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Summary
Chapter 11: In the Library No One Can Hear You Scream
Fleeing from Jaxon and the party, Grace runs through Katmere’s corridors, eventually finding herself in front of the library. Entering, she's initially overwhelmed with a sense of dread but is soon captivated by the library's unique decor, featuring a weird mix of gargoyles, crystals, and an array of colorful stickers. As she explores the library, Grace is also intrigued by the themed bookshelves guarded by different carved gargoyles. The environment momentarily distracts her from her troubles, but her exploring is interrupted when she discovers a half-open door leading to a room where an unknown girl’s voice is chanting.
Chapter 12: It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses Their Life
Intrigued by the chanting, Grace enters the room and meets Lia, a girl about her age, speaking an unfamiliar language. Lia, who seems pretty, friendly, and welcoming, introduces herself and predicts they'll become good friends. Their conversation shifts from the language Lia was chanting (which she reveals to be Akkadian) to the research she’s trying to conduct. Lia then invites Grace for tea, steering her out of the room and up to her own bedroom. As they enter, Lia discloses that she’s grieving the recent death of her boyfriend. She and Grace share a moment of painful silence, but Grace is grateful to know that someone else understands how she feels. During tea, Lia and Grace talk about Lia's linguistic research and the art of deception at Katmere. Lia's comment that lying is “basically survival 101” unnerves Grace, but Lia quickly eases the tension with humor. Grace shrugs off the strange comment.
Chapter 13: Just Bite Me
Their conversation is cut short by several urgent text messages from Macy, who is concerned about Grace's whereabouts. Grace feels she needs to leave and find Macy, despite Lia's suggestion to stay longer. Lia dismissively tells Grace to text back and tell Macy not to worry, but Macy knocks on Lia’s door before Grace can do so. She hugs Grace, exclaiming that she was worried, and then the pair say goodbye to Lia. Macy is a little overawed that Grace was “invited for mani-pedis by Lia Tanaka,” as it transpires that Lia is the most popular girl in the entire school.
Chapter 14: Knock Knock Knocking on Death’s Door
Grace returns to her room, feeling exhausted and ill from altitude sickness. When she starts to vomit violently, Macy is concerned and suggests visiting the nurse, but Grace opts to rest in bed. Macy speaks to Finn, passing on that he thinks Grace should take the day off to rest. Finn stops by to visit, also expressing worry about Grace’s illness, and cajoles her and Macy into joining him and some other students outside for a snowball fight that night. Grace reluctantly agrees, as she doesn’t feel like she can turn down any invitations at this point. Flint kisses her on the cheek before he leaves.
Chapter 15: So Hell Actually Can Freeze Over
Macy teases Grace about the kiss, but Grace brushes her off. Uncle Finn visits her in person, checking how she’s feeling, and then Grace decides to head outside for a walk. She Googles how to dress for the weather, dons her hot pink snow gear, and leaves the castle. She’s immediately mesmerized by the beauty of the snow-covered grounds. As she walks, she sees various campus buildings, each with individual names and purposes. Intrigued by the art studio and dance studio, Grace imagines the possibilities these facilities offer: she was a musician and loved to dance in her former life. Despite the cold, she continues her walk, admiring the frost-covered trees and frozen pond. She stops walking abruptly when she sees Lia and Jaxon talking to each other in a distant gazebo.
Analysis
Chapters 13-15 are mostly concerned with Grace's continued acclimation to Katmere’s social environment, her attempts to find common ground with other students, and her struggles to deal with the overwhelming feelings of grief about her parents that seem to erupt out of nowhere. After fleeing from Jaxon and the party, she finds solace in the library, a place that aligns with her love for knowledge and feels comforting and familiar despite the odd décor. Her fascination with its gargoyle-themed bookshelves is overt foreshadowing for the later events of the novel: this seems especially pointed as they’re located in the library, the only place she feels welcome outside her own bedroom. As she walks around, Grace briefly feels as if she might be able to use her time at Katmere to do more than wait for her grief to subside. This sense of purpose is quickly eclipsed by curiosity when she hears Lia chanting from behind the partially closed door.
Lia gives her the warmest welcome of anyone besides Macy, and instead of being annoyed at being interrupted, she decides to tell Grace about her research. Grace is a little intimidated, as Lia is very pretty and seems extremely smart, but quickly accepts an invitation to go to her room to have tea. The girls share a moment of bonding over their relative causes of grief as they enter Lia’s room. Although there’s something strange about Lia’s demeanor, Grace is grateful to have met somebody who might understand some of the hopelessness and purposelessness she’s struggling with. She’s not fond of the tea Lia serves her, but she feels as though the friendship has potential, especially when Lia invites her back for mani-pedis at a future date. Lia reminds Grace of the actual purpose of a student body, pointing out to her that she’s actually in a place of learning where there are people who can teach her how to navigate the unfamiliar. Lia seems to know a lot about languages: she speaks Akkadian, but she’s also an expert at lying, telling Grace that it’s an important skill to develop. The discussions about Lia's research and her various “language” skills are metaphors for the hidden layers of communication and implicit understanding that Grace must navigate. It’s not just Lia’s Akkadian that Grace has trouble understanding: Lia is foreshadowing far more unpleasant things to come.
Macy also continues to be a pivotal figure in Grace’s adjustment to Katmere. Her worried texts in Chapter 12 and her concern for Grace’s wellbeing in Chapter 14 point to the strong family bond the pair are already beginning to re-establish. When Grace becomes ill—which the reader will later guess is probably the result of the tea Lia serves her—Macy cares for her tenderly. Grace is sure she’s still just feeling the effects of altitude sickness, but Macy and Uncle Finn are growing concerned about her welfare. So, it seems, is Flint, who stops by their room to visit and leaves Grace with a kiss on her cheek. These relationships are beginning to offer Grace a sense of normalcy and grounding in the unfamiliar and often overwhelming environment of Katmere.
Grace’s interactions with Jaxon are still unsatisfying and fraught with uneasy tension. Chapter 11 illustrates her struggle to understand and navigate her feelings towards him, as they range wildly from attraction to confusion and fear. Jaxon's unpredictable behavior and the power dynamics in their conversations continue to unsettle Grace, adding to her sense of uncertainty in her new environment. She hasn’t ever had a boy make her feel these things before, but at this point she isn’t sure if it’s the environment of Katmere or Jaxon himself that has her so disoriented. Grace’s exploration of the campus and her decision to avoid Jaxon and Lia in the gazebo point to her growing independence and desire to carve out her own space within Katmere. She still feels like she doesn’t belong, but she’s determined to learn everything she can to remedy that. This exploration is more than just physical; it’s the start of her journey to find her place and identity in a world where she initially feels like an outsider. The language of the novel is full of idyllic, romantic winter imagery in this section. The land around Katmere isn’t just snowy tundra, as Grace had feared. Rather, it strikes her “how beautiful everything is, even here on the campus grounds.” There’s an inkling that she might be beginning to find her footing, until the dramatic twist of the chapter’s last sentence.
