Cressida drags Rune into a bedroom, orders Juniper to release her, and traps Rune inside a ring of bloody binding symbols that she cannot cross. Cressida then whips Rune with an ensorcelled, lightning-like lash, using torture to punish Rune for trying to protect Gideon. During the beating, Cressida reveals a larger plan: because Soren believes Rune is still kidnapped in the New Republic, Cressida can kill Rune, blame the kidnappers, and use Soren’s rage to gain the rest of his army before hunting Gideon down.

As the whipping continues, Rune is driven nearly unconscious and collapses in her own blood. That blood reminds Rune of the spell she found in Cressida’s books: only the true love’s sacrificial blood can break Gideon’s curse. Realizing this is the moment she has been waiting for, Rune forces herself upright and begins drawing the necessary symbols with her own blood, even though she is too weak to work quickly and knows Cressida may kill her before she finishes.

Rune completes the first set of symbols, using her blood in a sacrificial act meant to break Gideon’s true-love curse. When Cressida notices Rune’s moth signature and mocks the attempt, Rune adds two more symbols to alter the spell, hoping to do more than free Gideon and to strike back at Cressida in some way. The magic surges around Rune, but before she can do anything else, Cressida resumes the attack, and Rune collapses again, drained and defenseless.

With Rune barely conscious, Cressida draws a knife and prepares to finish her. At the last moment, the door bursts open and Seraphine steps between them, commanding Cressida to stop. When Cressida resists, Seraphine reveals why Rune cannot be dismissed or quietly murdered: Rune is Cressida’s sister.