After freeing Laila, Rune, Gideon, and Laila ride to the Wentholt cottage and find Blood Guard officers patrolling the grounds. Rune prepares for a confrontation, but a young soldier, Felix, recognizes Gideon and Laila. The soldiers reveal they have not come to arrest them; they are waiting for Gideon’s orders, showing that part of the Blood Guard now stands with him.

Inside the cottage, the growing alliance plans its next move when Harrow sends word that Analise and Elowyn’s bodies are hidden at the Crossroads. Cressida intends to go there before the new moon to renew the preservation spell keeping the corpses intact. Realizing they have a narrow window, Gideon, Rune, and Seraphine decide to ride ahead and destroy the bodies before Cressida can resurrect Rune’s half sisters, while Laila, Ash, Abbie, and loyal soldiers prepare to retake the Rookery from Noah.

Rune searches the Wintersea spell books for a counterspell that can break the magic protecting the bodies, but she finds none. Antonio joins her, and their conversation turns to his medallion of Wisdom and an older history of Cascadia: Queen Althea once summoned the Ancient Wisdom for guidance, only for Winoa Roseblood to betray Althea and found the brutal Roseblood Dynasty. The story deepens Rune’s sense of how long tyranny has shaped their world, even as she doubts the legend’s literal truth.

Antonio then notices an arcana spell for resurrecting the dead. The text reveals that resurrection requires the sacrifice of a close blood relative and warns that the witch performing it will be irredeemably corrupted. Rune realizes this makes her uniquely dangerous to keep alive in Cressida’s eyes, since Rune is Analise and Elowyn’s sister. Even so, Rune confirms that she has chosen to stay and fight because she now believes Gideon is right: the world they want will only exist if they are willing to fight for it. She also asks Antonio to marry her and Gideon once the war is over, and Antonio agrees.

Music from downstairs interrupts them. When Rune and Antonio investigate, they find the cottage transformed into a desperate celebration as refugees, aristocrats, rebels, and Blood Guard soldiers gather together. Bart explains that many have fled Cressida’s raids, and the party becomes a final act of joy and defiance before battle. Rune notices Charlotte Gong and Elias Creed among the arrivals, evidence that support for their cause is widening across old social and political lines.

Gideon crosses the room to claim the dance he once teased Rune about, and they join the revelry. As they dance and then kiss openly in front of everyone, Rune sees a glimpse of the future they are fighting for: a world where witches and soldiers, former enemies and lovers, can stand together as equals without hiding themselves. The moment gives her both hope and resolve, and she decides that being fully herself, even at mortal risk, is worth everything.