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Sally GreenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
This summary section includes Chapter 46: “The Favors,” Chapter 47: “The Eagle and Rose,” Chapter 48: “Trusting Gabriel,” and Chapter 49: “Annalise.”
Nathan and Gabriel spend time in the woods and mountains around the cottage while they wait for Mercury to decide about Nathan’s Giving. Gabriel says he has nothing to worry about, but the date is eight days away. Mercury’s attractive assistant, Rose, appears to tell Nathan that Mercury has decided to give him three gifts on his birthday. In exchange, she will ask for two favors. One will be given ahead of time and one after Nathan’s Giving.
That evening, after supper, Nathan and Mercury have a private chat about what favors she wants in exchange for her three gifts. The first is to know everything about Nathan’s tattoos. He agrees but says he won’t divulge the information until the day of the ceremony. Secretly, he intends to withhold some facts about the markings. For the second favor, Mercury wants Nathan to kill his father because Marcus killed Mercury’s sister. Nathan protests that he won’t commit murder, but Mercury says that Marcus only cares about himself. When Nathan still refuses, Mercury gives him an alternative favor to perform: He must work as her assistant for a year. Nathan agrees, knowing Mercury will still try to persuade him to murder Marcus.
The next day, Gabriel is sent to Geneva because another young Witch has asked for Mercury’s help. With nothing else to do that afternoon, Nathan goes for a swim, and Rose comes to meet him at the lake. As they chat, Rose says that Gabriel is in love with Nathan. The latter protests that they are simply friends, but Rose says that Gabriel would die for Nathan. Rose also mentions that she once met Marcus when she was 12. She says that Nathan looks exactly like him and Nathan shouldn’t believe all the bad things Mercury said about Marcus. He once asked Mercury to look after his son, but she refused because of her sister’s death. Her sister turns out to be Nathan’s great-grandmother, which makes Mercury his great-great aunt. He realizes that his father was looking out for him all along.
Gabriel doesn’t return from his trip until the following day. He reports that the Hunters have made Geneva their base of operation, and they brought the Detheridge dagger with them. Mercury is now interested in stealing the knife and plans to send Gabriel and Rose to retrieve it. They must break into a house guarded by 20 Hunters, but Rose has special abilities to move about invisibly. Gabriel informs everyone that he also met with a Fairborn Witch who is fleeing the Council. He left her at the apartment because he thinks she might be a spy. He says that her name is Annalise O’Brien. Nathan immediately protests that she isn’t a spy. Mercury thinks it might be a good idea to bring Annalise to her cottage, so she orders Gabriel to retrieve her before going after the dagger.
Gabriel returns with Annalise, and Nathan is waiting on the roof for her. Then, Gabriel and Rose disappear through the cut to retrieve the Detheridge. Nathan is overjoyed to see Annalise again, but she is fearful and distraught. She says her connection to Nathan made her family keep her under constant surveillance. She has been called in for questioning by the Council too. After Nathan’s escape, the Council summoned her again. That is why she needs Mercury’s help. As they talk, Nathan realizes that Mercury is listening to every word. He tells Annalise of the plan to steal the dagger, and Annalise informs him of all the trespass spells that ward the Hunter headquarters. Only one entrance is unprotected, but a password is required to enter or exit. At this point, Mercury arrives to welcome her new guest. When she brings Annalise down from the roof, she puts the girl into a deep trance. Nathan is upset, but Mercury orders him to follow Gabriel and Rose because they don’t know about the password. Mercury promises to awaken Annalise if Nathan and the others return safely.
This summary section includes Chapter 50: “The Detheridge,” Chapter 51: “Back to Mercury,” Chapter 52: “Three Gifts,” and Chapter 53: “Running.”
Mercury gives Nathan instructions for where to find Gabriel and Rose. The two are still watching the Hunter headquarters when he arrives. Nathan explains about the password, and Rose says she ought to be able to overhear one of the agents speaking it. Her Gift is to dissolve into a mist that leaves observers baffled and disoriented. After obtaining the code word, Rose enters the building while Nathan and Gabriel await her return.
The boys hear a disturbance inside the house, but Rose escapes with the knife. As the three of them flee down the street, they are cut off by a Hunter holding a gun. Nathan tries to prevent her from shooting Rose and accidentally snaps her neck, but a stray bullet strikes Rose, killing her. Gabriel points out that Nathan has also been shot in the abdomen. Since the wound doesn’t heal immediately, Gabriel believes the Hunters used magical poison bullets. The boys manage to stay ahead of the pursuing Hunters, but Nathan can’t run very fast because of his injury. Gabriel says he will create a diversion while Nathan takes the Detheridge through the cut. Gabriel promises to meet him again at Mercury’s cottage.
As Nathan struggles to get to the apartment, he begins to feel the effects of the poison. Hunters are posted outside the building, which prevents Nathan from accessing the cut. He will have to find another way to Mercury’s shack. For now, he needs to find a place to change his blood-soaked clothing and rest. Twenty minutes later, he crosses paths with his half-sister Jessica. She has shapeshifted into another disguise, but Nathan recognizes her. They fight, and he uses the Detheridge to slash Jessica’s face so she won’t be able to fool anyone with her Gift again.
When Nathan reaches the suburbs, he breaks into an empty house and takes a suit of clothing. The swelling in his abdomen is growing larger. Once he rests, Nathan plans to ride a bus to the vicinity of Mercury’s place. However, he sees Hunters at the station and realizes he must go on foot. It’s now three days to his 17th birthday, but he believes he can reach Mercury in time.
As the poison in his system grows stronger, Nathan becomes delirious and passes out multiple times. During one of these episodes, he finds that the Detheridge is gone when he awakens. It takes him three days to reach the cabin, but it’s empty when he arrives. The sound of gunshots and thunder in the distance means Mercury is battling with Hunters in the vicinity. Nathan is about to go to her when time stops, and he can’t move.
Nathan realizes that only Marcus has the power to stop time. His father is finally with him, and today is his 17th birthday. Marcus is wary of his son, knowing the prophecy. He is also annoyed that the Detheridge is missing. However, he removes the bullet so that Nathan can self-heal. Then, Marcus gives the boy his three gifts: his life since he is at Marcus’s mercy, the bullet that injured him, and a ring belonging to Marcus’s ancestors. After this ritual, he allows his son to drink his blood and whispers magical words in his ear. Expressing a wish that they meet again someday, Marcus disappears.
A moment later, Mercury returns, enraged that the Hunters have found her hiding place. She is also angry that Rose is dead and the dagger is missing. Nathan says that Marcus has it, not wanting Mercury to know the truth. When he asks about Annalise, Mercury assures him she is safe but won’t be restored until Nathan kills his father. By this time, the Hunters are approaching the cottage. Mercury disappears, and Nathan starts running through the woods. His one thought is that he must find Gabriel.
The last segment of the book focuses on two central themes. The first is Separating Good from Evil, but the problem becomes more nuanced in this section. The Fairborns offer a simple definition. They are good, and Blood Witches are evil. When Nathan finally meets Mercury, he sees her as the embodiment of both ends of the moral spectrum. She offers to conduct Nathan’s Giving, which might be interpreted as a benevolent act. However, she demands a steep price for her services since she wants Nathan to kill his father, which could be seen as an evil request.
To further complicate the situation, Marcus killed Mercury’s beloved sister, which gives her an understandable desire for revenge. More complicated still is Nathan’s relationship to Mercury as his great-great aunt. The moral entanglements continue with the arrival of Annalise. She has run to Mercury for help. The old witch may be the only one able to give her the refuge she seeks. Moreover, Mercury has been the catalyst for reuniting Nathan with his first love. Again, one concludes that Mercury’s actions are benevolent. Shortly afterward, she places Annalise in a trance to use her as future leverage against Nathan. Mercury’s ambivalent role as savior and persecutor continues.
When Marcus finally does appear, he is just as morally shady as Mercury. Nathan demands to know why Marcus abandoned his son. The latter replies:
I thought you were doing fine. I caught glimpses in visions. You did well enough on your own. I saw nothing after they took you away. They had you well hidden, even from visions. But you escaped. I’m pleased about that, Nathan, for both our sakes (390-91).
Such a disclaimer hardly excuses Marcus from the responsibility to shield his son from harm during the boy’s youth. Yet, shortly after defending his absence, Marcus declares, “I take my responsibilities as a father seriously” (391).
The task of separating good from evil intensifies in the last segment of the book because Nathan is rapidly coming of age. His crisis once again foregrounds the theme of Identity and Identification. Until Marcus emerges as a viable alternative, Nathan is forced to rely on Mercury for his Giving Ceremony. The pace accelerates when only days remain for Nathan to become a witch. He is still bedeviled by the question of which faction should claim his allegiance. The Fairborns are despicable, but Nathan exhibits the strong healing tendencies associated with this faction. On the other hand, his affinity with nature suggests Blood Witch influence. Even Mercury can’t identify Nathan’s basic nature. After she gets the chance to observe him, she says, “You, though, Nathan, are physically very much a Blood Witch but I wonder about your heart. Is it that of a true Blood Witch?” (328). Nathan is unable to answer that question.
As the days tick down to moments, Nathan claims his heritage when his father appears. In part, Marcus’s absence is motivated by the fear that Nathan will kill him someday with the Detheridge. Nevertheless, he seems to feel that giving his son an identity is important. According to the lore of the novel, an identity can be conferred upon a witch by ingesting ancestral blood, which is why the Council offers to conduct Nathan’s Giving in exchange for his identification with their faction. When Marcus conducts the Giving for his son, he is transmitting affinities and heritage that will finally end Nathan’s confusion about who he is:
His blood is strong and sweet and warm in my throat and my chest and stomach, and the words curl into my head, intertwine with my blood, making no sense but wrapping me in what I know, and I smell the earth and feel its pulse through my body, through my father’s body and from his father before and his father before that, and at last I know who I am (391).
Throughout the novel, Nathan’s body has been trying to assert its Blood Witch characteristics, but Nathan’s head has been steeped in Fairborn ideology. The elemental act of drinking an ancestor’s blood sidesteps the intellectual turmoil that has plagued the boy throughout his life. His declaration of self-knowledge ends his struggle for identity once and for all.