Hester, a fifty-one-year-old spinster living in her brother's house, wakes in the night gripped by a nameless dread. She recognizes the feeling from once before—when she successfully cried off marrying a man later revealed to be dangerous—and understands it as a warning that something terrible is coming. She acknowledges the premonition aloud, and the dread releases her. She briefly wishes for her former lover Richard, Lord Evermore, whose proposal she had refused years ago, but resolves to face the coming threat alone.

The scene shifts to Cordelia, who attempts to ride Falada away from home to save him from her mother's lethal use. Falada refuses to move, no matter how she pleads or pulls. Evangeline appears impossibly on the empty road and reveals the truth: Falada is her familiar, a magical creature she made, who has been reporting Cordelia's every secret to her all along. Falada snorts in mocking laughter, devastating Cordelia.

Riding home double, Evangeline rewrites the incident as Cordelia merely getting lost. Cordelia carefully asks about familiars and learns her mother is a sorcerer who cleverly bound a horse instead of a typical demon. Evangeline warns Cordelia sharply against trusting any other sorcerer and to report any she sees. Cordelia retreats to her room, grieving the loss of Falada as confidant and recalling every secret she ever whispered to him.

Two days later, Evangeline departs on Falada to arrange her marriage in a coastal city, leaving Cordelia alone with a few coins. Cordelia studies an etiquette book and cleans the spare room in case a husband arrives. Falada returns riderless the next day, clearly sent to spy. With her mother gone for three days, Cordelia experiences a brief, giddy taste of freedom, sleeping with her door closed and even screaming into her pillow before laughing and sleeping deeply.