After the disruption caused by Gideon’s old friends arriving, everyone crowds back around the table while Antonio and Bess prepare more food. When Gideon sits down again, he notices Rune’s empty chair and asks where she has gone. Bess says Rune rode into the headlands to a hot spring, because Bess thought the heat might help Rune’s wounds.

Gideon, who only remembers seeing a scar on Rune’s neck, demands to know what wounds Bess means. Bess hesitates after realizing Gideon does not know, and Juniper finally tells him the truth: Cressida had Rune whipped until her back was flayed to the bone. Juniper explains that Rune drifted in and out of consciousness for days and spent the entire voyage back to the island confined to a sickbed, which shocks Gideon because Rune never told him any of it.

Seraphine then gives Gideon the reason for the punishment. Rune knowingly defied Cressida in order to break Gideon’s curse, and Cressida only spared Rune from execution because Seraphine gave Cressida the name of the missing Roseblood heir. That statement makes Gideon understand two things at once: the tender encounter he thought had been a dream was real, and Cressida now knows Rune is her sister.

Realizing Rune is in even greater danger if Cressida ever gets hold of her again, Gideon reacts immediately. Furious and shaken by how much Rune suffered for him in secret, he pushes back from the table, stands up, and demands to know where the hot spring is so he can go after her.