2.11

Another mega chapter. Why has pacing abandoned me so?

Alright, it’s finally Lena’s birthday.

The end was here.
not with a bang but a whimper not with a bang but a whimper not with a bang but a whimper
Lena was losing it, and it was barely daylight.

I’ll say! Her going dark should definitely count as a bang.

I mean, I bet it’d sort of be like in Exalted, where you exalt and you know everyone says you’re a demon now, but you don’t feel like one, and…oh my god they were lying this whole time! They were lying and they’re still lying to make everyone think you’re evil when you’re not!

And then you fight back and they point and say look, this proves it! She said that she’d meekly let us kill her if she ever turned into a demon.

Oh, also the book has disappeared.

We needed that book, today of all days.

Just accept you have no clue and move on.

Anyway, he heads over to Ravenwood.

If you could imagine the color of anger, it had been splashed over every wall. Rage, or something equally dense and seething, was hanging from every chandelier, resentment woven into thick carpets padding the room, hatred flickering underneath every lampshade. The floor was bathed in a creeping shadow, a particular darkness that had seeped up into the walls, and right now was rolling across my Converse so I almost couldn’t see them. Absolute darkness.

Well then. That’s probably bad. Sounds like a cool effect though!

(Not sure why it’s rage and not depression, though.)

When I stepped onto the second stair, the whole house shook. The thousand candles of the ancient chandelier swinging over my head shuddered and dripped wax down onto my face. I winced and jerked back. Without warning, the stairway curled up beneath my feet and snapped underneath me, tossing me back onto my butt, sending me skidding halfway across the polished floors of the entry hall.

You know what’s a great book? House of Leaves. It really shows how utterly terrifying you can make a building without just having it just physically toss you around. I was expecting the stairs to just keep going, an oppressive aura building around him, and he walks and walks and yet can’t find the top, and when he looks back down it’s just darkness stretching away into the distance, but he keeps going anyway and this proves his love and he reaches Lena.

Here in the actual book, he solves this problem in a totally good and reasonable manner:

“Lena Duchannes. If you sic those stairs on me again, I’m gonna report you to the Disciplinary Committee myself.” I took a step onto the first stair, and then the second. Nothing happened. “I will call Mr. Hollingsworth and personally testify that you’re a dangerous lunatic.” I double-jumped the stairs, all the way up to the first landing. “Because if you do that to me again, you will be, you hear me?”

This wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t spent the entire book on the subject of how she doesn’t have good control of her powers. In fact right now the whole town is covered in a storm system Lena is unconsciously creating, so if anything, her control is worse than when the book started.

But apparently being told her subconscious mind lashing out will prove she’s evil totally gets Lena under control. They start thoughtspeaking again and she says he should leave and he says no and blah blah.

She pulled the door open and pulled me inside. Music was blasting. I knew the song. This was an angry, almost metal version of it, but I recognized it all the same.
Sixteen moons, sixteen years
Sixteen of your deepest fears
Sixteen times you dreamed my tears
Falling, falling through the years…
….
Sixteen moons, sixteen years
Sound of thunder in your ears
Sixteen miles before she nears
Sixteen seeks what sixteen fears…
…
Sixteen moons, sixteen years,
Sixteen times you dreamed my fears,
Sixteen will try to Bind the spheres,
Sixteen screams but just one hears…

There’s also new poetry, which naturally the author felt we needed to read.

Loneliness is holding the one you love / When you know you might never hold him again. The walls: Even lost in the darkness / My heart will find you. The doorjambs: The soul dies at the hand of the one who carries it. The mirrors: If I could find a place to run away / Hidden safely, I would be there today.

You know what she needs? Happy pills.

I mean really, this is looking like one hell of a self-fulfilled prophesy. Everyone tells her it’d be super bad to go dark, she worries about going dark, the act of worrying about going dark is taken as evidence she’ll go dark, worry intensifies…

Sixteen moons, sixteen years,
The Claiming Moon, the hour nears,
In these pages Darkness clears,
Powers Bind what fire sears…
…
Sixteenth Moon, Sixteenth Year,
Now has come the day you fear,
Claim or be Claimed,
Shed blood, shed tear,
Moon or Sun—destroy, revere.

Wait, that’s awesome news!

They’ve been spending all this time chasing after the possibility there might be a way out. Now the inexplicable song has just told them that yeah, there actually is a real solution and it’s still on the table for her!

Link says if a girl says not to get her a birthday present that means get me a birthday present and make sure it’s jewelry.”
“That’s not true of all girls.”

We finally have someone say it! Shame it’s meaningless, because of course she totally wants it.

Honestly, Link’s actually had some pretty impressive social skills for a teen. He communicates a bit poorly – he’s using “she actually means” shorthand, which plays into the idea girls are just deliberately duplicious, but I feel it’s counterbalanced by the fact his advice usually boils down to saying that people generally want obvious stuff and part of being considerate is paying attention to that fact, especially when he’s only saying this in context of a depressed and introverted girl – maybe he’d be saying the same stuff if she was in her right mind explaining she would rather get a videogame than a necklace, but there’s no sign of this at all, and the fact he says nothing like this when discussing his relationship with Ridley suggest he knows better. There’s a huge, huge difference, after all, between someone miserably saying you don’t need to bother getting them anything and someone saying they’d rather spend the day at a water park than getting presents at home.

The box began to glow with green light, and I could make out Lena’s slender fingertips as she pulled off the silver ribbon. The glow spread, warm and bright, until her face was softly lit across from mine.
“That’s a new one.” I smiled at her in the green light.
“I know. It’s been happening ever since I woke up this morning. Whatever I think, just sort of happens.”

But that’s totally different to how wanting something isn’t enough to make it happen, right? Because you’ve explained that kind of thing is only true for mortals a few dozen times by now.

This all seems pretty sueish, and it is, but I’m not sure it’s a natural-only thing. Remember, sirens can spontaneously create cute mice in capes. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of them could do basically anything like this.

You know what would be interesting? If all her lashing out about the impossibility of it is because she’s lived her whole life as a caster believing reality will always do whatever she wants. Even when bad stuff happened, she always had magic as a fallback option, she just chose not to invoke it. Faced with a time when that’s no longer an option, she gives up in despair. Her mundane boyfriend, who views that as just normal, then has to push her to keep trying.

It occurred to me that this was possibly the only present Lena would get today.

Why?

I mean, maybe they wouldn’t give her long-term presents when they’re planning on kicking her out if she doesn’t pass, but I’d think they’d want to be super nice on her last day before turning into a baby-eating monster.

Then he thinks about how he shouldn’t tell her about the surprise party, so obviously now she knows, which is good because really, that’s something you want to tell her as soon as possible so she can get used to the idea and make as many preparations to deal with it as possible. Seriously, why would keeping the bad surprise party a surprise seem like a good idea? In fact, why doesn’t everyone know? Maybe Pretty Suit could’ve been a dick yesterday and convinced everyone to hate her again. Or just ate everyone’s memories of the party plans.

Back to the gift:

Her face softened and I knew I was off the hook about the party. It was that thing, about girls and jewelry. Who knew? Link was right after all.

See, Link’s phrasing is iffy because it allows for this sort of thinking, but it’s just as easy to read that as shorthand. The narration, on the other hand, is just flat out bad – it’s saying that girls are just a thing that always want jewelry and you should ignore anything they say asserting themselves as individuals.

Anyway because girls are a hive mind she squeals she loves it and kisses him over and over. He says it was his mom’s.

This just leads up to another stuttering confession of do-I-dare-say-love-out-loud, you know the thing that already happened several times earlier, and not the powerful vote of confidence it could have been – under normal circumstances, yes, giving your dead mom’s jewelry to your girlfriend is saying you care about her a lot, but under she might turn evil and leave in under a day circumstances, it’s mostly saying you expect her to not turn evil, and really, that’s what she needs to hear, not that you love her currently.

Instead, he claims that I preferred our silent mode of communication. It made talking, real talking, a lot easier for a guy like me. because this is the book’s last gasp at trying to insist he’s been acting stereotypically male, then says that he loves her and they make out and making out makes the fireplace ignite.

I pulled back, out of breath. “Where’s Ryan when you need her?

I really feel you shouldn’t be dragging an innocent little girl in to manage your fucking’s side effect.

“Don’t worry, she’s downstairs.” She pulled me back down, and the fire in the grate crackled even louder, threatening to overpower the chimney with smoke and flame.
Jewelry, I’m telling you. It’s a thing.

It’s like the book realized it still had time to throw in more ways to make me hate it, and rushed off excitedly to stuff them in.

I had thought we’d have to sneak down to visit Kitchen, around lunchtime, but Lena simply closed her eyes and a room service cart rolled through the door and into the middle of her room. I guess even Kitchen was feeling sorry for her today. Either that, or Kitchen couldn’t resist Lena’s newfound powers any more than I could.

Um. Those are two very different things. You’re saying at the same time that this is a sentient and probably sapient entity able to choose to do this, and also that Lena may be able to force it to do whatever she wants regardless.

(No, he’s not actually getting controlled by her powers himself, he’s just casually talking that way despite knowing there are actual powers that can actually control and coerce him. Maybe it’s a reference to confirming the castersexual thing – he and Kitchen both just really want to be around the most powerful magic user they can, so it’s not like she’s forcing anything, it’s just that her powers dictate how much attention they give her.)

Then everything dissolved back into kissing.

Yeah, so they spend the entire day like this and they spend it “kissing”. Right. I guess no one would argue it, though, given Lena’s already unstable enough. They probably have magic birth control to make it less of an issue – that’s really the only reason it makes sense people have been sticking him in her room unsupervised so much without any worry.

Although hm. What if this is how Lena was conceived? You believe this is your last day before you turn into an evil monster. It’s basically another version of expecting to die, and you’ve just turned sixteen, and apparently boyfriends-for-moral-support isn’t blinked at in this family.

After all, it seems that mortal/caster relationships don’t happen and casters shunt dark casters, so why would her dad have slept with her mom post-claiming?

I think we both knew this could be the last time we lay around in her room like this. It seemed like there was nothing else we could do. The situation was what it was, and if today was all we had, then at least we would have this.

So in conclusion, they totally spent the day fucking.

Pretty Suit demands the lovebirds come out once he wakes up, so they head out.

I saw Macon and Aunt Del. They were both holding candles, and behind them, Ravenwood was shrouded in shadows and darkness. There were other dark figures moving in the background, also holding candles.

See, this is the problem with the worldbuilding of all this book. What dark figures?

“Dark figures” previously appeared for the Halloween party, where they were numerous and hanging out dancing while Lena almost died because the couple people trying to do the protective spell didn’t have enough juice. We have no idea if they’re extended family or other caster lines, only that they gave no aid whatsoever. Perhaps they didn’t like the idea of keeping little miss timebomb alive, but in that case, why were they allowed in? Surely some of them would do more than just wait and hope she dies on her own. I mean, it’d be one thing if they viewed her as personally doomed, like a terminally ill patient, or maybe felt uncomfortable helping and being complicit if she went dark and hurt people later, but we’ve been told that apparently she’s going to usher in a goddamn apocalypse, somehow, if she turns. She’s like one of those would-you-kill-baby-Hitler tests, and without even the bit about being a baby or thinking that you could just as easily abduct baby Hitler and solve the problem that way.

Ooh, that might work for a different plot – imagine if the claiming wasn’t set, if it was necessary to keep your powers and otherwise you turn mortal. In that case, “protecting” Lena involves making sure she does show up at her claiming. It’d need a reason why taking off wasn’t objectively the right answer, though – probably, remove the uncertainty and have it be that Lena can pick but they’re worried the dark caster will dart in and possess her into picking evil at the last second. That’d also make running off not necessarily the best choice, because if she runs early then gets grabbed by a dark caster, they still have time to set up a ritual of their own. Also, it’d help to have something positive happen if she picks good, instead of it just being everyone’s fucked if she goes evil.

Oh, and also they’re wearing robes.

She looked so out of place in her old jeans and my oversized Jackson High hoodie. I doubted Lena had ever dressed like this in her whole life. I think she just wanted to keep a piece of me with her as long as she could.

Okay, now I’m wondering if the original actually did say they fucked and it just got edited out, because seriously. Of course, that’d mean there was any editor oversight here in the first place, but then again, it wouldn’t be the first time people drew weird lines in the sand for acceptable behavior.

Lena says this is the Binding, to keep me safe until Moonrise because it wouldn’t be a proper ending to the book if we didn’t have yet more of what the fuck does binding even mean here.

She let go of my hand and took the last step down from the landing. When her foot touched the polished black floor, she was transformed. The flowing dark robes of the Binding now hid the curves of her body.

And not only that but it ups it to suddenly the robes are the binding? The fuck are you doing book seriously.

She touched her throat, my mother’s gold ring still hanging at her neck. I hoped it would help to remind her that I was there with her. Just as I hoped it was my mom who had been trying to help us all along.

What an interesting point you raise. Your house has some sort of spirit you think is your mom who you think is on your side. Existing jewelery turned out to be mega evil somehow, a fact you and Lena couldn’t sense. She is now wearing a piece of jewelry from your house that has not been vetted by anyone else.

Anyway, Latin time! Which for some reason will be translated into English as they go so why the fuck don’t you just say the whole thing in English and be done with it.

“Cur Luna hac Vinctum convenimus?”
Aunt Del stepped up next to him. Her candle flickered as she raised it, translating. “Why on this Moon do we come together for the Binding?”
The circle responded, holding high their candles as they chanted. “Sextusdecima Luna, Sextusdecimo Anno, Illa Capietur.”
Lena answered them in English. Her candle flared up until the flames almost seemed like they would burn her face. “On the Sixteenth Moon, the Sixteenth Year, She will be Claimed.”

That’s really not answering them, it’s repeating them down to talking about herself in the third person for some reason.

Then they do the blood protection spell again, because that sure’s going to work.

As soon as it’s done someone knocking at the door so everything magics into an ordinary family eating pink cake.

What’s going on, L? What just happened?
Someone’s at the door. They’re just being careful.

Why, though? No one’s entered, and given the house’s powers it could easily only do this in response to the door opening, assuming people can even get in without permission.

Larkin looked up from his thick triangle of red velvet cake, Lena’s favorite. “Isn’t anyone goin’ to get the door?”
Macon brushed a crumb from his cashmere jacket, looking calmly at Larkin. “By all means, see who it is, Larkin.”

Um…does Larkin not get this? Do the rest of them not see the problem with sending one of the youngest members to check? We know Ridley got in once by what looks like an invite loophole.

“SURPRISE!”
Surprise didn’t even begin to describe it. Once again, I had allowed chaos and danger to find its way to Ravenwood.

Stop taking credit for everything, Emothan.

Actually, come to think of it, why had Larkin even let them in?

That is indeed slightly ominous, so I’m going to just savor it a moment. But it’s probably the mundane answer of Ridley used the invite loophole + her powers made him willing to invite her in. See, if only the book had addressed the apparent invite loophole instead of just saying they had no idea how she got in, then dropping the subject as apparently not interesting enough to warrant investigation.

Let’s say inviting works but Ridley can’t use her powers on a caster like Larkin. That’d fit with what we’ve seen so far – the only one she seemed to influence at all was her little sister, who hadn’t manifested powers yet, while Larkin is even older than her. In that case, her getting in means there must have been someone else able to control Larkin into giving the invite or someone else powerful enough to just break the protections directly.

Right now, it’s just as possible Larkin felt it’d be rude to turn them away, especially because he’s had practically no characterization.

Emily looped her arm through Lena’s like they were long-lost friends. “We’ve been plannin’ this party all week. We’ve got live music and Charlotte rented these outdoor lights so everyone can see, I mean the grounds of Ravenwood are so dark.” Emily dropped her voice as if she were discussing selling contraband on the black market. “And we have some peach schnapps.”
“You have to see it,” Charlotte drawled, practically gasping for breath between words because her jeans were so tight. “There’s a laser machine. It’s a rave at Ravenwood, how cool is that? It’s just like one a those college parties over in Summerville.” A rave? Ridley must have really pulled out all the stops for this one. Emily and Savannah throwing Lena a party and fawning over her like she was their Snow Queen? This must have been harder than getting them all to jump off a cliff.

Why yes, Ridley sure does seem to sincerely want to make her cousin happy.

This doesn’t even have to be particularly malicious in execution. Let’s say Ridley had a similar mind rewrite power as Lena demonstrated with the book. She just mass erases everyone’s dislike of Lena. While something like this could be used unethically, their hatred of her kind of just happened due to author fiat in the first place, so it’s not such a violation as if they were hating her for an actual reason. In this case it seems like it might be more resetting them to however they’d normally deal with a girl turning sixteen – I mean, really, we’ve seen no bullying whatsoever among the other girls and the one instance of public humiliation toward one of the girls had the others immediately trying to protect her, and this is a town that apparently crowns half their class Snow-Whatever at the dance, and they put up with Emothan’s shit.

Of course, even as I say this the author remembers that right, girls are catty bitches.

“Now, let’s go up to your room and get you ready, birthday girl!” Charlotte sounded even more like a cheerleader than she normally did, always overcompensating.
Lena looked green. Her room? Half the writing on her walls was probably about them.
“What are you talkin’ about, Charlotte? She looks just gorgeous. Don’t you think so, Savannah?” Emily gave Lena a little squeeze and looked at Charlotte disapprovingly, like maybe she should lay off the pie and put some effort into looking that gorgeous.
“Are you kiddin’? I would just die for this hair,” Savannah said, winding a strand of Lena’s hair around her finger. “It’s so amazingly… black.”
“My hair was black last year, at least underneath,” Eden protested. Last year, Eden had dyed the underside of her hair black, leaving the top blond, in one of her misguided attempts to distinguish herself. Savannah and Emily had teased her mercilessly, until she dyed it back a whole day later.
“You looked like a skunk.” Savannah smiled at Lena approvingly. “She looks like an Italian.”

“Italian” is slightly more specific than curly black hair. Lena sounds very, very Irish, with the dark hair/light skin and eyes mix.

This has to be some kind of trick.
It’s a trick all right, but I don’t think it’s the kind you’re imagining. It probably has more to do with a Siren and a lollipop.
Ridley. I should’ve known.

Yes, you should. I didn’t even realize you were confused on the subject until just now. He told you Ridley was making everyone give you a surprise party, then everyone shows up to give you a surprise party while explaining you’re the best thing ever.

“Hiya, Gramma!” Ridley called from the doorway, where she was hanging back on the veranda, sucking on her red lollipop with an intensity that made me think if she stopped this whole thing might fall like a house of cards.

Huh. He keeps mentioning it but it didn’t occur to me it actually matters. I wonder how this works? Also, that means not only did Ridley do all this, but she’s expending a lot of effort for it.

I really hope Lena’s magical fix will somehow fix Ridley too, and by fix I mean just remove the arbitrary tag on her head that’s making everyone insist she’s evil.

She didn’t have me to get her through the door this time. She was an inch away from Larkin, who looked amused but stood directly in front of her.

And she’s doing all this from the porch, too! Go Ridley.

I wonder what’s up with Larkin. Maybe it’s really the old guard that believe in the dark=demon babyeater, and Larkin and others are more willing to keep up their ties with them? So he doesn’t actually think she’s doing anything wrong and isn’t going to try to stop it, but he knows he shouldn’t invite her in or the adults will get upset.

“Ridley. What a pleasure to see you, dear! Your new look is very becoming, darling. I’m sure you’ll have lots of gentlemen callers.” Gramma flashed Ridley an innocent smile, though her eyes weren’t smiling.

Gramma is kind of a raging bitch.

I mean, really. Parents objecting to what teens wear is normal. Parents being fine with teens wearing it so long as they can call them a slut is abuse.

Ridley pouted, but continued sucking on her lollipop.

Ridley isn’t! She’s refusing to be baited and she’s not going to jeopardize what she’s doing for Lena to get into a fight with her family.

“How many licks does it take, Rid?”
“For what, Short Straw?”
“To get Savannah Snow and Emily Asher to throw a party for Lena?”
“More than you know, Boyfriend.” She stuck out her tongue at me, and I could see it was streaked with red and purple.

So confirmation – the lollipop thing is part of her doing the magic, and she’s working really, really hard to manage all this.

“There’s a stage in the middle of the magnolia trees.”
“My magnolia trees?” Macon was on his feet.

Haha Ridley managed a nice little fuck-you there.

I knew the whole thing was a farce, that Ridley was bringing this party to life with every suggestive lick, and Lena knew it, too. But I could still see it in Lena’s eyes. There was a part of her that wanted to go out there.
A surprise party, where everyone in school shows up. That must have been on Lena’s regular-high-school-girl list too.

I really wish this book could distinguish from stuff every regular high school girl wants and stuff they experience.

If Lena’s regular high school girl list was to be the most popular girl in school who everyone loved, then I’m starting to see what went wrong at her first school. That’s unspeakably self-centered. Not everyone can be the most popular kid. In fact, by definition, the vast majority of people are not the most popular kid, because there is only one.

Anyway, Larkin argues that they should let Lena enjoy her party. Since Ridley is supposedly super evil and this must be for super evil reasons and he should know how super evil she is, maybe the reveal will be Larkin is secretly evil? Dunno how that’d work but it’d mean one evil male caster exists, so there’s that for it.

I couldn’t believe Link was here. His mother would have a heart attack if she ever found out.

What? The entire town is there because his girlfriend made them. Why would it surprise you that he’s there? Especially after he explicitly said not only was he going to be there but he’d be the band playing.

She wanted to be part of all this, even if it wasn’t real. It was like the dance, or the basketball game. It was the reason she bothered to go to school in the first place, no matter how horribly they treated her. It was why she showed up, day after day, even if she ate on the bleachers and sat on the Good-Eye Side. She was sixteen, Caster or not. For one night, that was all she wanted to be.

That’s perfectly reasonable, book. Now, if you could just sidle away from the dumb idea she specifically wanted to be the most important person ever and just wanted acceptance, of which this party counts as, it’d be outright good.

Lena pleads to be let go to the party. Since Ridley seems especially unevil, I’m assuming the whole party is really just a trick to get Lena to step outdoors so her mom can murder her. No one bothers arguing that, though – it’s as if everyone’s interpreting Ridley’s actions under the assumption she’s nonevil, but calling her evil at the same time.

I want to go to a party I’m actually invited to. I mean, I know it’s all Ridley, but is it wrong if I don’t care?”

Uh, maybe. I’m willing to give Ridley a pass here because she doesn’t seem to be harming anyone – this is really more like the supernatural powered up version of your popular cousin getting everyone excited about going to your party. But in principle, yes, if Ridley’s mindraping them into doing stuff, you should care.

“Ethan and I never even got to dance, Uncle M. You said it yourself.”
For a second, it seemed like Macon might relent, but only for a second. “Here’s what I didn’t say. Get used to it. I never got to spend a day in any school, or even walk through town on a Sunday afternoon. We all have disappointments.”

And yet again we’re reminded anyone else would have been a more interesting focus for the book. There’s actual disorders that can prevent kids from going outside during the day. In his case, he had to also contend with an abusive father and the fact he feeds off other people to live. Apparently his brother’s evil too. And despite all this, he chose to be good, or at least that’s the idea. That’s a lot more interesting, especially when contrasted with Lena, who’s getting bullied for the same reason girls usually get bullied and who, if she wanted so badly to be accepted, did have the choice of trying to fit in and be like the other girls.

“Lena, I understand how you feel, but it’s my responsibility to keep you safe. Especially tonight, you have to remain here with me. The Mortals will only put you in harm’s way, or bring you pain. You can’t be normal. You weren’t meant to be normal.” Macon had never spoken to Lena like this. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the party, or me.
Lena’s eyes shone, but she didn’t cry. “Why not? What’s so wrong with wanting what they have? Did you ever stop to think they might have gotten something right?”

Maybe this makes sense in the alternate reality where the author actually included all the stuff about the difference between mortals and casters. About how their society is different, their way of living is different, how their problems and mortal problems are different enough for Emothan to view them as night and day.

But here, they’re going off on this weird tangent when the actual argument is no, you can’t go out because there is someone with a sniper rifle out there, and she’s responding with BUT OTHER KIDS DON’T HAVE SNIPER RIFLES AIMED AT THEM DID YOU EVER THINK THAT MIGHT BE BETTER? Just what the fuck are you arguing?

I mean, really, this whole thing maps perfectly on to her just being the president’s daughter or something, except for the weird tacked on bit about how mortals are fundamentally different and then suggesting maybe they should copy them.

“What if they have? What does it matter? You’re a Natural. One day, you will go somewhere Ethan can never follow.

So the afterlife is caster-only, with maybe a voodoo backdoor if we want to say Amma’s ghosts are her own family and really there’s no need for that.

So I’m right and Lena needs to stfu about the incredible injustice there’s any period in her life when she can for-real die, when that’s business as usual for the rest of humanity.

And every minute you spend together now will only be a burden you will have to carry for the rest of your life.”

Or maybe not! Or maybe the otherworld isn’t considered the afterlife or maybe look nothing makes sense. We are almost done with the damn book and all I know about the magic system is some people are born magic and also they can do spells by saying words, and then other people can also do magic and some of the magic overlaps while other magic can only be done by one type except when the other type somehow does it anyway.

“He’s not a burden.”
“Oh, yes he is. He makes you weak, which makes him dangerous.”
“He makes me strong, which is only dangerous to you.”

There is absolutely no sign this has ever been an issue. But anyway, Lena shouts that he just doesn’t understand love and runs into her room.

Slowly, he turned to me.
“I couldn’t allow it. I’m sure you understand.” I knew this was possibly the most dangerous night of Lena’s life, but I also knew it might be her last chance to be the girl we all loved.

And that’s why teens shouldn’t make the decisions.

It is the most dangerous night, while it only might be her last night. In fact, Pretty Suit seems downright confident Lena will go light, and unlike you or even her, he actually has experience. The fact the rest of her family is there to protect her and no one seems to have even considered preemptive murder suggests that the main worry is angry mommy, not going dark.

Larkin decides that he’ll just go party with everyone for Lena, because Larkin, kind of a dick.

Ridley was still standing in the doorway.

And so we clearly see why Ridley is dark while Larkin is light: author fucking fiat.

She looked at me and shrugged. “I tried.”

Poor Ridley.

The adults insist Emothan go party too, by which they obviously mean GTFO already. He says he’ll leave, but he’s coming right back and he’ll sit on the steps if he needs to. Hm, maybe evil mommy will use him as a hostage?

Lena walked up behind us and wrapped her arms around my waist. Her eyes were red and teary, but in the dark, she looked just like everyone else.
“What happened? Did your uncle change his mind?”
“Not exactly. But what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, and I don’t care if it does. He’s being so awful tonight.”

Shit shit shit.

Now he doesn’t know to watch for danger. You fucking idiots.

It’d be one thing if Lena didn’t realize there was a risk. But she knows she’s in danger out here, she’s just willing to accept that because she figures she’s doomed no matter what.

Also, Larkin apparently

“Did you sneak out?”
“Yeah. Larkin helped me.” Larkin walked toward us, carrying a plastic cup.

Okay my mind went right to roofies.

It’s nothing specific to the characters behavior here, but then again, that’s sort of the problem – Larkin has no damn personality beyond mildly dickish in doing snake illusions at Emothan. So all I get is an older guy carrying a plastic cup of unidentified punch at a teen party, and that’s not a good image.

Link headed for the stage. “I wrote you a song for your birthday, Lena. You’re gonna love it.”
“What’s it called?” I asked suspiciously.
“Sixteen Moons. Remember? That weird song you could never find on your iPod? It just popped into my head last week, all in one piece.

Aw. I was about to wonder if there were time shenanigans here where he writes the song now and it then ends up appearing in the past, but no, it’s just appearing by whatever mechanism it’s been doing the whole book.

Emothan spends a few paragraphs on how much Link’s song and band are going to suck and how they’ll be booed off the stage and the party will be done and he and Lena will head back inside.

Ridley sat at the edge of the stage, smiling and waving like a groupie.

Look at Ridley supporting her boyfriend, unlike Emothan!

Her hair was twisting in the breeze, pink and blond strands beginning to loop around her shoulders.

Hm. I think this means she’s using magic, but it’s unclear because he’s saying there is a breeze.

Anyway, the song is awesome, everyone’s dancing and enjoying themselves.

Larkin was in no hurry. He was all tangled up with Emily, making out by the side of one of the bonfires someone had made out of old garbage cans. Emily was wearing Larkin’s jacket and every now and then he’d pull down the shoulder and lick her neck or something gross. He really was a snake.
“Larkin! She’s, like, sixteen,” Lena called over toward the fire from where we were dancing.

I don’t believe we know Larkin’s age but it’s definitely a decent bit older than Ridley, who’s seventeen. So two consenting sixteen year olds having sex in a committed relationship is too far for this book, but a guy who’s probably around twenty if not more groping a sixteen year old is fine, and the most it gets is Lena’s halfhearted condemnation.

Then the girls get together to give her a present of a silvery minipurse.

“It’s just a little somethin’.” Savannah held it out.
“Every girl should have one,” Emily was slurring.
“Metallic goes with everything.” Eden could barely stop herself from ripping off the paper herself.
“Just big enough for, like, your phone and your lip gloss.” Charlotte pushed it toward Lena. “Go on. Open it.”
Lena took the package in her hands, and smiled at them. “Savannah, Emily, Eden, Charlotte. You have absolutely no idea what this means to me.” The sarcasm was lost on them. I knew exactly what it was, and exactly what it meant to her. Stupid to the power of stupid.

God damn it Lena could you be a decent person for five whole seconds?

Lena couldn’t look me in the eye, or we both would have burst out laughing. As we made our way back into the crowd of dancers, Lena tossed the little silver package into the bonfire. The orange and yellow flames ate their way through the wrapping, until the tiny metallic purse was nothing but smoke and ash.

That’s a no then.

Well, I guess everyone has to get a bad aesop of their own.

Pretty Suit is about how power and blackmail make you a hero. Emothan’s is about how everyone but the rich and pretty and special are boring and stupid. Lena’s is about how you should demand everyone love you but it’s fine to hate them back.

Savannah comes over to ask Link to a dance after that great song.

“Hands off, Prom Queen. This is my Hot Rod.” Ridley draped her arm, and a few other key parts, around Link to make her point.

Note Ridley did not attack the other girl, not even verbally. And she drapes herself over Link, rather than, say, grabbing his dick and squeezing to teach him a lesson about talking to any other girl. It’s almost like she’s not evil! Especially by the standard Lena just demonstrated.

“Sorry, Savannah. Maybe next time.” Link stuck his drumsticks in his back pocket and headed back onto the dance floor with Ridley and her R-rated dance moves.

Yes she’s a slut I get it I get it.

Also seriously Emothan could you sound more resentful? Just kiss him if that’s what you want!

After the song ended, he hopped back onto the stage. “We got one last song, written by a good friend a mine, for some very special people at Jackson High. You’ll know who you are.” The stage went dark. Link unzipped his hoodie, and the lights went up with the twang of the guitar. He was wearing a Jackson Angels T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, looking as ridiculous on Link as he intended it to. If only his mother could see him now.
He leaned into the microphone and began to do a little Casting of his own.
“Fallin’ angels all around me
Misery spreads misery
Your broken arrows are killin’ me.
Why can’t you see?
The thing you hate becomes your fate
Your destiny, Fallen Angel.”
Lena’s song, the one she wrote for Link.
As the music swelled, every card-carrying Angel swayed to the anthem targeted at them. Maybe it was all Ridley, and maybe it wasn’t. The thing is, by the time the song was over, and Link had tossed his winged T-shirt into the bonfire, it felt like a few more things were going up in flames along with it. Everything that had seemed so hard, so insurmountable for so long, just sort of went up in smoke.

Wow. Finally, someone directly engaging instead of just being more of a reclusive dick. And if it is Ridley behind it, Ridley’s powers are nowhere near as awful as Lena made them out – she can do some pretty subtle, delicate stuff to improve a place, and is doing it to help out Lena.

Long after the Holy Rollers had stopped playing, even when Ridley and Link were nowhere to be found, Savannah and Emily were still being nice to Lena, and the whole basketball team was suddenly speaking to me again, I looked for some small sign, a lollipop, anywhere. The lone, telltale thread that could come loose to unravel the whole sweater.
But there was nothing.

And it seems it really works. This isn’t a moment of peace, this is Ridley nudging everyone to just be nicer. Imagine how much better the world at large could be if people with her power weren’t told they were evil and kicked out of their family.

Then we get yet another multiparagraph slow confession of love, this time from Lena, with the stammering and the not being sure how to say it and for fuck’s sake you confessed you were in love in like chapter five move the fuck on!

she had saved me from this town, from my life, my dad. From myself.

No fucking evidence of that either. She seems to have just made you a bigger isolationist dick.

I wanted it to stay this way forever.
Which, it turns out, was exactly five more minutes.

Please let there be explosions.