63 pages • 2 hours read
Kristen CiccarelliHeartless Hunter
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 49-Entr’acteChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 49 Summary: “Gideon”
Gideon wakes at the sound of Rune attempting to dress and sneak out. When he asks what’s wrong, Rune admits she’s scared of her feelings for him. Gideon admits the same and suggests they trust each other. While giving her up would be the noble thing to do, Gideon selfishly wants to give in completely to a real relationship with her. He showers Rune in affection and convinces her to rejoin him in bed.
When Gideon wakes the next morning, Rune is sleeping by his side. He allows her to sleep in while he travels downstairs and pulls an encyclopedia of flowers from his mother’s old shelves. He gathers the fabrics, intent on sewing Rune a flower, when Harrow and Laila arrive at his apartment. After speaking with the print shop owner, they discovered that a university student rented out the storeroom for a school project. A sketch artist drafted a likeness from the print shop owner’s account; the portrait looks suspiciously like Verity. This leads the women to believe Rune might be in cahoots with Verity, but Gideon admits Rune had an alibi as she spent the night with him.
Gideon admits that he slept with her and found no casting scars, then forces himself to recount the events as indifferently as possible. If Harrow and Laila suspect he has real feelings for Rune, they will believe his judgment is compromised and report him to the authorities. A sound from the hall interrupts their conversation, and Gideon opens the door to find a devastated Rune.
Chapter 50 Summary: “Rune”
Rune flees the apartment, riddled with shame and hurt. She accuses Gideon of being the horrible, selfish brute she originally believed him to be and wishes to never see him again.
Chapter 51 Summary: “Gideon”
Gideon regrets his distrust of Rune and is devastated at losing her. He believes it’s what he deserves.
Chapter 52 Summary: “Rune”
Rune arrives at Thornwood Hall where Alex comforts her. He finally gains the courage to admit his feelings for her and invites her to Caelis as his wife. He places his silver ring on her finger and passionately kisses her. While Rune doesn’t feel the fire she feels with Gideon, she notices a spark deep down that perhaps, with time, can grow into a steady flame. Alex encourages her to be happy with him, as it is what her Nan would have wanted. Hesitantly, Rune agrees to Alex’s proposal.
Chapter 53 Summary: “Rune”
Rune spends the following day packing. She’s decided to leave on the same ship as Alex the morning after Seraphine’s rescue in two days. When Verity stops by, Rune tells her of the new development, and Verity is supportive of their relationship. Rune, Alex, and Verity gather to discuss the rescue plan. Verity has two Blood Guard uniforms—one for Rune, and one for herself. At 3:00 pm on Liberty Day, Rune and Verity will travel to the palace and enter the prison dressed as Blood Guards while Alex waits with the horses a block away. They intend to tell the prison guards they have orders to bring Seraphine to her purging as a ruse to usher her out to Alex. Afterward, they plan to harbor Seraphine at Thornwood Hall until she can board the ship to Caelis with Alex and Rune the morning after.
After Verity and Alex leave, Rune finds a package from Gideon waiting in her chambers. A letter reveals that he didn’t mean what he said to Harrow and Laila and only did it to ease their suspicions. He admits that he began courting Rune to uncover the Moth and apologizes for his actions. He also admits that everything he said about his feelings for her the night they slept together was the truth. Inside the package is a bouquet of hand-sewn, silk buttercups—her favorite flowers. While flattered by the gesture, Rune intends to return the flowers to him and leave for Caelis with Alex where she plans to start the life of safety and joy her Nan would want for her.
Chapter 54 Summary: “Rune”
On Liberty Day, Rune agrees to meet Gideon at his studio at two o’clock. When she retrieves the Blood Guard uniform to pack for the evening, she notices Gideon’s access coin and her last vial of blood are missing from the pockets. Believing Verity must have taken her uniform by accident, Rune travels to the university. When she arrives at Verity’s room, she discovers it is no more than a broom closet. After determining she must be misremembering Verity’s room location, Rune asks a woman at the front desk about Verity. However, the woman reveals there is no one in the building with that name. Rune begins to suspect the room was an illusion spell and that Verity has always doused herself in strong perfume to cover the scent of her magic. While confused as to why Verity would hide her witch identity from Rune, she gives her the benefit of the doubt.
Chapter 55 Summary: “Rune”
Rune meets Gideon at his place in Old Town where he accuses her of being the Crimson Moth and confronts her with her vial of blood and his access coin. He reveals that he went to Wintersea House last night to apologize and witnessed Rune, Verity, and Alex leaving her secret casting room. Despite his supposed hatred of her, Gideon looks destroyed when he discovers Alex’s ring on a chain around her neck—a sign of their engagement. Gideon summons several Blood Guards and tasks them with arresting the Crimson Moth.
Chapter 56 Summary: “Gideon”
Gideon leads the Blood Guards and Rune toward the purging platform in the town center. Alex intercepts them and attempts to reason with Gideon. When he remains unmoved, Alex publicly admits that he knew she was the Crimson Moth and personally aided her in rescuing witches. Rather than go against the Republic law, Gideon arrests his brother for treason—an offense punishable by death.
Chapter 57 Summary: “Rune”
Gideon escorts Rune to the purging platform where Seraphine already waits. Rather than hate him, Rune understands Gideon’s reaction. Cressida ruined his family with witchcraft which fostered his deep fear and hatred of all witches. Remembering her Nan, who had forgiven her in the end and still loved her despite everything, Rune decides to forgive Gideon. In doing so, she finds the strength to forgive herself as well.
Chapter 58 Summary: “Rune”
On the platform with Seraphine, Rune admits what happened with her Nan. Seraphine’s hatred transforms into understanding just before fireballs launch at the platform, striking the Blood Guards and splintering the beam overhead. Following the attack, the scent of blood and roses washes over Rune and she recognizes it as someone’s magic.
Seraphine confirms it to be Cressida and points out Verity in the crowd, leading an army of witches toward the platform. The reveal shocks Rune, and the knowledge that Verity would use the outlawed magic of Arcana spells to cloak her appearance and cast the illusion on her dorm room sickens her.
Pushing her horror aside, Rune calls out to Cressida as her queen and requests her aid to unlock their shackles. Cressida drops her disguise as Verity, revealing her true appearance, and slits a nearby girl’s throat to supply her with enough blood to cast the spell that frees Rune and Seraphine from their chains.
Chapter 59 Summary: “Gideon”
Cressida calls out to Gideon, requesting his soldiers stand down. She comes forward with the Good Commander, Laila’s father, at gunpoint. She requests the Blood Guard disarm and bring her Rune and Seraphine in return for the Good Commander’s life.
When the Good Commander urges Gideon not to obey, Cressida decides she will kill him. Alex collects the Blood Guard’s weapons and lays them at Cressida’s feet, much to Gideon’s disgust, and joins Cressida with Rune and Seraphine. Cressida then commands Gideon to come with them. When he claims he’d rather die, she aims her pistol at his chest and shoots.
Chapter 60 Summary: “Gideon”
Alex steps in the bullet’s path, taking the fatal shot meant for Gideon.
Chapter 61 Summary: “Rune”
Blood Guard reinforcements and patriotic citizens flood the square and battle against Cressida and her witches while Rune panics over Alex’s weakening body. With his last breaths, Alex asks Rune to tell Gideon he loves him and gives her permission to use his blood to cast. Remembering the Earth Sunderer spell from her Nan’s rare spell book, Rune casts it and causes a massive earthquake.
Chapter 62 Summary: “Gideon”
Gideon fails to reach Alex before his death and collapses to the ground with the realization that he’s failed everyone he loves. The earthquake interrupts his devastation and splits the square in two. A widening chasm separates the witches from the Blood Guards. Across the distance, Gideon locks eyes with Rune and swears to never stop hunting her as a crimson moth flutters over the chasm.
Entr’acte Summary: “Rune”
Cressida, Rune, and the other witches board a cargo ship headed for Caelis, “where the witch queen would bolster her army and prepare to take back what was stolen from them all” (402). While Rune doesn’t approve of Cressida’s cruel methods and doesn’t want the Reign of Witches to resume, she has nowhere else to go. Across the ship, Cressida’s gaze pins Rune like a predator assessing its prey.
Throughout the journey, Gideon plagues Rune’s dreams. She grieves his absence. Ultimately, Rune comes to terms with the fact that he is her enemy now and she must be ready when he comes for her.
Chapter 49-Entr’acte Analysis
This final section is rife with action, betrayal, and suspense, which are core elements of the first installment in any fantasy romance series. A key element of the fantasy romance genre, particularly involving a series, is a betrayal at the end of the book one that tears the love interests apart, seemingly irrevocably, and must be mended in the sequel(s).
In the previous sections, Rune and Gideon slowly opened up to one another and showed their true selves. Rather than continue to play the role of a vapid socialite, Rune doesn’t hide parts of herself from Gideon. Being with him makes her question—“Who was the real Rune Winters? Not the socialite. Not the Crimson Moth. But the person deep down inside her” (216). At first, she can’t remember, but following her feelings with Gideon allows her to rediscover the self she lost after Nan’s death.
Likewise, Rune prompts Gideon to question himself and the way he lives his life. When he becomes uneasy with the Good Commander’s order to infringe upon citizens’ rights to locate Cressida, Gideon “remembered Rune allowing Penitents to use her footpaths” and how “in a choice between mercy and punishment, Rune chose mercy” (290). Gideon wonders if he could do the same. Though his duty to the Republic outweighs his doubts about morality, Gideon’s hesitation is a sign of slow change, demonstrating the theme of Challenging Limiting Perceptions. Alex’s decision not to kill Cressida when he had the chance serves as proof that morality does not always align with what’s right. While sparing Cressida’s life was a moral thing to do, it does not mean it was the right decision. In Alex’s decision to keep Cressida alive, many citizens have died at her hands to feed her corrupt magic—one example of how the author highlights Ethical Dilemmas in a Divided Society. Eventually, Alex himself dies at her hands.
Gideon’s decision to still gift Rune 12 hand-sewn buttercups he made for her even after learning that she was the Crimson Moth is a sign that their relationship is not all lost. The gift gives readers hope that the sequel will see the renewed enemies brought back to lovers. Despite Gideon’s hatred of Rune voiced by his ominous threat in the closing chapters, promising to hunt her down, Rune’s love for him has cured her inner demons. Rather than hold anger toward him for his willingness to sacrifice her at the purging platform despite planning their future nights before, Rune’s limited perception of Gideon has been challenged. She now understands his motivations and where his hatred stems from. She does not hold him accountable for the evils that have made him the way he is. By contrast, learning of Rune’s betrayal of his trust prompts Gideon to lean even further into his deep-seated perceptions of both Rune and witch-kind: “Rune, like a certain witch before her, had toyed with Gideon. Deceived and betrayed him. He had every reason to believe that all witches were the same: horribly cruel and unspeakably evil” (378).
In escaping to Caelis with Cressida, Rune faces the ultimate ethical dilemma. With nowhere to go, Rune must ally herself with a person who inflicted cruelty on the Sharpe family the cruelty and just killed her closest friend. This allyship will offer witches a better life, but she isn’t sure that the retribution Cressida may bring to the Republic once regaining power will be worth it.
