Kaan watches Raeve pull him through Netheryn's celebration and into a dance space set among icy columns. Raeve drinks, twirls, and tries to make the moment feel light, but Kaan reads the dance as a goodbye and senses that Raeve is hurting and afraid of what closeness with him could cost. When Raeve asks whether the dance was a bad idea, Kaan admits it was, then chooses to keep dancing anyway rather than let her leave.

The dance turns intimate, and Kaan gives in enough to hold Raeve close. He notices how naturally their bodies still respond to each other, and Raeve quietly tells him that his hands know her. Before the moment can resolve, two Sabersythes dive toward the dome above the celebration. Kaan shields Raeve and the crowd from dragonflame, but once the dragons wheel away, he sees Raeve hiding at the entrance to the maze instead of simply recovering with everyone else.

Raeve runs into the maze, and Kaan follows. Dragonflame shining through the passages reveals hidden runes on the pillars and shows that the icy maze is a glamour over stone, which deepens Kaan's suspicion that Raeve is concealing something linked to the dragons or the space itself. When Kaan confronts her, Raeve avoids answering directly, then asks him to close his eyes; while he obeys, Raeve briefly approaches to kiss his temple, neck, mouth, and eyelids before slipping away and telling him to count and find her beneath the moon.

Kaan follows Raeve's singing through the maze and climbs to the top of a hidden pillar beneath a moonlit opening. Raeve lies there with her mask cast aside and asks Kaan to lie beside her. She then rolls into his arms and builds a hold around herself using his body, but when Kaan tells Raeve that pretending hurts, Raeve admits that she cannot offer more because she lost someone.

In the quiet that follows, Raeve speaks about death, ghosts, and the wish to hold the dead again. Raeve says she is not truly back in the way Kaan might want, but she is still grateful for this moment and for what she has learned by living. When Raeve uses his hand in a familiar, intimate way and Kaan sees her tears, Kaan's restraint breaks; he tears off his mask and kisses Raeve, turning their suspended grief and longing into direct action.