In the president’s office, Professor Marguerite Belbalm resists Sandow’s Starpower and reveals she can see the Bridegroom inside Alex. Belbalm discloses she and Alex are both Wheelwalkers. At Belbalm’s suggestion, Alex releases the Bridegroom (Bertram North), and Belbalm greets him as “Bertie,” then stuns both by revealing she is Daisy Fanning Whitlock in Belbalm’s body.

Belbalm explains that in 1854, during the Bonesmen’s botched rite, a frantic, blood-soaked soul flooded Daisy, who panicked and pushed it into North; the spirit then used North to shoot Daisy. Refusing to die, Daisy left her ruined body and seized the body of Gladys O’Donaghue, consuming Gladys’s soul. She admits this first soul-devouring act created the High Street nexus and that she has repeatedly taken new bodies by eating the souls of girls, leaving their husks behind, which sustained her for years at a time.

Belbalm frames her predation as survival and an act of defiant power, bound to New Haven’s magic that prevents her from leaving without decaying. She confirms knowledge of Sandow’s murder of Tara Hutchins and rejects Sandow’s value. When Sandow tries to banish North with death words, Belbalm turns on Sandow; Alex cannot stop her as Belbalm draws out and consumes Sandow’s soul, leaving him dead and vacant. Belbalm declares Alex is her intended feast, having once consumed Wheelwalkers Sophie Mishkan and Colina Tillman, whose powerful souls sustained her for decades.

Belbalm strikes, hooking Alex’s heart and enclosing them in a blue-flamed Wheel. Alex is dragged through her own memories as Belbalm’s teeth begin to unravel her identity. On the brink of obliteration, Alex chooses not to hide; instead she opens herself entirely and calls the Grays of New Haven, including North and countless others, to her aid, letting them feel her terror and will to live.

The Grays flood the office. Alex names the lost girls—Sophie Mishkan, Colina Tillman, Zuzanna Mazurski, Paoletta DeLauro, Effie White, and Gladys O’Donaghue—giving their names power. One by one, the consumed souls peel away from Belbalm’s body. Gladys hesitates but is drawn free and gathered by the others. Alex then names Daisy Fanning Whitlock and forcibly wrenches Daisy’s spirit loose.

North pleads for mercy, but Gladys and the other murdered girls refuse. The gathered Grays surge and fall upon Daisy’s spirit. The Wheel spins, the world lurches, and when it stills the party sounds return beyond the door: Sandow sits dead; Belbalm’s body has collapsed into ash, her unnaturally prolonged life ended as a century of time catches up to her.

Alex opens the garden doors, scattering Belbalm’s ashes into the cold air. Shaken and depleted, she confirms a text from Detective Turner telling her to stay put. Planning cover, she decides to rejoin the party and, if asked, to say she last saw Sandow with Belbalm. She asks North to scout the hall; despite his grief and new caution toward Alex, he clears her path. Alex composes herself and walks out, ready to act normal once more.