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Summary
Chapter 51: Trial By Dragon Fire
Grace finds herself on her way to Brit Lit, distracted by a flood of text messages from Heather and Macy. She responds to Heather's messages about school and her Cheshire Cat costume for the fall play, but stops herself from sharing details about Jaxon, considering Heather's relentless curiosity. When she arrives at her British Literature classroom, she sits down with Mekhi and he tells her they have just started Act 4, scene 5 of Hamlet. Grace reads the part of Ophelia, wondering why she is always asked to play a damsel in distress. She resigns herself to walking through the creepy tunnels to her next class, but Mekhi accompanies her protectively. Flint still manages to shove his way in between them, but Grace rebuffs his attempt to be friendly. Flint is furious, and tells her she would be foolish to trust Jaxon. He wants to tell her something but refuses to do it in front of a vampire. Mekhi hurries her away.
Chapter 52: If You Can’t Live Without Me, Why Aren’t You Dead Yet?
Grace and Mekhi make their way through the tunnels, and Grace asks Mekhi if he has heard anything from Jaxon. He hasn’t, but he explains to Grace that a big part of the reason she’s under threat is that she matters to Jaxon. The shifters have been looking for “something they can take away from him” for a long time. Grace’s curiosity is piqued, and she asks him what Hudson was like. Mekhi tells her that he was selfish, egotistical and opportunistic. Both turn when they hear a sound, and see Lia running up the tunnel toward them. She says she’s also on her way to the art studio and wants to join them. Mekhi is not keen on the idea, but doesn’t want to start a fight, so the three continue to walk in uneasy peace.
Grace is tired of all the drama and suggests to Lia that they have a girls’ night. Lia is a little taken aback, but quickly agrees. She snaps at Grace when she begins to talk to her about Hudson, saying that she needs to start moving through her grief instead of wallowing in it. Lia says she is trying, and that she was hoping she and Grace could be real friends. Grace feels terrible, and allows Lia to hug her. Her phone then buzzes with several texts from Jaxon. Lia tells her they can raincheck their girls' night until tomorrow, and Grace goes to her room to get ready for a date with Jaxon.
Chapter 53: If This Kiss Is Going To Start A War, It May as Well Be Worth It
Grace is getting ready for her date with Jaxon, trying to choose the right dress and feeling undecided. She eventually settles on a modest yellow dress. Macy teases her about the modesty being pointless, and Grace is pleased but embarrassed. Macy sends her off after helping her put on an elaborate pair of gold earrings, and Grace heads to Jaxon's room nervously. When Jaxon sees her, he's momentarily stunned by her beauty, and they kiss passionately. He hands her a hoodie to put on, and opens the curtains to show her what’s waiting for them outside.
Chapter 54: What Could Possibly Be More Interesting Than Kissing Me?
Grace and Jaxon enjoy a mesmerizing display of the aurora borealis together, beginning their viewing standing in the same place as they watched meteors from on Jaxon’s balcony. Grace is awed by the beautiful lights, and mentions that she’s been fascinated with them since childhood. Jaxon then surprises Grace by wrapping her up in a blanket and flying up into the air above the castle with her. She’s astonished, as she didn’t know he could fly. The two float through the air, and it seems to Grace as if they’re in the middle of the Northern Lights themselves. After a while of this, Jaxon tells her to close her eyes, and gives her an enormous mystic topaz on a necklace. Grace is overcome, and the two return to his room. Jaxon hands Grace a cup of tea made from a blend of Lia’s, and begins kissing her neck. Grace allows him to bite her, but quickly begins to feel cold as Jaxon unexpectedly drains too much of her blood.
Analysis
The symbolic link between the Shakespearean character Ophelia and Grace herself is underlined in the British Literature class that Grace attends with Mekhi. Grace is assigned to read the part of Ophelia as the class continues to study Hamlet, and she wonders aloud to herself why she is always cast as the damsel in distress. However, there are other parallels between Grace and Ophelia beyond this one, which echo out into larger places in the narrative. Ophelia, like Grace, is a sweet and kind character, who is in many ways more ordinary (and more human) than many other people in the Danish court that she lives in. She is in love with Prince Hamlet, who feels rage and fury against her even though he used to love her too. This is mostly because of his own fraught relationship with his mother and her father, and because of some gruesome familial murder. Ophelia can't understand Hamlet's irrational behavior, which Shakespeare describes as one of the reasons why she becomes mentally unstable, and eventually kills herself. While this isn't exactly what happens to Grace, there are many parallels between the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia, her own relationship with Jaxon, and Jaxon’s difficult interactions with the Vampire Queen and the rest of the ruling vampires.
The theme of beauty also becomes very important in this section. It's been implied previously that Grace is unusually attractive, especially through her interactions with Jaxon. However, she doesn't seem to be particularly concerned with her own physical appearance. There's a very touching scene between her and Macy when Macy gives her a makeover before a date with Jaxon. Grace is shy about dressing provocatively, but Macy tells her that modesty is pointless and that Grace should allow her sexuality to shine through. In a novel where many important teenage rites of passage seem to get overshadowed by supernatural customs and rituals, it appears that some things—like makeovers—remain mostly the same. This emphasis on physical beauty is echoed by intense natural beauty as Grace and Jaxon fly together through the aurora borealis on their date. It's a dreamy scene of intense romantic fantasy.
Unsurprisingly, this moment of fairytale happiness is followed by another scene of interrupted sexual consummation. When the two return to Jaxon's room via the window, he hands Grace a cup of tea made from a blend Lia gave him. Grace is grateful, because she’s cold, but the tea tastes of something she doesn’t recognize. She had already been feeling slightly concerned about Lia’s odd behavior previously, as Lia seemed oddly focused on her friendship with Flint. Her suspicions and this foreshadowing turn out to be justified when Jaxon eventually bites her again. Instead of being pleasurable, Grace starts to feel even colder and passes out. At some moments in Crave, it seems that it is never going to be possible for Grace and Jaxon to consummate their relationship, as either an interrupting adult, a teenage misunderstanding or a supernatural disaster will always conveniently interrupt their private moments.
