Gideon hides against the wall of a ruined temple during a storm, watching the valley below and trying to keep sight of the summoning stones through the rain. Yonder, the hunting hound, has led Gideon there by following the scent of Rune’s blood on Gideon’s jacket, left from Rune’s earlier protective spell.

From his hiding place, Gideon remembers watching Rune and Sibyl Aurelia cast the summoning spell hours earlier before retreating to a nearby cave to wait. Since then, the circle has stayed empty except for Rune’s glowing blood-red moth at its center, which shows that the spell is still active.

At last, movement breaks the stillness. Rune steps into the circle as if sleepwalking or trapped in a trance, surrounded by hundreds of white lights. She climbs onto the flat stone at the center and lies down, and the lights settle over her body until her form is nearly lost in their glow.

Rune’s crimson moth flares and then suddenly goes dark, signaling that the spell has finished. When the white light disappears and leaves Rune alone in the rain, Gideon understands what he has just witnessed: Rune is the missing heir. The realization horrifies him because it reveals Rune’s direct importance to the larger mystery surrounding the Rosebloods.