Rebel Witch

In the bathroom, Rune privately cries. The song playing in the recital was often played by Gideon’s brother and her best friend, Alex, on the piano in her casting room back home. Rune still grieves Alex’s death in the two months that he’s been gone; he was killed by a bullet meant for Gideon, which Cressida fired after saving Rune and fellow witch Seraphine from execution.

Looking at the ring Alex gave her when he proposed to her shortly before his death, Rune thinks about how she would have preferred him as a husband over Soren. However, Rune knows that the only way to keep witches safe is to destroy the Blood Guard and the New Republic, and the only way to do that is to put Cressida back on her throne. Though Rune dislikes Cressida, she’s the lesser of two evils, because at least witches would be safe. Therefore, she’s willing to marry Soren to help Cressida gain the army she needs to crush those who seek to end witchkind.

Though working for Cressida fills Rune with loathing because of how cruelly the witch treated Gideon in the past, Cressida did save Rune and Seraphine from death, complicating their dynamic. The army they’re gathering will help save the witches they left behind when they fled the New Republic—especially Aurelia Kantor, a powerful sibyl witch capable of seeing into the past, present, and future. The Blood Guard is torturing Aurelia to give them the locations of every witch in hiding so that they can hunt down and execute all survivors.

Gideon follows Rune to the bathroom, but upon meeting her bloodshot eyes in the mirror before firing his gun, he hesitates. When she asks what his brother would think of him now, he notices the engagement ring still on her finger; while he grieves his brother’s death, he nurses hurt feelings at the fact that Rune might have been with Alex the entire time she was seducing Gideon to gain information about the witches held by the New Republic.

When Rune tries to run for the exit, Gideon grabs her, pressing the barrel of the gun to her temple. She exclaims that she wishes he had died that day instead of Alex, prompting Gideon’s memories to come flooding back. He believes that he failed the Republic by falling in love with Rune, the rebel witch called the Crimson Moth whom he was tasked with hunting down. He promised himself not to fall prey to those weaknesses again. Before shooting, he asks Rune why she’s helping put Cressida back on the throne despite knowing the destruction and suffering she’s capable of causing. Instead of answering, Rune knees him in the groin and seizes his gun just as the bathroom door opens and Cressida enters.

Cressida apprehends Gideon and sends Rune out. Cressida and her scar artist, Ava Saers, stay behind. Before Rune leaves, Cressida orders her to hand Gideon’s gun over to Ava, who sets it on the sink edge. Cressida interrogates Gideon, who reveals that he came to assassinate Rune to stop her from securing an alliance between Cressida and Prince Soren. Cressida seems immensely interested in his relationship with Rune, claiming that he looks at Rune the same way he once looked at Cressida.

Cressida surprises Gideon by thanking him for the night he killed her sisters, Elowyn and Analise, which allowed Cressida to realize that she took them for granted; her newfound appreciation for them inspired her to attempt resurrecting them. She claims that she hid their bodies somewhere safe, preserving them via magic for two years. The resurrection spell requires Cressida to sacrifice close kin with strong blood ties to the deceased. When Gideon points out that this is impossible because her entire family is dead, Cressida reveals that she has a long-lost sibling. She doesn’t know where or who they are, and her sibyls—witches capable of seeing the past, present, and future—can’t see them, so she believes that someone concealed them via powerful magic. The thought of all three Roseblood sisters back in power worries Gideon immensely, and he wonders if Rune knows of Cressida’s plans.

Ava begins etching new scars into lovely patterns on Cressida’s skin, and Cressida uses the blood to magically hold Gideon still while she activates the brand she left on his chest. Cressida reveals that she left a spell in the brand that she wasn’t able to activate before the night he attacked her and her sisters. When she activates it, Gideon feels immense pain.

Rune stands in the hall outside the bathroom, conflicted about how to proceed. She insists that her feelings for Gideon are long gone yet worries about his being trapped in the room with Cressida. When he begins to scream in pain, Rune clenches her fists to keep from reentering the bathroom. Eventually, Soren finds her in the hall, having received word that she was attacked. He insists on taking her to his rooms in case more assassins are near. Rune wants to resist but allows him to take her and lock her in his chambers. Believing the fastest way to get Gideon away from Cressida is to convince Soren to drag her away for something he deems more important, Rune reminds him that she’ll be safe only when Cressida retakes her throne and his army kills all witch-hunters. Seducing him, she asks him to seal the alliance with Cressida tonight, and he agrees.

Cressida asks Gideon what she must do to make him comply. She suggests threatening the staff, their children, or Rune herself. As she toys with him, she begins unbuttoning his trousers, but Soren’s arrival interrupts her. Soren delays her plans by insisting that his lawyers drafted the contract for their alliance and need their signatures tonight because Rune is impatient to marry. Cressida leaves the bathroom after ordering Ava to take Gideon to her chambers. Gideon intends to attack Ava when she releases his bindings, but she writes a symbol on his chest in blood that makes him obey all her commands. As they reach the bathroom door, Rune greets them.

Rune lies to Ava, claiming that Cressida wants her in the prince’s study to bear witness to the signing. Ava doesn’t believe Rune and orders Gideon to restrain her. Rune becomes frantic and confused when Gideon follows Ava’s orders without question. Ava orders Gideon to kill Rune, and he slams her against the mirror near the sink, squeezing his hands around her throat. Rune reaches for the gun on the sink ledge and fires it at Ava.

The bullet enters Ava’s head, killing her. Gideon’s hands immediately loosen on Rune’s throat as Ava’s death releases her binding spell. In the hall, guards are gathering to investigate the gunshot. Rune crams herself and Gideon into a closet to hide her casting signature—a crimson moth that floats above the places she casts spells—and sketches symbols on Gideon and herself to make them invisible. Fortunately for them, the guards and Cressida look past their hiding spot when searching the bathroom. However, Cressida sees the crimson moth signature floating in the linen closet and suspects that Rune helped Gideon escape. She insists on checking to see if Rune is still locked in Soren’s chambers.

Rune tells Gideon where to find the stables and gives him permission to take her horse far away. She plans to return to Soren’s bedroom before Cressida and Soren can reach it themselves. Realizing that this will be impossible without his help, Gideon lifts Rune to the second-floor balcony she hopped down from to escape the room. She teases him for his jealousy over her staying in Soren’s room as he sets her on the balcony. However, he changes the subject by mentioning Cressida’s plan to resurrect her sisters by finding and sacrificing a lost relative. Before parting ways, they mutually agree that the next time they see each other, they won’t show the same mercy. Nevertheless, as Gideon walks to the stables afterward, he worries for Rune’s safety back at the palace.

Rune dives into bed and pretends to sleep just before Cressida and Soren enter the room. Soren believes she’s truly asleep and hasn’t left the room, but Cressida is less convinced. She leans close to Rune and whispers that she knows what Rune did, warns Rune that she can’t be outwitted, and claims that Gideon is hers alone. Rune’s friend Seraphine enters the room, interrupting Cressida, and insists on staying with Rune to ensure her safety. Cressida leaves Rune in Seraphine’s care to hunt down Gideon. Once she’s gone, Rune admits to Seraphine that she killed Ava and helped Gideon escape. Seraphine warns Rune that Cressida will severely punish her if she finds proof that Rune helped Gideon escape. She urges Rune to run far away, but Rune knows that the alliance will fall apart without her marriage to Soren. Though she doesn’t particularly want Cressida on the throne, she knows that witch hunts will continue if Cressida doesn’t stop the New Republic. Rune has an idea: to rescue the sibyl from the Blood Guard, and to use a summoning spell to find the missing Roseblood heir to keep them alive and far from Cressida. As this idea takes shape, Rune promises Seraphine that she’ll run after she completes one last mission.

At a hotel in the city, Gideon finds a telegram from his colleague, Harrow, asking if he’s completed his mission. Gideon doesn’t dare reveal Cressida’s plot to resurrect her sisters, lest the information fall into the wrong hands, so he simply claims that new, dangerous information has emerged and he’ll elaborate when he returns. Harrow responds back, inquiring about Rune’s status. Gideon replies that he needs a few more days to complete the job, and Harrow informs him that the Good Commander considers him unfit for the job. He requested Gideon’s immediate return to the Republic and is sending someone more qualified to complete the mission. This news frustrates Gideon, but he plans to prove his capabilities to the Commander. He seeks to stop Cressida Roseblood before she can resurrect her sisters because, as cruel as she is, her sisters are far worse. Gideon resolves to seek out Rune and kill her, even if it breaks him.

The next day, the local paper announces Rune and Prince Soren’s engagement. Gideon suspects that Soren will flaunt his new fiancée and, knowing how much Rune loves fashion, Gideon travels to the capital’s shopping district. He soon locates them, and sees Soren escort Rune into a wedding dress shop before leaving on his own errands. Gideon strides into the shop and slips into Rune’s dressing room with his gun cocked, ready to finish the job. However, Rune greets him by holding a gun to his head.

Rather than kill him, Rune proposes a temporary truce: She’ll break off her engagement to Soren, nullifying her alliance with Cressida, if he safely transports her to the New Republic and releases the sibyl the Blood Guard is holding hostage. She claims that if Gideon kills her, Soren will wage war against the Republic to avenge her, meaning that he’ll give Cressida his support either way unless they work together. Gideon internally considers pretending to accept the truce but then handing her over to the Blood Guard upon arrival and then using her as a bargaining chip with Soren, demanding her return in exchange for Cressida’s death.

Both express distrust of each other. Rune reminds Gideon that he handed her over to be executed the last time he broke her trust. Meanwhile, he reminds her that she pretended to love him while using him for intel and secretly recruiting witches for Cressida’s army. Rune admits that she didn’t know her friend, Verity de Wilde, was secretly Cressida the entire duration of their friendship, but Gideon doesn’t know whether to believe this. He verbally agrees to the temporary truce but internally resolves to betray her before she can betray him.

When Soren returns to the shop and insists on seeing what Rune tries on, Gideon emerges, holding a gun to Rune’s head. He pretends to hold her hostage, claiming that he’ll shoot her if anyone makes a move toward them. His bluff allows them to exit the shop, and instead of returning to his hotel room for his belongings, Rune grabs nearby luggage (stowed for her and Soren’s engagement trip), and they flee to the docks, where a ship called the Arcadia is about to set sail. Rune buys them passage for a three-day voyage, and they pretend to be newlyweds as they board the ship.

When they arrive at their third-class cabin, Rune is shocked that the room and single bed are so tiny: She never traveled third-class before. As they hurriedly change, the police knock at the cabin door. Gideon answers the door while Rune quickly casts a spell to conceal her identity by transforming her features. She transforms just as the police peek inside and find her half-dressed. The police present a picture of Rune and ask if the couple has seen the witch, but Gideon and Rune claim they haven’t, and the police move on to the next cabin.