Opening
Revelations about Diana Bishop explode into crisis, forcing her and Matthew Clairmont into leadership, sacrifice, and war-planning. A brutal ambush pushes Diana’s latent magic to its limits, a fragile alliance forms, and a daring plan to timewalk reshapes the battlefield and the stakes for every creature.
What Happens
Chapter 36: A Motley Army
Chaos follows the unveiling of Diana’s DNA. With Matthew shielding her, Marcus Whitmore and Miriam lay out the science to a stunned Sarah Bishop and Emily Mather: Diana is a chimera, having absorbed cells from a male twin in utero. The finding explains how she carries markers for powers she doesn’t consciously command—timewalking, shape-shifting—and why Matthew’s protective instincts surge around her. Their conversation pivots to Ashmole 782. Miriam argues the manuscript concerns not just origins but creature reproduction, suggesting an evolutionary response to dwindling numbers and sharpening the theme of Origins, Evolution, and Extinction.
A deeper dive into her mitochondrial DNA reveals Diana belongs to an unknown, ancient lineage dubbed “Clan Heh,” marking her as genetically distinct from every known witch and intensifying the pull of Family, Lineage, and Belonging. The room detonates when Sarah blurts out that the French tea Marthe taught Diana is a contraceptive. Matthew, enraged, storms out to call Ysabeau de Clermont. In the raw silence, Miriam reveals a buried scandal: Matthew once lost control with Eleanor St. Leger, nearly exposing creatures; Miriam’s husband Bertrand took the blame and was executed to shield Matthew and the Knights of Lazarus. The revelation, combined with news Matthew killed Gillian Chamberlain, horrifies Sarah, who orders everyone out.
The house refuses. Doors slam, windows lock, and the magic pushes Diana onto the porch—into the path of an ancestral ghost. The spirit names her a “creature of the crossroads” and tells her to choose Matthew. Diana does. She and Matthew reconcile, speak openly about risk, duty, and children, and return to a stand-off inside. Diana seizes command. Their fight, she declares, is for every creature’s future—and Matthew is their general. Three witches and three vampires rally into a tenuous alliance, a “motley army” preparing to defy the Congregation.
Chapter 37: A Price to Pay
The house settles into wary cohabitation. The vampires set up a blood bank; Diana takes birth control at Matthew’s insistence. Routine takes shape: spell practice with her aunts, walks with Matthew, film noir, Scrabble. Matthew taps Marcus as marshal of the Knights of Lazarus, a military role Marcus resists. Diana struggles with spells until raw frustration triggers an ability to slip space—short-distance timewalking that flings her from the stillroom to the orchard.
At twilight, Matthew and Diana walk the woods and are ambushed by Juliette Durand, the beautiful, unhinged vampire Gerbert trained and sent from Matthew’s past. She taunts them—Marcus is being delayed—and attacks with lethal precision. She tears open Matthew’s throat and pierces his chest near his heart, leaving him dying on the forest floor.
Desperation breaks Diana’s limits. She conjures witchfire, a bow and arrow of blazing force, and incinerates Juliette. With no time for thought, she glimpses the goddess in maiden and crone aspects, makes an unspoken bargain, and violates the ultimate taboo of Forbidden Love and Inter-species Relationships: she cuts her arm and feeds Matthew her blood. The taste revives him enough to drink from her neck, dragging her to the edge of death as he fights his way back to life.
Chapter 38: A House Divided
Diana wavers between life and oblivion. Marcus rushes a transfusion; Miriam uses drops of her own blood to seal Diana’s torn artery—precision, pain, control. Matthew, hollowed by guilt, refuses to leave her. When she wakes, he tells the story behind Juliette: a mentally ill woman Gerbert tortured, turned, and weaponized as Matthew’s lover and assassin, a tool designed to infiltrate the de Clermonts. The revelation tightens the web of Secrets and Deception.
They set hard boundaries. Matthew makes Diana promise never to use her magic to save his life again; she makes him promise never to ask her to leave him in danger. After Matthew and Marcus hunt, Em confronts Diana about the bargain with the goddess—the price is coming, and they don’t know what it is. Matthew returns with a plan to protect Diana and buy time for training: they will timewalk into the past, beyond the Congregation’s reach.
Chapter 39: The Conventicle
In the clearing where Juliette burned, they find the ancient oak—Diana’s power source—dead, a stark ledger of what her magic costs. Back home, Matthew explains the timewalking plan: to travel safely, Diana needs three objects from the time and place they’ll enter. Planning halts when Nathaniel Wilson and his pregnant daemon wife, Sophie, arrive. Sophie, born to a witch family and carrying a witch child, has been dreaming about Diana.
Sophie hands Diana a small silver figurine of the goddess—Diana. Matthew recognizes it instantly as a chess piece, the White Queen, he lost centuries ago on All Souls’ Night. The house answers with its own offering: a wall cracks open to reveal a poppet made by Bridget Bishop; inside nests a massive pearl earring once worn by Ysabeau—lost the same night as the chess piece. Two of three anchors secured, the purpose clarifies. With the two daemons, their number rises to nine—three witches, three vampires, three daemons. Marcus names them a “conventicle,” a dissenting council poised to challenge the Congregation and embody The Power of History and Memory in action.
Chapter 40: Preparations for War
Halloween approaches and the house hums. Matthew orders a medical gauntlet for Diana—immunizations, including live smallpox—to keep her safe in the past, igniting a clash with Nathaniel over risk versus readiness and sharpening the fault line between Magic vs. Science and Reason. Em tutors Diana in timewalking. Short hops come first; then Diana pulls Matthew with her. It works—disorienting, possible, real.
Hamish Osborne arrives, daemon and Knights seneschal, answering Matthew’s summons and carrying a briefcase from Sept-Tours—the final, still-hidden object for their jump. Forced into full disclosure, Matthew lays out the situation before everyone. Strategy fractures along old and new lines: Nathaniel argues for modern, tech-driven warfare; Matthew holds to disciplined, traditional command. After a private, day-long session, Matthew resigns as Grand Master of the Knights of Lazarus. Before he goes, Hamish warns Diana: the Matthew she meets in the past won’t be the man she knows now.
Character Development
The crucible of violence and revelation forges new identities and hardens old scars. Leaders emerge, loyalties clarify, and the cost of power becomes personal.
- Diana Bishop: Embraces power and responsibility, claims leadership, and accepts the goddess’s bargain. Her identity as a “creature of the crossroads” reframes her as both scholar and weapon, lover and general.
- Matthew Clairmont: Stripped to vulnerability by near-death, he surrenders control to Diana in key moments and faces the consequences of secrets—past lovers, blood, and command.
- Marcus Whitmore: Shifted from healer to marshal, he shoulders military command and acts decisively to save Diana’s life, even as he clashes with Matthew’s choices.
- Sarah Bishop: From suspicion to steel, she becomes a pragmatic ally, prioritizing Diana’s survival over prejudice and personal outrage.
- Miriam: Reveals ruthless competence and loyalty—scientist, healer, truth-teller—balancing precision with protection.
- Emily Mather (Em): Spiritual and practical ballast, she guides Diana’s timewalking and warns of the goddess’s price.
- Nathaniel and Sophie Wilson: Expand the alliance across species and generations; Sophie’s visions and heirlooms knit past to future.
- Hamish Osborne: Strategic conscience and friend; he ushers a transfer of power and foreshadows the dangers of the past.
Themes & Symbols
Science and myth converge. The genetic discovery of chimerism and Clan Heh reframes witchcraft as both biology and destiny, while Ashmole 782’s reproductive implications push creatures toward an evolutionary crossroads. Diana’s mitochondrial mystery deepens the pull of lineage and belonging, even as her alliance builds a chosen family beyond blood.
Power has a price. Witchfire saves Matthew, but the death of the ancient oak marks the cost in living wood. The goddess’s bargain lingers as unpaid debt. Objects become anchors of memory and fate: the White Queen chess piece signals Diana’s central role in a larger game; Ysabeau’s pearl earring threads family, loss, and recovery; the house itself acts as guardian, judge, and kin.
Key Quotes
“You are a creature of the crossroads. Choose Matthew.” This command crystallizes Diana’s identity and agency. Choice, not inheritance alone, defines her path—and binds love to duty in a single moment.
“Our fight is for the future of all creatures.” Diana’s declaration reorients the conflict from personal survival to collective destiny, justifying the “motley army” and elevating Matthew to general.
“Never use your magic to save my life again.” / “Never ask me to leave you.” Their paired vows set boundaries that honor autonomy and devotion. The exchange reframes their bond as a negotiated partnership rather than a protective cage.
“Conventicle.” The reclaimed term names a dissenting fellowship that rejects segregation. It turns private alliance into public resistance and signals an ideological war.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters pivot the novel from pursuit to resistance. Scientific revelations collide with raw magic; private love crosses taboo lines to defeat death; and a disparate household becomes a strategic council. The attack forces Diana to unleash her full power, and the blood exchange irrevocably binds her to Matthew. By deciding to timewalk, they expand the narrative’s scope and stake their claim in history. Against the Congregation’s entrenched Prejudice, Segregation, and Intolerance, the nascent conventicle models a future where witches, vampires, and daemons stand together—nine voices choosing a different evolution.