Twenty-two months after Danika's death, Bryce Quinlan is at the White Raven nightclub for a business meeting on behalf of her employer, Jesiba. She has a quick sexual encounter with an unnamed lion shifter in the bathroom before heading to the VIP mezzanine bar. The lion mistakes her for one of the club's sacred prostitutes, which she laughs off before departing.

Bryce meets her client, Maximus Tertian, a two-hundred-year-old vampyr and son of the infamous Lord Cedrian. She completes a deal selling him a five-thousand-year-old onyx bust, having manipulated him into paying nearly a third more than it was worth. However, she receives no commission—all her earnings go elsewhere. When Bryce tries to leave, Maximus grabs her wrist possessively, refusing to let her go and implying she owes him sexual favors as part of the transaction.

Bryce is rescued by the arrival of Ruhn Danaan, a Fae male the world believes is her cousin but who is actually her half-brother. Maximus, recognizing Ruhn and unwilling to challenge the Crown Prince of the Valbaran Fae, releases her. Bryce reflects on her complicated relationship with Ruhn—they were once close but are now estranged—and on their shared, secret parentage under the Autumn King.

Ruhn reveals the reason for his visit: their father, the Autumn King, wants Bryce to lie low before the upcoming Summit meeting in just over a month, where Valbara's ruling powers will gather. The Asteri are sending favored commanders, and the Autumn King wants all Fae-associated individuals on their best behavior. Ruhn warns Bryce that people emerge during Summits to push agendas and that she should be careful. When Ruhn accidentally references events from two years ago—Danika and Connor's deaths—Bryce's suppressed rage surges so violently that she shatters the crystal glass in her hands, and Ruhn has to use Fae dominance to calm her.

Along the way, the narrative explains the Drop ritual: the process by which Vanir fall into their power, their mortal bodies temporarily dying, then race back to life within six minutes with the help of an Anchor. Successful completion grants immortality and produces firstlight, which powers Midgard's energy grid. Bryce had once planned her Drop party at the Raven with Danika.

Bryce walks home alone despite Ruhn's insistence on escorting her. She returns to her penthouse apartment—paid for by Danika's will—and lets in her chimera companion Syrinx, reflecting on her isolation: she hasn't touched alcohol in nearly two years, her friendships with Juniper and Fury have faded, and she lives in solitude, her grief and rage barely contained beneath a veneer of sharp humor and casual encounters.