Rebel Witch

When Gideon doesn’t return by sundown, Rune finds a place to dine. A friendly young man approaches her, asking why she’s dining alone. Rune claims that her husband is seasick, but Gideon arrives just as the stranger offers to keep Rune company. Gideon brusquely dismisses the man before joining Rune. When he reveals that he couldn’t find another cabin, she jokes that she’s surprised he didn’t jump overboard because it might be less daunting than sharing a bed with her. He claims that he survived the beds of witches before, and she’s offended at being compared to Cressida. Gideon defensively insists that she can’t be too hurt about the comment since “the entire time [she] was seducing [him], [she was] in love with [his] brother” (99). This claim confuses Rune because she was never in love with Alex, though she loved him as a friend. However, instead of explaining this to Gideon, she merely claims that she had to deceive them then because he would’ve had her executed without hesitation.

While they argue about next steps due to their mutual distrust, they maintain the outward picture of an in-love couple for the nearby officers. Gideon informs Rune that witch-hunting hounds can sense magic, so sneaking her past them might prove a particular challenge when they dock. He agrees to help get her past them only if she tells him her plans. She admits that she plans to find the missing Roseblood heir and warn them of Cressida’s plans. Gideon informs her that this person is concealed by a powerful spell, and no sibyl can see them, but Rune admits that she has a spell that will summon them to a specific location—all she needs is a lock of Cressida’s hair. Rune takes locket from the pocket of her dress and shows Gideon the lock of Cressida’s hair inside, revealing the “mission” she completed before fleeing Umbria. Rune promises that once she has the sibyl and the missing heir, she’ll run far away from the Republic for good. She claims that she doesn’t plan to find the remaining witches and recruit them for Cressida’s war. However, Gideon still doesn’t trust her.

Gideon and Rune are interrupted by the arrival of a familiar young woman, Abigail Redfern, an ex-lover of his who fought beside him at the New Republic during the revolution. She hugs him and reveals that she’s working in the kitchen and waiting tables onboard the ship. When Rune cuts in to introduce herself as Gideon’s wife, Kestrel Sharpe, Abigail (“Abbie”) is surprised and seems disappointed. She invites Gideon to a few rounds of Poor Man’s Trap on Deck C at sundown tomorrow. Before Gideon can decline, but Rune responds quicker, accepting the invitation. After Abbie leaves, Rune asks Gideon who she is, and Gideon replies only that she’s an old friend. Realizing that Rune is tipsy, Gideon escorts her back to their cabin before venturing out to find her some water. By the time he returns, Rune is asleep. The silver casting scars starting at her ankle and weaving up her calf catch his eye, mesmerizing him, but he chastises himself for admiring her.

Rune has an intimate dream of being in the ship’s boiler room with Gideon. Though it begins with them arguing, it quickly devolves into them kissing. Gideon wakes her, claiming that she was thrashing around. He hands her a glass of water before falling back asleep.

The following day, Rune explores the ship. She assumes that since the Arcadia is friendly to witches, it might be a worthy vessel to smuggle herself, the sibyl, and potentially the Roseblood heir out of the New Republic. However, her search for cargo holds where they could hide is unsuccessful. Every time she attempts to reach the ship’s lower levels, staff members lead her back to the top deck again, thinking she’s lost.

That night, Rune and Gideon go to Deck C to meet Abbie and her friends for Poor Man’s Trap, which Rune soon realizes is a game using a shotgun to shoot dinner plates thrown into the air. Rune feels out of her element watching Abbie and Gideon compete with impressive aim. Eventually, they offer Rune a try, and while she shoots, missing abysmally, she notices Abbie and Gideon walking away. The sight of them laughing and Abbie’s proximity to Gideon make her jealous, and one of her shots accidentally strays too close to the couple. Gideon stalks over to Rune, but instead of reprimanding her for endangering Abbie, he places himself behind Rune and teaches her to shoot. While her aim improves, she still misses her shots; Gideon doesn’t help matters when he chooses that moment to ask her what she dreamt about the previous night, revealing that she called his name. When Rune finally hits a plate with a bullet, she celebrates, pointing it out to Gideon, but Abbie ruins the moment by calling out to him and inviting him to a game of cards. Abbie and Gideon walk off, leaving Rune behind, and one of the friends, William, approaches her. He wears a crew jacket, so when he invites her someplace warmer, away from the chill of the night, she accepts, hoping he’ll lead her past the doors she couldn’t infiltrate earlier, potentially revealing cargo holds she might use later.

Gideon sees Rune venturing off with William, and though he’s reluctant to leave her, he’s intent on finding out if Abbie could be the spy Harrow sent to assassinate Rune. The only way to know for certain is to further engage with her. While they play cards, Abbie questions Gideon’s relationship with Rune. She pegs Rune as an aristocrat, which she knows has never been Gideon’s type. She claims that Gideon likes a challenge, which she assumes that Rune doesn’t provide. Inwardly amused at how wrong Abbie is, Gideon lets his eyes drift back to Rune and William, changing the subject by asking Abbie how she ended up on the Arcadia. She claims that she wanted change; after this week, her contract will be up and she’ll move to a bigger ship. When she mentions talking to Harrow when they docked in the New Republic capital a week ago, Gideon is more suspicious that she might be the spy. Glancing around, he realizes that Rune and William have disappeared and abandons Abbie to search for Rune.

William leads Rune deeper into the ship, showing her the boiler room. He mentions a cargo hold on the far side of the boilers, and Rune seizes the chance to gain more information. She learns that other cargo holds are accessible only from the outside, which are loaded a few hours before departure and sealed with bolted and caulked hatches. However, the interior cargo hold is used to store ship supplies, so it isn’t bolted. They’re interrupted by Gideon’s arrival: He’s infuriated to find William alone with his “wife.” Rune is unimpressed by Gideon’s hypocrisy, considering that he spent the evening with Abbie. Gideon sends William away and, in private, finally realizes what Rune is up to. He assumes that she seduced William into a tour of the ship to figure out how to use it to smuggle witches out of the Republic. Rune is offended at his implication, as she wasn’t playing the part of a seductress at all, but his mind is made up.

Gideon admits that while he may someday forgive Rune for using him to save the witches, he’ll never understand why she made him fall for her while she was in love with his brother. When Rune claims she wasn’t, Gideon points to the engagement ring she still wears. Rune admits that she would have married Gideon had he asked her, even knowing that he would hand her over to be executed as soon as he discovered what she was. She said yes to Alex only because he loved her and didn’t want her dead, and she was willing to settle for that even if she could never love him back the way he wanted.

Unmoored by Rune’s revelation about her former desire to marry him, Gideon becomes conflicted about his feelings for her. Though he reminds himself not to trust her or fall for her potential tricks, his feelings toward her have softened. Everything he thought he knew about her “was toppling like a house of cards” (142). Gideon returns to the area of the deck where he left Abbie. There, a crowd of rowdy dancers is partying. In the center of the room, he sees Rune dancing and rushes to her when he sees that her disguise spell is wearing off and her real features are showing through. Officers enter the room before they can leave, so Gideon kisses Rune, hiding her face from view and allowing him to maneuver them into a private corner. However, kissing her causes intense pain to radiate out from the branding scar Cressida activated, forcing Gideon to break away.

Gideon’s eyes open after the kiss, and instead of Rune standing before him, he sees Cressida. Eventually, she fades, revealing Rune again, but Rune has seen the disgust on his face and took it personally, not knowing what he just experienced. She pushes past him into the crowd. Meanwhile, he wonders what Cressida’s branding curse has done to him.

Rune hides under an abandoned card table and casts a spell of invisibility. She hopes that her casting signature fades before the staff puts the tables away at the end of the night. Feeling hurt, she remembers how Gideon stiffened and pulled away in disgust after their kiss. She believes that even if he’s attracted to her, he can’t overcome his revulsion for her kind. When she spots him leaving the room, followed by Abbie, Rune forces herself to push away her feelings and focus on her real purpose: inspecting the boiler room’s cargo holds.

Not finding Rune in their room, Gideon becomes angry about Cressida’s curse, which he suspects will prevent him from being with Rune romantically. Soon after Gideon returns, Abbie knocks on the cabin door and invites herself in to talk. Abbie insists that she can help him get out of his marriage because she believes it’s not what he wants. She kisses him, and though Gideon’s first instinct is to pull away, he remembers Cressida’s curse. To test if the curse wards off only Rune or all women, Gideon kisses Abbie back; confirming his suspicions, his brand emits no pain. Gideon can’t help but notice that his kiss with Abbie lacks the passion he felt with Rune.

Gideon asks Abbie if she’s the spy Harrow planted on the ship to search for a witch named Rune Winters. Abbie doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. When she again mentions her feelings for Gideon, he rejects her. After she leaves, Gideon wonders who the real spy is. He remembers William, the young man who barely left Rune’s side that evening, and realizes with growing dread that he might be the assassin.

Rune uses a picklock spell to open the door to the boiler room’s cargo hold. While she’s inspecting it, William slips inside, shutting the door behind him. When Rune tries to leave the room, noting that Gideon must be looking for her, William reveals that Gideon returned to their cabin with Abbie and is otherwise preoccupied. William points a gun at Rune, calling her the Crimson Moth. He offers to let her live if she willingly returns with him to his cabin. However, Gideon appears behind William with his own gun drawn, forcing William to drop his gun and kick it over to Rune. Gideon sends Rune back to the cabin, implying that he’ll deal with William.

Gideon would love to send William overboard because of how he looks at Rune with predatory intent. However, Gideon must play a dangerous game. To keep William’s—and the New Republic’s—trust, Gideon insists that he plans to betray Rune and needs William’s help. He reveals that killing Rune will only further incite Soren to give his army to Cressida as revenge and that Cressida plans to raise her sisters from the dead. Gideon explains that Rune is most valuable as a bargaining chip against Cressida and that she plans to summon the Roseblood heir when they make landfall, giving them the perfect opportunity to dispose of the heir before Cressida can use her for her own means. Gideon asks William to convince Harrow to trust him and to help him sneak Rune past the witch-hunting hounds tomorrow when they disembark. William begrudgingly agrees to do so and promises to stay out of sight until then so that Rune believes Gideon killed him.

Rune eavesdrops from the boiler room outside the cargo hold, hearing all the details of Gideon’s apparent betrayal. Though this development hurts her, she accepts it as a reminder to never let her guard down with him. She returns to their cabin and pretends to sleep when he finally returns. When he realizes that she’s awake, he brings up the kiss, but Rune insists that they forget it ever happened. The next morning, she ventures to the upper deck’s promenade to watch as the New Republic’s skyline appears on the horizon. Gideon eventually joins her and asks if she missed it. She admits that she has.