In a hallway, Orlaith senses someone behind her and attacks, pinning the Bahari male to the wall with her hairpin at his throat. Unfazed, he introduces himself as Cainon and says he wanted to apologize for witnessing her breakdown.

Orlaith tries to walk away, but he follows. She challenges him for attending the Conclave without pledging support. He claims that Zali receives “compensation” for her support by sleeping with Rhordyn, and he also expects recompense. Cainon reveals he already knows Orlaith’s name and asks if she will attend the upcoming ball. She confirms without enthusiasm.

Seeking answers, Orlaith searches for Rhordyn. She asks a maid, Sophia, for his whereabouts, but Sophia nervously flees. Orlaith blackmails a guard named Jonas by mentioning his affair with another guard. Jonas reveals Rhordyn is in a private meeting with Zali and is not to be disturbed.

Orlaith imagines Rhordyn and Zali in a sexual encounter, but arrives to hear multiple masculine voices. She hides behind a curtain and eavesdrops. Inside, Zali recounts killing the Vruk after it devoured a farmer and his son, adding that she flayed and staked the other Vruks as a deterrent. Cainon then asks to speak privately with Rhordyn. Zali discovers Orlaith hiding but gives her a conspiratorial wink and leaves.

Rhordyn asks for 100 of Cainon’s ships to navigate the Shoaling Seas and reach Fryst’s western cleft, since the River Norse is gated. Cainon refuses, arguing the Vruk threat is not yet his problem. He counteroffers: He will provide ships if Rhordyn allows him to gift Orlaith his betrothal cupla. When Rhordyn refuses and threatens him, Cainon suggests this attitude is unwise given Orlaith’s “distinct Bahari attributes” (338). He points out that the pairing could save lives and rescue Orlaith from a life of confinement. Cainon gives Rhordyn until midnight the following day to accept. Orlaith is consumed by guilt and resolves to act to save innocent civilians from slaughter.

During the nightly ritual, Orlaith withholds her blood, keeping it in a vial. Rhordyn finds The Safe empty and bursts into her room. She demands a real conversation in exchange for the blood. He appears strained and gives her a single dose of caspun, explaining that Zali acquired a month’s supply for her.

Orlaith asks if he has accepted Cainon’s offer yet and demands to know why he forced her to attend the Conclave. Rhordyn says it was to open her eyes to the larger world and to illustrate that she is vulnerable to being targeted. Provoked, Orlaith insults him and slams the vial of blood against his chest. He grabs her wrist, and his proximity arouses Orlaith. As he leaves, Rhordyn informs her she is no longer required to attend the ball.

Despite Rhordyn’s order, Orlaith decides to attend the ball. She prepares with makeup and the provocative red dress she commissioned, repeating her mantra: “strong, composed, and resilient” (359). At the base of Stony Stem, she finds the exit door locked. She shouts for Rhordyn, who she knows is responsible, but he walks away, leaving her with a dinner tray. Orlaith recognizes that the pouch of bluebell heads on the tray is a placating gift.

Determined to escape, Orlaith spots a narrow support beam connecting a fifth-floor window of her tower to another wing. She rips her tight dress for mobility and tightrope-walks across the beam five stories above the courtyard.

Orlaith enters the other wing and uses a secret passage through The Tangle to reach the kitchen. She overhears servants discussing an impending announcement, certain it will be Rhordyn’s betrothal to Zali.

Orlaith enters the ballroom in her revealing red dress, drawing all eyes. Rhordyn glares from across the room and signals the musicians to restart the music. Baze intercepts Orlaith, feigning pleasantness while gripping her until Rhordyn takes her arm.

In a tense exchange, Orlaith forces Rhordyn to eat a canapé in front of her, knowing his aversion to eating in her presence. When he demands to know how she escaped her locked tower, she deflects. Tracing circles on the bare skin of her lower back, he heightens Orlaith’s arousal, then murmurs that he knows her every reaction, including her current anger and desire. He tells her to let the anger win, then abruptly walks away, leaving her alone.

Heartbroken by Rhordyn’s words, Orlaith begins to cry. Rhordyn and a smiling Zali step onto the dais for the announcement. Cainon appears beside Orlaith and catches one of her tears. He warns her that if she stays at the castle, this will be her future—watching Rhordyn and Zali build a life together. Rhordyn announces his betrothal to Zali, calling it both a love match and a political alliance to unite their territories. The crowd cheers as he fastens his cupla onto Zali’s wrist. Cainon restrains Orlaith from interrupting. Rhordyn and Zali seal the promise with a kiss. Afterward, Rhordyn’s gaze locks with Orlaith’s, his eyes filled with violent intent.

Baze appears and commands Orlaith to dance with him. In defiance, she refuses and claims Cainon already asked her. On the dance floor, she and Cainon stage a convincing show of mutual attraction for the crowd. Rhordyn watches, murderous. Cainon asks how far she is willing to take her act of spite. She says she will take it as far as needed. He kisses her passionately and, during the kiss, fastens his blue-and-gold cupla onto her wrist. The crowd murmurs in shock. Rhordyn stares at Cainon with a deathly expression. Cainon raises their joined hands and announces Orlaith as the future High Mistress of the South.

Devastated, Orlaith flees to her tower. In a fit of rage and grief, she tears her red dress to shreds. For her nightly offering, she smashes the rim of the crystal goblet on a rock to sharpen it, pricks all ten fingertips, and fills the goblet with a significant amount of pure blood as an act of vengeance. She places the shredded dress and the goblet in The Safe.

Rhordyn arrives, his footsteps unusually soft. He takes the offering from The Safe and leaves without a word, punishing her with silence. He leaves a package of pre-ground caspun in The Safe for her. Orlaith removes the necklace Rhordyn gave her for the first time, feeling raw and bare without it. She clutches Rhordyn’s stolen pillow slip for comfort, resolving to burn it the next day to sever her attachment to him. She sets the necklace on her side table, vowing that her life is changing and she must release Rhordyn to free herself from her self-imposed “cage.”

Later that night, Rhordyn bursts into Orlaith’s room, breaking the door off its hinges. He frantically tears the room apart, searching for something. Finding the necklace she removed, he refastens it around her neck. Showing uncharacteristic vulnerability, he slumps onto her bed, then leads her to the vanity mirror, saying he needs to show her something.

Rhordyn removes the necklace, and Orlaith sees her true reflection for the first time: a strikingly beautiful woman with alabaster skin, tumbling hair, pointed ears, crystalline eyes, star-like freckles, and a black vine-like mark creeping up her neck and shoulder. Rhordyn explains this is her true form, which he has hidden from her for 19 years using the necklace’s glamour. He confesses he lied as he promised Orlaith’s dying mother he would keep her safe.

Heartbroken and betrayed, Orlaith releases him from his promise. Rhordyn pins her against a bedpost and declares his soul is eternally bound to her, but there will be no happy ending for them. She screams at him to get out. He orders her to put the necklace back on to protect herself, and she refuses.

After Rhordyn leaves, Orlaith studies her reflection again, recognizing her features in the face of the little boy from her nightmares. She realizes they are connected and that he died while she survived. Feeling defeated, she puts the necklace back on, and the glamour hides her true self once more.

The next day, Baze and Cainon arrive at Orlaith’s door, arguing violently. Baze holds a wooden dagger to Cainon’s throat. Orlaith breaks them up and invites Cainon inside, infuriating Baze, who insists on staying as her guard. Cainon examines Orlaith’s paintings and is moved by one depicting a crystal island that reminds him of his late father. Orlaith gifts him the painted rock.

Cainon announces he must leave for his capital immediately and that Orlaith, as his promised mate, must come with him. Orlaith panics, saying she has unfinished business. Reluctantly, he gives her a two-day deadline, threatening to bring a whole fleet if she resists.

Baze confronts Orlaith about her decision, reminding her of how he taught her to garden and paint, and of the life she has built at the castle. Orlaith removes her glamour necklace, revealing her true form to Baze, and asks if he knew the truth. He admits that he did. Feeling utterly betrayed, Orlaith dismisses him. When he advances, she draws her talon dagger and reinforces her command. Defeated, Baze leaves. Orlaith collapses to the floor, her last friendship seemingly shattered.