The morning after Isla hides in the Place of Mirrors, Celeste arrives and refuses to let Isla surrender to despair. Celeste reminds Isla that betrayal was always part of their expectations and that they still have each other. Celeste has been asking Starlings in the castle, including Ella, to search for the hidden library, though Isla doubts the bondbreaker will save them.

Isla admits she does not want to give up but sees no plan, no allies, and no way to survive now that Oro and Cleo know she is powerless. Celeste argues that the Centennial is not over and that they must have made some useful connection during their two months on Lightlark. The word connection gives Isla an idea: Juniper, a dealer in secrets, might know something useful.

Celeste returns with parchment, ink, and Ella. Isla writes a letter to Juniper offering details of her greatest secret in exchange for his. Sending the letter restores a small amount of hope, because Isla realizes that if Oro and Cleo had truly found and used the heart, one ruler would already be dead and the curses would be gone.

That night, Isla dreams of Grim in the Place of Mirrors, and the dream becomes intensely intimate before she wakes shaken. When Grim visits the next day with chocolate from the market, Isla suspects he may have sent the dream using Nightshade illusion abilities. Grim denies knowing what dream Isla means but behaves mischievously enough to deepen her suspicion.

The following morning, Juniper sends a reply saying he knows who cast the curses. Isla and Celeste leave the Place of Mirrors despite the risk of attack and find the agora abandoned. Inside Juniper’s pub, Isla discovers a bloody answer to the earlier warning she and Celeste had left after the harbor attack: Hard enough? Beneath the message, Juniper lies dead, turning their new lead into another threat.