Brie thinks of her mother as she takes in her first look at Faerie. Crowds swarm toward the castle, and a woman named Pretha helps Brie tidy up, as she is wearing an ill-fitting and borrowed dress. She warns Brie that not everyone is granted entrance to the castle and that entrance is granted based on appearance. Brie accepts the help and explains that she seeks to help her sister, who was enslaved, but doesn’t offer Pretha details of her plan. Pretha offers Brie enchanted pins that make her dress fit her perfectly, vaguely commenting that she will “think of [some repayment] before [they] meet again” (67). (This allusion to the fae’s propensity for deals and bargains foreshadows the revelation that Pretha is actually a fae, not human.)

Brie is admitted through the gates and into a crowded party. She overhears Cassia and Stella complaining that Jas didn’t finish their dresses before she was enslaved. While she flees her cousin’s notice, Brie agrees to dance with a faerie man with silver eyes. Though she initially only does so to avoid detection, she becomes enchanted by the music and continues dancing. When she tries to drink faerie wine, her first dance partner stops her at the last moment and drags her away from the party.