In Chap­ter Sev­en, titled “Teal,” the pro­tag­o­nist grap­ples with the real­i­ty that Bran­thor, a giant being, has no inter­est in hav­ing her as a bride. Despite this, she is deter­mined to change his mind, hop­ing to cre­ate a con­nec­tion between them. As they share wine by the fire­place, Teal sens­es Bran­thor’s gen­tle­ness, con­trary to his impos­ing phys­i­cal pres­ence. This con­trast makes her feel safe for the first time.

Teal takes the ini­tia­tive in their con­ver­sa­tion, shar­ing her love for read­ing adven­ture books, a pas­sion cul­ti­vat­ed through her moth­er’s influ­ence. Bran­thor reveals his own interests—gardening and grow­ing fruits—which helps estab­lish a bond, and they both open up about their loss­es, find­ing solace in each oth­er’s expe­ri­ences of los­ing par­ents. Teal’s recount­ing of her rela­tion­ship with her moth­er empha­sizes the emo­tion­al con­nec­tion she seeks to fos­ter with Bran­thor.

Through­out their con­ver­sa­tion, Teal strug­gles to keep Bran­thor from think­ing about the inevitable part­ing that awaits them the fol­low­ing day. She avoids men­tion­ing her trou­bling fam­i­ly sit­u­a­tion in order to main­tain their grow­ing inti­ma­cy. Their inter­ac­tion grows more inti­mate as they share per­son­al sto­ries, and Branthor’s fears about hurt­ing her due to his size and strength sur­face. Teal reas­sures him of his gen­tle­ness, and they share a kiss, which sends her emo­tions into tur­moil.

As the kiss inten­si­fies and becomes more pas­sion­ate, Bran­thor ulti­mate­ly pulls away, dis­play­ing a con­flict with­in him between desire and fear of his own strength. The chap­ter ends with Bran­thor ten­der­ly lay­ing Teal in bed and say­ing good­night, leav­ing open the ques­tion of what will hap­pen next between them as they face the uncer­tain future ahead.