In Chap­ter Nine of the sto­ry, Bran­thor finds him­self cap­ti­vat­ed by Teal, who is wear­ing a shirt he gift­ed her the pre­vi­ous night. Their morn­ing togeth­er is filled with an unusu­al inti­ma­cy, height­ened by their shared his­to­ry. Teal’s appetite for the break­fast he pre­pared is fascinating—she digs into left­over cake while ask­ing about Moss­dale, reveal­ing her curios­i­ty about their town’s his­to­ry and the gren­dels. Bran­thor explains that the town was built post-Shift by gren­dels, who divid­ed due to dif­fer­ing views on inter­breed­ing with humans, lead­ing to a scarci­ty of female gren­dels.

Teal pos­es thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tions about the gren­dels’ beliefs, their lin­eage, and his own stance on such tra­di­tions. He express­es his belief in per­son­al free­dom, free from the con­straints of their ances­tors, which Teal appre­ci­ates. Their play­ful exchanges reveal a chem­istry between them, accen­tu­at­ed by stolen glances and inno­cent touches—an intrigu­ing blend of dar­ing and inno­cence.

Their dis­cus­sion turns to Bran­thor’s favorite place, the mys­te­ri­ous Thun­der­ing Caves, which spark Teal’s inter­est. How­ev­er, when she express­es a desire to explore the caves togeth­er, he firm­ly refus­es, high­light­ing their dan­gers. Despite the dan­ger, Teal express­es con­fi­dence in his abil­i­ty to pro­tect her, which leaves Bran­thor torn between incli­na­tion and his pro­tec­tive instincts.

As they con­tin­ue their break­fast, Bran­thor grap­ples with his feel­ings for Teal, uncer­tain about her moti­va­tions for want­i­ng to stay with him, par­tic­u­lar­ly giv­en their recent bond. Moments lat­er, Rag­nar arrives with fam­i­ly, dis­rupt­ing Bran­thor’s morn­ing. Rag­nar jovial­ly probes about Bran­thor’s new sit­u­a­tion with Teal, teas­ing him about mar­riage, while Bran­thor insists noth­ing has hap­pened and denies any for­mal bond.

Rag­nar presents Bran­thor with books on human anato­my and the art of pleas­ing a bride, which Bran­thor dis­miss­es with annoy­ance. How­ev­er, the vis­it stirs con­flict­ing feel­ings with­in him about Teal as he over­hears her chat­ting hap­pi­ly with Nova. Teal’s excite­ment about try­ing on clothes from Nova’s wardrobe high­lights her ener­gy, and despite his reluc­tance, Bran­thor allows Teal to go with Nova, demon­strat­ing a reluc­tant affec­tion for her hap­pi­ness. As he con­tem­plates the day ahead, Bran­thor real­izes that Teal may linger longer than expect­ed, push­ing him into a ter­ri­to­ry he thought he was avoid­ing .