After Marisol calls the guards, Evangeline realizes her stepsister has betrayed her more completely than Evangeline wanted to believe. Marisol falsely claims Evangeline confessed to murdering Prince Apollo, and Tiberius arrives acting devoted to Marisol, confirming to Evangeline that Marisol has bewitched him as she did Luc.

Tiberius orders Evangeline taken to his chambers instead of the dungeon. Guards bind Evangeline to a chair and remove Jacks’s dagger while Tiberius prepares a heated fire iron. Evangeline notices the bottle containing her truth-serum antidote on the table and hopes Tiberius will drink it, but mentioning Marisol’s spell only enrages him and nearly destroys the bottle.

After the guards leave, Tiberius picks up the enchanted drink and, despite hating Fortuna’s flavored waters, drinks from it. Evangeline tries to stall him by asking why he disappeared after the wedding. Tiberius says he left after fighting with Apollo about Evangeline, then reveals he has always known Evangeline did not kill Apollo but still believes she is too dangerous to live.

Tiberius shows Evangeline a broken-key tattoo, identifying himself as a member of the Protectorate, the secret society guarding the broken pieces of the Valory Arch. Evangeline connects this to the Fortuna matriarch and realizes Tiberius thinks she is the prophesied key whose willing blood can open the arch. Under the serum’s influence, Tiberius recites the prophecy, which closely matches Evangeline: rose-gold hair, peasant and princess, and a fugitive wrongly accused.

Evangeline argues that her blood must be willing and that she does not want to open the arch, but Tiberius insists magical things fulfill their purpose and prepares to kill her. Evangeline asks him to call the soldiers back and have one of them execute her after he states her crimes, hoping the serum will stop him from lying. The plan works: Tiberius cannot accuse Evangeline of Apollo’s murder, admits she is telling the truth, and finally confesses that he killed Apollo.