After the battle, Athaliah takes the bodies of the surviving vampires to the Monastery for study. Colt meanwhile covers their tracks using ammonia to destroy any evidence. Kensai and the rest limp home. Once the cabal returns to their sanctum, Colt is able to heal Valkyrie of her fractured ribs.
The next night Adele and Valkyrie go to the Monastery to chat with Athaliah and examine the vampires themselves. Valkyrie guides Adele into the renovated factory filled with large training rooms and cabal banners. In a small cool back room, they find Athaliah along with the vampires, wrapped in plastic and chained to steel tables. She tells them what she has learned from their memories: that they killed Hippolyta as the latest sacrifice to their god and then were approached by a stranger who bought the body off of them. She was still piecing together a description of the stranger. After examining the creatures magically, Adele gets a vial of their blood for further study and then they leave.
The cabal discusses what the meaning of the events are. Colt feels like his destiny is swirling around him and that the vampires or their god must be at the heart of all of this, while Adele is worried about the visions Anna has shown her.
The next day, Athalaih calls Colt, warning him that she has determined the Circle were the ones who took Hippolyta's body. As she goes to warn Mammon, Mammon gets a call from Mr. Johnson, a Seer of the Throne. Mr. Johnson says he has information for him and asks for a meeting in a public place. After arranging a meeting for the next day at the restaurant where they met, Athaliah calls Mammon to warn him about the daywalkers (as the Consilium is calling the living vampires of the Circle). Mammon tells her about his meeting and she agrees to watch him, to ensure all goes well. Meanwhile Valkyrie learns from the rest of the Adamantine Arrow about the vampiric threat. The others inform Adele after her classes.
The next day Mammon goes to his meeting with Colt and Athaliah watching. Mr. Johnson greets Mammon using his real name Bobby. While suspicious he listens to Mr. Johnson as he warns him that the Circle knows what happened to Justine. He also knows what really happened to Hippolyta. He tells Mammon a tale of her being set up by Black Dog. He claims she was sent to that location, where Black Dog knew there was danger. He also says the proof is in a note on body, which Mammon will find soon. Mammon quietly infers that Hippolyta will be coming for them. When asked what Johnson gets out of it, he simply replies, "I'm just setting up dominoes." He then leaves. Meanwhile Colt scrutinizes Mr. Johnson from across the street, learning that the man is just a sleeper pawn controlled from afar and cloaked in Prime magic. He also learns the true Mr. Johnson's resonance for later use.
After the meeting the cabal and Athaliah discuss the revelations. They worry if it is Seer trap or if the Seers want to see them reveal the truth. Perhaps Black Dog wants to provoke the rest of the Arrows into attacking the Circle recklessly, thus showing that Lealtad is an unfit leader. As they guess how the plot might unfold, Athaliah realizes that the Arrow is already tracking the member of the Circle who took Hippolyta. With the Seers involved this will almost certainly be a trap. She takes Valkyrie along with her as she drives to the Monastery to warn them. Meanwhile, Colt and Mammon go to Promethean to get Decima to convince the Consilium not to do anything rash as well.
While Athaliah and Valkyrie get stuck in traffic, Mammon and Colt talk to Decima. She has bad feelings about how this will turn out and immediately heads to talk with the Council. Colt meanwhile calls Andate to warn her. He learns the Arrow is already tracking the vampires and near where he is hiding out. He tells her to wait and they head to where they are. Meanwhile in traffic, the frustrated Athaliah tries calling everyone she can to get a hold of the Monastery. Unfortunately even Samson doesn't know what is going on. Then Mammon calls and informs her of the situation. Tossing the keys to Valkyrie, Athaliah teleports away.
Colt and Mammon get to within a couple blocks of where Andate was before traffic slows to a standstill. Walking on foot, they find the area cordoned off by the police. Mammon uses magic to appear to be a high ranking official and chats with the officers about what occurred. According to the police, this was a drug deal gone wrong. Two men were dead with another two in custody. One apparently attempted to flatten the others with a truck. Two officers arrived on scene following an anonymous tipoff and shots were exchanged before one gang escaped. After confirming no one who was killed or arrested was a mage, Mammon regroups with Colt.
Valkyrie finally arrives at the Monastery to find the Arrow recuperating after the battle. Several are severely injured, including One. She gets a recap of the battle from Frost and Quick. They were ambushed only moments after Athaliah arrived. It was clear the whole thing was a setup and the vampires were ready for them. The cops were in on it, pulling up with two cars and opening fire without warning. They just barely escaped. Colt and Mammon get a similar story over the phone from Athaliah, tinged with paradox induced paranoia.
Meanwhile Adele is busy in class. As she leaves for her dorm room, she notices several oddities. The first is a greenish fire spirit following her. The second is a group of crows doing likewise. As she hurries away, the birds fly about her, filling her mind with maddening scenes of destruction. Unsure what these creatures are, Adele ducks into the women's bathroom. Almost immediately Anna enters the room. As Adele looks to the sleeper washing up for aid, Anna brutally and quickly murders the young woman. Anna then begins to talk about her visions and the men who took her away. She reveals that they did things to her mind and she can't hurt Adele herself. She was hoping the vampires would kill Adele and attempts to convince Adele that it is for the good of the city that she dies. Finally enraged, she explodes into a murder of crows that whirls about the room. Adele escapes into Twilight, leaving Merlin to get a sample feather for her.
Racing back to the sanctum, Adele discusses the day's events with the cabal. Merlin returns shortly with the feather, meaning they will soon be able to scry Anna.
Just then there is a knock on the door. Valkyrie, answering it, recognizes Hippolyta saying 'I don't want to do this", moments before she shatters the door with her spear. As the others tried to hold the reanimated mage off, Adele texts Decima with the details. Valkyrie telekinetically pulls Hippolyta in and pins her to wall. As the Obrimos nurses the slash on her midsection, Mammon begins to exorcise the possessed creature. But Hippolyta pulls herself free. Fenced off by a force field, the undead mage turns on Valkyrie, stabbing her through the stomach. She then moves to attack Colt while the sanctum's ghosts hurl chairs at the powerful former Sentinel. Colt is able to heal Valkyrie while staving off the spear thrusts. Valkyrie telekinetically tosses her sword into the zombie mage, but releases an Anamoly paradox as well. Objects begins to swirl in the air throughout the neighborhood as the battle continues. Mammon stabs Hippolyta with his punch daggers, which she ignores. She then tromps over to Adele, stabbing her through the force wall. Adele meanwhile uses death magic to tear the monstrosity apart, rotting her where she stands. The Mage-Ghost Mobius then appears with Colt's shotgun and with Colt's help blasts the zombie apart.
As the cabal recovers, they search Hippolyta's remains, finding the note. As Mammon exorcises the ghost, Adele questions her. Hippolyta reveals that Black Dog sent her to investigate, where she walked into the vampire's trap. The Circle and the Seers of the Throne then raised her ghost and using powerful magic bind her into her own decaying body. She was forced to do the Circle's bidding and kill them for the murder of Justine Lasky.
Athaliah, Samson, Quick and two Sleepwalker cops are soon on the scene to clean things up. Seeing the Anomaly, Athaliah warns Mammon to keep Valkyrie out of the way as the Guardians would be here soon. As a cover they decide to call it a near hit by a tornado. Valkyrie meanwhile is lying in the Hallow wounded with a collapsed lung. Her troubles are just starting. What will Evan say?