With Vincent away, Oraya plans to go into the city for more poison, but she discovers that every door and window in the Moon Palace has been locked from the outside. Raihn checks the palace and returns with only a little food and a nearly empty carafe of blood, making it clear that the palace is trapping the contestants and intending to starve them before the next trial. Raihn says he still has enough hidden blood to ration, which reassures Oraya enough for them to stay barricaded together.

The confinement continues for days. No supplies reappear, and when a Hiaj contestant tries to escape through a shattered upper window, palace magic hurls him back mutilated so badly that he is certain to die. After that, no one else tries to leave. As another week passes, starving vampires begin pacing outside Oraya and Raihn’s apartment at all hours, drawn by hunger and by Oraya’s human blood, so Oraya stops leaving the room.

In spite of the danger, Oraya and Raihn maintain a fragile domestic routine. They train, practice Oraya’s unstable magic, and spend quiet hours together before dawn. Wanting to give Raihn something he can never safely enjoy, Oraya positions a mirror so he can watch the sunrise and the daylight city from safety, and Raihn treasures the gift. The moment deepens their intimacy and makes it easier for Oraya to pretend their situation is not collapsing around them.

By the third week, however, Raihn becomes distracted and tense. Oraya secretly sees him drink the last tiny amount of blood he has left and realizes he lied about having enough to survive. Forced to confront both his starvation and her own feelings, Oraya says she should move to another apartment because he is still a vampire and she is still human. Raihn is wounded and angry that she does not trust him, but Oraya insists that their comforting illusion is not real and that hunger could still make him kill her.

The argument exposes the divide both of them had been avoiding. Raihn, hurt but controlled, agrees to leave so Oraya will be safe. He gathers his belongings, tells her to barricade the door again, and leaves with only a strained promise to see her at the next trial. Though he is only moving elsewhere in the palace, both of them understand that their separation marks a lasting change in whatever they had begun to build together.