Heartless Hunter

Laila Creed hands Rune a purging knife, and Rune’s mind races through ways to save Seraphine without condemning herself. Meanwhile, Seraphine spits at Rune in hatred and says her Nan would be ashamed of her. Just as Rune decides to risk a casting scar to spell the illusion of fire as a distraction for Seraphine to escape, a pillar of actual spellfire emerges and throws the dinner into chaos. Seraphine disappears, but the spellfire continues to surround and suffocate Rune.

Gideon arrives at the Luminaries Dinner in time to see the fire surrounding Rune. He throws himself into the chaos to save her and carry her from the platform. Even after they’ve exited the courtyard, the spellfire continues to follow Rune, and they’re forced to flee further.

Verity eventually finds them and keeps her distance from Gideon, disproving the affection Rune shows him in appreciation of his heroism. After Verity and Rune leave, Gideon inspects the courtyard with Laila. Laila shows him a spell signature left behind on a nearby table—“a thorny rose enclosed by a crescent moon” (271)—which belongs to Cressida Roseblood, a witch who should be dead.

Rune and Verity take a carriage to Thornwood Hall to meet with Alex. While Verity retrieves snacks from the kitchens, Rune joins Alex in the conservatory where he plays the piano. Alex reveals that he’s bought a house in Caelis and plans to put Thornwood Hall up for sale tomorrow. Alex and Rune share an intimate moment that has Rune wondering if he feels more than friendship toward her. Verity’s return interrupts the moment. 

Verity reveals that Seraphine was taken back to prison and theorizes that the Good Commander will wait until Liberty Day in a week to purge Seraphine as publicly as possible. Despite Alex’s tendency to never choose sides between Rune and Gideon, he offers to steal Gideon’s access coin to Fortitude Gate. Meanwhile, Verity plans to steal a Blood Guard uniform from a girl in her school dormitory who interns at the Ministry of Public Safety.

Rune decides to stay at Thornwood Hall when it begins storming, but she offers Verity her carriage back to the university. Rune struggles to sleep in the same house where Cressida tortured Gideon and seeks out Alex’s room. When she asks Alex about Gideon’s past, he reveals their backstory. Alex doesn’t know the particulars of Gideon’s relationship with Cressida but knows that Gideon drove him away to protect him from Cressida. However, when Alex heard of Gideon’s self-punishment in the boxing ring, he became concerned and returned home from school.

With Nicholas Creed’s help, he helped Gideon transfer his focus to covert meetings where citizens planned a revolution that would free society from witches. The night Gideon led the resistance to the palace to kill the Sister Queens, Alex admits he went to Thornwood Hall with a loaded pistol to kill Cressida for Gideon’s sake. Recounting this brings Alex to tears, and Rune holds him until he falls asleep. Unable to stay the night in the house, Rune borrows a horse and rides home to Wintersea.

The Good Commander meets with Gideon about restarting the raids, curfews, and interrogations. Gideon cautions against doing so, as infringing upon people’s rights might gain more support for Cressida and the witches. However, the Good Commander gains support by claiming it’s the lesser of two evils. If Cressida is not caught, she will do much worse than temporarily violating citizens’ rights.

Gideon receives a telegram from Alex inviting him to Thornwood Hall for a goodbye party later that evening. Though Gideon purposefully avoids Thornwood Hall, he decides to attend. It will be the last time he sees Alex before he leaves for Caelis at the end of the week and Gideon needs to warn Alex of his failure to kill Cressida.

At Thornwood Hall, Gideon plays several rounds of cards with Alex and his friends. He notices a pale line of untanned skin on Alex’s pinky finger and remembers a conversation with Harrow. Harrow described an aristocrat with a silver ring on his smallest finger who aided the two witches who escaped on Rune’s ship. The realization shocks Gideon, who is hesitant to believe his brother would betray him to help witches after destroying their own family.

When Gideon runs out of money, Alex convinces him to wager his prison access coin on the next round. After losing it to Alex, Gideon warns his brother that Cressida is still alive and leaves Thornwood Hall. The news shocks Alex, as he claims to have shot her three times.

Alex arrives at Wintersea House the following morning and tells Rune about Cressida’s survival. Alex admits that as much as he wanted to kill Cressida that fateful night for the damage she’d done to his family, he believes killing witches wasn’t the answer to forging a better world. Instead, Alex shot at the ceiling three times and told her to flee and never return.

Rune would have once been ecstatic to hear this news, but after everything she’s learned about what Cressida did to Gideon and his family, Alex’s admission angers her. Still, Rune urges Alex not to admit this information to Gideon. She fears he will be arrested as a witch sympathizer and cannot bear to lose him.

Gideon, Laila, and a contingent of Blood Guards conduct a surprise raid on a print shop where a shopworker claims to have spotted casting signatures last week. Earlier, seven people had entered the shop, but when Gideon and Laila kick down the door and enter, they find it empty. Gideon and Laila climb through an open window leading to the roof and spot several shadowy figures jumping from a house into a strange fog.

An ominous feeling causes Gideon to call off the chase. As he and Laila are returning to the print shop, Harrow emerges from the fog. Though he’s suspicious at first, Gideon reasons that if Harrow was Cressida in disguise or a witch, he would have smelled the stench of magic on her. Gideon begins to wonder if he’s been wasting his time hunting down the Crimson Moth when it might have been “Cressida who was the true threat” all along (314). When they inspect the print shop, the ominous feeling returns. The distinct scent of Cressida’s magic becomes stronger and just as he attempts to warn Harrow and Laila that they’ve walked into a trap, the print shop explodes.

When Rune wakes, Lizbeth hands her the morning paper detailing a witch attack that left 27 dead at a local print shop during a raid Gideon Sharpe led. Rune desperately rushes to town in search of Gideon, hoping he’s not amongst the deceased. When she can’t find him, she weeps on the front step of his apartment in Old Town. Gideon finds her there. Gideon is minorly injured and shocked at the depth of her devastation upon believing him to be dead. This revelation flatters Gideon so much he gives into his attraction to her despite his mission and the feelings his little brother has for her. They become passionate, and Gideon brings Rune inside.

Gideon brings Rune up to his bedroom. Though Harrow’s words echo through his mind, urging him to check Rune’s thighs for casting scars, Gideon’s thoughts distract him. He wonders, “If he proved himself worthy of her, maybe this could be more than a game. Not just flirting and kissing and courting, but a life shared” (326).

Rune struggles with the same inner conflict. Part of her sees the strategic advantage of gaining Gideon as a permanent source of intel through a long-term romance and convincing him she isn’t a witch. However, a deeper part of her wishes for it to be real. They have sexual intercourse, and Rune realizes she’s fallen in love with Gideon before they fall asleep in each other’s arms.