Serpent & Dove

Lou dreams of how she got the scar on her collarbone. She feels blood dripping from her neck and hears her mother laughing, telling Louise she is coming for her. In her dream (as she did in real life), Lou flees, uses her magic to heal her wound, and determines never to return. She wakes, remembering Hélène’s frantic warning and wondering how Hélène knows Morgane. Lou decides she must train harder, twice a day. Frightened, she moves to lie next to Reid on the floor.

Shaken by her dream, Lou recalls her 16th birthday: Instead of becoming an initiate into the sisterhood, she was to be killed. Her death would be the “sacrifice” that allowed the Dames Blanches to overthrow the Church and monarchy. Lou had known that this was her fate since birth, but when the moment came, she resisted and escaped.

Reid interrupts Lou’s memories and tells her La Vie Éphémère is being performed at Soleil et Lune. He asks if she’d like to go. She has finished the book, and while Reid may see the end as hopeful, she thinks the couple’s love was futile. Depressed and weary, she still agrees to go.

When Reid leaves, Lou hurries about the room looking for a weapon, to Ansel’s dismay.