My eyes remained firmly closed on the way to the airport. It would be a long time before I flew without thinking of Satu.

But Matthew killing people and sneak-feeding you his blood, psh, whatever, right?  Who cares about that?  And all that torture?  Hasn’t given it a second thought.  And those ghosts?  Not mentioned again.  The fact that her mother bound up her magic?  Barely a blip on the radar.  Get stuck in a pitch-black hole overnight?  No effect. 

Nope, we’re going to save all of our drama for flying.

They fly off to New York in the private jet obtained through the fabulous wealth that all vampires fart out their asses.

Baldwin says he thinks the whole ‘escape from the magic pit’ thing feels like a trap, but he’s got to go off and do other stuff.

“Sister, that’s not how family bids each other adieu.” Baldwin’s voice was softly mocking. He gave me no time to react but gripped my shoulders and kissed me on the cheeks.

Great, now the whole family doesn’t give two shits about getting up in her personal space.

And right after she’s been brutally tortured, no less.  It would be perfectly reasonable for her to shun physical contact, or at least to shun certain types or from unknown people.  Granted, everyone reacts differently (or in Diana’s case, not at all), but ‘no touchy’ is a very common reaction assault.  And if that’s not Diana’s reaction, okay, but Baldwin doesn’t know this.  He’s just jumping right in as if it’s a normal breach of personal space, rather than something that could rightly send her into a fit of well-justified panic.

What on earth was the point of torturing her?  Oh, right, there wasn’t one.

Matthew and Diana drive out to her aunts’ house.  Sarah has bumper stickers that say I’M PAGAN AND I VOTE and WICCAN ARMY: WE WILL NOT GO SILENTLY INTO THE NIGHT.  Sigh.  And here I thought we’d left that whole Wicca bullshit behind.  Because unless these are magic-slinging fantasy-witches who also happen to be members of a particular religion…

“Meanwhile stop pretending nothing has happened. You’re not fooling me, and you won’t fool your aunts either.”

Really?  Because she fooled me.  Her thoughts have been dead silent on the whole torture thing.

Maybe your mind-control blood did it, Matthew.

Emily and Sarah aren’t home, but on purpose.  Apparently their house is magic and doesn’t like visitors, so the fewer people around while it gets used to someone new, the better.  Again, I like that.  Awesome detail.  Why is such an awesome detail in such a shitty book?

Oh, and there’s ghosts.  What?  Was this why she didn’t blink when they were showing up at the torture-castle?  Jee, sure would have been nice to see some ghosts at other points in the story, instead of having them just pop right the fuck up out of nowhere.  Also, Matthew can’t see the ghosts.

And there’s a cat.  It likes Matthew despite usually not like anyone.  Because he really needs MORE SPARKLES.

We are two thirds done with this book and this whole introduction feels like something that should be at the start of the book.  Or at least the early part of the middle.  By this point?  It rather feels like the book is just shrugging and starting over.

The floor was constructed out of wide pine planks with gaps large enough to swallow a hairbrush.

o.O  Considering even small gaps in hardwood floors can catch and pinch at your feet, that sounds really painful.  And also terrible for insulation.  That really should be fixed.

They stand around in the bedroom and talk about how awesomely in love they are and some bullshit about Diana feeling like she’s connected to him by a chain.  It’s the same metaphor she used way back in Ch 15 and it hasn’t been repeated since, and I had to use ctl+F to find it again because it was just that random and useless.  I think it’s supposed to be some sort of actual magic, though, not just pure metaphor.   Or something.  It’s not like there’s a point or purpose to anything in this book.

Oh, yeah, and Diana is walking all over her house, up and down flights of stairs, with no problems.  Hours of torture followed by stressful cross-Atlantic travel?  Psh, who cares?

Then the aunts come in, they fuss over her, Em somehow knows that Diana has a hairline fracture that Matthew missed (hah!) and Sarah uses magic to insta-heal all her torture wounds, broken bone included.

Wow, book, you just made her torture even more pointless.  You couldn’t even give her the illusion of a lasting consequence.  Nope, you had to insta-heal it away.

You know, Satu could have just kidnapped her, questioned her, and left her in a pit without the brutal assaults.  It would have accomplished the same narrative goals without being quite as brain-breakingly stupid.  (Although still would have required a reaction; kidnapping is very traumatizing, as is isolation.)

Oh, and there’s a bit where Diana tells Sarah to stop, and Sarah looks to Matthew for permission as if he’s a parent to some unruly child at a doctor’s office.  Damnit, Sarah, she’s your family and even you can’t treat her like an adult?

Apparently the wounds on her back are some sort of spell, and Sarah can’t heal it all the way.  Some stay as scars, and the scars look the same as Matthew’s Knights of Lazarus seal.

“Any vampire would know you were mine—with or without this brand on your back. Satu wanted to make sure that every other creature knew who you belonged to, as well.

Fuck, now everyone in the entire world is treating this woman like a piece of property?  This is seriously sick.  First she’s mind-controlled into loving the guy, then her own family ignores her in favor of her new ‘master,’ and now she’s been branded?  It’s like a horror story where the main character is cut off from every avenue of help until she’s left at the mercy of her slave-master.  And that’s not terribly romantic!

Diana and Matthew start chatting about how they have a mutual habit of invading each other’s privacy, and Sarah gets mad about…either what Matthew says or about being left out of the conversation, hard to tell.  Either way, she and Diana almost get in a magic fight over it.

“But it’s a secret,” I said, confused. We had to keep our secrets—from everyone—whether they involved my abilities or Matthew’s knights.

“No more secrets,” he said firmly, his breath against my neck. “They’re not good for either of us.”

I dare you to tell me that this doesn’t sound like someone talking to a child.  And say it with a straight face.

Matthew gives Em and Sarah the very bare basics about the KoL, then tucks Diana into bed so she can go to sleep like a good little toddler.