Early the next day, Alex attended classes while the ghost of the Bridegroom, Daniel Arlington North, hovered agitatedly. After Alex tried to dismiss him, North forcibly possessed her in lecture, overwhelming her with Victorian-era sensations and leaving her with a bloody nose and three shaky dates written in her notebook: 1854, 1869, 1883. Furious and frightened by the violation and what it meant for their bond, she fled to Il Bastone for the safety of its wards.

Inside the battered, empty house, Alex steadied herself by cleaning up broken glass and eating before turning to research. She accessed Lethe’s secret library via the Albemarle Book and discovered Darlington’s last hidden notes tucked into Rosenfeld Hall schematics. His list paired dates with women’s names and appended what looked like hyphenates: Daisy Fanning Whitlock–Russell, Paoletta DeLauro–Kingsley, and so on, culminating in 1958. Alex realized the second names were not hyphens but the trusts funding the societies’ tombs. Cross-referencing with Lethe records, she concluded each listed death coincided with land acquisitions that became the societies’ nexus sites, beginning with 1854 and the Russell Trust for Skull and Bones.

Trying to confirm the pattern, Alex blood-called North in a sink reflection. North reported he could not find Tara beyond the Veil—nor Daisy or Gladys O’Donaghue—and believed something larger had happened at those moments, likely repeating with Tara. Alex theorized these were hidden sacrifices creating magical nexuses and suspected a current need for a new nexus—possibly for St. Elmo’s new tomb—given the empty lot where Tara’s body had been found. She sent North to seek the other dead women: Colina Tillman, Sophie Mishkan, Effie White, Zuzanna Mazurski, and Paoletta DeLauro.

Reflecting on who knew Darlington’s theory, Alex deduced Sandow should have been informed. She reexamined the Il Bastone attack site and found a gold coin of compulsion hidden under a planter. This suggested Blake Keely had acted under orders. Connecting this to Sandow’s delays, his control over narratives, and the sabotaged new-moon rite that barred Darlington’s return, Alex concluded Sandow had likely trapped Darlington at Rosenfeld, ensured Tara’s death to generate a nexus, and aimed to pin chaos on Alex while preserving the societies.

A flashback to Alex’s Los Angeles hospitalization after the Van Nuys massacre revealed Eitan’s visit, his demand for repayment for fentanyl, and Alex’s desperate call to accept Sandow’s Yale offer with a request for money—reinforcing her awareness of exploitation and debt. Returning to the present, Alex decided she would no longer be Sandow’s pawn.

Alex phoned Sandow’s house and learned he was attending a welcome-back party at the university president’s residence on Hillhouse. She texted Turner, “We got it wrong,” and arranged to meet him there. Taking Darlington’s list, she set out to confront Sandow, vowing to “play knight.”