Three Dark Crowns

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Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

It is December 21, the triplet Queens’ sixteenth birthday. In a few months, it will be time for Ascension Year to begin, the time where the three sisters will attempt to kill each other, for, just as in every generation before, only one Queen can be crowned. Katharine, the poisoner, is being prepped for her Gave Noir, a grand tainted feast that she must eat in front of all the Poisoners to celebrate her birthday and to practice for the Gave Noir she will have to eat in front of everyone to prove she can be Queen during the Beltane festival.

Queen Camille, the last Poisoner Queen who birthed Katharine and her sisters Mirabella and Arsinoe and then left the island of Fennbirn, was a strong Poisoner who elegantly killed her sisters and took the crown, becoming the third Poisoner Queen in a row. Each gift grows under the crown, so all the Poisoners are strong in their gifts, except Katharine. Her gift is still weak and her foster sister, Genevieve Arron, revels in it. She has never been kind to Katharine and now, as she's being dressed, she calls the Queen too thin and sickly. Natalia, Genevieve’s sister and who Katharine thinks of as her foster mother, has always protected Katharine and taught her tricks to conceal her weakness. Donning her coral snake bracelet, named Sweetheart, Katharine is as ready as she'll ever be for the banquet. 

Katharine gets more anxious as the evening goes on and finds herself distracted in conversations. When Pietyr Renard, a cousin of the powerful Arron family with icy blond hair and blue eyes just like Natalia, comes to ask Katharine to dance, she is distracted from her worry, if only a little bit. They dance far too long to be appropriate and then it is time for the feast. Katharine eats a little bit of every poisoned food while everyone looks on and slams her hands down in triumph after her last bite. Everyone cheers until suddenly Katharine grabs Natalia, telling her she must go to her rooms. She's going to be sick and she mustn't display her weakness in front of everyone. Unfortunately she doesn't even move from her spot before she vomits up the entire meal right there in front of everyone. No one comes to her aid. Even her bracelet snake Sweetheart disappears.

In Wolf Spring, Arsinoe and Jules and Camden, the mountain cat, are in the woods before Arsinoe’s birthday feast. Arsinoe is practicing blooming a rose but she always needs help from Jules and honestly, Jules is certain she's doing it all herself. After the flower blooms, Arsinoe then tosses a snowball at Jules and Camden growls and charges in retaliation. That's quite an overreaction from being hit with a snowball and Jules apologizes profusely. She is tied to her companion and the cat acts on her will, so now Camden is purring in apology, too. No big deal, Arsinoe is fine. They walk to town and encounter a group of kids who throw rocks at the Queen, so Jules sends Camden snarling at them, but Arsinoe insists it's okay. They stop at their friend Luke's shop where his rooster familiar is eating a muffin. Arsinoe wishes for any kind of familiar here, even a bug, but Luke assures them that Arsinoe will be Queen. Why else would the goddess have sent her a strong protector like Jules? She's the most powerful Naturalist Wolf Spring has seen in some time. 

At Arsinoe's birthday feast, only one ungifted member of the Black Council is there, unlike Katharine's where nearly all the rest of them are, and none of the priestesses come, they're all with Mirabella. The feast is full of good food gathered or grown by the Naturalists, and several large fish summoned by Jules. Just as she and Arsinoe are about to sneak off to find the desserts, the Black Council member catches them and tells them they'll miss her announcement if they leave. Joseph Sandrin’s banishment has ended and he's on his way back to Fennbirn. They head to the docks to wait for their friend who was banished when they were younger and all tried to sail away from the island, but now he is coming back! Jules has missed him. Arsinoe misses the strawberry cake they could be eating right now.

In Rolanth, Mirabella puts on a show for the Elementals. Lightning crashes and wind blows, extinguishing the fires on display. She begins to tire, but the people want more. She looks to High Priestess Luca who announces to the crowd there will be one more element displayed. Mirabella is thankful that she does not have to show off her handle of all the elements because water has always been her weakest. She rumbles the ground beneath everyone and then her birthday party explodes into action. 

The next day, Mirabella wakes and sees Brie, her foster sister, who is hungover just like everyone else in the household, her “Uncle” Miles and “Aunt” Sara included. Everyone had so much fun at the event the night before. Brie snuck away with her friends and a cute boy and a jug of wine and offered to take Mirabella too, but the priestesses always watch her every move. Now they are here to escort her away from the Westwood family estate, Rho, who Mirabella swears must have had the war gift before she became a priestess, leading the way. They take her to a field to receive a sacrifice. Mirabella notices that the girl she is meant to kill is fully lucid, not drugged to stop the pain. All the elements surround them and she is meant to use them to kill the initiate priestess. Rho threatens her that they will make it much more painful for the sacrifice if she is unable to do her duty. 

Queen Katharine is being tended by her maids after a morning being lashed with poisons by Natalia. The maids are upset that Natalia would leave such visible marks on Katharine as they are normally much more discreet with their punishments and poisonings. Soon Pietyr enters her chamber. He apologizes for being so forward, but he's from the country where they have more freedoms. Now though, he is here to be her “very special friend,” to teach her how to woo the suitors when they come from the mainland so they will only be interested in her and not even see her sisters. Pietyr visited his aunt Natalia before going to Katharine's rooms, offering to help Katharine in exchange for a place on the Black Council after she is crowned. 

Jules’s mother Madrigal brushes her daughter's hair, trying to make her presentable for Joseph's return. Jules is upset that the council planned his return for after the birthday festival when Wolf Spring is littered with garbage, but of course they planned it that way. Arsinoe doesn't plan to go with Jules to greet Joseph now that they are sixteen instead of eleven. Jules and Joseph were always close, so now their closeness will probably become something more. It definitely will if Joseph is anything like his older brother Matthew who swept Jules’s Aunt Caragh off her feet. Arsinoe thinks back to when they were children and tried to leave the island, how Joseph and Caragh were punished instead of her and Jules. She wishes the Poisoners on the Black Council would have just killed her then, but they wanted to punish her instead.

Jules sees Joseph get off the ship from the mainland, worried at first that he will not recognize her or he will have moved on, but no. They awkwardly run to each other and even more awkwardly embrace, and then he is greeted by Camden. Joseph thinks surely Camden belongs to Arsinoe because she should be a powerful Naturalist by now, but no, she belongs to Jules, who is thought to be the most powerful Naturalist in sixty years. Joseph asks about Arsinoe, why she's not there to greet him too. He's brought his foster brother from the mainland to meet her. Apparently he will be one of the suitors for the Queens, and normally it's not permitted for them to arrive so early. 

Arsinoe is in a clearing with a bent tree in the middle of the woods with Madrigal doing low magic. Low magic is not something anyone on the island of Fennbirn should be using, especially not a Queen, but Madrigal insists she is helping Arsinoe. This is the only form of magic outside of Fennbirn and Madrigal used it while she was away during Jules’s childhood. Madrigal feels a connection to Arsinoe. Her own powers took forever to manifest while her sister Caragh’s bloomed overnight. Arsinoe is the same. Her powers still have not shown themselves, but she would rather not use low magic and would rather yell at a crab until it becomes her familiar. 

Madrigal insists and starts working a spell using some of Jules's hair and a piece of one of Joseph's old shirts. Madrigal knows that the Sandrin boys are popular with the ladies and insists that Jules won’t be able to keep Joseph for long now that he's back, so they're doing a spell to keep them tied together. Another key ingredient in this spell is Arsinoe's blood, which Madrigal slashes out of her arm before she even notices the pain. With the spell complete, Arsinoe decides she can't be a part of this and knows that Jules would hate it, so she throws the spell bag into the fire. Oh no! What has she done?! Madrigal is frantic.

Mirabella is upset and crying after having to sacrifice the initiate priestess, but she had to do it mercifully after Rho threatened to burn the girl alive. Another initiate, Elizabeth, finds Mirabella and sends her woodpecker companion to lift the Queen's spirits. Mirabella is shocked that Elizabeth is still clearly a Naturalist and still has her companion. She thought that all priestesses must give up their gift, which is true, but Elizabeth doesn't know quite yet if she even wants to be a priestess, so how could she send her sweet friend away?! Mirabella promises to keep her secret, especially since Elizabeth is the first priestess, other than Luca, to actually have a conversation with her.

After a night of uneasy sleep shattered by nightmares, which Luca said are to be expected of a Queen, Mirabella, Sara, Brie and Elizabeth go to the market for some shopping. Sara wants to find outfits for the upcoming ceremonies, Elizabeth wants to escape her chores, and Brie wants to seductively eat cheese while staring at cute boys. There's one in particular that she's after, so they stop for a while at his stall. After their shopping trip, they have many beautiful dresses ordered for the Beltane festival.

In Greavesdrake, Katharine and Pietyr enjoy a meal full of untainted foods, though Katharine's stomach is still unable to handle much. Pietyr wants her to add on some weight to make her more appealing to the suitors. They kiss and Pietyr thinks she is progressing quickly in her studies. Katharine asks how many people Pietyr has practiced kissing with and he tells her practically every girl in his village and some of the women, too. Maybe she didn't want to know that. She questions why he is helping her and he tells her that he has been promised a seat on the Council after she kills her sisters and is made Queen. He tells her that all the suitors will fawn over her so much that likely Mirabella will kill herself in jealousy, then, she imagines killing Arsinoe will be easy because she's so weak. 

After this, Katharine is taken to the dungeons by Natalia. A young man has been convicted of murder and Katharine is to mix the poison to execute him. They hear the man's story, that he killed the man who killed his sister, so should he even be here at all? Natalia tells him he should have brought the murderer to them instead of killing him himself. Katharine mixes a poison with a fine wine that will cause an easy, merciful death.

In Wolf Spring, while Arsinoe sulks a little about her relationship with Joseph being different than Jules's, but not really, she just likes scowling, Joseph gives Jules a ring. If she wore it on the mainland, it would mean that they are to be married, but it doesn't have to mean anything on Fennbirn. She wants to wear it. He asks if she's been with anyone else since he left and she admits that she hasn't. He's the same. 

Now it's time to introduce Arsinoe to William Chatworth, Jr., Billy, or Junior as Arsinoe calls him, Joseph's foster brother, who will be a suitor for the Queens. Normally these suitors aren't allowed to arrive until Beltane, but apparently his father pulled some strings with the Black Council. Joseph is certain that Billy is already in love with Arsinoe just from the stories he told him after being banished to the mainland. Arsinoe is scowly about it, but she wants to give her reunited friends time alone together, so she takes Billy on a walk. They are friendly, but probably will be nothing more. Arsinoe is pleased to see that burning the charm she made with Madrigal didn't seem to have any negative effects on Jules and Joseph. That's good. She shouldn't be messing around with low magic, but she has an itch to go back to the clearing with the bent tree and do it again. 

Mirabella wakes from a dream of her and her sisters at the Black Cottage when they were small, but she's convinced that it wasn't a dream but a memory. She goes to Luca to tell her, but Luca just brushes her off, blaming Rho for making her sacrifice someone and causing nightmares. Mirabella then goes to see Elizabeth and her woodpecker, asking why she is still an initiate if she knows that the priestesses will kill her companion. Elizabeth wants to go with Mirabella to the capital when she becomes a Queen. Mirabella thought as much, but tells Elizabeth that she can still come with her even if she's not a priestess.

Luca meanwhile goes to see Rho about Mirabella's dream, wondering if she'll be able to kill her sisters when the time comes. Rho wonders if she's even still the Chosen Queen at all. When Luca assures her, Rho suggests something that hasn't happened in a long time, but that is still a part of their histories. She suggests making Mirabella a White-Handed Queen. A White-Handed Queen is different from a Blue Queen, the rare fourth sister born with the others whose sisters are killed at birth because the Blue Queen is so special. A White-Handed Queen is a Queen with sisters so weak, they are seen as sacrifices and the townsfolk will do it for the Chosen Queen. She will ascend to the throne without killing anyone. Luca doesn't think this is a good idea or that it's even true, but Rho tells her they'll make sure everyone believes it. The townsfolk will sacrifice Arsinoe and Katharine after the Quickening, the display of the Queens’ gifts, during the Beltane festival.

Katharine and Pietyr have been flirting for some time and Natalia has noticed that the Queen has put on weight and seems happier, all at Pietyr’s hand. Natalia mentions the suitor William Chatworth Jr. coming to visit soon to prepare Katharine. Then she gives Katharine her snake, Sweetheart, telling her that someone in the kitchen found her a little while after the Gave Noir. She's so happy to have her little friend again, even though she seems skittish, and bounces away to her rooms to put the snake back in her cage. Pietyr realizes that that is a different snake, but Natalia is certain Katharine won't notice. With Katharine gone, Natalia questions how far things have gone with the Queen, telling Pietyr that some of the mainlanders won't want Katharine if she's no longer a virgin. Don't worry, they haven't gotten that far yet. 

Pietyr goes to Katharine’s rooms to discuss the suitors and flirt with her some more, but then, something startles “Sweetheart” and she moves to strike Katharine. Pietyr knows that a coral snake bite will be bad for Katharine and her weak gift, so he takes the strike instead. He suggests Katharine retrain the snake before wearing it, but doesn't mention it being different or Katharine not being able to handle its venom.

Arsinoe and Billy Junior have become fast friends, but soon he's going to be leaving to go meet the other Queens, starting with Katharine. They go for a walk and she almost leads him to the bent tree where she's been practicing low magic, carving runes into her hand to do it, but they change course and go elsewhere. As they walk, she describes to him what will happen during the Beltane festival. The Beltane festival is the start of the Ascension Year and lasts three days. There is a Hunt that provides meat for the feasts and there will be some blessings performed by the priestesses of the temple. This year, since it is the Ascension, will be a little different because there will also be the Disembarking after the Hunt where the Queens will meet the suitors, theoretically for the first time, and then the Quickening Ceremony the night after where the Queens will show off their gifts. At the end of Beltane, the Queens then have until the next year's Beltane festival to kill each other. They can also be courted by the suitors at this time, but Arsinoe thinks that Mirabella is going to storm in and kill her and Katharine immediately and honestly, she seems fine with it.

Jules and Joseph have some alone time but it's hard to do more than kissing with Camden being right there in the little spaces they can find to be alone. Jules is okay with just the kissing for now though. Joseph asks Jules to come with him to another town to deliver a boat he's been working on and sold, but she thinks being on a small boat with Joseph and Camden and then small coaches back probably won't be a good idea. Joseph doesn't want to be parted from Jules for even a little bit, but Jules needs to stay with Arsinoe anyway. She's been with Joseph so much lately that Arsinoe has been having to train her gift with Madrigal. She really needs to be there for her friend, and it'll only be a few days that they'll be apart. Everything will be fine.

Mirabella wakes screaming from another horrible nightmare in which she has drowned her sisters and then they are moldy and stuffed and put on display. She can't take it anymore, so she plans to leave Rolanth. She can't tell Luca about her dreams and her inability to kill her sisters because she'll just say it's a sign or a test from the Goddess. Luckily her screams alerted Elizabeth and Brie and no one else. After trying unsuccessfully to convince her to stay, Elizabeth gives Mirabella her white priestess robes and Brie promises that they will take care of each other. Mirabella successfully sneaks out of the Westwood house and out of Rolanth.

Arsinoe and Madrigal are in their sacred spot in the woods, Madrigal taking Arsinoe's blood and adding it to lengths of rope to help it keep longer. Madrigal says it'll take a lot of blood to perform anything at Beltane and they'll need to use it quickly to kill her sisters as soon as the festival is over. Talk turns to Jules and Joseph and how Madrigal might do a spell to get herself a handsome man. She isn't sure how Unattractive Jules has been able to keep Joseph for so long. Suddenly, Jules and Camden are there, dragging Arsinoe away and yelling about low magic only being for the weak. Well, that's Arsinoe. She's got to be able to do something, and low magic makes her feel powerful.

Mirabella has made it some ways away from Rolanth without being caught or even recognized. A storm rolls in, not one of her own making, and she sees a boat out on the water, being torn apart by the storm. Then she sees a young man out in the water too. Even though water is her weakest element, she combines it with her power of wind to bring the young man to shore. He's freezing but he is still alive, so Mirabella tries to warm him. She creates a fire, but it's not warm enough, so she does the only thing she knows will work. After removing her cloak and dress to dry, she wraps herself around him and they fall asleep. When Mirabella startles awake from another nightmare, the young man thinks he's dead or she's not real. She assures him that he's not dead and she's very much real and she's not going to let him die. Her holding him for warmth turns into another way to work up some body heat. It's clear that they are both very much alive.

After, Mirabella is so excited to tell Brie about her first time with such a handsome boy, but the handsome boy looks worried and upset, and is even more so when he realizes who his rescuer is … Queen Mirabella. She asks him his name and is also upset to learn that he is Joseph Sandrin, the boy who was friends with Arsinoe and was temporarily banished from Fennbirn for helping her try to escape when they were children. She wonders if maybe he thought she was her, but no, he laughs at that. If he had even thought to touch Arsinoe, she would have punched him. He's upset because of course he loves Jules, but he can't seem to control himself around Mirabella. They walk toward the next town so he can take a carriage back to Wolf Spring, but they stop several times along the way. They can't keep their hands, and mouths, off each other.

Joseph's mother, meanwhile, has had a dream that Joseph didn't make it to his destination to sell the boat, and not much later, she receives word that that is true. Everyone is worried, but Jules is most of all, and she is angry. She, Arsinoe and Billy set off to try to find him. Arsinoe uses low magic to create a tracking spell with Jules’s blood on a shirt that belongs to Joseph that should lead them to him. If he died in the water, the spell should stop when Jules reaches the shore.

Billy doesn't like the low magic, and neither does Jules, but it's working right now, isn't it? They continue following the trail. Joseph and Mirabella aren't far away. When Jules spots Joseph, the tracking spell breaks, and Mirabella tries to retreat into the trees, but Arsinoe sees her and follows. Arsinoe thinks Mirabella is there for nefarious reasons, but she's not. Unfortunately she can't explain that she ran away because she doesn't want to kill her or Katharine because Rho and some priestesses ride up, separating the sisters. Rho tells them that they can't kill each other yet and menacingly says to Mirabella that she shouldn't have run away. 

Meanwhile, at Starfall Lake, Sara Westwood and high priestess Luca and discussing Mirabella's running away, but Luca is not worried. Rho will find her. She shifts the conversation to the White-Handed Queen idea and Sara questions it at first but is on board. Maybe Mirabella ran away because she couldn't handle killing her sisters and it would be better if she was White-Handed. The matter is settled. After the Quickening, when everyone is drunk and dazzled by Mirabella's display, the priestesses will come in and decapitate and dismember Arsinoe and Katharine, Mirabella will be Queen and everything will be fine. 

Billy Chatworth arrives at Greavesdrake and Katharine must put her lessons from Pietyr to the test. They chat and eat non-tainted food, which of course Genevieve quietly tortures Katharine about. She also pulls her hair and pinches her. Pietyr jealously watches Katharine and Billy chatting and Katharine, for a moment, wishes Pietyr wasn't there. She escorts Billy away from the meal and offers to show him around. They kiss, pretty passionlessly, but they do it several times. They talk about how many suitors there will be and whether the other Queens might like living at the Volroy and if they would change things. Billy suggests Arsinoe would rather live in a tent outside, which Katharine laughs heartily at.

Arsinoe, Jules and Madrigal plan to go shopping for gowns for Beltane. Most everyone is upset at Arsinoe at least a little bit for using low magic, but they can't be too mad because it brought Joseph home. Jules worries that something happened between Joseph and Mirabella because Joseph's been acting very weird, but Arsinoe is sure that can't be true, though she does think back to the spell that she burned. They meet up with Joseph to go shopping and Madrigal takes his brother Matthew lunch. Matthew hasn't quite been the same since Caragh was banished to the Black Cottage and he appreciates the lunch. Not finding anything good to wear, they split up so Jules and Joseph can have some alone time. Arsinoe asks Madrigal about the burned spell, but she doesn't know if it actually caused any harm.

It did. It must have. Jules and Joseph are together at a spot they've always snuck away to, ever since they were kids, and Joseph comes clean. He stammers through weak excuses about what he and Mirabella did and apologizes profusely. Jules is stone-faced. Joseph begs her to hit him, to yell at him, to be angry with him, but she just seethes. She tells Joseph he should leave her alone for a while before Camden, who has been growling this whole time, rips out his throat. 

Mirabella is under constant watch since being brought back to Rolanth. Now she is with Luca discussing what she will wear during her performance in the Quickening Ceremony where she will do a fire dance. It doesn't matter to Mirabella what she wears. What matters is that she saw Arsinoe and that Joseph ran back to Jules without a second thought for her. 

Later, she goes to see Elizabeth. As she walks along a path, she sees a woodpecker that could belong to Elizabeth, but she's not sure. She's worried that her friend will have been severely punished for helping her run away even though she and Brie told all the priestesses she wasn't involved and that they stole her robes. When Mirabella sees Elizabeth, she is appalled. The priestesses have sawn off her left hand with the silver serrated blades they have begun wearing on their belts. She says it wasn't so bad. 

Arsinoe is with Madrigal in their spot in the woods with the bent tree. They're discussing Joseph and Jules and how Jules will likely forgive Joseph soon and that he looks sad all the time. But when has Madrigal seen him? Suddenly, Madrigal pins Arsinoe to the tree with a knife through her hand and begins working a spell. When Arsinoe wakes, she's at home, but she remembers seeing a bear in her dreams and knows whatever spell Madrigal did must have awoken her Naturalist magic and summoned her familiar, a great brown bear.

Arsinoe takes Jules, Camden, Joseph and Billy to the bent tree in the woods. Everyone comments that the spot feels funny, even Billy can feel it. There's a brief conversation about low magic and how it's different than being a Naturalist or an Elemental. Those gifts belong to their user, but anyone can use low magic. Before too long, a great, old, diseased bear lumbers toward them. It looks like one the townsfolk killed several years back, like it's been resurrected. Unfortunately, it does not come quietly to Arsinoe like a familiar would. Instead it attacks. Arsinoe is slashed across the shoulder and face with the bear’s massive claws. Camden attacks, but is hurt, and then Jules screams and the bear falls over dead. They all head back to town to take Arsinoe to a healer. Surely she and Camden will be fine. But what happened with Jules?

In Greavesdrake, Katharine is mixing poisons, something she's very good at despite her gift being weak, and Genevieve doesn't like it. Genevieve has come to tell Natalia of the bear attack in Wolf Spring and they wonder if Mirabella was somehow behind it. Before they can discuss much further, Natalia is alerted that she has a visitor. The visitor is William Chatworth, Billy's father. He and Natalia struck a deal back when Joseph was banished from Fennbirn all those years ago that the Chatworths would take him in and Billy would be the one to marry the Queen and become King Consort. This deal has not changed, even though Billy seems smitten by Arsinoe. William assures Natalia Billy will do what he is told, just as everyone else has done for generations with the Poisoners in power. William has come to tell Natalia that he met with Sara Westwood who told him in confidence that the priestesses were going to kill Katharine and Arsinoe after the Quickening in a sacrificial year. That's news to her. 

Arsinoe wakes to stitches in her face and a painful shoulder. Jules is there and is happy that her friend woke up, but then she gets angry with Madrigal for teaching Arsinoe low magic. Arsinoe doesn't blame Madrigal and already seems ready to go out and keep using low magic. She asks after Camden, wrapped up in a sling, but Jules says she will be okay, though her shoulder was broken and they couldn't set it in time. Arsinoe asks to see her face and laugh-cries her stitches open. 

Billy visits with flowers sent by his father that were meant as a get-well gift or for mourning, depending on how things turned out. He is to go visit Mirabella soon but doesn't want to. Arsinoe laughs that he wants to marry her but he doesn't. Arsinoe is his friend and she appreciates that more than if he wanted to marry her. He mentions how lucky they were that Jules was there to kill the bear and Arsinoe says she'd better make sure to bring her along when she tries again. Billy is shocked because Arsinoe was nearly killed, but if she doesn't have a strong familiar when Beltane comes, she's going to be killed then anyway. That's the way it is on Fennbirn. The people don't see Arsinoe, Katharine and Mirabella as people being murdered. One of them has to be Queen. That's just how it is.

Natalia summons Pietyr to the Queen's rooms in the Volroy to tell him about the priestesses’ plans to make Mirabella a White-Handed Queen. He gets upset, saying he'll do anything to protect Katharine. Natalia thinks it will be nearly impossible to move against the priestesses because they are in charge of everything during Beltane. He agrees, yes, nearly impossible. Natalia says Pietyr loves Katharine. Yes, he does, and Natalia does, too.

Arsinoe is given a mask to conceal the scars on her face carved by Jules’s Grandpa Ellis. He suggests she wear it at the Disembarking where everyone will find her intriguing to look at. Jules offers to help her tie it on, but she prefers to wait until the ceremony to wear it. Soon Billy arrives and offers to take Arsinoe on a picnic and she agrees, if only to enjoy the fried chicken he has brought with him. They get in his boat from the mainland and sail off toward Innisfuil where the ceremonies will take place, but then he tells her they are leaving Fennbirn. His father told him about the priestesses' plans to sacrifice her and Katharine so Mirabella will be Queen. At first she doesn't believe him, but then she realizes she doesn't want to die. 

The time for the festival approaches and soon everyone arrives in Innisfuil and sets up encampments. Mirabella, Brie and Elizabeth are in the Westwood’s tent discussing the fact that Arsinoe has disappeared. Luca and the priestesses are upset and searching for her frantically, but most are certain that she will have died rather than successfully escape. Elizabeth thinks it's better that way, so Mirabella and Arsinoe won't have to try to kill each other. Brie changes the topic to dish about all the cute boys around them setting up tents, but there's only one boy Mirabella is interested in, but if she sees Joseph, he'll be with Jules instead of her. 

At the Arron encampment, Katharine and Pietyr are together. They kiss, though Pietyr seems somewhat sad. Katharine worries it's because they'll soon be parted when the suitors arrive, but it seems like more than that. She wishes she could take part in the Hunt, but Pietyr assures her he won't be going either. They continue kissing. 

At the Milone encampment, Jules wonders why they are even here setting things up since Arsinoe is gone. Joseph wants her to be happy that Arsinoe got away, that is what they always wanted for their friend anyway. They get ready for the Hunt, which includes the men being shirtless and their women painting their chests to claim them. Jules, who is also joining in the Hunt, paints slashes on Joseph's face and chest to look like Arsinoe's bear claw marks. She paints the same on herself. They kiss, but Jules is wary of it. Joseph tries to tell her that they don't have to Hunt at all, they can stay together in their tent, but they don't.

Pietyr and Katharine sneak off to the Breccia Domain, the immense black chasm that is said to be the source of the Queens’ magic. It is also where the Queens’ bodies are thrown when they fall during the Ascension year. Katharine is mesmerized by the darkness in the Domain. Meanwhile, the Hunt has begun. Jules and Joseph get separated almost immediately. As she looks for him, she comes across another great brown bear. She wants it to attack her for some reason she can't understand. Mirabella is rescued from her priestess guard by Brie and Elizabeth. She wants to go see the Naturalists. As they travel, they discuss Arsinoe being gone and Jules with her powerful mountain cat, questioning if the cat is actually Arsinoe's familiar. Soon, she runs into Joseph and they kiss almost immediately.

Katharine returns to the Arron encampment and helps Natalia clean the Poisoners’ kills from the Hunt. As they work, Natalia tells Katherine to eat her fill during the Gave Noir without fear. She's got a scheme she's working on to ensure the feast is untainted. If the priestesses think they can call this year a sacrificial year, she will show them that Katharine is not weak. It's worse now that Arsinoe has run away and probably died on her way to the mainland. Now the priestesses only have Katharine to focus on.

The day after the Hunt, Jules cleans the stag she took down. She left the bear alone. Cait and Ellis would have her share the stag’s heart in a stew for the Queens since it is the best kill from the Hunt, and she agrees after cutting Arsinoe's portion and sharing it with Camden. Just then, they all hear rustling and giggling coming from Madrigal's tent and they see Matthew coming out. Matthew, Joseph's brother and Jules's aunt Caragh‘s Matthew. Why does Madrigal have to take everything from Caragh? Jules is furious and leaves. Luke meets up with her to give her a dress to wear to the ceremonies later. He was meant to make a gown for Arsinoe, but she insisted he make it for Jules instead. Suddenly, they see a commotion. It seems that the priestesses have caught the traitor Queen Arsinoe.

The Black Council, the Milones, Luca and Mirabella and others go to the priestesses' tent. Soon they drag Arsinoe and Billy in. They are soaked from a storm on the water. Arsinoe says the Mist caught them, wouldn't let them go, and delivered them here. They take Billy away so he can get ready for the Disembarking when Arsinoe says it was her idea to leave. Luca demands she be killed immediately, beheaded and dismembered and thrown into the Breccia Domain. As the priestesses grab Arsinoe, Mirabella calls down a storm to protect her sister. Everyone flees. The sisters sit together for a few moments, but Arsinoe declares she still hates her sister and will try to kill her because that's what they're supposed to do. She does mention that she hates her less now though.

Back with the Milones, Arsinoe tells everyone about what Billy told her about the sacrificial year and how Luca and the priestesses are planning on killing Arsinoe and Katharine because they are weak. Madrigal and Jules have a plan to make Arsinoe appear strong, but it will require low magic and that bear that Jules encountered. Jules will use her powerful gift to bring the bear to Arsinoe during the Quickening so it looks like she has summoned her familiar. They will use low magic to tie the bear to Arsinoe, but Madrigal warns it will be more like a pet and not a familiar at all. If this works, the priestesses will not be able to claim Arsinoe is weak and will not be able to continue with their sacrificial year plan. 

Arsinoe is the last to arrive at the Disembarking. She is afraid but doesn't show it. She's not dressed in a fine gown like her sisters, instead wearing pants, a shirt and vest, though still black. She is still a Queen. The suitors disembark and greet the Queens, Billy bowing deeply only to Arsinoe. The other suitors bow and the Queens curtsey and nod, but Billy's deep bow attracts the most attention. 

After the Disembarking is a feast. The poisoners are not allowed to serve tainted food in case a suitor stops by and this is frustrating to Pietyr and Natalia. Natalia shares with Pietyr her plan to serve untainted foods at the Gave Noir too, but Pietyr wonders how she'll manage that with the priestesses being in charge of everything. Natalia hasn't been secretly poisoning people using sleight of hand her entire life for nothing. She knows what she's doing.

In the High Priestess’s tent, Rho and Luca oversee initiates and priestesses carrying crates of blades that will soon be in the hands of every priestess. After Mirabella's performance at the Quickening, Luca wants Rho to quickly kill Katharine and then join the others to help kill Arsinoe. Rho hasn't held a blade in a long time, but she relishes in it now, knowing that the blade she holds must have seen blood before, and it soon will again. 

The Naturalist feast is the best attended and all the suitors stop by to gaze at Arsinoe, which no one was expecting. Billy's bow and attempt to take her away from Fennbirn seem to have improved Arsinoe's standing. Soon it will be time for Jules to leave to get the brown bear, but she needs to be seen out and about with Joseph before she disappears so anyone who doesn't see her later will think she is spending the night with him, not out with a bear. She wants to do that, she wants to be with him, finally, and she takes him to her tent. They kiss and she wants more, but he keeps trying to tell her something and eventually just says he loves her and that he wants to hold her.

Katharine is with Pietyr and he seems worried. He asks her if she remembers how to get to the Breccia Domain and begs her to run straight there during the Gave Noir if anything goes wrong. Katharine doesn't understand and thinks Pietyr doubts her success, but he makes her promise to run. He won't watch the Quickening, afraid of what is going to happen. 

It is nearly time for The Quickening to begin. Mirabella gets dressed with Brie and Elizabeth and they discuss how strangely the priestesses have been acting all day. Elizabeth tells them she has no idea what's going on with them because they no longer speak to her since she helped Mirabella run away.

Madrigal helps Arsinoe prepare for their spell, telling her she'll have to drink the potion that they are making that will be mostly made of blood, both Arsinoe's and the bear’s, and press a rune into the bear’s forehead. It's entirely possible that this won't work and the bear will eat Arsinoe on stage, if Jules can even control it long enough to get it there in the first place. Arsinoe would rather dye Jules's hair black and let her be Queen instead. Madrigal agrees. She tells Arsinoe during this exchange about her and Matthew. Arsinoe, and everyone else, is angry with Madrigal, but they have more important things to focus on right now.

The Quickening begins with Katharine who eats her way through her feast successfully. It seems Natalia was successful in keeping it untainted. Arsinoe is next. She is met by Jules right before going to her stage. She drinks her blood potion and pools some in the rune carved on her hand to press to the bear’s forehead. She steps on stage, calls the bear and it approaches. She presses her rune hand to the bear who then licks her face. Arsinoe laughs and lifts her hands triumphantly, and the bear does the same and bellows. Luca and Rho, watching from a dais with the suitors, will have to admit defeat. They won't be able to sacrifice the weak Queens because no one will believe they are weak anymore after their displays. Rho is furious. 

Mirabella begins a fire dance on her stage and everyone is mesmerized by it. Jules struggles to maintain her mental hold on the bear and she loses it when she sees Joseph staring lustfully at Mirabella. The bear charges through Katharine's table and she runs away. Then the bear leaps onto Mirabella's stage. Joseph jumps up to protect Mirabella, but the bear stops its attack and turns away. Rho arrives to take Mirabella back to her tent, brandishing a blade at Joseph. It was his Queen Arsinoe who sent the bear after Mirabella, and even though it didn't attack, Mirabella thinks Arsinoe sent the bear to kill her. Joseph should know who is responsible for the bear and why it attacked though. Now that Mirabella's dance is done, the Ascension year has begun. 

Katharine runs away to meet Pietyr. She tries to explain the chaos of what happened, but he's upset about what Luca and the priestesses must have done. Katharine doesn't understand. Pietyr holds her and tells her he was not meant to love her but he does. She tells him she loves him, too. And then he throws her into the crevasse, down, down, down into the Breccia Domain.

For the next couple of days, the Beltane festival breaks apart and everyone leaves, except for the Poisoners and Priestesses who search for Katharine. Natalia doesn't want to find her body, but she knows that Pietyr hasn't stopped looking. Luca joins Natalia in her tent and questions how Natalia could have turned away from the Goddess when the Goddess is the one who provides the island with its Queen and their powers. Natalia questions what they will do about Arsinoe since she attacked Mirabella before the technical start of the Ascension, but nothing will be done. Why should anything be done with Arsinoe when Natalia faked Katharine's feast?

On the way back to Rolanth, Mirabella tells Brie and Elizabeth about Joseph and why he jumped to save her. They are pleased that Joseph is friends with Arsinoe because he might be able to convince her not to try to kill Mirabella. She doesn't want that. Arsinoe probably killed Katharine and now all Mirabella wants is to take Arsinoe down. 

A week later, Natalia is back at Greavesdrake Manor by herself. Pietyr left and Genevieve too. Natalia doesn't know how much longer she'll get to stay in the capital since her Poisoner Queen is gone. But she's not gone. Natalia sees her standing in the foyer in a tattered dress, her hands and fingernails shredded and bloody. Katharine tells Natalia that she did not fall into the Breccia Domain as Natalia rushes to hold her. Natalia finds Katharine cold and calls for a hot bath, but Katharine does not want that. She wants revenge.

In Wolf Spring, Billy brings chocolates sent by his father for Arsinoe from their favorite mainland shop. Arsinoe was worried that William Chatworth would have sent his son away, but he is still here and ready to begin his courting, just as he is supposed to do as a suitor. Joseph comes to see Jules, and Arsinoe shoulder checks him as she takes her candies to her room and gets Jules. Jules and Joseph talk in the room she and Arsinoe share and Jules eats some of Arsinoe's candy while Joseph is upset at her for setting the bear loose. She explains that it's his fault, seeing him lusting over Mirabella made her see red and lose her grasp over the bear. But it didn't hurt his precious Mirabella. Jules wonders if Joseph ever loved her at all. He says he did as she collapses to the floor, poisoned by Arsinoe's candy.

Days pass and Jules finally wakes up. The healers and Cait and Ellis didn't know if she would recover. Madrigal went to the bent tree to use low magic to try to heal her daughter, but all they could do was wait. She wakes and blooms plants in the window just to see if she is still able to, but of course she is. Arsinoe excitedly tells Jules that she thought for the longest time she was ungifted or weak, but she's not. Jules doesn't understand. Arsinoe declares she ate three pieces of chocolate before Jules did and she was and is perfectly fine. A perfectly fine Poisoner Queen.