On Christmas Eve, King Auguste has scheduled a ball to honor Reid’s actions the day witches attacked the royal carriage. Coco has been allowed to come as a personal friend of Lou and Reid. With Ansel as their escort, they arrive at the castle. Fearing a spy of her mother’s might be in attendance, Lou refuses to be formally announced. Instead, she enters the ball alongside the servants. Looking for Reid, she discovers him with Célie Tremblay. Lou then encounters Prince Beauregard, who flirts with her. She rejects him but turns to find Reid and Célie gone.

Reid and Célie go out to a patio. Lou is about to follow them when she’s stopped by the Archbishop. He tells her to let Reid enjoy “this small pleasure away from your corruption” (283). Enraged, she calls him a liar and hypocrite and says that she’ll see him in hell. She goes through a kitchen to escape him and finds herself spying on Reid and Célie in a snowy garden. Célie tells Reid they should appeal to the king for an annulment since Lou is everything he hates. While Reid admits he doesn’t love Lou yet, he reveals he soon might.