After the feast, Oraya and Raihn return to the same apartment out of habit, then decide to stay together under the excuse that it is safer. Oraya knows that reasoning is false and admits to herself that she simply does not want to be alone. While Raihn packs away Mische’s bloodstained things, the two remain together in silence, sharing grief and loneliness. They sleep in the sitting room and wake sore, but neither complains.

Over the next several days, Oraya repeatedly notices clear chances to kill Raihn and does not take them. She tracks his unguarded moments, passes his half-open bedroom door, and even pauses to imagine murdering him in his sleep by exposing him to sunlight and driving a sword into his chest. But the fantasy shifts into desire instead of violence, and she startles awake from it flushed and shaken. When she later looks in on him for real, she walks away again without acting.

By the end of those three days, Oraya recognizes a truth she has been avoiding: she does not want to kill Raihn at all. That realization marks a major change in her feelings, because it replaces the deadly logic of the competition with attachment, trust, and physical longing. The silence between them remains charged, but it is no longer driven by open hostility.

The chapter then shifts to Raihn cooking a meal in the apartment. Oraya is skeptical that he can cook, but when he asks her to taste the stew, she is overwhelmed by how good it is. Raihn jokes that he had not imagined making her come that way for the first time, and both immediately feel the weight of the intimacy in his words. Oraya deflects by commenting on his cooking, and they both use the conversation to move past the moment.

As they talk, Raihn explains that human food still matters to him even though Turned vampires gradually lose their taste for it; the stew tastes bland to him now, but it should still taste nearly human to Mische because she is younger. Oraya realizes that the meal is for Mische, who remains imprisoned after the Ministaer’s attack. Thinking of Mische’s earlier kindness and her damaged condition, Oraya feels genuine concern and impulsively asks to come along. Raihn turns back to her with a grin and says Mische would like that.