On her way to meet Celestina, Bryce receives an angry call from Juniper and learns that Juniper has been named principal dancer after Bryce pressured the ballet company through Gorgyn. Instead of feeling supported, Juniper feels Bryce has stolen credit for an achievement she earned herself, and she hangs up before Bryce can explain. Shaken and ashamed, Bryce goes into her meeting already aware that another use of her title may also carry consequences.

Bryce meets Celestina as a Fae princess rather than as herself and asks for Hunt to be temporarily released. Bryce lies that she only wants Hunt to visit her family, but Celestina, warm and sympathetic, grants the request and says Hunt can return to living with Bryce because his misery is hurting morale. Afterward, Bryce calls Fury, who confirms that Juniper is devastated and refuses to mediate, urging Bryce to wait and make a major apology. Bryce then goes to Hunt, tells him he will be released at dawn, and shares a heated reunion with him in the hallway before Pollux and the Hind pass by. Bryce leaves Hunt with instructions to meet her at home the next morning, intending to tell him everything then.

Elsewhere, Ithan receives an unexpected call from the Prime, who has learned that Sabine forced Ithan out of the Den. After hearing why, the Prime offers to make Ithan the Alpha of his own pack, recognizing leadership in him that Ithan has long suppressed. Ithan is stunned and conflicted, especially because accepting would still leave him under Sabine and Amelie in the future, but he does not reject the offer outright.

Ithan then visits the Astronomer and finds the building nearly empty except for the female mystic he once freed from her tank. She tells him the Astronomer is meeting the Viper Queen and cannot help with Connor, though she suggests a necromancer might. When Ithan catches her scent, he realizes she is a wolf who was sold into captivity as a child by her starving family and has lived in the tank for so long that her body is badly weakened. Seeing both her hidden Alpha dominance and her refusal to leave, Ithan cannot rescue her by force, but he gives her his name and steals the box containing the fire sprites' rings so the Astronomer loses something valuable.

Tharion asks the River Queen for twenty-five aquatic soldiers for the Ydra mission, but she coldly refuses and orders him to go with only his current companions, making clear she will not expose the Blue Court. Ruhn later meets Day on the dream bridge and tells her that the stolen mech-suit prototype is being taken to Ydra, likely into the orbit of Pippa Spetsos. Their exchange shifts from flirtation to warning when Day presses Ruhn not to fight if the mission goes bad. Day is abruptly torn from the bridge by rough sex with a man she says she hates, and when she returns, Ruhn realizes more of her pain and isolation. Despite her insistence on emotional distance, the two remain together on the bridge, calmer and more attached than before.