Gothikana

Jade and Corvina compliment one another’s outfits for the Black Ball as they primp together. They promise to stay together for safety. Corvina feels anxious at seeing the rising Ink Moon. As their group of friends enter the ornate ball, Corvina looks for Vad, eventually finding him wearing a crow mask. They quickly embrace before Corvina returns to her friends as Vad plays the piano.

The evening begins with lighthearted revelry, but as the night continues, Corvina senses “a vivid shift” (325) in the crowd, the atmosphere growing darker and more sensual. Corvina meets Vad behind a pillar, where they kiss. Vad admits that at the previous ball, he, Ajax, and Ajax’s girlfriend, Zoe, had a three-way sexual encounter. Vad was never jealous of Zoe, he contends, but refuses to “ever share” Corvina. They thrill at the idea that they are close to others who might notice that they are having covert sex. Corvina accidentally cuts her hand when she squeezes her glass too hard.

They sneak out of the ball and head to the ruins. He offers her a ring, though he clarifies it is not an engagement ring, though he does plan to one day propose. It is engraved with a quote from a Dracula film adaptation. They promise their mutual support.

An image shows a raven in the upper righthand corner flying toward a full moon. A photograph shows subterranean stairs ascending toward a door through which sunlight streams. A quote from the film Beetlejuice reads, “I, myself, am strange and unusual (qtd. on 334).

Corvina and Vad return to the Vault to have sex. Vad plans to reveal his identity as the owner of the castle if nobody disappears that night, which will allow them to make their relationship known. He reflects on the adjustment to having money after being impoverished as a child. Shouts approach and Corvina’s friends enter; they were searching for Corvina and Jade. Jade is still missing, as is Roy. Kaylin begins organizing a search party.

Corvina hurries to change. When she looks out the window of her dorm tower, she sees smoke coming from the direction of the ruins. She, Vad, and Ajax race in that direction to find Vad’s piano on fire. They hear a scream, and split up to try to find its source. Corvina heads to the lake, where she sees Roy in the water. Corvina jumps in, trying to save her classmate. Ajax, summoned by Corvina’s call for help, helps her get Roy to shore. As she leaves the water, Corvina feels something slither near her feet. Ajax urges Corvina to go to the castle for help as he struggles to resuscitate Roy. He, too, felt something moving in the water.

Back at the castle, Roy wakes. She doesn’t remember how she got in the water. Hours later, Vad is still not back from searching the tunnels, which makes Corvina worry. Ajax finds this suspicious, but Corvina remains resolute in her trust of Vad. Ajax’s satellite phone, the only kind that works on the mountain, rings: The body has been dead for two years, then burned in the past few months to obscure identification. Investigators have identified the corpse as Jade Prescott.

An image shows a raven in the upper righthand corner banking toward the full moon. A photograph shows a stone castle, a bare tree to the left of the photograph. Above the castle, a flock of dark birds fly. A quote from “The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe reads, “The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” (348).

Corvina, stunned, worries that she has always hallucinated Jade, but Ajax confirms he also saw her. This means that Corvina’s roommate is not the real Jade Prescott. Corvina hears crows in the tower and sees a shadow moving inside her room. As she goes to investigate, someone hits her over the head, knocking her unconscious.

Mo’s voice urges Corvina awake. She finds herself unable to move after being drugged. The false Jade, standing nearby, explains that the tree with the eye carved into it has leaves that can be turned into a drug. Jade learned this from her grandmother, who was one of the Slayers. She was pregnant when she escaped on the night that Vad’s grandfather betrayed them. Her daughter, Jade’s mother, used the “Devil’s Breath” leaves to drug and rape a man who had rejected her, leading to Jade’s birth. Jade was raised by her grandmother, who lived in the village in secret. When the real Jade came to town, the false Jade killed her and took her place and identity.

Jade further explains that she is a Deverell, as her grandmother was pregnant by Vad’s grandfather. Corvina contrasts the glee when Jade discusses the Slayers’ murders with Vad’s disgust. Jade explains that she used the Devil’s Breath to compel Troy to jump off the same roof where she has now brought Corvina, after he grew suspicious of Alissa’s death. She denies knowing anything about the Black Ball disappearances, nor was she responsible for Roy entering the lake. She killed Alissa for her affair with Vad; Jade believes she and Vad are destined to be together, despite being biologically related. She plans to kill Corvina for the same reason. She anticipates bonding with Vad over the grief of Corvina’s death.

Corvina hears an “insidious voice” in her head that pushes her to question her sanity. Mo intervenes, pressing Corvina to remain focused on Jade. Jade uses the Devil’s Breath’s strange compulsion to make Corvina walk to the edge of the tower. Jade is surprised when Corvina is able to resist, however minimally. When Jade comes close, Corvina manages to grab her wrist.

Below, people notice Corvina atop the tower. Jade claims that she is trying to rescue Corvina. Vad appears atop the tower. He praises Jade for her cleverness, and though Mo insists Vad is just trying to trick Jade, the “insidious voice” claims Vad never cared for Corvina. He asks Jade how to undo the drug; she claims he cannot. He pushes Jade over the edge of the tower. Corvina hears many voices in her head, which cause her extreme pain. She collapses in Vad’s arms.

A photograph shows a room with a chandelier hanging from a plaster ceiling. Windows and a glass door look out on a stone veranda, beyond which trees grow. A quote from Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla reads, “But to die as lovers may—to die together, so that they may live together” (364).

Vad fears for Corvina, wondering how he will live without her if she doesn’t survive. He recalls feeling summoned mystically back to the castle while in the tunnels. He returned, rescued Corvina on the tower, then took her to the school’s medical facility. She was subsequently transported to the psychiatric institution where her mother lives. Dr. Detta, who is overseeing her care, comments on the strangeness of Corvina’s case. He credits Corvina’s mother Celeste’s ability to care for her daughter even with her untreated schizophrenia to maternal instinct.

Dr. Detta wishes to monitor Corvina after the drugs leave her body to ensure that her genetic predisposition toward schizophrenia was not triggered by the drugs. He agrees to Vad’s demand to remain with her. He does not have clear answers for why Corvina experienced hallucinations at the castle, but believes Mo will likely remain a presence in Corvina’s psyche. Though Vad knows he will miss Verenmore, he is content to remain at Corvina’s side.

An image shows a raven flying above a full moon. A photograph shows a dark, curved stairwell. A quote from Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw reads, “Of course I was under the spell, and the wonderful part is that, even at the time, I knew perfectly I was” (372).

Corvina stays at the institute for six months. At the end of this time, her doctors are confident enough in Corvina’s recovery to let her visit with her mother. Celeste seems unaware of her daughter’s presence, and though Vad recognizes that Corvina may someday experience the same illness, he promises to do whatever he can to help her. The only voice she has heard since leaving Verenmore is Mo’s. Celeste responds briefly when Corvina explains that it is her birthday.

Corvina expresses her fears that she will forget Vad one day. He promises that they will be together even if she does. They look forward to their lives together.

A photograph shows the slope of a mountain covered in snow and partially grown over with pine trees. A quote from Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla reads, “Nevertheless, life and death are mysterious states, and we know little of the resources of either” (378).

Corvina and Vad don’t return to Verenmore, instead making their home on a Deverell property nearby. They receive a report that another Black Ball has taken place. This time, nobody disappeared. They have been married for three years, and they plan to begin trying for a baby. They have a dog, Count, and Corvina makes candles and jewelry.

Vad is still a professor at a nearby university. Two years prior, Corvina decided to write a book, which she entitled Gothikana. Corvina convinces Vad to return to Verenmore, as she wishes to raise their children there.

Vad travels through “the Tunnel of Doom” (388), where the Slayers lured their victims to their deaths. He searches for Jade and Roy, urgency pushing him to enter a part of the tunnel he has previously ignored. A scent of decay hangs in the air, but he enters anyway. He is shocked when he sees five skulls and a pile of bones. He decides never to speak of this additional secret that the mountain holds.