Gideon and Harrow, now in the same body, fight Cytherea. Gideon helps Harrow use her sword to pop the blister of blood cancer in Cytherea, killing her. Harrow begs Gideon not to leave, but she is already fading into her subconscious. Gideon tells Harrow she’ll “see [her] on the flip side” and calls her “sugarlips” (402). Harrow is then left alone with Gideon’s body.

Harrow wakes up in a hospital ward on the Emperor’s flagship. The Emperor, an exceedingly plain-looking man, has been waiting for her to wake up. Harrow observes “the smoking wreck of her heart” and begs the Emperor to bring back Gideon (404-05), but the Emperor cannot bring Gideon back, despite his power. He explains that disentangling Gideon’s soul from Harrow would destroy them both.

Harrow learns that Ianthe has survived the ordeal. No trace was found of Camilla, Deuteros’s body, or Corona. Gideon’s body mysteriously vanished from Canaan House. The Emperor promises to renew the Ninth House if Harrow becomes his Hand, an official Lyctor of the Emperor, but he does not force her to become one after what she has experienced. Harrow agrees because she “can’t go home again” without Gideon (408) and vows to return to Canaan House to find out what happened to Gideon.