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Chapters 19-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: The section of the guide features discussion of sexual content, graphic violence, and death.
Chapter 19 Summary
During the Devil’s Backbone wilderness weekend, a text exchange reveals Dr. Jocelyn Reynard approving a high-risk game for her “chosen team” with potential collateral damage.
Ashley and Carly watch from a dock as Royce, Carter, Nate, and Heath inflate giant ducks to race across a lake. Ashley and Carly search for paddles, returning with bark and leaves to use instead. Once the ducks are inflated, Ashley, Nate, and Royce form one team with their black-and-white striped duck, while Carter, Heath, and Carly race on a Spider-Man duck.
Mid-race, Royce stabs the Spider-Man duck with his pocketknife, sinking it. Heath swims after Ashley’s team and capsizes their duck as payback. They resume racing with Nate and Royce pushing from behind while Ashley steers. Mist gathers as Ashley notices two other teams, who reach the finish platform first. A man in purple celebrates by pressing a red button meant to fire a flare. Instead, the platform explodes, obliterating the winning team and another nearby team, covering Ashley in blood and human remains. Ashley realizes Jocelyn orchestrated the bomb to kill her, Nate, and Royce, and is more dangerous than anyone anticipated.
Chapter 20 Summary
Nate texts his father Max, warning that a bomb killed six people and nearly killed them, urging Max to take Ashley’s mother, Carina, and leave town immediately.
Within thirty minutes, helicopters airlift the group back to the lodge. Ashley, in severe shock, realizes the bomb was intended for her team. Carter carries her upstairs while Carly worries about potential injuries. Carter insists Ashley needs a shower immediately.
Heath washes the blood and gore from Ashley. She deduces their team received an air compressor as a tactical advantage to ensure they would reach the platform first, and that only Carter throwing it away saved their lives. She realizes Jocelyn intended to kill Nate as well. Overwhelmed, Ashley confesses her love for Heath and admits she had sex with Nate. Heath says he’s relieved, explaining Nate had been planning to move out because he was falling for Ashley and felt he didn’t belong.
While washing Ashley’s hair, Heath finds a dismembered eyeball. Ashley vomits, followed by Royce when he sees it. Carter disposes of the eyeball.
Chapter 21 Summary
Ashley’s boss at the country club texts her while she’s on leave to see if she wants shifts, but she falsely claims she has the flu.
The group gives statements to private security, learning the Devil’s Backbone Society will handle the investigation internally rather than involving law enforcement. During the limo ride home, Nate calls Max on speakerphone. Max reveals he hasn’t told Carina about the bomb but agrees to book a flight to St. Bart’s for their safety.
Ashley powers on her phone and sees explicit messages from Carter. He quietly takes her phone, whispering the content is for private viewing. Ashley has a moment of self-doubt about her polyamorous relationship with four men and pretends to sleep for the remainder of the drive.
At their apartment, Nate mentions Ashley’s missed schoolwork. Ashley panics about losing her scholarship to Nevaeh University due to absences. When Carter tries to reassure her, she assumes he’ll pay for her degree, leading to an argument. Heath intervenes, scolding Carter for trying to solve problems with money. Carter storms off. Heath suggests Ashley study in his room to avoid Carter, but they have sex instead as she seeks comfort after the trauma.
Chapter 22 Summary
A text from Dean Bloomberg to Carter confirms that a donation to Nevaeh University resolved Ashley’s attendance issue discreetly.
Ashley lies to the university administration, claiming she had pneumonia to cover for the weeks she was missing. Her absences are excused. Over the following days, Ashley notices Nate withdrawing, consumed by guilt over his mother’s actions. On Tuesday night, she finds him writing in a journal. He explains that all the boys began journaling after Heath’s suicide attempt to process their emotions.
Nate asks Ashley to lie with him for comfort. She agrees, and they fall asleep holding each other. Carter wakes them Wednesday morning to announce Royce’s father Mike is downstairs. In the living room, the “Colonel,” as they call him, informs Nate and Ashley that the plane carrying Max and Carina crashed on landing with no survivors. Nate calmly thanks him for delivering the news in person, confusing the Colonel. After Mike leaves, Nate asks Ashley to go for a drive. He kisses her knuckles, prompting Carter to comment on their relationship. Nate and Ashley leave together.
Chapter 23 Summary
Ashley receives a text from her father in London, begging her to come stay with him for safety.
Nate drives Ashley to the Parklands, where they meet Max and Carina and reveal the plane crash was a ruse to make Jocelyn believe they’re dead and, hopefully, satisfy her vendetta. Carina feeds ducks with Ashley. Max and Carina are being escorted to London by private security to meet Ashley’s father. In the previous novel, Ashley and Nate faked an engagement to provide extra protection to her through his family’s affluence; however, Carina believed this narrative. When Carina notices Ashley’s engagement ring is missing, Nate lies that it’s being cleaned; the ring was likely taken at Mallard hospital. Max and Carina depart.
Nate drives Ashley back to campus. After her lecture, Carter announces they have an appointment at a funeral home and insists on accompanying them as a bodyguard. At the funeral home, Ashley feels distressed planning her mother’s fake funeral. During the facility tour, she slips away to the restroom; on the way back, she and Carter end up alone in a casket showroom. Carter dares Ashley to have sex there, and she calls his bluff. They have quick, rough sex over a casket, finishing just as Nate and funeral director Mortimer Graves walk in. Carter smoothly covers for them. Ashley decides she needs to tell Carter she loves him soon.
Chapter 24 Summary
Ashley texts Nate to thank him for bringing her coffee at work.
Ashley takes a shift at the country club with extra security Carter hired. At the apartment, Heath sees Nate smiling at his phone and accuses him of texting Ashley. Royce returns after dropping Ashley off, explaining he checked on the security. That evening, all four men receive a summons to meet the Devil’s Backbone elders’ council. They go to the secret meeting chamber beneath the drama department and don ceremonial robes.
They find the chamber dimly lit with three gold-masked elders and numerous black-masked members. The elders order them to rescind their statements to authorities about Jocelyn, threatening consequences for refusal. When Nate refuses, black-masked members restrain them. A light reveals Ashley bound and gagged on a table. An elder, whom Heath believes is Martin Taylor, raises a blade, threatening to kill her to ensure their silence.
Royce breaks free and kills a guard and the threatening elder. A violent fight erupts as Heath, Carter, and Nate join in. The four men slaughter all the elders and guards. Heath realizes the elders were under hypnosis. He crushes one elder’s skull beneath his boot. Royce finds a surviving guard and cuts out his tongue.
Chapter 25 Summary
Jocelyn texts Martin Taylor, an elder, demanding confirmation of Ashley’s death and growing furious at his silence.
Ashley regains awareness after the massacre, shocked by the violence, especially from Royce. Nate teases her about being tied up and gagged. When Royce cuts her free, Ashley immediately punches Nate in the groin for his comment. Nate collapses, joking that their safe word should be pineapples.
Ashley apologizes for the excessive force. She talks with Nate about the uncertainty of their relationship before kissing him. Carter interrupts, saying they have a plan for handling the bodies. Heath suggests calling his grandfather. Nate and Royce agree, reasoning that the Society leadership will want to handle the situation discreetly to protect its reputation. They leave the sealed room for the Society to clean up.
Chapter 26 Summary
Carter texts Ashley from across the room to check on her. Ashley suffers anxiety about the bodies in the basement. Via text, Carter asks Ashley on a date Friday night, and she agrees.
Heath finishes his call, confirming a Philadelphia team is handling cleanup and appointing new elders. His grandfather was upset but primarily concerned for their safety. Carter asks to speak with Ashley alone, but she makes him wait by playing video games with Heath. When Royce and Nate return with pizza, Ashley falls asleep on Royce’s shoulder. Carter carries her to bed.
The next morning, Ashley wakes to find a basket of muffins with a Devil’s Backbone crest. Royce is already eating one. Nate reveals they’re an apology from Heath’s grandfather. Royce plays a forwarded voice message from his grandfather confirming the muffins are safe and expressing sympathy. Royce pretends to choke as a prank, scaring Ashley. She’s momentarily angry but lets Royce hug her.
Chapter 27 Summary
Carly texts Ashley about Royce’s attractive uncle, who is in town, and Ashley jokes about Carly’s numerous boyfriends.
Ashley and Royce confirm the basement has been cleaned spotlessly. Ashley quits her country club job out of safety concerns. After class, Royce tells Ashley his uncle, a lawyer, wants to have dinner with them. Royce seems uncharacteristically reluctant about the meeting. Ashley texts Carter to postpone their planned date.
At the apartment, while waiting for Heath to finish an essay, Ashley decides to watch an explicit video Carter sent during the wilderness weekend. She accidentally blasts the audio from her phone when Nate walks in and hears it, teasing her about watching pornography. They wrestle over the phone. Nate discovers the video is of Carter, then throws the phone in shock. Ashley ends up straddling an aroused Nate on the floor. Max calls Nate, interrupting the moment. As Nate takes the call, Ashley gets the idea to make videos with Heath to send to Carter.
Chapters 19-27 Analysis
This section of the narrative solidifies the central theme of Redefining Love and Security Beyond Monogamy by positioning the polyamorous relationship as the primary defense against external threats. The trauma of the bombing at the Devil’s Backbone Society event forges the five individuals into a singular, interdependent unit. In the immediate aftermath, physical intimacy becomes a crucial mechanism for grounding and reaffirmation. Heath’s methodical washing of the blood from Ashley’s body is an act of care that transcends simple romance, functioning as a ritualistic cleansing of trauma. Similarly, Ashley’s sexual encounters with Heath and Carter are not merely diversions but deliberate attempts to reclaim agency and seek comfort within the safety of their bond. Nate’s integration, previously fraught with tension, accelerates dramatically. His act of seeking comfort from Ashley after learning his own mother is trying to kill him signals his emotional surrender to the group dynamic. The relationship’s evolution from a source of internal conflict to a fortress of mutual protection stands in stark opposition to Jocelyn’s singular, obsessive, and ultimately destructive version of familial love.
The recurring motif of ducks is used with irony to underscore the subversion of innocence and the pervasiveness of Jocelyn’s malevolence. The wilderness game transforms giant inflatable ducks, symbols of harmless recreation, into instruments for a bombing, thereby corrupting a benign image with deadly intent. This act directly mirrors Jocelyn’s psychological methodology of twisting seemingly normal situations and relationships into weapons. The brief, peaceful scene where Carina and Ashley feed real ducks at the Parklands provides a stark contrast, representing a fragile moment of authentic connection and natural order that Jocelyn’s machinations seek to destroy.
The narrative also employs masks as a literal and figurative representation of lost agency and concealed truths. During the confrontation in the secret chamber, the gold-masked elders are not individuals exercising authority but anonymous, hypnotized puppets enacting Jocelyn’s will. Their masks strip them of identity, transforming them into extensions of the antagonist and physical manifestations of her psychological control. This imagery reinforces the theme of The Impact of Abuse on Mental Health, demonstrating how an individual’s will can be erased or shaped by those with more power. The act of slaughtering these masked figures becomes more than a simple act of violence; it is a symbolic destruction of Jocelyn’s control and a desperate, brutal reclamation of the group’s autonomy against a faceless, deceptive threat.
A key narrative technique in these chapters is the stark juxtaposition of the macabre with the mundane, which serves to illustrate the characters’ fractured reality. The discovery of a dismembered eyeball in Ashley’s hair during an intimate moment of care in the shower is a grotesque intrusion that shatters a scene of profound vulnerability. Likewise, the decision to have sex in a casket showroom conflates themes of death, desire, and defiance, showing the characters’ impulse to assert life in a space dedicated to its absence. This pattern continues with the arrival of apology muffins from Heath’s grandfather following the massacre, a gesture of social decorum so inadequate that it highlights the complete breakdown of normal moral and social frameworks. This constant blending of horror with moments of dark comedy or routine life mirrors the psychological disorientation of living under constant threat.
The escalating cycle of violence marks a critical shift in the group’s dynamic, transforming them from victims into perpetrators. Jocelyn’s attempted murder via bomb is a definitive escalation from psychological warfare to physical annihilation. The group’s response—the systematic slaughter of the hypnotized DBS elders and guards—is an equal and opposing escalation. This massacre is not portrayed as a moment of heroic vengeance but as a grim necessity, a primal and unified defense of their chosen family. Heath’s internal reflection that “No one touched our Ashley and lived to tell the tale” codifies this shift (189), articulating a new, collective identity forged in bloodshed. Royce’s uncharacteristic savagery in cutting out a man’s tongue demonstrates the profound psychological impact of the threat to Ashley, revealing a capacity for brutality that lies dormant beneath his typically more playful demeanor. Their actions solidify their bond through a shared transgression, irrevocably separating themselves from conventional moral codes and making their survival entirely dependent on one another.
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