At dusk, Evangeline finishes making the Serum for Truths while Jacks sleeps heavily on the sofa. Evangeline tries to wake Jacks, but Jacks only burrows deeper into the pillow, and Evangeline decides his exhaustion may work in Evangeline’s favor because Jacks would likely object to the plan.

Evangeline reflects on how Evangeline improvised each ingredient for the potion: dirt from Evangeline’s boots, melted snow, a dead spider in place of crushed bones, and Evangeline’s own blood rather than Jacks’s. Evangeline chooses Evangeline’s blood because Jacks is too dishonest for Evangeline to trust that Jacks’s magic would help undo a spell.

Evangeline pours the finished antidote into a bottle of Fortuna’s Fantastically Flavored Water, hoping Tiberius will be tempted to drink it. Evangeline then writes Jacks a note explaining that Evangeline believes Marisol is the killer, that the motive can be found in the scandal sheet, and that Evangeline is going to Wolf Hall to save Tiberius and clear Evangeline’s own name.

Evangeline plans to sneak into Wolf Hall through the same hidden passages Evangeline used before. Evangeline intends to leave the antidote in Tiberius’s chambers, where Tiberius will find it and, with luck, drink it.

Evangeline understands the risks clearly: if the antidote works, Tiberius will be freed from Marisol’s spell and Marisol’s deception will be exposed; if it fails, Marisol may be innocent and the true killer remains unknown. If Evangeline is caught planting the potion, Evangeline expects to be blamed permanently for Apollo’s murder.