Esther is suspicious of the idea of Maram as her mother, though Nicholas suggests that it explains why Maram would have acted when the tracking spell located Esther: to keep her out of danger. They realize that the vampire book’s tracking spell means that they could be found and decide to evaluate the book again. As Nicholas does, he thinks about how similar the portrait of the Library founder looks to Richard. He realizes his uncle never gets sick and never seems to age, and he therefore must be the subject of the immortality spell.

Esther remembers that she’d seen the vampire book before, when her father asked if she could destroy it. She and Nicholas attempt to do so, despite his hesitation at killing his uncle, but are unable to damage it. Nicholas posits that they need to destroy the object to which Richard had bound his life first; he’s certain it’s the bone in the portrait frame in Richard’s study. They discuss what will happen when the wards drop and realize that mirror magic will work from the outside as well, enabling objects to be passed into the mirror in Esther’s room, not just out.