On a snowy night at Cahlish, Saeris Fane prepares to sleep on the couch again, bracing for the plan to leave tomorrow night to retrieve Everlayne. Kingfisher finds Saeris, refuses to let her sleep apart from him, and proposes they take tonight for themselves: focus on Everlayne first, then confront his worsening quicksilver-haunting afterward.

Kingfisher opens a shadow gate and brings Saeris to his Ballard apartment above the bakery, which he has filled with candles. He uses shadows to dim the world into a star-like void, admitting he wanted something quiet, small, and special to keep for both of them. Saeris asks him to make her forget her suffering, and they give in to each other, their desire intensified by blood and the pull of their bond.

As they have sex, Saeris feels the mating connection as a bright, magnetic thread and notices the Marks returning: runes stack across Saeris’s hands and ink spreads along Saeris’s body, with the God Bindings flaring like fine strands of fire. Saeris realizes Kingfisher likely created the darkness to hide how strong the bond looks on Saeris’s skin, and Saeris chooses not to confront the implications yet, focusing on the present.

The darkness peels back while Saeris pleasures Kingfisher, revealing Saeris’s bold marks and a thin trail of Saeris’s blood on Kingfisher’s chin. They continue on the floor, and when Kingfisher climaxes, new tattoos bloom across Kingfisher’s skin, including vivid, metallic-sheened wings around Kingfisher’s neck. For hours afterward, they keep returning to each other across the apartment, until they finally eat together on the living room floor.

Afterward, Saeris presses Kingfisher about the new tattoos. Kingfisher explains that traditionally one party gets mating marks first, and sometimes the other receives Marks after accepting the bond. Kingfisher admits he accepted the bond while inside Saeris, prompting Saeris’s shock about their obstacles, including Saeris being human and mortal. Kingfisher shows Saeris the runes fading from Saeris’s skin, emphasizing Saeris still has weeks to decide and can reject the bond, which would erase Kingfisher’s new wings.

Kingfisher quietly tells Saeris he loves her and asks Saeris not to respond tonight, wanting to hold onto the moment. He draws them back into the candlelit darkness as Saeris falls asleep, reminded that tomorrow they must save Everlayne. As Saeris drifts off, Saeris recalls Kingfisher once said Ballard had something he needed; Kingfisher answers that he did get it after all: a little hope.