49 pages • 1-hour read
Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire
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Part 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, self-harm, illness, and death.
Part 3: “The Mountain”
Part 3, Chapter 11 Summary: “A Witch Sings to the Moon”
In the weeks following Verity’s return to Foxfire, she works with the townspeople to rebuild their houses. Everyone is slow to trust her again, but Tacita reminds her that it’s good if they see her working hard alongside them. As they work to restore the town, gossip spreads about what really happened on the mountain.
Finally, autumn arrives. Gilly and Earnest’s and Verity and Tacita’s relationships continue to develop. Verity also continues to restore the townspeople’s broken belongings, but it has been more difficult of late. On the mountain months before, Verity gave up some of her power to Earl. In particular, he wanted the “power to come and go as witches do, crossing thresholds and landscapes all the same” (246). Verity realized that Earl might not be able to use this magic anyway, so she gave it to him in exchange for Foxfire’s protection and the curse’s reversal. Every day, she watches the residents for signs that her bargain has worked. Verity particularly keeps an eye on Matthew Miller’s well-being.
One day, Verity heads over to the Millers to see Matthew. Mae panics when she catches Verity performing a spell and thinks Verity is trying to send him to the other side. Verity explains that she thought she saw signs of life and momentarily believed she might rouse him. Mae forgives her and invites her for dinner, but Verity wants to be alone.
Verity walks across the landscape, studying the night sky. She is overwhelmed by the beauty of the moon and calls out one of her songs. Her singing is so intense that she feels a resurgence of power from her communion with the moon.
Tacita finds Verity asleep in the field late the next morning. She urges Verity to let go of her worry for one day and join a party at Earnest’s. Everyone thinks he will propose to Gilly tonight. Tacita even plans to invite her mother, having decided it’s time to make amends. The conversation changes to their hopes and dreams. Tacita still longs to leave Foxfire for somewhere else but is unsure how.
Finally, the friends head back to town together. Unbeknownst to them, they pass “a thin-skinned clawed hand gripping a branch of pine” (260). The hand, Earl’s hand, has power but is weakened. Earl tries to conjure spells and fly to another plane but can’t. Meanwhile, Verity and Tacita happily chat about life on the ocean. Verity feels so lighthearted that all of a sudden, her feet lift off the ground.
Part 3, Chapter 12 Summary: “A Girl Goes to the Mountain”
Winter comes to the valley, and Foxfire renews its old traditions. Verity continues investing in the community but is still waiting for them to see her differently. Finally, one night at a gathering, Theny Hazlett (Earnest’s mom) confronts Verity for failing to bring her sister, Phoebe, back from the mountain. Verity realizes that she never actually tried to rescue the other missing persons. However, she doesn’t know if she can now.
The next day, Verity stands in the window of Gilly’s dress shop, contemplating her circumstances. Gilly interrupts her thoughts, informing her that Theny is dropping by for a fitting. Verity realizes Earnest proposed to Gilly, and Theny’s dress is for the wedding.
While the friends are discussing the event, Theny and Tacita show up. Gilly handles Theny so that Verity and Tacita can talk. Tacita admits that she wandered off toward the woods while at the Millers and made a surprising discovery. She shows Verity a curious bird, a nightjar, that she found and trapped in a bucket. The friends muse on the bird’s odd behavior, realizing the nightjars in the woods must be housing the souls of Earl’s victims, as folklore suggests. Tacita wonders if Verity might transform the birds back into their human forms.
Although doubtful, Verity attempts an enchantment on the bird, desperately singing to transform the bird. The spell only partially works. Verity isn’t sure what other spells to use.
On the first day of spring, the townspeople gather for a celebration. Amid the hubbub, Verity and Tacita chat about the nightjar. Verity still hasn’t solved the curse. The two wonder what other approach to take. Finally, Tacita suggests seeking the mountain’s help. Bill Barnes—the man who banished Earl after he failed to save his sick daughter—interrupts, asserting that the mountain is the ultimate power.
Verity suddenly realizes that she doesn’t have to reverse a curse because the nightjars are housing the souls of people who can’t move on. She guesses that if she were to consult the mountain for help, she might free the spirits from the nightjars. She decides to venture through the forest to awaken the mountain. Tacita agrees to join her and Jack.
Verity, Tacita, and Jack travel to the mountain and wake it up. The mountain converses with Verity. Initially, the mountain doesn’t seem to care about Earl. It admires Verity but indicates that her affairs don’t interest it. Finally, Verity convinces the mountain that Earl has disrespected it by taking its power and using it for evil. She begs it to help her free the souls trapped in the nightjars. The mountain says Verity should be able to accomplish this on her own, but Verity explains that she gave up that power. The mountain suggests giving Verity some of its power, but Verity declines. Finally, the mountain promises to help her as a friend.
Verity rejoins Tacita, announcing that she has to die to stop Earl once and for all. She wants Tacita to kill her, but because Tacita hesitates, Verity stabs herself in the chest to remove her own heart.
Part 3, Chapter 13 Summary: “A Bridge Is Built”
Tacita stands alone on the mountain, crying. She is overwhelmed by sorrow for Verity but realizes she can’t give up if she wants to help Verity. She starts singing one of Verity’s rhymes until Earl shows up. Tacita informs him that she killed Verity so his deal with her is off. She offers him Verity’s heart in exchange for her own. Earl agrees. Then Tacita offers Earl Verity’s broom, suggesting that he use it and Verity’s heart to escape this dimension.
Earl sets down the bag with Verity’s heart to mount the broom. Just then, Jack comes whirling out of the sky and intercepts Earl. Verity resurfaces, too. While Earl is distracted by Jack’s tempestuous magic, Verity and Tacita return each other’s hearts to their chests.
A furious Earl tries casting a spell on them, but Verity uses a protection charm to keep them safe. When he tries to kill them, his magic does nothing. Verity reveals that the mountain is protecting them. She sings the mountain’s song, and all the trapped spirits start flying out of the nightjars and passing to the other side. As the souls go free, Earl grows weak, eventually dissipating into nothing. When it’s over, Verity and Tacita kiss and promise to be together forever. They return to the Millers’ house, where Verity helps Matthew pass on.
On her last day in Foxfire, Verity tears through the dress shop in search of a sign for where to go next. Gilly insists that Verity isn’t going anywhere, as today is Gilly’s wedding day. Verity gives in and attends the event with Tacita.
Afterward, Verity starts saying her goodbyes. Tacita begs her not to leave. She insists that Verity shouldn’t have to train anymore, given all she accomplished in Foxfire. Verity realizes she might be right. She and Tacita decide to leave Foxfire for an oceanside town together.
Part 3 Analysis
Throughout the novel, Verity Vox has been fighting Earl in defense of Foxfire. She is desperate to prove that she is a witch of integrity, and she goes so far as to give up some of her power to Earl on behalf of her new Foxfire friends. Verity’s sacrifice furthers the novel’s theme of the Use of Power for Good Versus Evil, reiterating how power in the hands of the noble can create positive change. In the context of Verity Vox, Verity’s sacrifice helps her to gradually recover the trust of her new community and to learn about herself. She has learned that her magical powers are not the sum of who she is, and going up against Earl has shown her to be courageous, determined, and compassionate. Once she lives without some of her power for a time, she has the space to reevaluate who she is beyond her magic. These aspects of Verity’s story in Part 3 usher her toward reconciliation with the town and the completion of her coming-of-age journey and character arc, while also offering her insight into how she might defeat Earl and pursue the life she wants, now that she knows what she wants.
Verity’s time living without all of her powers furthers the novel’s theme of Self-Exploration amid a Small-Town Community. After Verity gives up a portion of her power to her enemy, she is forced to live among the Foxfire townspeople in a new way. She still has some magical capabilities, but, by and large, she must work and behave in much the same way as her unmagical counterparts. Tacita advises Verity, “You should let ‘em see you sweat” (241), because she is eager for the townspeople to regard Verity as their equal and their friend. Verity also learns about herself as a result of this loss. She discovers that she “did not know what she had until it was gone” (242), but also realizes that she herself has never held power—as a witch, she learns, she is rather “a human bridge,” and her body is “a pathway between our world and worlds beyond” (257). This newfound understanding humbles Verity, which, in turn, gives her the strength and wisdom to face off with Earl once more. She is willing to sacrifice her heart, body, and life for her friends because she has found empowerment and fulfillment in being a vessel for change, and her decision to carve out her own heart is a metaphor for her self-sacrifice.
The final sequences of the narrative trace Verity’s work to acknowledge all the challenges she has overcome and to pursue a life for herself beyond them. Almost as soon as Verity returns from the mountain with her heart restored, she starts anticipating her departure from Foxfire. She is so devoted to her witch training that she does not give herself the time or space to grieve the friendships she will be leaving behind or consider that perhaps she has changed. With Tacita’s help, Verity discovers that it is okay to be giving of herself to others, but she must also be generous with her own heart. “Look,” Tacita urges her in the novel’s final scene, “instead of waiting to be told where to go, why don’t you decide for yourself” (321). Tacita is urging Verity to attend to her own desires. She does not want Verity to lose sight of her dreams or sacrifice her freedom just as she has realized who she is and what she wants. Tacita thus fuels Verity’s further self-exploration, just as Verity has encouraged hers. The image of the two venturing off to the ocean together at the novel’s end offers a hopeful, redemptive ending. Formerly outsiders, they have found belonging and acceptance in each other.
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