Though Brie waits for three more days, Mordeus’s goblin never appears. When she returns to training with Finn’s allies, Jalek teaches her how to yield a sword. Suddenly, Finn appears, injured. He and Kane were helping a group escape “the queen’s northern camp” when they were attacked (198). Brie asks for clarification but is ignored as the group tends to Finn’s serious injury. The stab wound is too significant for magic to heal, so Brie uses her rudimentary healing knowledge to stitch it up.

As she tends to him, Jalek explains that the “camps” are labor camps, where Unseelie fae caught on Seelie land are sent. Finn confirms that Sebastian knows of but opposes the camps. Jalek, however, criticizes Sebastian for being too weak to assassinate the queen, who separates children from parents and “brainwash[es] them, feeding them propaganda about the queen and teaching them that they are, by their very birth, beneath the Seelie and therefore meant to serve” (203). Brie, thinking of her own mistreatment as a child, is horrified; her strong emotions help her access her power.

Finn clarifies that his group helps the children escape but that Unseelie continue to flee Mordeus’s vicious rule. They must cross Seelie territory to reach safety in Wild Fae lands. The rebels use portals to help quicken this escape, but they must continually move to evade detection by Mordeus or Arya. A young girl appears at the stairs, asking about Finn’s fate. Pretha reveals that this is her daughter, Lark. Lark is a seer, who claims that Brie previously died in a fire but that the “next time she dies, it has to be during a bonding ceremony. Otherwise, she’ll never be a queen” (206).

Pretha dislikes her daughter’s involvement in the dangerous rebellion. Brie is upset by this reference to her death. Jalek is alarmed by the reference to Brie as a queen, as he believes that this means she will marry Sebastian. Lark clarifies that Brie may one day be the Unseelie queen but that “she won’t have a chance if she dies in the fire” (207). Brie dismisses this concern, contending that Lark’s claim impossible, as she is not dead and therefore could not have died in a fire before. (She later learns that she did die but was resurrected by Oberon.) Pretha urges Finn to seek information about a potential attack on Seelie that involves fire.

Brie returns to discussion of the camps. When Finn explains that his view of rulership is to do anything he can to help his people, she offers to aid him. Finn grows grim and leaves hastily. (At the end of the novel, this is implied to be because Brie would die if she helped Finn get the crown, as it would involve her bonding him.)

A week after retrieving the mirror, Mordeus’s goblin still hasn’t appeared. Brie checks it regularly to see Jas. She continues training with Pretha, which she enjoys, though she struggles with learning how to turn another person into shadow. Finn contracts a fever, so Kane brings him a human “tribute.” Brie eavesdrops to learn what this means and overhears Finn and Pretha talking about asking her for something and the deaths of people named Vexius and Isabel. She must leave before she learns more. (She later learns that Vexius was Finn’s brother and Pretha’s husband; Isabel was a human woman whom Finn loved.)

Later, Brie spies more and sees the young woman and Finn kiss after the woman insists that she wants to be a tribute in exchange for “all [Finn does] for the Unseelie” (215). She refuses repayment, citing her aid as in honor of her late brother, who was Unseelie. Brie dislikes seeing them kiss, which she tells herself is on Pretha’s behalf. When she expresses this to Pretha, however, Pretha laughs at the idea that she and Finn are romantically involved. Pretha explains that Finn is Lark’s uncle, hence the resemblance between Finn and Pretha’s daughter. When Brie presses for more information about the young tribute, Pretha scolds her for spying.

Mordeus’s goblin finally appears and hurries Brie to the Unseelie Court. Mordeus taunts her about her relationship with Sebastian, which makes her powers surge; they are stronger in Unseelie. Mordeus insists that Brie have some faerie wine before he reveals the next artifact: the Grimoricon, “the sacred text of Faerie” (222). The book can take any shape and could be anywhere in the castle. Mordeus lets Brie keep the mirror, which makes her relieved, as she will still be able to see Jas.

Back in Seelie, Pretha summons her to the rebels’ house, where Jalek and Tynan are arguing over the appearance of the Banshee, a spirit who appears in sleep to signify coming death. She appeared to Jalek; his allies now want him to stay home, which Jalek resists. Finn orders him to remain at their place.

In the palace, Sebastian awaits Brie. Her absence that morning made him worry that she had returned to the human realm. She feels guilty for lying. They kiss, which Brie enjoys, despite her complicated feelings. Sebastian explains the tension between his desire to marry Brie, who makes him feel like his authentic self, and his fear of making her unhappy as a princess. Arya has given him three weeks to choose his bride. Sebastian asks Brie to marry him; she doesn’t reject him, but he sees her silence as a refusal and begins to walk away. She tells him that “the prince is growing on [her]” (231), uncertain if this is a manipulation to guarantee her continued presence at court or the truth.

Brie asks the mirror to show her the Grimoricon; it reveals a book displayed in a library. Brie puzzles over this, as she has not seen a similar room in her exploration. She attends festivities for Lithia, a summer solstice celebration. Sebastian is pleased that she attended; he apologizes for pressuring her, and she apologizes for her prejudices against Faerie. They dance together, and though Brie imagines their life together if she were not compelled to lie to him, she uses the opportunity to seek information about palace libraries. He leads her there immediately, but it is a library that she has already seen, not the one revealed by the mirror. He insists that there is no other.

Sebastian explains that he continues to seek Jas but that Mordeus has her well hidden. Mordeus’s power, he clarifies, does not come from the throne or crown of Unseelie; because the crown is missing, Mordeus cannot access that power. Brie wonders if Finn never uses his powers because of this missing crown. (She later learns that the Unseelie have been cursed so that using their magic shortens their lives.)

Brie and Sebastian dance together until they are interrupted by Riaan, who has information about “the traitor.” (She learns that this is Jalek in the next chapter.) Brie pretends to return to bed but uses her shadow powers to follow them.

Brie follows Sebastian and Riaan to a cell. Jalek is trapped inside. Sebastian, furious, demands to know Finn’s plans, but Jalek refuses to answer. When Sebastian threatens to kill Jalek, Jalek contends that if he does, “she’ll never give [him] the crown” and that Sebastian doesn’t “have her fooled” (245). (This is later revealed to reference Sebastian’s secret Unseelie lineage.) Sebastian and Riaan leave the cell, but Brie remains. She reveals herself to Jalek, who does not believe that she can help him escape. When she asks for clarification about his discussion with Sebastian, Jalek cryptically remarks that she “know[s] too much and not enough,” that “curses are made of secrets and sacrifice,” and that they “will suffer as long as she pays the price” (247). (This is implied to reference how Brie’s life will be the cost of transferring Oberon’s crown.)

Brie slips from the palace and goes to Finn’s house. She overhears Finn and Pretha talking but doesn’t spy. She reveals herself and reports on Jalek’s condition, which Finn and Pretha already know. Brie offers to try using her shadow powers to walk Jalek out of his cell, but Finn scoffs at the idea until Brie admits that her powers are stronger when she and Finn touch.

When they break into the cell to rescue Jalek, Finn touches Brie flirtatiously. They hide in the darkness as a guard taunts Jalek about murdering Jalek’s sister for Jalek’s crimes. When the guard leaves, Finn reminds Jalek that he cannot attack the guard as they escape, as they must remain hidden.

Their escape is successful, but it exhausts Brie. She dwells on how the guard’s comments revealed more cruelties of the Seelie Court. Finn encourages her to rest but posits that once she passes her “block,” she’ll “be unstoppable” (255). Brie asks Finn about Jalek’s conversation with Sebastian; she assumes that the “she” Jalek referenced was Arya. Finn urges her to reconsider this assumption but refuses to clarify about whom Jalek spoke. (This is implied to reference Brie and her possession of the crown, as she learns in the novel’s climax.) Finn and Brie sit quietly together, and she reminisces about her mother. She confesses how she lost her ability to hope after her mother left and how she fears that her life will lack meaning entirely if she loses Jas.

Brie quickly grows bored with resting after rescuing Jalek. Sebastian is away from the palace. Brie uses the mirror to watch Jas, who is reciting the story of a “golden princess” who loved “the shadow king.” The princess’s parents, disapproving of this union, closed all portals between Faerie and the human realm to keep them apart. Next, Brie asks to see her mother. The mirror shows her mother walking in the cemetery in the local village. Brie hurries to the cemetery but finds it empty. When she asks the mirror again, it shows her a corpse.

Suddenly, Brie hears Jas’s voice screaming for her help. Brie follows the screams and finds her childhood home, burning as it did 10 years prior. Though Brie knows this cannot be real, she pursues her sister. As the house collapses around her, she hears someone call her name before she falls unconscious.

Brie wakes up in the rebels’ house. Finn reveals that the burning house was a trick of the Sluagh; Finn rescued her. Finn urges Kane to heal her, but Kane insists that “this is a blessing” that Finn must take (263). Pretha warns Finn to “stop making the same self-righteous mistakes” that led to her husband’s death (263). (This is implied to reference that Finn refused to sacrifice a human to access enough magic to save Vexius.) Pretha heals Brie on Finn’s orders. Brie sleeps; when she wakes, she hears Pretha and Finn arguing over whether Finn is romantically interested in Brie. He denies this, but Pretha reminds him that they all have “something at stake” (265). (This appears to reference his refusal to manipulate Brie into bonding him, which would give him the crown but would kill Brie.)

Brie dreams of Lark, who explains the different paths that Brie’s future might follow. In some, she dies. In others, she becomes fae, sometimes a queen. This queen is sometimes good, sometimes evil. She urges Brie to let Finn explain. Brie expresses her discomfort with “having so much when others have nothing,” which Lark dismisses, contending that Brie will “lose everything” (266). (This foreshadows Brie’s death after bonding Sebastian as well as his betrayal.)

Brie wakes up in a strange room, with Finn seated nearby. He reports that she was unconscious for a full day but that Pretha healed her broken leg and burns. Dara and Luna, Finn’s wolves, led them to her; he saved her just in time. Jas was not truly there. He reiterates his warning not to use the mirror, emphasizing that it has malfunctioned for years. He frames the mirror as particularly dangerous for Brie, whom he sees as having “so much hope in her heart” (270). Brie frets about returning to the palace, but Pretha, in her guise as Brie’s tutor, has made an excuse for her absence. She gives her condolences about the death of his brother, Vexius. Finn claims that he has no other siblings that he “[cares] to claim” (271). (This foreshadows the reveal that Sebastian and Finn are half-brothers.) She thanks him for rescuing her; he responds by emphasizing the mirror’s untrustworthiness.

The next day, Finn reports that his spies believe the Grimoricon is not located at the Golden Palace. He asks if Sebastian is treating her well and alludes to Sebastian’s relative youth, though he is imprecise regarding his own age. She refuses to implicate Sebastian to Finn. Finn insists that Brie wants to be with Sebastian and believes that she will accept Sebastian’s offer of marriage.

Brie asks Finn about using his magic, which he claims he does, even though she has never witnessed it. (She later learns that this is because he has to drain humans of their life force in order to use his magic.) When she reiterates her desire to help him reclaim his throne, he stalks away. She asks the mirror to show her “King Oberon’s crown” (276), but it only shows her reflection. (This foreshadows the revelation that Brie possesses the crown.)

While preparing for a walk with Sebastian, Brie quizzes her maids about other Seelie palaces, as she suspects that the Grimoricon is located in one of their libraries. They reveal that the Serenity Palace is near the sea, which Brie saw in the mirror’s image of the book. Tess alludes to Arya’s dislike of her late parents, but Emmaline discourages her from saying more.

Brie suggests that Sebastian take her to the Serenity Palace for time to “focus on each other” (280). Sebastian likes the idea, though he warns Brie that he never truly gets privacy as a prince. They kiss and plan to arrange the visit. She asks about his obligations, which turns their conversation to the camps. Sebastian seems upset that she knows about the camps’ existence and quizzes her about the source of her information; she remains vague and insists, when asked, that she is trustworthy, which makes her feel guilty.

Later, with Pretha, Brie laments how long it is taking her to find her sister. Pretha predicts that this has to do with Sebastian, and Brie admits her guilt over exploiting his trust. Pretha commiserates but has no advice on how to manage the situation. When they reach the rebels’ house, Kane reports that Pretha’s brother, the king of the Wild Fae, is speaking to Finn. He and the queen wish to see Pretha. Pretha admits that she is in love with her brother’s wife, Amira, but that the royal family prohibits sapphic relationships among their rulers. Pretha’s brother, Misha, is unconcerned about this romance between his sister and his wife (as he was marrying for political reasons only), but Pretha’s parents were furious; they sent Pretha to marry Vexius, with whom she eventually fell in love. Her love for her late husband makes her feel guilty about her abiding feelings for Amira.

When Pretha attends lunch with Misha and Amira, Brie trains with Finn and Tynan. Kane reports that Sebastian has arrived at their house with the real Eurelody. Finn confronts him, denying Sebastian’s claims that Brie must be inside. When Sebastian leaves, Tynan accuses Brie of revealing their location, but Finn defends her trustworthiness. Finn sees her amulet from Sebastian for the first time and reports that it is not designed to protect Brie, but rather to track her. She worries that this will mean that Sebastian knows she is working with Mordeus, but Finn reassures her that the amulet is too weak to track her as far as Unseelie. He sends her back to the palace, urging her to wait until he hears from Pretha, as they will need to find a new safe house. He assures her that Sebastian isn’t his enemy, which relieves Brie. As soon as she returns to the palace, however, Sebastian asks her about Finn.