Cressida continues tormenting Gideon and tries to force compliance by threatening to hurt innocent people or Rune. She taunts him with the idea of making him watch Rune suffer, showing that she has noticed his reaction to Rune and is willing to use it against him.

Prince Soren interrupts before Cressida can continue. After confirming Gideon is the man who attacked Rune, Soren confronts him, and Gideon provokes the prince by claiming Rune enjoys his touch. Soren punches Gideon, but then shifts focus to politics: his lawyers have prepared the alliance contract, and he insists that he and Cressida sign it immediately because Rune wants the wedding quickly and he wants no more disruptions.

Because Cressida needs Soren's alliance and military support, she gives in despite clearly wanting to keep torturing Gideon. She orders Ava to bring Gideon to her chambers, implying worse is still coming. Once Cressida leaves, Gideon notices his pistol still nearby and realizes he may have a brief chance to act if Ava must remove the original binding spell.

Ava appears to release Cressida's magic, but she secretly replaces it with her own blood-based command spell by marking Gideon's chest. When Gideon lunges for the pistol, Ava stops him instantly and reveals the new spell's effect: he must obey her spoken orders. She forces him to turn away, drop to his hands and knees, and crawl across shattered glass, leaving him bleeding and humiliated.

As Gideon fears Cressida has returned to resume his torture, the door opens instead to reveal Rune. Her arrival interrupts Ava's control of the situation and creates a sudden turning point, placing Rune directly before Gideon in the middle of his helplessness.