Confined and isolated, Feyre endures days of meals and the relentless riddle before Night Court shadow-servants arrive to wash, paint, and dress her in a revealing gossamer shift patterned to match her tattoo. Rhysand explains the paint will expose any touch, claims her as his belonging, and escorts her to Amarantha’s Midsummer revel where he publicly announces their bargain to Tamlin and Amarantha.

At the feast, Rhysand compels Feyre to drink despite her resistance, and she later wakes in her cell sick and humiliated. Lucien secretly visits, cloaks her, and confirms she was made to dance for Rhysand and sit in his lap, with the paint proving limited touching. They argue over her bargain; Lucien reveals he was punished and kept from healing, and that Tamlin’s silence is a strategy to hide which torments hurt him most.

Nights blur into a pattern: Feyre is painted, drugged, and paraded as Rhysand’s plaything, forced to dance until ill, then to continue, while she steals one aching glance at Tamlin each time. By day she sleeps off the wine and fails to solve the riddle.

Before another court gathering, Rhysand tells Feyre her second trial is the next night. Their tense exchange brushes his motives, Tamlin’s failures, and Amarantha’s rule; Feyre senses a fleeting sadness in him, but he deflects and leads her to the throne room.

Amarantha presents a sobbing Summer faerie caught trying to escape. With the muted Summer High Lord watching, Rhysand reads the captive’s mind and reports lone cowardice. Ordered to shatter the male, Rhysand instead kills him quickly, drawing Amarantha’s irritation but sparing worse agony. Amid whispers of Amarantha’s whore and praise from others, Rhysand gives Feyre wine; both drink, and she slips back into oblivion as the second trial approaches.