Rowin led Genevieve into a secluded nook where both succumbed to the drug-fueled lust sparked by Knox’s passion fruit. As his shadows teased her, Rowin abruptly stopped, recognizing the enchantment and refusing to let Knox control them. He ordered Genevieve to avoid Knox and the drinks and vanished into the shadows, leaving Genevieve struggling with intensifying desire amid an increasingly debauched masquerade.

On the staircase, Sevin, drinking blood and pining over an ex, told Genevieve that Rowin had gone upstairs. On the second-floor landing, Genevieve witnessed vampires engaged in erotic blood-play and explored a series of rooms. In one, she discovered Rowin partially undressed, his wrist being tied by a striking, flame-eyed woman named Gwen. Rowin dismissed Gwen, insisting the scene was a strategy to keep him away from Genevieve, not a sexual liaison.

Alone together, Genevieve confessed she wanted to kiss Rowin without pretense. Rowin warned that if they proceeded, it would be purely physical, without emotional attachment. As they undressed and his shadows surrounded her, Rowin insisted she show him how to make her climax; after she did, he refused to touch her while they were still under the passion fruit’s influence. Feeling tricked and vulnerable, Genevieve left, turned invisible, and redressed elsewhere.

Genevieve spent hours dancing with multiple partners to exhaust the enchantment, torn between wanting Rowin and resenting his restraint. Later, in a powder room, Cedric—whose hand she had bitten earlier—forced his way in, admitting he had tried to bribe her and implying pressure from the Daemonica. Genevieve slipped through him as a Specter, and Rowin arrived with Sevin. Rowin confirmed Genevieve was unharmed, threatened Cedric into silence, and ordered Genevieve to wait downstairs with his siblings, warning that the Hunt would begin in seven minutes.

On the stairs, Knox joined Genevieve and confirmed he had served passion fruit to inflame desires, framing it as a gift to boost spectacle and profits. Genevieve invoked her sister’s ties to Salemaestrus, the Prince of the Devils, unsettling Knox; he floated the possibility of an additional bargain if she won, which Genevieve dismissed. She rejoined Ellin, Wells, Barrington, and the other Silvers as Rowin emerged from shadows without acknowledging her.

Midnight tolled and the great clock turned. As the twelfth numeral flashed, Genevieve felt her magic lock again, signaling the formal start of the Hunt.