Chapter 38

Zoe opens a hidden panel in Bree and Nick's suite and emerges from an abandoned service passage. Zoe explains that she followed Bree's aether through the walls using Elijah's map, then confirms that Mikael's strange influence in the ballroom felt like weak magic. Nick identifies Mikael's effect as a broad illusion that altered human perception, while Zoe notes that demons cannot mesmer and that only Merlins can do so.

Zoe leads Bree and Nick through the passage to a hidden, dusty library where Mariah is waiting. Mariah greets Bree warmly and reveals how deeply Bree has been missed, but Bree cannot fully recover her emotional memory of Mariah. Mariah asks whether the Hunter took Bree, and Nick redirects the conversation before Bree has to explain what happened.

The group compares secrets and connections. Zoe reveals Mariah identified her as a balanced cambion, Mariah admits she knows one balanced cambion named Valec, and Nick says William and Lark told him Bree knows Valec too. Zoe urges Bree to flee, but Bree argues that Penumbra is warded, Bianca can expose them, and the crown will likely only be vulnerable during the postponed auction, so they must stay and work together.

Bree asks why Ava was angry, and Nick explains that Ava wants to kill Bree because Ava leads the Morgaines, a sect of rogue magic users. Bree decides she can no longer keep her identity from Zoe and admits that she is the Scion of Arthur. Zoe, furious over the deception, attacks Bree, but Nick blocks Zoe with aether swords; when Zoe demands proof, Bree manifests an aether replica of Excalibur.

Zoe believes Bree but feels betrayed, accusing Bree of helping Erebus obtain a crown that could destroy the Legendborn. Zoe leaves without blowing their cover, and Mariah follows to check on her after revealing that she and Valec came to Penumbra to find Bree. Alone with Bree, Nick studies Bree's unusually fast aether forging and release, notes that her smoke-like power is not Legendborn or Merlin casting, and suggests that despite being trapped in a mansion, they may already be at war.