Heartless Hunter

As Gideon walks through Old Town, he combs through the evening’s events. While Rune had acted awkward, he has no proof she is the Moth. When someone begins following Gideon and he begins to smell roses—Cressida’s smell—he is spooked because the witch is dead. He dips into a back alley to lose the pursuer and continues to his apartment above the old tailor shop that once belonged to his parents. While he hasn’t entered the shop in years, he did so earlier that night to sew Rune’s flower. Gideon remembers Rune complaining about not having a dress to wear to the Luminaries Dinner and spends all night sketching potential dresses for her until he settles on the perfect design.

Rune meets Verity and Alex in Verity’s dorm on the university campus. Verity instructs Rune how to cast a Picklock and Deadbolt spell. However, Rune’s limited blood stores are so weak that she passes out from exertion.

Rune wakes to a throbbing head and sees one of her vials of blood shattered on the floor, devastated. She now only has one small vial to last the month. Verity claims that Rune can get more power with fresh blood. She suggests Rune use someone else’s blood “if they were willing to bear the scars,” which turn silver when activated with magic, making them easily recognizable to the Blood Guard (116).

Rune remembers her Nan telling her about the types of spells. Mirages and Minoras are smaller and require less power. Majoras and Arcanas are larger. Majoras require someone else’s freely given blood, and Arcanas require someone’s unwilling blood. Arcanas have long since been outlawed because they’re considered wicked; taking someone’s blood against their will corrupts the witch, and they eventually resort to killing sources for more power.

Rune rejects Alex’s offer to bear scars to provide her with his blood, as it will place a target on his back. Rune tells Alex that their peer Noah Creed’s mother Laila is a prison warden. She has a map hanging in her study, and Rune plans to break in and trace it. Alex agrees to help only if Rune takes a much-needed rest break from the Crimson Moth persona. He attempts to convince her to go to Caelis with him for two weeks as he completes his music studies at the Conservatory. Rune returns to Wintersea House and finds a telegram waiting for her. Gideon apologizes for their near-kiss the night before and offers a solution to her Luminaries Dinner predicament. She replies with intrigue, and he invites her to meet him at the given address at 10 am the following morning.

Gideon meets at the boxing arena for a practice session with Alex, feeling smug that he’ll know whether or not Rune is the Moth by tomorrow morning. Boxing becomes heated when Alex argues with Gideon over Rune. When Alex claims “people like Rune don’t end up with people like [Gideon]” (125), Gideon calls Alex a coward for pining from the sidelines instead of going after the girl he desires. Alex punches Gideon before leaving the gym.

Rune arrives at the Sharpe’s former tailor shop in Old Town where Gideon shows her the sketches of the dress he’s designed for her. The gesture impresses and flatters Rune. When Gideon asks her to undress to her undergarments so he may take her measurements, Rune suspects it’s a ploy to search her body for casting scars.

As he measures, Rune pries for information about his life. Gideon mentions only ever taking Cressida’s measurements and admits that she’d never have allowed him to speak to Rune. Rune suspects that Gideon might have been the lowborn lover Cressida was rumored to have. Gideon describes Cressida as similar to a pitcher plant—“pretty from a distance, tempting you closer” but only to trap you like a fool and eat you alive (134).

Gideon internally recounts his relationship with Cressida. He first met her when traveling to the palace with his mother to deliver a dress. His family hoped to be hired as royal dressmakers and change their family’s fortune. Gideon and Cressida had an immediate attraction and her attention was flattered and surprised. When his family moved to the palace shortly after being hired by her sisters, Cressida and Gideon began going on walks, riding horses, and sharing breakfasts. They began trading kisses and eventually went further.

Remembering Rune’s presence interrupts Gideon’s memories. Gideon finishes Rune’s measurements, and when she shivers, he offers her a blanket. Meanwhile, he struggles not to stare at her body’s curves as she pages through his mother’s old sketchbooks. Though Gideon has found no scars, he still questions Rune’s identity. The chance that she might be the Moth competes with the reluctant attraction he feels toward her.

Rune tells Gideon of her noon luncheon at Charlotte Gong’s and invites Gideon on a horse ride with her later that evening. Gideon declines due to a work obligation. He reveals that he has to transfer a witch from Seldom Harbor to the palace prison. Rune invites him to a masked ball at the Creeds that evening instead and asks him to meet her there afterward. He agrees to try to make it.

Rune returns to Wintersea House, ecstatic that she’s drawn valuable information from Gideon. She decides he’s the perfect suitor for her to keep around. Rune wonders about the ominous picture he painted of Cressida with his vague comments about his shared past with the witch. She believes there are two sides to every story, and with Cressida dead, Rune cannot verify any of Gideon’s recollections. Deciding not to risk sending a message to Verity and Alex about the new information, Rune instead heads directly for Seldom Harbor.

Gideon meets with Harrow and reveals that Rune has no casting scars. Harrow believes they cannot know for sure until he inspects Rune entirely naked. Gideon has another plan, however. He admits that he revealed bad information to Rune about Seldom Harbor. A holding cell containing a witch does not await the Moth. Rather, there is a trap designed to catch her. Even if the Moth shows up and it is not Rune, Gideon will know Rune is in league with her.

Rune arrives at Seldom Harbor, wearing a newly cast invisibility spell she created that “didn’t make her disappear so much as nudge a person’s attention away from her” (148). She finds the old mine Gideon mentioned housed the holding cell, guarded by Laila Creed. Rune’s horse, Lady, causes a distraction that pulls Laila from her post and allows Rune to slip inside.

Rune descends a ladder leading down into darkness where Gideon restrains her. Though he cannot see her in the darkness because of her cloaking spell, he can hear her. When Gideon loosens his grip to pull back her hood, Rune stabs him with a hidden knife and runs to the back of the mine, away from the only entrance. When she reaches the deep pool of water at the end, she submerges herself, hoping that he’ll consider the cavern clear and turn back. Doing so erases the casting spell mark from her wrist, leaving her vulnerable and exposed when she emerges.

Gideon’s lantern has extinguished, but he waits at the pool’s edge a while longer, correctly assuming the Moth was hiding beneath and would eventually need fresh air. He restrains her once again in the darkness, but Rune pushes him into the icy water, catching him off guard. Rune escapes the mine shaft and barrels into the house above that Laila guards.

When Gideon shouts to Laila, warning her of the Moth’s approach, Laila bursts inside. Rune seizes the opportunity to slip out the door behind Laila and slams the door shut. After determining that her stored blood is too weak to cast the deadbolt spell needed to keep the door shut long enough for her to escape, Rune risks using Gideon’s blood that still coats her knife. Although she has not received permission to use the blood and that sort of magic is outlawed, Rune does so anyway, successfully casting the deadbolt spell. She escapes on Lady but not before Laila shoots out from a broken window of the house. The bullet clips Rune in the arm.

Gideon wonders why the Moth stabbed him in the leg rather than going for a fatal shot. When Harrow claims she might have hit the escaping Moth with a bullet, Gideon worries it might have been Rune who was harmed. Disgusted with himself for softening to who might, at the very least, be a witch sympathizer, Gideon decides that if it is Rune, she’s a traitor to the Republic who deserves it. Gideon decides to attend the Creeds’ ball in Oakhaven Park; Rune invited him, and if she is in attendance, he will arrest her for treason.