In Paris in 1719, Addie breaks into the marquis and marchioness’s empty city house, one of her favorite places to steal comfort and small luxuries. She lounges on the marchioness’s bed, eats rare chocolate, and tries on the feeling of being someone protected by status, pinning up her hair and considering powder to cover her freckles.

A faint breeze and a familiar voice announce the return of the darkness who cursed her. Addie immediately refuses him, anticipating his annual question about surrendering her soul, but he needles her, insisting she wastes his “gift” of immortality. When Addie tries to stop him, he rings for a servant; a maid arrives visibly bewitched and emotionless, revealing his control over people in the house.

Luc commands the maid to prepare dinner in the salon, and Addie follows despite her hatred, knowing her night is ruined either way. In the dining room, the servants move like puppets, serving Champagne and rich courses with unnatural speed, suggesting Luc’s influence began before he even entered Addie’s stolen room. Addie is frightened by the breadth of his power but drinks and eats anyway, overwhelmed by the luxury and the long, tense intimacy of sitting across from him.

As the meal drags on, Addie studies Luc and finally demands his name, arguing that names carry power and meaning. He refuses at first, but Addie insists she needs something other than curses; she ultimately gives him the name she once used for an imagined companion in her journals: “Luc.” Luc accepts it with delighted cruelty, and Addie uses drink to blunt her fear and anger as their conversation turns sharper.

Luc shows Addie a reflected vision of the life she might have lived without the bargain—married to Roger, burdened by children and exhaustion, her art and spirit worn down. Addie recoils from that fate even as she condemns the curse. When Addie asks him to release the servants, Luc taunts her about her own thefts and how others pay for her survival, but he finally dismisses the staff to drink, leaving them alone.

With the servants gone, Addie and Luc confront the true stakes: Luc insists Addie asked for freedom and accepted the terms, while Addie calls it cruelty and vows she will never yield her soul. Luc frames their dynamic as a long game and welcomes the challenge; Addie realizes that, by giving her an enemy with a face and a name, Luc has also given her something to fight. The chapter ends with Addie defining this night as the moment their conflict becomes a war.