TeamNerd Book Club: The Indigo Spell: Ch. 1-5 Summary

The Indigo Spell

Author: Richelle Mead

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Synopsis: In the aftermath of a forbidden moment that rocked Sydney to her core, she struggles to draw the line between her Alchemist teachings and what her heart is urging her to do. 

Then she finally tracks down the elusive, enigmatic Marcus Finch--a former Alchemist who the organization denies exists, and who lives in shadows, on the run. With Marcus's help, Sydney realizes that the group she's been loyal to her whole life has been hiding the truth from her. Is it possible that her golden lily tattoo might have more power over her than she thinks?

As she struggles to come to terms with what that might mean, Sydney is compelled to use her growing magical powers to track down an evil magic user who is targeting powerful young witches  Using magic goes against everything she always thought she believed, but she realizes that her only hope is to embrace her special blood--or else she might be next.

Forging her own way is harder than Sydney ever dreamed. Maybe by turning off her brain--and following her heart--she'll be able to finally figure out where she belongs.

List of Characters

Sydney Sage 

Adrian Ivashkov 

Mrs. Terwilliger (World History teacher)

Donna Stanton (Alchemist/Oversees Sydney’s assignments)

Ian Jansen (Alchemist/Has MAJOR crush on Sydney)

Chapters 1-5 Summary: Sydney is woken up in the middle of the night by Ms. Terwilliger who quickly ushers her out of bed for some crazy covert mission into the woods. There Sydney discovers Mrs. Terwilliger needs her help by having her perform magic. Ms. Terwilliger needs Sydney’s help to scry for someone. The spell can only be done by a virgin and because the person Ms. Terwilliger is looking for has been shielded from her. Sydney is able to locate the person Ms. Terwilliger wants in a building in L.A. but she can’t see anything distinguishable about the building or an address. She assigns Sydney a book filled with battle spells and gives Sydney the instructions to learn the spells and find out where the house is, but doesn’t explain who exactly she is searching for.

Sydney has no time to argue since she has to rush to the airport to head off to Pennsylvania for Sonya’s wedding. When she arrives at the airport, she gets bumped from her seat because the flight was overbooked but as luck would have it, she is bumped up to an earlier flight in first class. Except to her surprise she gets a seat next to Adrian. They haven’t spoken much since his declaration of love and their epic kiss (The Golden Lily), but Adrian decides to stop being all moody and giving her attitude about it. Instead he tells Sydney he’ll just love her from a distance until he wins her heart. Sydney pretty much can’t speak after that.

Once they arrive in Pennsylvania, Sydney and Adrian part ways to go their separate hotels. Donna Stanton and Ian Jansen (Alchemists) arrive to attend the wedding with Sydney in a show of good alliance with the Mori. Sonya and Mikhail have a beautiful wedding and at the reception Adrian does something that literally shocks not only the Alchemists but all Mori in attendance: he asks Sydney to dance. Sydney tries to play off that she’s not happy by the invitation since she knows Donna and Ian would expect her to but finally accepts dancing with Adrian. While their dancing Adrian asks Sydney about Marcus Finch. Marcus had once been an Alchemist but he had gone rogue, and he had defended Clarence (Mori) against the Warriors of Light (warriors who usually only go after Strigoi but a rebel group went after Clarence). Stanton never told Sydney anything about Marcus, she had to get the second hand information from Clarence and claimed Marcus never existed. Sydney knew that was a lie. Adrian tells he’s come up with an idea to find him: she can scry for him. Adrian and Sydney agree to meet up in two hours by the hotel’s service door and Adrian promises to get all the ingredients Sydney needs for the spell.

They head outside to an open field and Sydney performs the scrying spell. She locates an apartment but she can’t make anything out that will really distinguish the place to give her a more accurate location. She gives all the details of what she saw to Adrian and he is able to locate it on his phone having seen the building before in Santa Barbara. Adrian and Sydney get interrupted by a guardian but Adrian compels him that he was just walking Sydney back to her room to get something. The guardian heads back to watching for enemies and Sydney thanks Adrian for his help and they head back into the reception.

Once Sydney gets back to California, she meets up with Ms. Terwilliger who finally confesses the person she is looking for is her little sister, Veronica, who also happens to be a witch, a powerful one. But Ms. Terwilliger isn’t interested in a happy reunion. She’s on the hunt for her sister, to stop her because she’s been killing young girls by taking their beauty from them.  She gives Sydney an aumlet to help protect her from her sister.  The amulet is meant to mask Sydney’s magical abilities. Ms. Terwilliger explains that “magic leaves a mark on your blood that permeates your whole body” and a powerful magic user, such as Veronica, will be able to sense it. Ms. Terwilliger needs Sydney’s help to hunt down her sister. Ms. Terwilliger can’t do it because her sister will recognize her magic. She also needs Sydney to deliver small powerful charms (small agate circles) that can mask magic as well to girls Ms. Terwilliger believes will be Veronica’s next victims. Ms. Terwillier’s coven keeps track of young witches who refuse to train and have no mentor to look after them. She tells Sydney to take Adrian along with her to act as extra protection since his powers as a spirit user could mask her magic. Sydney agrees to help knowing she can’t let innocent young girls die even though she fears what will happen when the Alchemists find out, and even more, how she’s going to survive being trapped in a car with Adrian for long periods of time.

Annabell's Thoughts: The book starts off so funny with Ms. T waking Sydney and boldly asking. “Are you a virgin?” LOL Adrian is, of course, charming as ever and honest (much to Sydney’s horror). I love how he lays his heart out on the line! *swoon* I like that there’s a more determined and patient Adrian emerging instead of his usual brooding and sadness. I am super excited to see what’s going to happen with Adrian and Sydney, but as well as what’s going to go down with Ms. T’s evil sister. I wonder if Ms. T would really be able to kill her sister if she really had no other choice. I also can’t wait to discover more about Marcus Finch and his part in the Alchemist and why exactly he left. I have a feeling the Alchemist did something particularly evil to make Marcus want to go rogue. I just hope there isn’t any kind of love triangle between Adrian, Sydney and Marcus =/ I love Sydney and Adrian together. They make a good balance (plus, I HATE love triangles!). Ian and Stanton are incredibly judgmental and prejudice. I hope the two of them get put in their place at some point. So far the book is going really well =) I can’t wait to see what kind of magic Sydney grows into using!

Bridget’s Thoughts: Bridget's Thoughts: Leave it to Ms. Terwilliger to start the book off by asking Sydney is she's a virgin! HAHA! Adrian is so charming and understanding that I just want to keep him all to myself. Sydney is obviously having a hard time with Adrian's confession of love hanging between them but Adrian isn't going to give up on her too easily (or like, at all). Ms. T already has Sydney practicing magic and I'm pretty excited to see where this storyline is going. I really hate the Alchemists and I hope through Ms. T that Sydney can see that her choices are her own and by the end of the book she will be free of them to live her life as she wants, *cough* with Adrian *cough*.

Favorite Quotes

“And hey, if I keep loving you, maybe you’ll eventually crack and love me too. Hell, I’m pretty sure you’re already half in love with me.” ~Adrian (to Sydney on the plane)

“I was trapped on a five-hour flight with Adrian Ivashkov. Five hours. Five hours sitting only a few inches from him, smelling his overpriced cologne and looking into those knowing eyes. What was I going to do? Nothing, of course. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to escape since even first-class passengers weren’t allowed parachutes. My heart began to race as I frantically groped for something to say. He was watching me in silence, still with that small smirk, waiting for me to lead the conversation. ‘So,’ I said at last, staring at my hands. ‘How’s, uh, your car?” ~Sydney

“You’re not as much of a lost cause as she was. I mean, with her, I had to overcome her deep, epic love with a Russian warload. You and I just have to overcome hundreds of years’ worth of deeply ingrained prejudice and taboo between our two races. Easy.” ~Adrian

“I don’t want any ‘amends’ from those monsters after what they did to us this summer. I can’t even believe we’re here! This place is crawling with them. Who knows what’ll happen if one of them drinks too much champagne tonight and goes looking for a snack? Here we are, fresh humans.” ~Ian

“There’s no blood in that,’ Abe told us when dinner was served.” (When Sydney, Stanton and Ian hesitate to eat their chicken marsala)

“We looked up and found Adrian standing alone above us, dashing in his shades of blue. His face was the picture of perfect politeness and restraint, meaning something disastrous was probably about to happen.” ~Sydney

Discussion Questions

Why do you think the Alchemists are so determined to pretend Marcus Finch was never apart of them?

What do you think happened between Ms. Terwilliger and her sister Veronica to make them stop speaking to each other? What do you think drove her sister to become so evil?

What do you hope to see happen between Adrian and Sydney as the book progresses?

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