Before approaching Wolf’s Head, Alex steals a Romulus-and-Remus statue from Scroll and Key to trade for access. With Dawes and the Bridegroom’s Gray shadowing them, Alex returns the statue to Salome Nils at Wolf’s Head, only to be stonewalled on temple access. Alex drops her deferential persona, violently intimidates Salome, and forces her to hand over the key to the temple room, shocking both Dawes and the Bridegroom.

Inside the Egyptian-themed temple, Dawes explains the rite requires Alex to drown to cross the river borderland. Despite fear and suspicion that Dawes might betray her, Alex submits; Dawes forces her under until Alex inhales water and transitions to the borderlands. The Egyptian river is warm, starlit, and filled with crocodiles; the Bridegroom manifests there with solid form.

Meeting midstream at the place of Ma’at, Alex proposes a deal: the Bridegroom will locate Tara Hutchins and learn who killed her or how she connects to Skull and Bones and Book and Snake. In exchange, he asks Alex to discover who killed his fiancée, Daisy, insisting he did not commit the murder-suicide and cannot find Daisy on either side of the Veil. He also reveals Daniel Arlington (Darlington) had once visited the site of the Bridegroom’s death and took notes and photos, suggesting Darlington investigated the case.

They seal the bargain by trading true names—he as Bertram Boyce North, she as Galaxy Stern—after Alex confirms a literary clue: the Tennyson quote “Rather die than doubt,” matching Tara’s tattoo and the Scroll and Key table inscription, links Tara to Scroll and Key. North instructs Alex to bring a personal item of Tara’s, retaining her effluvia, to any body of water so he can reach her beyond the Veil.

When Alex tries to return, the current drags her west toward inhuman shapes on the far shore. North refuses to help, warning the current claims all and she must fight to live. Alex blasphemes to call down lightning, sights the eastern shore, and swims hard through crocodiles and current until she crawls onto the sand. Dawes then revives her in the temple room; Alex is shaken but alive, still tasting the river and carob used as a return token.

Leaving Wolf’s Head, Alex tells Dawes she made a deal with the Bridegroom to find Tara and clear his name, and shares the surprising claim that Darlington looked into the Bridegroom’s case. Dawes doubts Darlington would pursue a sensational story, but Alex resolves to honor the bargain and continue the investigation, avoiding coming up short on any deal—living or dead.