The chapter opens with Callum's philosophical reflections on fairy-tale villains and heroes. He disdains both: villains for their desperate, consuming desires, and heroes for their reluctant martyrdom. Callum identifies most with assassins and soldiers—people who act on personal conviction rather than grand moral causes. He categorizes each member of the Society: Libby as a hero, Parisa as a villain, Nico and Reina as negligible, Tristan as a soldier, and himself as an assassin who works alone.

After dinner one evening, Tristan and Callum are left alone by the dining room fire. Tristan asks Callum whether he fears being chosen to die. Callum responds calmly that he accepted the possibility of death when he joined, and that he is equally free to disagree with any elimination attempt. Tristan presses for Callum's intentions, and Callum admits his goals are simply to be better than everyone. Callum observes that Tristan feels more deeply than anyone in the house, and dismisses Libby as someone who feels nothing because she has numbed herself for survival.

Callum then reveals he has accessed files in the Society's archives—probability-based projections of each initiate's life, including personal histories, psychological profiles, and likely outcomes. He shares detailed secrets about each member: Libby's childhood discovery of flight and her decade-long suppression of her powers after her sister's illness; Nico's ability to shapeshift (having briefly died transforming into a falcon); Reina's status as an illegitimate daughter of Japanese nobility whose magic can only empower others, not herself; and Parisa's deep fury and desire to find a way to destroy or control the world.

The conversation intensifies when Callum turns to Tristan's relationship with his abusive father. He reveals that Tristan's magic—his ability to see through illusions—developed as a survival mechanism against the pain of seeing his father clearly. Callum then deliberately uses his empathic manipulation on Tristan, amplifying his shame and sorrow to an excruciating degree, explaining that he does so in order to teach Tristan what his magic feels like, so Tristan can recognize its absence in the future. He tells Tristan he is a father figure to him—one who loves him—and that Tristan craves his cruelty because it mirrors the corrupted love he received from his father.

After releasing his hold, Callum reveals he knows about the elimination plan: that the group has been waiting for Tristan to kill him, that Tristan has concealed a knife, and that the distance to Callum's ribs is premeditated. Callum tells Tristan it is insurmountable—Tristan will not kill him. After a tense pause, Tristan throws the knife away, unable to go through with it. He extracts promises that Callum will not kill Libby or Parisa. Callum agrees. When Tristan asks who will die, Callum picks up the knife and tells Tristan, "I kill you." The chapter ends with a scream piercing the silence.