Chapters 45-56Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 45 Summary: “Lilia”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child death, sexual violence and harassment, child abuse, gender discrimination, and sexual content.
Lilia receives a failing score on a major assignment from Professor Gilchrist, with the marks against her all being formatting related. Gilchrist condescends to her when asked about it, saying that someone underprivileged shouldn’t study there and accusing her of cheating.
Lilia leaves, humiliated, but is pulled into an alley by a frantic Spencer, who sports his black eye. He asserts that Devryck assaulted him that night, even if nobody believes him, and says that he didn’t drug Lilia. He admits to drugging Mel and trying to kiss her, but he says that he was trying to get information about Jenny Harwick and Devryck.
Spencer explains that Gilchrist came onto him sexually because she threatened to fail him if he didn’t sleep with her. He also says that Devryck is a threat and that Lilia should leave school.
At Devryck’s lab that evening, she causes Devryck to drop a glass and allow a worm to escape down the drain. When he presses her, she cries and tells him about Gilchrist. She says that she’s sick of the class difference at school and wants to leave. He forcefully reassures her that she’s brilliant and should stay.
Then, she notices a burn on his hand from a Bunsen burner and learns about his inability to feel sensation in his limbs. She completes her shift and leaves, but she misses the last bus in the rain because she left her purse at the lab. When she returns, she finds that Devryck bought her a yearly pass to an expensive campus cafe, which she bemoaned being unable to afford.
Suddenly, Lilia hears a cry and—worried that Devryck could be having another seizure—runs toward his office. She finds him injecting himself with the experimental Noctisoma toxin. He hears her, and she runs off and accidentally locks herself in the cadaver room, finding Barletta’s autopsied body. Devryck finds her terrified and crying and embraces her; however, he’s shocked to find that he actually feels her skin.
The toxin has worked enough to allow him sensation, and Lilia’s glee for him overcomes her fear. Delighted to feel again, he hesitantly kisses her. After a passionate kiss, he pulls back, frustrated with himself. He wants to take her to her dorm, but she asserts that she should stay with him to ensure that the toxin doesn’t have any adverse effects.
She stays on his office couch, which operates as a pull-out bed, while rain pours outside. They discuss the potential breakthrough in his research. When it’s late enough, he forces her to sleep on the bed while he sleeps in his chair, but he first explains the story of his brother, who is revealed to be his twin.
Lilia then explains Bee, Conner, and her money problems. She mentions Conner’s bad friend (Angelo) but doesn’t name him. Eventually, she gets ready to sleep but asks for a restraint for her sleepwalking, and he cuffs one arm to the bed. She is happy that she can trust him.
Chapter 46 Summary: “Lilia”
Lilia has a night terror of Barletta’s corpse urging her to join the dead patients in the lake. Devryck wakes her. Terrified, she asks him to sleep next to her until she falls asleep again. She notices his acid burn scars and a mottled branding from the Rook society, which he claims is a fraternity thing.
Devryck lies down and asks about her night terrors. Lilia asks about his abusive father, which he doesn’t want to talk about, and they go to sleep.
Chapter 47 Summary: “Lilia”
Lilia wakes up to Devryck moaning her name in his sleep, as he is apparently having a sexual dream. He unconsciously says to touch him. She touches his thigh, but he wakes up and scolds her. Mortified, she explains and tries to leave for her dorm, but he pulls her back to bed.
She tells him to either touch her or let her go back to the dorm, and he holds her. They are both aroused, but Lilia wonders about the risks to both her and Devryck if they were caught. However, arousal wins, and they begin having sex. He stops when she admits that her sexual experiences are limited. He decides to make her orgasm orally but says that they can never have sex again.
When Devryck goes to shower, Lilia follows and makes him orgasm orally. However, they argue afterward about the consequences of their actions, with Lilia being more at risk of punishment socially and academically. They end the night on a tense note.
Chapter 48 Summary: “Lilia”
Lilia wakes up to Devryck working, and he doesn’t acknowledge her much. He thanks her for being around for his first big discovery—the toxin working—the night before. She’s hurt that he doesn’t acknowledge their physical intimacy, and he kisses her before she goes.
Chapter 49 Summary: “Devryck”
Devryck struggles with his sexual obsession with Lilia. To distract himself, he goes to Gilchrist’s office and confronts her about failing Lilia on the assignment. He secretly records her when she says that she’ll revisit Lilia’s grade if he agrees to a dinner date with her. He then uses the recording as blackmail to keep her from continuing to harass Lilia.
Chapter 50 Summary: “Lilia”
Lilia attends Devryck’s class, where he avoids eye contact with her, but she can tell that he’s flustered. She heads to her dorm, upset at the assertion that their intimacy was a one-night deal. She is determined to get over him.
Chapter 51 Summary: “Lilia”
Lilia goes for an early-morning jog to distract her from her thoughts, knowing that Devryck always runs an hour later and that she shouldn’t run into him. However, he runs earlier that morning and bumps into her, and they have another argument about not sleeping together again.
When she’s back at her dorm, Jayda texts to talk about her newborn and ask about Lilia’s time at school. Lilia eventually confesses about the professor before explaining the rest over a call.
Lilia assists Devryck in the lab that evening, where he is particularly tense. She notices the moths becoming aroused as a result of the toxin, though she doesn’t yet realize that’s the cause of it. At the end of the shift, Devryck says that their arrangement is over; he can’t stand the tension between them. Upset, Lilia returns to her dorm with an envelope he gave her. It’s a check for $5,000 to cover her financial problems.
Chapter 52 Summary: “Lilia”
Devryck hasn’t been in lectures for two days, leaving his assistant to cover the course and lab work. Lilia wants to speak to him about the check. She sees Spencer returning to class, looking ill.
When Devryck arrives, he coldly responds to her request to meet with him, treating her like any student. He only acquiesces to a meeting the following day when she makes an implicative statement about flirting with his teaching assistant instead.
After class, she chats to Briceson about his chemistry work. He walks her home, and she asks about the dynamic between Mel and Jenny Harrick. Briceson explains that Gilchrist is the one who defended Spencer when Mel was drugged and when Jenny disappeared. He also says that the time stamps on the camera outside Devryck’s lab were tampered with on the night of Jenny’s disappearance.
At the dorm, Mel confronts Lilia about spending time with Devryck, and Lilia counters that she knows Mel once had a crush on him too.
At her next shift at the library, Lilia examines old photos of the island’s Indigenous people, who would sometimes fashion the black rocks from Bone Bay into their teeth. One girl holds a doll, which is fastened with the iron button that someone left at Lilia’s door on her first night on campus.
Chapter 53 Summary: “Lilia”
Devryck blows off his meeting with Lilia. An assistant professor teaches the class, and Lilia notes that the Noctisoma affect bats but not some birds. Devryck finally arrives and gestures for Lilia to follow him, but Spencer catches her on the way, tells her that he discovered that Lippincott isn’t his father, and kisses her.
Lilia finds Devryck afterward and tries to return the check, but he refuses. He saw Spencer kiss her—not realizing that it was unreciprocated—and is jealous. After arguing, he kisses her, and they narrowly avoid being discovered by another professor.
She challenges him to meet her in a private room in the library to sleep with her and to show him her discovery in the historical texts.
Chapter 54 Summary: “Lilia”
Lilia meets Devryck on the top floor of the library. They begin having sex against the shelves. Two students nearly find them, but they hide and continue having sex until the students leave.
Afterward, Lilia explains how the island’s Indigenous peoples had the black rocks in their teeth—which Briceson told her may contain a new metal that they will be submitting to a national chemistry board—and how some birds use rocks to help grind down their food. These are the same birds that often avoid Noctisoma infection. She wonders if these stones may hold the cure for the Noctisoma.
They decide to pursue both avenues of study: the cure for Noctisoma and the cure for Devryck’s condition.
Chapter 55 Summary: “Lilia”
Lilia considers how happy she now is at Dracadia, but Gilchrist visits Lilia in her dorm and accuses her of sleeping with Devryck. She blackmails Lilia, saying that she knows Lilia’s mother was in the study and knows who her father is. Threatening Lilia with expulsion, she presses Lilia to give up the name of the Anon Amos members, who are threatening Gilchrist.
Lilia refuses to give them up until Gilchrist implies that Warren Bramwell is Lilia’s father, which would make Devryck her half-brother; it is only after Lilia names Mel and another student named Cat that Gilchrist tells her that Lippincott is actually her father. Gilchrist wants power over Lippincott, who worries that his rich wife will leave him if she discovers the truth. Gilchrist promises to give Lilia secret files detailing what happened to her mother during the study if Lilia leaves the school.
Chapter 56 Summary: “Devryck”
Devryck notices that his injection of toxin isn’t lasting as long as before. His moths metabolize the toxin too quickly for him to develop the cure, and he worries that he’ll need another victim infected with Noctisoma.
Lilia arrives, upset, and Devryck drives her to his decaying childhood home. He says that he’s unsure if his father killed her mother. Lilia explains that Gilchrist has the files on the study, but she says that she cares more about being happy at Dracadia than finding out what happened to her mother. They ponder why the worms are more responsive in women.
They visit the seaside. While Lilia is at the shore, Devryck has a seizure in the car and believes that he’ll die.
Chapters 45-56 Analysis
Lilia begins to feel the limitations of her circumstances; she suffers classism, sexism, and increasing danger from those with opposing interests. Gilchrist proves herself to be a central antagonist, allowing her envy of Lilia to influence her decisions. Unfairly failing Lilia could ruin her career if discovered, yet she feels comfortable doing so because of her advantages as a member of the upper class. She also weaponizes this intersection between class and gender, blackmailing Lilia later with the knowledge of her affair with Devryck. Gilchrist knows that, if discovered, Lilia would suffer stronger consequences because she’s a woman with a low income; nobody would support her, unlike the affluent Devryck. The fact that Lilia is threatened with academic expulsion while Devryck’s status remains relatively unshaken reflects how institutional protection often favors male authority figures. This behavior also echoes how women can uphold patriarchal power structures when it serves their own social or professional ambitions. This subplot shows how Forbidden Romance and Its Consequences are doubly dangerous within overarching power structures that unfairly impact marginalized people, something of which Lilia is keenly aware. The discovery that Gilchrist offers through her blackmailing—the identity of Lilia’s father—results in Lilia feeling further isolated and uncertain, as Lippincott is a hostile entity. She realizes how complex the conspiracy behind Dracadia and her mother’s past must be, leaving her with nobody to trust except Devryck—whose relationship with her is emotionally volatile as they try to find a way to be together while navigating power dynamics.
Lilia and Devryck shift from a repressed attraction to full-on sexual intimacy and emotional connection. This happens through a combination of physical factors and moments of personal bonding. Devryck’s breakthroughs with the Noctisoma toxin allow him to register physical touch, enabling him to interact with Lilia in a way that he has desperately craved but thus far thought impossible. This is a psychological relief as much as a physical one for him. It represents how he can drop his emotional walls and allow himself to be vulnerable with Lilia, and this is what gives way to their first sexual encounter. It’s also the night when Lilia breaks down crying, finally divulging the depth of her despair at being a disregarded, lower-class female student at a university that doesn’t seem to want her. This confession deeply affects Devryck, as he hadn’t considered the true impact of her disadvantages; it drives him to both cover her financial issue with a check when he ends her employment, which he does to try to establish boundaries out of guilt, and buy her an annual pass to the café she can’t afford. The act of gift giving here serves not just as caretaking but as a narrative bridge—one that shifts their dynamic from hierarchical (professor and student) to something more intimate and reciprocal. Lilia’s vulnerability is met not with exploitation but with acknowledgment.
Their mutual vulnerability continues when Devryck explains his family situation to Lilia, including Caedmon. Devryck feels a strong sense of responsibility for Caedmon’s loss—his brother was only chosen for abduction because Devryck had a seizure and wet himself. This mirrors Lilia’s crushing guilt about her mother’s death, as she both hurt her mother when fighting her and was ultimately unable to save her. The Impact of Past Trauma on Present Actions deeply impacts them both; all of their current reactions and goals are either influenced or wholly driven by their trauma. However, they also show how connection can help alleviate these feelings. Lilia tells Devryck that what happened to Caedmon—and his father’s abuse as a result—wasn’t his fault. Later, he says this back to her, making her confront the nature of her guilt: “Those words hooked themselves in my belly and pulled a blackness from my guts that twisted and writhed. My head begged to ignore it. To cast him off as a liar. I turned away, forcing a smile. ‘You’re throwing my words back at me.’ ‘They’re fairly wise words’” (423). The emotional weight of the past still lingers, but their bond helps them feel less alone and lost. This reciprocal healing—passing the same words of comfort back and forth—becomes a kind of emotional shorthand between them, solidifying their intimacy as something deeper than physical.
Despite Devryck’s attempts to cut their affair short, their feelings win over, and it’s clear that their personal bond is more powerful than their physical attraction to one another. Devryck mentions during their night together, “Here, I thought it was the moth who would succumb to the fire” (455), referencing how he often calls Lilia a moth, in line with their research. He considers himself the fire, a danger that would risk her life; instead, he’s enthralled by her, rendering him emotionally weak. This is what renders him incapable of staying away from her: They’re falling in love. The imagery of moth and flame also reinforces their thematic inversion of predator and prey: Devryck, who sees himself as the dangerous one, is instead drawn to her with near-compulsive tenderness, further blurring the lines between who holds the real power in their dynamic. Before Gilchrist ruins Lilia’s moments of bliss when they accept their affair, Lilia thinks,
I forgot the world outside the gates of Dracadia. If Heaven existed, I’d found it in those ancient dark hallways, under cold misty skies with autumn’s wet leaves sticking to the soles of my boots, in the scent of coffee and old book. And him. My moody and devilishly handsome professor (516).
This imagery conjures the core elements of modern, “cozy” dark academia: the comfort of autumn, books, and gothic architecture. However, it also shows how Lilia finally feels free from the responsibilities that have plagued her life since the loss of her mother. She’s not dwelling on Bee’s tuition or Conner’s mistakes; she can simply enjoy herself. This is a testament to the value of her relationship with Devryck. Though unconventional, it is a dynamic where she can feel appreciated, supported, and cared for. Her joy is precarious, fleeting, and profoundly earned—made possible only by stepping outside of the confines of who she’s always had to be. That she feels safest in a socially forbidden space says as much about her past as it does about her present. Further, the fact that Lilia only feels seen and protected by Devryck also subtly critiques Dracadia itself; it is a university that punishes her for love but overlooks exploitation, violence, and corruption at institutional levels. Her relationship with Devryck is not just romantic: It becomes an act of allyship and survival in an environment that otherwise devalues her existence.
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