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Tillia takes Odessa to the infirmary to recover and mentions that the tarkin behaved strangely. Instead of hunting alone, the two creatures worked together.
On her way out, Odessa passes a room where the High Priest performs a painful ritual on the Guardian. Before the High Priest shuts the door with his magic, she catches a glimpse of the priest’s eyes. They’re the same dark green as the infected monsters’ blood.
That evening, Odessa and Brielle share a meal. Odessa tells her about Ashmore and Ellder but keeps the details about Evie and the infection to herself. Brielle suggests that if Allesaria is a myth, it would explain why no one has found it.
After Evie is tucked in, Odessa finds the Guardian on the balcony, exhausted. He explains that the High Priest has been extracting Lyssa from the Guardian’s system for study, and alchemists in Laine have linked the infection to certain drugs. The plague may have been manufactured, but the Guardian still doesn’t know who’s behind it.
Odessa insists that the Guardian let her help. He gives in, thanks Odessa by her actual name, and leaves the rope ladder down for the night as a gesture of trust.
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The Guardian catches Odessa trailing him and lets her come along to a tarkin den his scouts recently spotted. Inside, three pups have starved to death after their mother was killed during the earlier attack. A fourth pup is still alive but weak. The Guardian prepares to end its life, but Odessa picks up the pup and insists on keeping it. He warns that it might carry the infection and makes a small cut to check. The blood comes out red.
The discovery leads to a serious conversation. Can Odessa kill the animal if it becomes a threat? Can she do the same to the Guardian if he loses his sanity to the infection? She understands what the Guardian is asking and gives him her word.
After that, the Guardian tells Odessa his real name is Ransom.
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Four days after the tarkin den, Ransom brings Odessa grim news. A lionwick infected with the plague was killed in a nearby village, and Ransom plans to investigate. Odessa asks to join him, and he leaves the choice to her. She gets ready and tucks Faze into a carrier made from an old dress.
On the ride, the conversation turns to Ransom’s fate. He lists Tillia, Halston, and the kingdom’s rangers as those who’ve promised to kill him if he loses his sanity, and admits he’d prefer Zavier to be the one. Ransom sees his death as a certainty.
Odessa suggests talking to the pony riders who travel local routes, since they hear more gossip than anyone. Ransom agrees and says they’ll stop at the rider outpost just past Ravalli.
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At a blacksmith’s shop in Ravalli, Ransom uses Odessa’s royal title to get the man talking. Odessa realizes Ransom is using her reputation to draw out information. The blacksmith mentions a recent lionwick attack and points them toward a local paperman who was injured in the fight and has been writing suspicious things about the king’s military recruitment.
Odessa and Ransom find the paperman and his son in their office. The man describes the monster as having hazy eyes and a foul scent, then introduces himself as Samuel Hay. Odessa recognizes him as the writer who published a scandalous book about her family in Quentis and introduces herself using her maiden name and home kingdom. The revelation clearly rattles Samuel.
Samuel’s son gets excited over the baby tarkin. Ransom heads out for more leads while Odessa stays to question Samuel about the militia and hold him accountable for the lies he wrote about her parents.
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Samuel opens up to Odessa about his wife’s murder in Roslo. He confesses he wrote his book while drowning in grief and bitterness, and he deeply regrets leaning on unverified rumors just to turn a profit.
He then shares some secrets about Allesaria. A local woman once told him that entering the city requires swearing a blood oath to keep its location hidden. Even owning a map of Turah is a crime punishable by execution. Samuel describes the capital as home to scholars, alchemists, and healers who live in isolation and refuse to share their discoveries. He also mentions the king’s new militia, where recruited men seem to disappear without a trace.
When Ransom returns, he reports that monster attacks in the nearby mountains have been picking up. Odessa wonders whether someone in Allesaria might be behind the plague, given how many alchemists are concentrated there. Ransom shuts Odessa down and tells her to drop it.
Back at the inn, Ransom tells Odessa that King Ramsey is rumored to arrive the next day and insists they leave at dawn. Ransom seems to want to say something more but thinks better of it and retreats to his room alone.
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Odessa and Ransom plan to slip away at dawn, but the inn is surrounded by the king’s forces before they can leave. King Ramsey arrives, and things turn tense between him and Ransom. When Ramsey suggests moving Odessa to the capital, Ransom disagrees and claims she isn’t trustworthy yet. His words sting, but Odessa realizes she has grown loyal to the Turan people and could never betray them.
As Odessa and Ransom ride out, they spot smoke and find Samuel’s home burning to the ground. Jonas is outside calling out for his father. Ransom charges in and pulls Samuel out, along with some of Jonas and Samuel’s belongings. Ransom holds the soldiers at bay with a glare sharp enough to make them back down.
Odessa is furious and calls King Ramsey a coward for destroying an innocent man’s home. Ramsey mocks her by bringing up that her own father saw her as weak, then gives Ransom a strict thirty‑day deadline before riding off. Odessa turns to ask Ransom what the warning meant, but Ransom has already disappeared into the crowd.
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Odessa and Ransom spend a long, somber day traveling back to Ellder with Samuel and Jonas. Along the way, Ransom explains the story behind his title. He once tracked a missing child to a port town and found a man who had been kidnapping young girls. Ransom killed the kidnapper, and the child’s mother was the first to call him a guardian. Odessa is stunned to learn that the man Ransom killed was Banner’s brother, which completely changes how she sees him and the rumors from Quentis.
Ransom also reveals that King Ramsey has ordered him to report to the capital by the fall equinox to lead his armies, though he has no intention of obeying. During their ride, Odessa studies the markings on Ransom’s leather cuff and suspects they aren’t just a record of his kills but a hidden map of the kingdom with the capital marked on it.
The group reaches Ellder after sundown. Ransom sees that the Hays are taken care of, then takes Odessa’s hand. He looks like he has something important to say but thinks better of it and lets her go.
Odessa heads to visit her maids but stops abruptly when she turns the corner. Zavier is walking out of Jocelyn’s apartment with another man. Odessa realizes they’ve been sharing her maid, and Zavier goes pale when he spots her.
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Odessa rushes to her room on the verge of collapse. When Ransom blocks her path, she admits her tears have nothing to do with Zavier. She feels relief. Knowing Zavier is with someone else means she can stop hating herself for her feelings toward Ransom.
Ransom tells Odessa he went to Roslo to investigate her father, but he became fixated on her after seeing her by the cliffs. Odessa argues she’s still bound by her marriage and duties, but Ransom urges her to remember who actually spoke the vows at the wedding.
The truth hits Odessa. Zavier never said a word during the ceremony. Ransom voiced the oath. She also realizes the blood in the vial wasn’t red. Ransom shows Odessa a scar on his palm that matches her own and confirms he’s the actual crown prince of Turah. Zavier was only a decoy. Ransom tells her he planned to marry her and then die from his infection so she would be free.
Odessa tells Ransom she hates him. Ransom brushes a lock of hair from her face and walks out.
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Jocelyn arrives the next morning to apologize. Odessa skips the theatrics and demands the truth. Jocelyn admits the affair was an escape from her loneliness in Turah and that she wants to go home to Quentis.
Odessa agrees to send Jocelyn back and sees the scandal as the perfect cover for her departure. She sends a message to her father in Roslo claiming she’s failed to find Allesaria because the Turans are too guarded, along with a warning that the kingdom is building a militia. Odessa leaves out everything important, including the infection, Ransom’s true identity, and the map she suspects is on his wrist.
Once Jocelyn is gone, Odessa feels a shift. She’s no longer spying for her father. Odessa is focused on her own future and freedom, and she knows Ransom is the one person who can help her get there.
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Odessa heads to the training grounds to confront the men who’ve been lying to her. She demands to know the real name of the man she thought was her husband. He admits his name is Dray and that he’s been Ransom’s body double for eleven years. Ransom sends Zavier away to face her anger alone.
With her knives drawn, Odessa attacks. As she and Ransom spar, he explains that Turan royals have used decoys for over a hundred years to protect heirs from assassination. He chose Odessa as the bride prize because her father was training her sister as a spy, and he wanted to keep a Gold King agent out of his court.
Mid-fight, Odessa realizes she cannot hurt Ransom. The treaty they both signed binds them and shields each from the other, which was likely part of Ransom’s plan to neutralize any threat Odessa posed.
Odessa breaks down and asks why Ransom would tell her the truth if he expects to die anyway. Ransom says he considers Odessa his and that their bond is worth fighting for. Odessa sobs against his chest, and they share a kiss, but she pulls away. She’s not ready to trust him or forgive the lies, and she leaves the arena alone.
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A week after Odessa and Ransom kiss, Ransom and Zavier return to Ellder. In their absence, Odessa has been spending time with Samuel Hay and takes a risk by showing him the secret map she’s been working on. She asks for his help to make it more accurate, and Samuel agrees.
Ransom looks drained when he arrives, fresh from another siphoning session with the High Priest. Later, during a walk, he takes Odessa’s hand. She tries to pull away but stops resisting. Ransom tells her the infection is now permanent, woven into his life force, and that removing it would kill him.
Odessa argues the Vosters must be behind Lyssa since they’re the only ones with magical powers. Ransom refuses to listen and insists he trusts the High Priest. Odessa lets it drop.
Ransom then reveals that Evie is his sister, not Zavier’s daughter. She’s been kept hidden from King Ramsey to protect her, since the king once tried to murder their mother.
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Ransom tells Odessa the truth about his family. His father loved his mother, but she never returned those feelings. Over the years, that devotion hardened Ramsey into bitterness. When he discovered his wife with a lover, he killed the man and began strangling the queen. Ransom arrived and knocked his father unconscious to save his mother.
Afterward, Ransom’s mother went into hiding while pregnant with Evie. Ransom took her to Ozarth for the birth and then brought her back to Turah to live in secret. When Ramsey declared he still intended to kill the queen, Ransom left the capital and hasn’t returned in four years. Though Zavier isn’t Evie’s biological father, he has raised her as his own. As the king’s daughter, Evie is the rightful heir after Ransom, and Zavier keeps her identity hidden so the king cannot find and corrupt her.
Talk turns to Odessa’s father. Ransom believes the Gold King plans to dismantle the Shield of Sparrows by eliminating the Voster brotherhood. If the priests are killed, the bonds holding the peace treaties together will dissolve, leaving the kingdoms open to war.