Kady tells Julia her shade was removed along with the baby. Kady and Quentin worry what will happen to Julia, but she's happy, and focused on continuing her quest against Reynard. She's searching for Dana's son and encounters Reynard. He can tell something is different about her. He wants to know where Dana's son is. Quentin sends Julia to Fillory and suggests she stay there for a while so she can be safe.

Eliot's consciousness is trapped in the Gollum. Margo's doing her best to hold the kingdom together, but they don't have as much respect for the High Queen as they do for the High King. The council warns the One Way Forest will be a problem so Margo and Julia set out to find the Dryad in charge of protecting it. He refuses to help women. Margo leaves, but Julia stays behind to make a deal with the magician from Loria. She wants an invisibility spell. He provides it. She tricks the Dryad into accepting a gift, but when it's opened, the forest burns down.

Margo's angry with Julia for causing more trouble and has her sent to the dungeons. She begs Eliot to wake up because she can't do it alone. When he doesn't, Fen starts to freak out. Margo calms her down. She promises to take care of her and the baby. She says she will hunt Ember until he changes the rule to let the queen rule. Eliot wakes up and compliments Margo on having everything handled.

Kady, Penny, and Quentin search for Dana's son. They keep hitting roadblocks until Alice provides some help. But Dana put extra protection on her son's identity. Penny wants to have a conversation with Kady about their relationship status. She makes it clear that sex is fine, but she's not in a good place so she refuses to acknowledge or talk about actual feelings. Penny makes a deal with the order of librarians to join their ranks in exchange for the son's information. He tells Kady he loves her.

Quentin and Alice put their word as bond deal into affect. When he wakes up after she's possessed him, he tries to retrace her steps to see what she'd been doing. It seemed like Alice was trying to find a way to make herself human again. But that's only what Alice wanted him to think. She'd found another Niffin that managed to prevent himself from ever being trapped in a box. She wanted to know how he did it. He refused to tell her until she found a way to free herself from Quentin.

When his body begins to fail, Alice warns him that he's going to kill both of them if he doesn't free her. Quentin won't tell Penny and Kady what's going on so Kady knocks him out so Penny can go into his mind. He encounters Alice, who tries to kill him.