Santángel is kept in a cramped underground cell beneath Víctor de Paredes’s home, a hereditary prison called the scorpion’s den. Víctor’s men found Santángel in the forest where the king’s soldiers left him with arrows in his chest; after the arrows are pulled free, Santángel is shut away to heal without food or water, left to rage and wither without dying.

In isolation, Santángel reflects on his centuries-long bondage to the De Paredes line, tracing it back to a “bad bargain” with Tello de Paredes and his long, numbing existence. Luzia’s arrival shattered that sameness and gave him hope, but Santángel now fears he has only pulled her into his curse and into Víctor’s orbit. He considers a desperate solution: riding away to die and thereby sever his luck from Víctor, even if it destroys Víctor’s fortune, so Luzia might have a chance.

Santángel is brought upstairs by Celso and forced to eat while Víctor needles him about his “tantrum” and his feelings for Luzia. Víctor confirms Luzia is alive but imprisoned in Toledo by the Inquisition after being denounced. Víctor implies torture has occurred and reveals that Luzia attempted an escape with Teoda Halcón; Teoda escaped, but Teoda’s father, Ovidio Halcón, died, and Luzia was recaptured.

Víctor says Luzia has “confessed” and will be sentenced on All Saints’ Day, with a formal audience in three days—meaning she is slated to die. He claims Luzia used her power to slip locks and damage streets outside the Inquisition district, making her both more formidable and more dangerous. Víctor, now newly titled a duke and newly close to Philip and the Supreme Council, believes he can redirect blame onto Pérez and the Ordoños and have Luzia reconciled instead of executed—placing her permanently in his control, with the threat of death if she ever flees or is accused again.

Víctor demands Santángel accompany him to Toledo and convince Luzia to accept survival under Víctor’s roof rather than martyrdom. Santángel recognizes that any attempt to save Luzia through Víctor will tighten the cords around her, and he realizes the bitter truth: Santángel’s luck and bondage to Víctor helped deliver Luzia to him long before Santángel ever loved her.