Weavingshaw

Lord Hargreaves travels to Newtorn Prison to select prisoners for trade in the underworld. A flashback reveals that over 20 years ago, he and his friend Percy captured an escaped Algaraan convict. Over Hargreaves’s objections, Percy persuaded him to trade the man to a demon instead of returning him to prison, arguing it was a more just punishment. This was the beginning of the Wake.

Now, Hargreaves frames his actions as a form of clemency, telling himself that he’s rescuing his Algaraan countrymen from unfair life sentences. He meets with the prison’s Warden, who eagerly presents candidates. The first two prisoners are simple larceny cases, and Hargreaves gives each three years in the underworld. The final prisoner is Leena Al-Sayer’s father, who is shocked to learn the Algaraan revolution has succeeded. Hargreaves, annoyed by the man’s revolutionary joy, sentences him to 15 years in the underworld. Before the prisoner is taken away, Hargreaves informs him that his daughter now works for the Saint of Silence, which alarms him. Hargreaves decides to monitor the prisoner for future use. As he leaves, Hargreaves reflects on Percy’s greed, which cost him Weavingshaw, and prepares for his own return to the estate.

Leena, Rami, and St. Silas travel to Weavingshaw, a decaying and ominous estate on the northern moors. They pass through the miners’ town of Lytham, where resentful villagers, many wearing the symbol of the Rebels, nearly accost their carriage. At a posting inn for the night, Leena realizes she has forgotten her pouch of salt, leaving her vulnerable to ghosts.

The ghost of Lord Hargreaves’s wife appears and insists Leena follow her. Leena reluctantly agrees, hoping to gain information. St. Silas, returning from an unknown errand with muddy boots, intercepts her and follows her into the woods bordering Weavingshaw. The ghost leads them to a rocky beach, where she points to a small metal box nailed to a weeping willow before fading in distress at the sight of St. Silas.

Leena races St. Silas to the box, throwing sand in his face to beat him to it. Inside is a glass bottle containing two parchments. She breaks the bottle and hides the notes in her bodice. One parchment is illegible, but the other is a desperate letter from Lady Hargreaves to an unnamed recipient, cursing Weavingshaw and mentioning a “poor boy” who was wronged. As Lady Hargreaves’s ghost reappears and gestures apologetically toward St. Silas, Leena asks St. Silas about Mrs. Van. He demands both letters. After she hands them over, he confirms her suspicion that Mrs. Van is a demon.

Upon arriving at Weavingshaw, the group receives a deliberately cold welcome from the estate’s new owner. St. Silas subtly threatens Martin with a secret he holds over him, forcing a more hospitable attitude. They are interrupted by Lord Kilworth, an aristocrat whose predatory gaze falls on Leena until St. Silas steps in, claiming her as his ward.

In the study, Leena sees the ghost of a young, fair-haired woman named Moira. The spirit becomes enraged upon seeing St. Silas and attempts to choke him. The ghost’s fury is so intense that Leena is possessed. She experiences Moira’s memories and learns she had a secret romance with a living Percival Avon. In the memory, Percival professes his love for Moira before strangling her to death to protect an unspecified secret.

Rami hands St. Silas Leena’s copper coins, and St. Silas strikes them together to break the possession. St. Silas realizes the extent of Leena’s ability and that she can be fully possessed. Leena deflects his questions about this phenomenon, claiming Moira’s anger simply overwhelmed her. St. Silas, unconvinced, sternly orders Leena to come to him if she is ever in danger of being possessed again, promising to perform an exorcism himself if necessary.

The morning after their arrival, rain cancels the planned hunt, forcing the entire party to gather for breakfast. The other guests, including Lord Hargreaves, react to St. Silas, Leena, and Rami’s presence with thinly veiled hostility. During breakfast, Hargreaves proposes a tour of the estate. When another lord suggests visiting the Avon family crypts, Mr. Martin claims they are under renovation. St. Silas, feigning boredom, watches the interaction intently.

St. Silas excuses himself from the tour to begin his own search, leaving Leena and Rami to maintain their cover as guests. Leena feels increasingly isolated among the nobility. She later finds some comfort with Mrs. Van, who is revealed to be half-demon and half-human. Leena, feels a sense of solidarity with the housekeeper.

For the next few days, the group relentlessly but secretly searches for the red diary while participating in the hunting party’s daily activities. Leena senses they are being watched by Mr. Martin’s staff. Their searches of the library, study, attics, and smugglers’ caves yield nothing. During one encounter, Lord Kilworth shows open revulsion toward Mrs. Van, who believes he knows she is a demon and wants to kill her.

Leena observes a tense, coded conversation between St. Silas and Lord Hargreaves. St. Silas remarks that it is the “season of wolves,” and Hargreaves replies that they are only terrifying to those with “blood on their hands” (273). Leena feels caught between two predators. As the search drags on, the unspoken tension between Leena and St. Silas grows. She questions his intimate knowledge of Weavingshaw’s secrets, but he deflects.

Leena has a vivid dream in which she experiences the memories of Lady Hargreaves, whose given name was Gemma. She witnesses Gemma’s debut, where she first sees her future husband, Lord Hargreaves, alongside his friend, Lord Percival Avon. The dream flashes forward to Gemma and Hargreaves’s wedding, where Lord Avon serves as best man. Leena notes that Percival’s wife, Lady Avon, is conspicuously absent from both events.

Leena awakens to find Lady Hargreaves’s ghost trying to communicate with her from outside her salt circle. Before she can understand the ghost’s message, Theodore’s spirit, trying to protect Leena, becomes agitated and banishes Lady Hargreaves. Later that day, Leena searches the Weavingshaw portrait gallery for a painting of Percival’s wife but finds none among the portraits of the Avon lords. Frustrated by the dead ends, the group resolves to search the Avon family crypts that night.

St. Silas leads Leena and Rami deep into the maze-like crypts beneath Weavingshaw, explaining that they were designed with traps to deter grave robbers. Rami accidentally triggers an old explosive, and St. Silas pins Leena against the wall so the debris leaves her untouched. As they proceed, Leena suffers a severe, spontaneous hemorrhage that only stops when St. Silas strikes her copper coins, confirming another supernatural entity is present.

Footsteps alert them that they are being followed. They flee, and St. Silas leads them to the main Avon burial chamber. Leena asks Moira for help, and the spirit points to a tomb near the entrance. Leena understands and proposes they hide inside it just as Mr. Martin and Lord Kilworth enter. Leena is forced into the tight space with St. Silas, who has a visceral, fearful reaction to the confinement. They overhear Martin and Kilworth discussing a large, smuggled shipment of Tar, which they have hidden in another tomb to sell to the Black Coats.

After the men leave, an enraged Rami destroys the entire supply of Tar. St. Silas warns that Mr. Martin and Kilworth will kill all of them if the ruined drug is discovered while they’re still at Weavingshaw. They locate Percival Avon’s tomb, but it contains only a skeleton, and the red diary is not there.

As the group navigates their way out of the crypts, St. Silas hesitates at a fork in the passage. Shortly after, the demon that caused Leena’s earlier hemorrhage attacks her again. This time, Leena successfully fights off the possession on her own. In the struggle, she rips a memory from the demon, witnessing the 1st Marquess of Avon making a blood pact at a lake deep within the crypts. The Marquess promised that he and all his descendants would serve the demon in exchange for the demon’s eternal protection of Weavingshaw. In a separate image from centuries later, she sees Percival Avon standing over the same lake, screaming pleadingly for the demon to stop feeding on him.

The struggle leads her directly to the demon’s chamber, the Hall of the Lake. She explains to St. Silas and Rami that Weavingshaw’s foundation is a demonic contract. St. Silas, however, dismisses the information as useless to their search for the diary. His lack of surprise convinces Leena that he already knew about the demon and the curse.

While St. Silas and Rami are on a hunt, Leena goes to the miners’ town to find Mrs. Graham, Percival Avon’s former housekeeper, who now suffers from memory loss. The housekeeper mentions that Lord Avon had a son who was taken by the Wake. She also refers to the Saint of Lost Children and her olive trees, which reminds Leena of a carving on the empty tomb in the crypts.

The woman shows Leena a special timepiece given to her by Lord Avon. It is identical to the one Margery gave Leena, with the name “Fray” engraved on it, but this one has an additional, crudely etched message: “Avons can cross.” Leena secretly swaps the two timepieces. As Leena prepares to leave, Mrs. Graham has a moment of clarity and says that her kind master recently visited her to chop firewood. When Leena asks if she means Percival’s ghost, the housekeeper corrects her, stating she means “Master Bramwell, the new Lord Avon” (312).

Reeling from the revelation that St. Silas is Bramwell Avon, Percival’s son and heir, Leena goes to the beach. Distraught, she strips down to her chemise and wades into the freezing winter sea. St. Silas appears and follows her into the water, demanding to know if she has been possessed. To prove her identity, she says he takes two spoonfuls of sugar in his coffee.

She confronts him with his birthright, but he warns her not to say his name. A storm breaks, and as Leena tries to return to shore, she falls and is submerged. St. Silas pulls her from the water and carries her into a nearby smugglers’ cave for shelter. As he holds her, Leena thinks she hears him murmur that he cannot surrender to his feelings for her.

St. Silas and Leena take shelter inside the cave from the storm raging outside. St. Silas gives Leena his coat and then buttons it for her, claiming her state of undress is a distraction. Leena formally addresses him as “My Lord Avon.” He doesn’t deny his identity and confirms he has always known about the Avon curse. He vows that, unlike his father, he will control the demon beneath Weavingshaw.

Leena argues that the curse will destroy him. They nearly kiss, but St. Silas pulls away. Leena concludes that the Wake was comprised of Lord Hargreaves and Percival Avon, and she asks whether they traded St. Silas to a demon as a boy. He does not confirm it, instead taking her by the shoulders and demanding she promise not to seek out Hargreaves, not just for his sake but for her own. Leena agrees not to approach the Wake until their contract is finished, silently reaffirming her commitment to freeing her father. She leaves the cave, vowing to herself that she will ultimately survive and walk away from Bramwell.