Oraya wakes in her old bedroom in the House of Night, disoriented and grieving, and immediately sees that everything has changed. Her weapons and leathers are gone, her body still bears healing wounds, and an Heir Mark now glows across her throat and shoulders. The mark confirms that what happened after Vincent’s death was real, but Oraya cannot understand how a human could bear it.

When Raihn enters, Oraya attacks him in fury. He restrains her until she stops fighting, and Oraya demands answers. Raihn says he never technically lied to her, then explains what he concealed: he was Turned by King Neculai Vasarus, the Rishan king Vincent overthrew. Raihn admits that he betrayed Neculai by giving Vincent access to the strongholds in exchange for the safety of innocents, but Vincent broke that promise and destroyed them anyway, including Nessanyn. When the royal line died, Raihn unexpectedly inherited the Rishan power and Heir Mark despite being Turned, not Born.

Raihn says he hated that inheritance and tried to reject it, even attempting to burn the mark off. He stayed away from the castle and let Vincent rule until he was drawn back by guilt, by the suffering of the Rishan, and by the possibility of changing the kingdom through the Kejari. He admits that he originally chose Oraya as an ally partly because of her connection to Vincent and expected to use her and later kill her, but he insists that his growing attachment, admiration, and love were real.

Oraya then asks why the House of Blood is inside Sivrinaj. Raihn explains that overthrowing Vincent required far more soldiers than the depleted Rishan could provide, so Septimus offered the Bloodborn’s army in exchange for a favor. Raihn resisted, but after the attacks that gave Vincent an excuse to slaughter the Rishan, he believed he had no other path. Oraya realizes Septimus likely engineered that crisis and that Raihn had tried to evade the Bloodborn bargain by dying in the final trial, trusting Oraya to win and rule instead, until Oraya saved him.

The conversation turns to Oraya’s own mark. Raihn confirms that her blood and scent suggest she may be only half human, which would make Vincent her biological father. This possibility reinterprets Vincent’s secrecy and his final words, but it leaves Oraya with more questions than answers. As fighting burns outside the palace, Raihn says the only way to keep heir-marked Oraya alive is to marry her, because otherwise others will treat her as his enemy and a rival claimant. Oraya denounces his hypocrisy and the ruin around them, but Raihn insists that he cannot kill her and leaves to fetch a priestess.