is aware that Severin’s demis have been going missing and that he will likely kill any trespassers. As Bryony leaves for the Onyx Keep in a boat, Bastien communicates telepathically to Alexios that Evander has sensed the temporary severance of the bond with Bryony and is wild with anger. Alexios asks Bastien to restrain Evander in his cell. Zephyr arrives at the site, telling Alexios he has sent Bryony to her death. Alexios explains that he is orchestrating a confrontation so Bryony can prove to all the gods that she is worthy of being an Eternal’s mate.

Bryony rows to the Onyx Keep and sneaks past guards into the ruined fortress, recalling stories about Severus torturing the last Devaliants who tried to cross his borders. Gathering her courage, she docks the boat and sprints into the atrium. She hears a voice say that he does not like mortals in his territory.

Bryony whips around and sees Severin, who is every bit as beautiful and imposing as the other Eternals. She tells the god that she means no harm and is only here to retrieve a chest for her Chosen. Severin refuses to believe she has a Chosen as he cannot sense the Claim bond on her. He suspects she, a Princess of Blood, is involved with his missing people and attacks her with death magic that makes her body parts start dying of necrosis. However, Bryony uses her dagger to slash Severin’s wrist and stop him. 

Severin then reanimates an army of Vartenan corpses to capture Bryony with their bony hands. Bryony fights them off amidst Severin’s taunts. Severin freezes when he recognizes Bryony’s dagger and questions her about it. When Bryony reveals it was a gift from her teacher Amara, Severin immediately ceases his attack, as Amara is his estranged Chosen. He tells Bryony Amara would hate it if he killed her. Healing the damage he caused her, Severin allows Bryony to leave with the chest.

Bryony returns, and Alexios, unsurprised she survived, refuses to restore her soulbond and tells her an audience is waiting for her. Alexios forces Bryony into a revealing gown and takes her to the Colosseum Eternal where he makes her sit on a throne. Bryony is shocked to see Evander brought out in the arena, manacled in power-suppressing cuffs. A furious Bryony reminds Alexios that he was not to harm Evander; he tells her that the realm of Scillari is alive and sentient and wants to test Evander. Evander now must face fifty demi challengers in a trial by combat to prove he is still fit to be a king, since the demis believe being with a mortal has made Evander soft.

Bryony is forced to watch as Evander slaughters the demis. Alexios tells her Evander was once a gentle soul, sharing his mother’s love for books and art. However, the human-god wars taught Evander that a god must be ruthless to survive. After Evander finishes the last demi, the arena erupts in applause. Alexios brings Bryony to Evander, who in his bloodlust is wild and non-verbal. He bites Bryony to asset his Claim on her. Alexios asks Evander to hold back as Bryony is coming with them.

Alexios leads Bryony and the feral Evander to a magical healing spring. He instructs Bryony on how to ground Evander, guiding her to strip them both and use sexual intimacy to restore his consciousness. She performs fellatio on him, the act serving as a form of claiming that successfully calms him. Afterward, Bryony proposes her own final test: She will waive her protection as a Chosen and fight in the arena against any demi who challenges her right to be queen. Alexios agrees.

Zephyr arrives at Evander’s chambers to fetch Bryony to her workshop for armor measurements. She dresses Bryony in a light but indestructible leather suit for her upcoming battle. She advises Bryony to use her petite size and fast speed to her advantage during the battle. 

Bryony enters the arena to a crowd of demis chanting for her blood. Evander is in the audience too, once again chained to prevent him from defending Bryony. Recalling Amara’s words about fighting dirty, Bryony defeats nine demis by turning their attacks against one another. After the bloody battle, she marches up to Alexios and demands that he free Evander from his cuffs. Alexios tells her that she first has to fight her final challenger, which is Alexios himself. He brutally tortures her, breaking her arm and cutting her with a knife, only to have a chained Evander heal her so he can repeat the process. He does this to demonstrate a god’s capacity for cruelty. Bryony finally snaps and delivers a furious speech about her lifetime of sacrifice and her unwavering love for Evander. In response, Alexios offers her a final choice: to die in exchange for Evander’s freedom.

Bryony realizes that fighting her for the death was Alexios’s plan all along. Meanwhile, Evander struggles against his chains, out of his mind with fear for Bryony. Bryony accepts Alexios’s challenge, deciding that she will not be scared any more. As the fight begins, Alexios brutally tortures Bryony to remind her of the frailty of the human body, breaking her arm and cutting her with a knife. Just before Bryony collapses, Alexios has a chained Evander heal her so he can repeat the process. He does this to demonstrate a god’s capacity for cruelty. 

As Alexios taunts her human weakness, Bryony finally snaps and fights back, slashing at Alexios and telling him not to underestimate her as she has come back despite his Oracles killing her 416 between the ages five and 21. When she tells Alexios that she is ready to sacrifice anything for Evander, Alexios offers her a final choice: to die in exchange for Evander’s freedom.

Bryony agrees to die on the condition that Alexios immediately release Evander after her willing sacrifice and restore his territories to him. Evander screams but Alexios gags him with his power. Bryony goes up to a struggling Evander and kisses him goodbye, telling him he too would have made the sacrifice for her if their positions were reversed. 

Bryony kneels in the middle of the arena and Alexios helps her drive a dagger into her heart. She bleeds and sinks into the ground, slipping into the familiar agony of entering the Void. But instead of dying, she is resurrected by the magic of the realm itself, which grants her a pair of white and gold wings. Before Bryony can process anything, Evander flies to her, let out of his shackles, and hugs her. Alexios reveals this was the true test; Scillari has accepted her as worthy of its king. The demis in the arena kneel to her. Alexios gives Bryony a crystal that will free Evander from his collar. Before leaving, Evander brutally attacks Alexios as retribution for torturing Bryony.

Bryony uses the crystal to release Evander, restoring his full power and strengthening their soulbond. A few days later, while they are in his tower garden, she tells him she misses her sister. To enable her to visit Hellevig, Evander strikes a deal with Alexios: He will use his own power to help support the failing Shroud in exchange for free passage between the realms. He then endures the agonizing process of binding his magic to the Shroud’s immense weight. As the weight of the Shroud slams into him, Evander wonders how Alexios endures the burden. Alexios tells him that this is the price the gods pay to keep the peace between the realms.

Fifteen days after Bryony became a demigoddess, she struggles to fly, paralyzed by the fear of falling. Her fear, which stems from a deeper anxiety that her new life with Evander is a dream she might wake from, bleeds through their bond. Evander takes over her training, reassuring her that their connection is real and that her new body possesses the instincts needed for flight. He carries her high into the sky, explaining that their souls are two parts of the same whole and that she must trust her body. He then lets her go. After a moment of panic, Bryony surrenders to instinct, spreads her wings, and successfully flies on her own. Filled with triumphant joy, she soars beside Evander, who vows to be with her for eternity.