After the fight with Grima Mog, Jude is too stiff and exhausted to bike home, so she takes the bus while bleeding and bruised. As she rides, she dwells on the warning that Cardan will be dethroned before the next full moon. Jude tries to convince herself that Elfhame and Cardan are no longer her concern, but thoughts of his possible advisers, his recklessness, and Madoc’s ambitions keep pulling her back.

Jude falls asleep on the bus and is awakened by the worried driver at the end of the route. Disoriented, weaponless, and in pain, she retrieves her bike and heads toward Vivi’s apartment, planning to abandon it in the bushes rather than deal with it properly.

Outside the building, Jude finds Heather sitting on the stoop, trying to decide whether she is brave enough to see Vivi. Heather is alarmed by Jude’s injuries, but Jude insists she only needs rest and bandages. Their conversation shifts to Heather’s fear of Faerie: nightmares, suspicion of glamour, fear of Oak, and anxiety that Vivi could use magic to control or manipulate her.

Heather admits she doubts whether her attraction to Vivi is trustworthy now that she knows about magic and faeries. Heather also worries that Vivi may have been using their life together as a fantasy of the mortal life Vivi lost after her parents were murdered. Jude, thinking of Vivi’s old rage and of her own lack of forgiveness, tells Heather that Vivi stayed in Faerie for Jude and Taryn, left because she loved Heather, and must now be forgiven or not.

Heather decides Jude has rested long enough and helps Jude inside. As they pass through the kitchen, Jude notices two coffee mugs and realizes there is a guest. In the living room, Vivi lights up at the sight of Heather, while beside Vivi sits Jude’s twin sister, Taryn, dressed in Elfhame court finery.