The Book of Magic

Kylie returns to Tom’s ruined manor with food from the store. They have a picnic by a stream, but Kylie struggles to eat. While Kylie was out, Tom found a curse in The Book of the Raven, the Red Death, and gathered the materials for it. It will cover the village in a plague. He tosses it on the ground and strips, challenging Kylie to do the same and swim. Tom swims, and Kylie strips to her underwear. In the water, she can’t dive, only float.

Kylie says she’s cold and gets out of the water, knocking the book into the water. She quickly retrieves it and realizes that the water broke Jet’s enchanted glue that sealed the pages together. Kylie reads “How to Break a Curse” (308). The cost of breaking the curse is a human life. Tom grabs the book, tells her to get dressed, and walks to the manor. Kylie chases after him and demands that he give her the book. He refuses, saying it’s his now. He starts a fire, and bees fly away from the smoke. He adds russet madder root, and the fire turns red.

Then, Tom reads the Red Death spell and puts out some poppets made of grass. He cuts himself, draws a map of the village on the floor in his blood, and throws the poppets in the water. Kylie says Tom was supposed to help her break a curse, not create one. He says his curse will take lives, and she can use the sacrifice to break her curse. When Kylie refuses, Tom handcuffs her to him. As they sit together, Kylie tries to think of a way to escape, and morning comes. No birds sing at sunrise.

Tom chants the words to release the plague on the village. The red smoke from his fire travels on the wind and spreads. It starts to mist and rain. Tom stokes the fire, and Kylie sees a shade behind him. The shade indicates what Kylie should do. Kylie plunges her handcuffed wrist (and Tom’s wrist) into the fire, causing the brass handcuffs to heat up. Tom undoes the handcuffs. Kylie grabs the book and runs into the red rain.

While taking out the trash, Jesse sees the poisoned red rain and runs back into the pub. The bartender suggests that everyone stay inside. They call their loved ones and tell them to stay inside. Jesse accidentally carried in some of the mist on her shoes, and people in the pub are starting to cough. Two men in their eighties collapse, and Gillian takes care of them. She has them, and everyone else, wash using her special bar of soap.

Meanwhile, Matt drives his taxi to the edge of town and sees that the mist stops there. Then, he goes to Margaret’s house, runs inside, and tells Ian and Margaret about the red rain. Margaret looks through her grimoire and gathers healing herbs. Ian fetches her bag, which contains more healing remedies. They take Matt’s taxi and tell him to stay inside because of his asthma. Margaret goes into the Three Hedges pub, and Ian says he’s going after Tom. The Lockland manor grounds are untouched by the red rain. Ian walks through the poison Tom left at the threshold and collapses.

Kylie walks to the pub, and Sally lets her in through the back delivery door. They hug, and Kylie says that Tom has cursed everyone. Kylie has a fever, and Sally gets her into bed upstairs. Franny is helping the people who are ill at the inn with the Owens family soap, but Sally draws her away to look at Kylie. Franny recovers The Book of the Raven. While Gillian and Sally bathe Kylie, Franny puts blue thread around Kylie’s wrists and ankles. The lines on Kylie’s left palm stop, so Franny puts Agnes’s talisman on Kylie.

Franny looks at the Red Death spell and begins to counter it. She cuts herself and allows the blood to drip into a fire in a brass dish. Using part of a curtain and soap, she makes a poppet. Then she chants the words from the book to end the curse, and the rain stops. Vincent convinces the bartender, Hal, to open the door. Jesse calls the larger, adjacent village and asks them to send ambulances. Margaret tells Sally that Ian went after Tom, and Franny says she’ll take care of Kylie, writing down one of Maria’s spells for Sally. Franny gives Sally scissors and a razor.

Jesse makes a bracelet with a protection charm for Gillian, who tells Sally she’s going with her. They take Jesse’s car. As they leave, Vincent says Lockland is the lock, and Sally’s key is giving up the thing Tom wants. When Gillian and Sally arrive at the forest near the manor, they leave the car and walk. Sally cuts off her hair and shaves her head for Maria’s spell. Birds take some of her locks into the trees. Sally cuts her arm, adding her blood to her hair, and burns the remaining hair. The fire is white and smells like lilacs. Sally asks Gillian to stay here while she enters the manor.

Tom tells Sally that keeping magic from Kylie caused her to practice left-handed magic. Sally says that she was wrong in the past and that Tom is wrong now. She sees Ian lying on the floor, paralyzed by the poison. Tom says that he has been stealing from Ian and asks if Sally still loves Ian. She says she does and says the words of Maria’s spell. Performing it will take her bloodline magic away from her. Sally sees a shade on the stairs who says the words of the spell with her. They repeat, “I renounce all that I have to be rid of you. You will walk away and never return” (329).

Crows fly above the holes in the manor’s ceiling. Sally puts her hands on Ian’s face and magically draws out the poison as he looks at the crows. In the forest, Gillian recites a Begone spell, which sounds like birds. Tom runs to the road and hitchhikes away from the village. Sally cries, and her tears aren’t black. She always wanted to be “normal,” but now she’s hurt by the loss of her bloodline magic. Ian assures her that he’s also normal and they can still have other kinds of magic together. They kiss and walk to Gillian. She notices that Sally’s eyes have turned from gray to blue. In the future, the village has a gathering on the anniversary of the red rain to remember how it almost destroyed them.

Antonia dreams about a toad burping up a key while she looks for Kylie. Jet, in a youthful state, appears near the lake and tells Antonia that she has everything she needs. Antonia wakes up, and Ariel asks if the baby is coming. Antonia ignores her contractions and tells Ariel that she must use her key and unlock Maria’s box in the law office. Alone in the basement, after asking Ariel to give her a moment, Antonia finds an envelope in Maria’s box that says to open only after reading the book.

Maria writes that The Book of the Raven destroyed her daughter’s life. She couldn’t bring herself to destroy the book because it represented a woman’s knowledge. To end the curse, Maria’s grimoire must be sacrificed because it’s where the curse on the Owens family began. A life must also be given.

Ariel calls Scott and Joel to tell them the baby is coming. Then, she goes to the basement and tells Antonia that they need to get to the hospital because she’s in labor. Antonia calls Franny and tells her what Maria said about ending the curse.

In the inn, Kylie still struggles with the fever. None of the cures in the grimoire is helping her. Margaret tells Sally to get some sleep and goes to her room with Ian. Vincent and Franny talk about Sally sacrificing her magic, as well as their family members being prone to falling in love. Franny tells Vincent that he still has time to love, and that he should “[l]ive a lot” (337). Just then, Antonia’s call comes through. Franny tries to hide the fact that she plans to sacrifice the grimoire and her life to break the curse, but Vincent sees the truth.

Franny copies out all of the grimoire’s contents into a smaller, unillustrated red journal. The ink of the original grimoire gets into her skin and blood. She feels as if time is reversing, and she looks younger. The deathwatch beetle sounds, and a black shadow trails her, signs of her impending death. Shortly before the red of sunrise, Franny puts on her red boots and writes two notes. She slips one under Vincent’s door, saying he did everything right, and leaves the other on her pillow next to The Book of the Raven. She slips the red journal, a book of practical magic, under Sally’s door.

As Franny leaves the inn, bees swarm around its chimney. As a witch, she can smell water, and she walks toward it. She forgives Maria for creating the curse because Maria forgot the importance and centrality of love. Crows fly above Franny. The sun starts to rise as she reaches the pond, which is surrounded by toads. Franny takes off her red boots and puts rocks in the pockets of Gideon’s raincoat, which she’s wearing. She contrasts this pond with Leech Lake and fondly recalls visiting the latter with Jet and Vincent.

Franny walks into the water, holding the grimoire. Toads follow her. She thinks about how much she loved her life and sees young Jet across the water. They wave at each other. Once the grimoire is submerged, Franny releases it into the water, and it spreads its words there. The toad-skin cover of the book turns back into a toad. Franny remembers reading a book about the particular kind of toad to Sally and Gillian. Franny makes her sacrifice out of love.

Sally dreams of the deathwatch beetle, and the villagers hear the crows making a racket. The first thing Sally sees when she wakes up is Ian’s crow tattoo. He admitted his love for her when they had sex the previous night. Sally sees the red journal, reads it, and realizes that it’s the Owens grimoire. She goes to Franny’s room and finds her other note, next to The Book of the Raven, that says the curse is broken. Sally goes to Kylie’s room and sees that she’s cured. Kylie wakes up and asks what happened. Gillian agrees that something feels different, and they hear the deathwatch beetle.

Ariel calls and says that Antonia gave birth to her baby and that Gideon is awake. Sally realizes what Franny did and runs outside. She sees the bees and asks for directions to the pond. A man tells her how to get there. She can no longer smell water because she isn’t a bloodline witch. Sally sees Franny’s red boots and dives into the water. However, she isn’t strong enough to get Franny’s body out. Ian wakes up and runs to the pond. He goes into the water, takes Sally to shore, and asks her to go to the inn and call an ambulance. She knows he doesn’t want her to see the body.

She stays on the shore while Ian retrieves Franny’s body. Franny looks young and has red hair. Sally cries. They return to the inn. Vincent cries, and everyone assures Kylie that Franny’s death isn’t her fault. Sally gets Ian dry clothes. He kisses her while taking off her wet clothes. She feels lucky to have found love.