Symbols & Motifs
Brie’s Hair
Brie’s bright red hair is the subject of frequent comments from multiple characters in the novel. Bakken, Madame Vivias’s goblin, takes it as payment for information at various points, though Brie does not discover what he uses this hair for in this installment in the series. Paired with the name “Fire Girl,” which Bakken uses to describe her, Brie’s hair becomes a symbol of how she survived the fire in her childhood, which led her to possess Oberon’s crown.
At the end of the novel, Brie gives Bakken all her hair, rather than the small locks she has been gifting him for each piece of information. This indicates that, though she is tricked into transforming into a fae by Sebastian, she is also transforming of her own accord. By shedding her one vanity from her human days, Brie symbolically puts her human past behind her, suggesting that, despite the manipulations she has faced, she will continue to pursue autonomy and do what she feels is right in subsequent volumes in the series—even though she will now do so as a fae, something she never wanted to become.
Mirror of Discovery
The Mirror of Discovery first appears in the novel not as an object that Brie seeks because of its qualities but as a device to direct the plot. This trope, called a MacGuffin, treats an item as special not because of anything it does but because the characters need a reason to act a certain way. From Mordeus’s perspective, the mirror never shifts from this role; he insists that he wants the mirror returned to Unseelie, but he lets Brie keep it. Though this shows Mordeus’s manipulation, it does not affect his role in the text. He does not gain any power through acquiring the artifacts he desires. Though he claims that they are intensely important to him, they do not accomplish anything for him in the novel—nor does losing them affect Seelie in any clear capacity.
For Brie, however, the mirror does shift its role. When Mordeus permits her to keep the mirror after she steals it from Arya, she uses it to seek information about her sister. For much of the novel, the images she sees there reassure her that Jas is safe and cared for. When Finn cautions her against trusting the mirror, her continued faith in what it shows indicates her questionable trust in Finn, even as the two become closer. When she realizes that the mirror only intermittently shows the truth, however, she must face the reality that her self-image is faulty; though she sees herself as someone who has little hope, the mirror has been revealing what she hopes to be true. Only when she has this clear-eyed view of her own perspective can she use the mirror to show her truth.
The mirror also foreshadows certain revelations in the novel, such as how Brie’s shadow powers come from Oberon’s crown. When she asks to see the crown earlier in the text, the mirror shows her own face—the only time it does so. Once she knows how to use the mirror clearly, she can see the crown atop her head, which helps her figure out how to defeat Mordeus.
Bonds
The bonds between humans and fae are alternately presented as a way for two people to create emotional intimacy that transcends a non-magical connection and as a coercive force for fae to control humans. Brie’s perspective on bonds shifts throughout the novel as she comes to better understand the fae. Initially, she is certain that she will never desire a bond, as she values her autonomy more than anything. As her relationship with Sebastian develops, however, she wavers in this conviction until she ultimately decides to bond with him, as she fears a life constantly being pursued by Unseelie who seek to take Oberon’s crown. She learns after bonding that Sebastian, for all his claims about the “purity” of bonds, used her affection to steal the crown.
Finn’s refusal to bond with Brie even when she, intoxicated, asks him to do so also reveals his character. Because he would benefit from bonding her, as it would give him his stolen throne back, he reveals himself as trustworthy and unwilling to manipulate Brie more than what he deems necessary to keep his people safe.
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